Everything I Need to Know About Teaching . . . They Forgot to Tell Me!

Survive the first year of teaching and wind up happy, wiser and still sane!

Can I teach the way I believe is best for my students? How can I get it all done? The worries, concerns and questions of first-year educators can be overwhelming and eventually lead to teachers leaving the profession. This candid look at the pressures and surprises of the first year of teaching provides the new teacher with guidance and advice that is full of encouragement, humor, and practical ideas, all based on real first-year experiences.

This guidebook emphasizes the aspects of teaching that college professors don′t teach. Authors Stacey Jarvis and Bob Algozzine take a realistic approach to the unforeseen pitfalls that new teachers face, focusing on the major concerns of novice teachers

• Controlling workload, managing time, and overcoming fatigue
• Forming strong relationships with students, parents, and colleagues
• Maintaining autonomy and control of teaching styles and methods

The light at the end of those long, tough, first 180 days shines brightly when you have the tools necessary to survive!

Stacey Jarvis received a North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship while in high school and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2000.  She is currently teaching social studies in an urban high school in North Carolina.  She is now a National Board certified teacher and is working on obtaining her master′s degree in secondary education.  She has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars across the state addressing the struggles of first-year teachers, and she has presented workshops and lectures to provide those individuals entering the teaching profession with advice and guidance.

Bob Algozzine is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina and project codirector of the U.S. Department of Education-supported Behavior and Reading Improvement Center. With 25 years of research experience and extensive firsthand knowledge of teaching students classified as seriously emotionally disturbed, Algozzine is a uniquely qualified staff developer, conference speaker, and teacher of behavior management and effective teaching courses. He is active in special education practice as a partner and collaborator with professionals in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina and as an editor of several journals focused on special education. Algozzine has written more than 250 manuscripts on special education topics, including many books and textbooks on how to manage emotional and social behavior problems.