This is the perfect time to become a full-time teacher and yet too many college graduates who majored in education, or corporate workers looking to transition to teaching, cannot secure a teaching position. Where are the opportunities? How do you market yourself appropriately? In Launch a Teaching Career: Secrets for Aspiring Teachers, Dr. Peter Leibman explains in great detail how to avoid the resume pile, enhance your candidacy, and move to the head of the class. A step-by-step plan of action is presented giving you a comprehensive guide to achieve your goal of becoming a teacher. You will learn how to: • Build a positive reputation as an undergraduate student • Effectively transition from the corporate world • Develop a powerful network of supporters • Write a dynamic broadcast letter designed to get you more interviews • Avoid resume pitfalls and present yourself in a professional manner • Ace the interview by taking control • Learn where the job opportunities really are • Enhance your position and impress school administrators

This text supports pre-service teachers in developing mindfulness strategies as they undertake professional experience.

Featuring a group of expert contributors, this book details the complexities of not only preparing teachers for the classroom but also helping them to succeed in the profession itself. Addressing topics of vital importance to new and veteran teachers, this authoritative volume: Explains how to build a strong sense of self to help teachers weather the inevitable storms they face in the field, such as state mandates, district directives, and parental pressures. Investigates highly regarded programs for new teachers, analyzing orientations, seminars, and mentorship programs. Discusses how to bring together stakeholders to renew teacher preparation, induction, and professional development.Addresses the crucial role of teacher unions and how they are helping to make teaching a more attractive career. And much, much more. Contributors: Richard E. Barnes, Sheldon Berman, Sharon Feiman-Nemser,Thomas Gillett, John I. Goodlad, Paul E. Heckman, Daniel Katz, Corinne Mantle-Bromley, Nancy Jean Sahling, Roger Soder, Adam Urbanski, Patricia A. Wasley, Betty Lou Whitford, Richard Wisniewski “These thoughtful and provocative essays contribute to our understanding of ways to renew and sustain good teaching. Anyone interested in matters of teacher induction, professional development, college–school partnerships, and the role of higher education in teacher development will find these essays a necessary read.” —David G. Imig, President and CEO, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education “John Goodlad and Timothy McMannon have captured many of the issues state board members are grappling with as they pursue the goal to have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, every day. As states track and modify policies on program approval, licensure, recruitment, and retention, this work will help to inform their deliberations.” —Brenda Welburn, Executive Director, National Association of State Boards of Education

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools. “[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers’ careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers’ voices are essential for understanding teachers’ lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers’ lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers’ lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

Finding Mrs. Warnecke tells the inspiring story of Cindi Rigsbee, a three-time Teacher of the Year, and Barbara Warnecke, the first-grade teacher who had a profound and lasting impact on Cindi's life. Cindi, an insecure child who craved positive attention, started her first-grade year with a teacher who was emotionally abusive and played favorites in the classroom. Two months into the school year, her principal came into the classroom and announced that half the students were being moved to another classroom--a dank, windowless basement room, with a young and inexperienced teacher. This change turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Cindi. Her new teacher, Mrs. Warnecke, made learning come alive for her students. She went overboard caring for each child, made her classroom "magical," and encouraged students to pursue their dreams. Although Cindi was reluctant to explore her creativity as a student, Mrs. Warnecke encouraged her to read and write poetry, which became a lifelong passion. The two kept in touch for several years but lost track of each other when Mrs. Warnecke moved out of state. Cindi spent many years trying to reconnect so she could thank Mrs. Warnecke for making such a difference in her life, but to no avail. Eventually Cindi became a teacher herself, and thirty years later she has taught more than 2,000 children and been named Teacher of the Year for her home state. She later came to realize that all those years she wasn't really trying to track down Barbara Warnecke, but rather, she was trying to "find Mrs. Warnecke" within herself. In Fall 2008 Cindi and Barbara were reunited on Good Morning America; the show's producers had tracked Barbara down and brought both women on-set for a tearful reunion. Barbara was floored at this attention--she had no idea she could have made such an impact on a former student's life. As Cindi travels around talking with new and veteran educators, she is always approached by audience members who are moved to tears and want to share the story of the "Mrs. Warnecke" in their own lives. Finding Mrs. Warnecke not only tells the story of this teacher who made a lifelong impact on her students, it illustrates the importance of the teacher/student relationship in the classroom, and offers principles for other teachers to follow to make a positive impact in their own classrooms.

The prize-winning PBS correspondent's provocative antidote to America's misguided approaches to K-12 school reform During an illustrious four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow—winner of the George Polk Award, the Peabody Award, and the McGraw Prize—reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, on everything from the rise of district-wide cheating scandals and the corporate greed driving an ADD epidemic to teacher-training controversies and America's obsession with standardized testing. Along the way, he taught in a high school, at a historically black college, and at a federal penitentiary. Now, the revered education correspondent of PBS NewsHour distills his best thinking on education into a twelve-step approach to fixing a K–12 system that Merrow describes as being "addicted to reform" but unwilling to address the real issue: American public schools are ill-equipped to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century. This insightful book looks at how to turn digital natives into digital citizens and why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one. Merrow offers smart, essential chapters—including "Measure What Matters," and "Embrace Teachers"—that reflect his countless hours spent covering classrooms as well as corridors of power. His signature candid style of reportage comes to life as he shares lively anecdotes, schoolyard tales, and memories that are at once instructive and endearing. Addicted to Reform is written with the kind of passionate concern that could come only from a lifetime devoted to the people and places that constitute the foundation of our nation. It is a "big book" that forms an astute and urgent blueprint for providing a quality education to every American child.

This report presents the best current evidence about what can make teacher-oriented reforms effective and points to examples of reforms that have produced specific results, show promise or illustrate imaginative ways of implementing change.

Competition for the best teaching jobs is becoming more intense. Since publication of the first edition, when it was mainly the most desirable schools that were deluged by applications, the economic climate has made the teacher market more competitive across the board, and is changing hiring practices. Now extensively revised, this book maintains its place as the most up-to-date book available on job hunting for teachers. The authors cover changes in the educational marketplace; the new mandates about standardized testing and public reporting of student achievement–and what they mean for applicants; how new certification standards and schools’ requirements affect career changers; the growing acceptance of on-line applications and electronic portfolios; and provide additional advice for teachers applying to change schools or districts.This is also the only guide written by school administrators. Offering the insights and experience of two authors who do the hiring, it details a step-by-step program for taking charge of your teaching career. How to Get the Teaching Job You Want enables you to:* Match your unique talents to the needs of a particular school* Craft effective cover letters and resumes, using models that address the specific needs of college graduates, teachers changing schools, returning teachers and career changers* Make effective on-line applications* Leverage your achievements as an experienced teacher–or, for graduates or career changers, student teaching, substitute teaching, volunteer work or content knowledge–into a job offer* Locate jobs on-line and discover valuable information about schools, including test results, educational philosophy and names of key administrators* Design a portfolio in book or electronic format to showcase your abilities* Practice interview skills using 100 questions taken from real job interviews* Apply proven strategies for a variety of interview formats, including high stress interviews and performance interviews* Address controversial questions during interviewsThis book covers procedures for applying to elementary, middle and high schools; public, independent, and parochial schools; as well as international and boarding schools. Anecdotes recounting the experiences of real candidates looking for jobs illustrate key points. Access to the authors’ web site ensures that you will stay current in a changing job market. This is a vital book for teachers and aspiring teachers who want to achieve their career goals. It will also be invaluable for guidance counselors, psychologists, librarians and other school professionals.

Exploring the unique challenges of vocational education, this book provides simple and straightforward advice on how to teach English Language Learners in the classroom, in the laboratory or workshop, and in work-based learning settings.