Getting Started: The very first point in the novel is to carefully
read over your contract. Ask any questions you have about salary, extra duties,
the number of days you will be employeed. Make sure you find out about your
healthcare and benefits. Before the school year begins, you should establish
some connections with administration and staff members. Don’t be afraid to ask
questions about the school or anything. Make sure you get keys to the building,
find out about parking, and class schedules. Get familiar with the layout of
the school and the emergency exits and procedures. Walk around the school and
get to know the neighborhood where your students live. Read the school mission
statement and handbooks before classes start so you are prepared with policies
and procedures. There are many things that a beginning educator must do before
they even start teaching.
Classroom Management: This section of the book begins to outline
what you have to do to have an accomplished classroom. There are two main goals
outlined, cooperation and achievement. A recommendation is made to do an exit
slip every day after class. Arrange your classroom with easy management in
mind. Begin the term with setting up rules. Make sure that you stick to them
throughout the year. Make sure that the parents are aware of the rules by
sending home a copy of it. Try to make a procedure and routine so it’s easier
for your students to know what’s coming. Be aware that you will have many types of
characters in your classroom that will need many different forms of conflict
and behavior management. Make sure to address behavior that violates school
policy head-on. Develop a model of trust, honesty and responsibility. Be
careful how you discuss misbehavior with parents. Many other strategies and
suggestions are outlined in this section for how to manage a successful
classroom.
Assessing Student Learning: Assessment is there for the teacher to
check for understanding of what the students know. It allows you to make the
proper decisions for appropriate instruction. Make sure to be clear about your
instructions on tests, and remind the students to try every question. Try to
test reading and writing on a regular basis, and include book reports, with an
expectation that the students will be able to converse about the author,
content, and subject. Prepare your students for standardized tests. Stress the
importance of them as well. Act appropriately and professionally even if you
don’t agree with standardized tests, and try to make your students understand
the importance of them. To better prepare your students, let them practice
deciphering what a question is asking specifically. It may not always be about
comprehension. Make yourself available for students after they have written a
test. Stress logical structure when covering essay writing so they learn the
basics early on. Lastly, encourage students to be involved in assessment. There
are many other assessment secrets shared in this section of the book.
Reaching Out to Parents and the Community: The last fairly
important and relevant chapter that I took out of the novel was reaching out to
parents and the community. Communication is an important part in being an
educator. To have a successful career, positive constant communication is key.
Volunteering, participating in events special events and celebrations means
that you are an involved caring individual that wants to be part of the greater
network. It shows you care more about your students. Become loyal to local
businesses that support your student’s families. Try to wear the school logo to
represent your school. Also, foster positive relations with colleagues around
you. Communicate with parents consistently with various forms from letters to
phone calls to online blogs/websites. Meeting parents at parent-teacher
conference can be a rewarding experience. A positive way to show your students
progression to parents is with a growth portfolio that you helped them with. Always
begin addressing a problem by asking both the student and parent what they
think can be improved on. Then try building on their suggestions. That way they
feel more involved in their child’s development.
Verdict: The novel, “1000
Best New Teacher Survival Secrets” by Kandace Martin & Kathleen Brenny
does a great job in outlining what a new teacher can do to become a connected
individual in the school system. It isn’t a very long read, and has many breaks
where natural pauses can be made while reading it. The book can also be a
reference for certain situations that arise throughout the year. You can always
go back to the book and see if your situation is covered in the 12 chapters.
The novel only covers the beginning of your career, so one of its drawbacks is
that it has a shelf life. They way the book is laid out can be cumbersome to
read, because there isn’t that much flow to the text. There are literally 1000
points in the novel. The ways the points are presented are in numerical
fashion, under a larger header. It makes it very easy to skim to a section that
you are looking for, but as a whole piece in itself, becomes disgruntled to
read at times. Going back to the positive side of things, it appears as though
the authors did a great job in covering what beginning educators need.
Combined, the authors possess decades of experience, which shines through in
the suggestions made. I would rate this novel an 8 out of 10 based on the fact
that it’s a very easy read, points are direct, helpful and the layout is one
which you can find anything you are looking for fairly quickly.
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