Making Your First Year a Success

"This book is a useful tool for any young teacher or mentor, and could direct staff development activities. The easy readability, logical topics and real-life cases make this a helpful resource for every teacher entering the profession."
Dr. Elizabeth A. Ennis, Superintendent
Township High School District 214; Arlington Heights, IL

"Full of practical applications, this book thoroughly addresses many high-interest topics, including standards, technology, multiple intelligence theory and assessment. It is interesting, enjoyable and easy to understand, and its suggestions and ideas will help beginning high school teachers have a more positive experience their first make a more positive experience for the first year teacher."
Lisa Suhr, Instructor
Sabetha Middle School
Sabetha, KS

Straightforward tips, practical applications, and comforting words guide new teachers through that frustrating first year.

In this easy-to-follow handbook, Wyatt and White rely heavily upon their more than 50 years of combined teaching experience to share valuable solutions and insights into the issues and concerns that have traditionally baffled beginning teachers.

Comprehensive yet concise, Making Your First Year a Success strategically highlights the tools necessary for success and is expressly tailored to secondary teachers. In a style that could originate only from genuine interest and experience, the authors lead new teachers past the obstacles and pitfalls that hold back so many well-intentioned educators.

This inspiring survival guide includes:

• Time-tested advice that shows the ins and outs of the classroom and can be implemented easily
• Assessment techniques specifically designed for high school educators
• A complete orientation for the new teacher, including ways to identify the various sources of assistance and support
• A simple, sensible approach to effective lesson planning and maximizing technology tools
• Important information about professional development, parent-teacher relationships, and positive interactions with students

 

Robert L. (Bob) Wyatt III is Professor of Education at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he has taught for the past 13 years. He also taught education courses as a graduate instructor at the University of Oklahoma while completing his doctorate. He taught at the secondary level in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and at the college level in New Mexico and Texas for 25 years prior to achieving his master’s and doctorate degrees. He has led more than 150 workshops and seminars for staff development during the last 15 years. He has twice been named Teacher of Excellence at East Central, an honor that can only be awarded every four years and is usually nominated by students and elected by peer review. He was among the top five teachers contending for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year while teaching secondary school. He has partici-pated in the Oklahoma Commission for Higher Education portfolio review committees for several colleges in Oklahoma as part of their preparation for NCATE reviews. Wyatt is a language arts specialist with a Ph.D. in both the elementary and secondary levels of language arts. He has taught undergraduate courses in methods for language arts, social studies (both elementary and secondary), and natural science (elementary); Clinicals I, II, and III; strategies for effective teaching (elementary and secondary); Portfolios I, II, and III; children’s literature; young adult literature; psychology of education; foundations of education; Composition I; and grammar. He teaches graduate courses in modern philoso-phies of education, contemporary issues of education, advanced language arts problems, techniques of research, and public relations for school administra-tors and librarians. Wyatt has two other books published: The History of the Haverstock Tent Show: The Show With a Million Friends, published in 1997 by Southern Illinois University Press, and Making Your First Year a Success: The Secondary Teacher’s Survival Guide, coauthored by Dr. Elaine White and pub-lished by Corwin Press in 2002. In addition to his teaching, Wyatt is a selling artist of watercolor and oil paintings. He also has three novels out for publisher review, is a former owner/editor of a weekly newspaper, and is the author/publisher of three books of local history and several journal articles in national, regional, and state journals. He is the president, a director, and an actor at Ada Community Theater, ACT II.