Exit Narratives: Reflections of Four Retired Teachers - Softcover

Nathalis Wamba; Ursula Foster; Elena Davis; Jackquelynn Jones; Barbara Storck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761851151 ISBN 13: 9780761851158

Publisher: UPA, 2010

Synopsis

Exit Narratives examines what constitutes good teaching and engaged learning and how to use this knowledge to support teachers in their efforts to create learning environments that encourage academic mastery and nourish students as social beings. The authors explore a range of issues: why they became teachers, their first years of teaching, what worked for them, the micropolitics of teacher interactions, becoming proficient teachers, as well as their last year of teaching and what they did next. These former teachers took a stand in their careers to create a better environment for both teaching and learning.

About this title

About the Author:

Nathalis G. Wamba is associate professor in the Department of Educational and Community Programs at Queens College, NY. He lives with his wife and their two children in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Ursula Foster was a New York City public school teacher for eighteen years. She also taught in Heilbronn, Germany and at Teachers College in Nakaseke, Uganda. She is currently the administrator of "Remember to Share," an educational grant foundation.
Elena Davis taught in the New York City public schools for thirty years. During her career, she mentored undergraduate and graduate students from CCNY, Fordham University and Teachers College Columbia University. She currently spends quality time with her three daughters and works to improve the quality of life for the elderly in her community.
Jackquelynn Jones joined the New York City Education Department in 1990, working primarily in the early childhood classes. Retiring in 2004, she served as an English Academic Specialist in Doha, Qatar for a year. She currently works as a teaching artist in NYC schools.
Barbara Storck taught for thirty-two years in the New York public school system and was an award-winning math teacher.

Review:

?a definite major contribution to our understanding of what makes great teachers and how to structure student centered classroom that excites and engages students and their parents in learning. By releasing teachers voices-willingness to break the silence ―- the text challenges and explodes the myth of the anti-intellectual teacher by the reader journeying with teachers way beyond the drab dribble of professional staff underdevelopment to becoming warrior intellectual in charge of their own destinies thus laying a foundation for student emulation. It also reveals teachers as life long learners and the insatiable thirst for knowledge... (Winthrop R. Holder, Social Studies teacher and author of Classroom Calypso: Giving Voice to the Voiceless)

...a definite major contribution to our understanding of what makes great teachers and how to structure student centered classroom that excites and engages students and their parents in learning.By releasing teachers voices-willingness to break the silence ―- the text challenges and explodes the myth of the anti-intellectual teacher by the reader journeying with teachers way beyond the drab dribble of professional staff underdevelopment to becoming warrior intellectual in charge of their own destinies thus laying a foundation for student emulation. It also reveals teachers as life long learners and the insatiable thirst for knowledge. (Winthrop R. Holder, Social Studies teacher and author of Classroom Calypso: Giving Voice to the Voiceless)

The teaching journey continues to be chronicled, and this new book takes a look at the journey through a different set of lenses. Often the beginning teacher and the key elements of learning to teach are the focus of publications about beginning to teach. Exit Narratives presents a different aspect of the teaching journey―retirement. In this publication, four retired teachers share their teaching journey with one another with an emphasis on the joys, missed opportunities, challenges, successes, and creation of a community of learners. In the first three chapters, readers meet Barbara, Elena, Jackquelynn, and Ursula as they share their common experiences as first-year teachers. They then continue to share―what worked, cautionary tales, and the final days of teaching, along with the first year of retirement. Exit Narratives is divided into ten chapters that discuss competent teachers, their teaching journeys, a conclusion, and reflections, plus an epilogue. Each chapter provides the reader with information about each teacher and her personal experiences on the professional teaching journey. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and practitioners.

About this edition

• Publisher: UPA
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0761851151
• ISBN 13: 9780761851158
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168