Not Quite a Teacher: Target Practice for Beginning Teachers

'I will translate every acronym and portmanteau the panjandrums of education feel we can't live without. I will tell you which mug to buy, and where your biggest worries will come from.' Tom Bennett, the Behaviour Guru

There are many, many teacher training books that claim to offer practical advice; some of them are even useful. There are also humorous books aimed at teachers claiming to offer a zany, sideways look at our madcap world; some of them even contain a joke.

This book, although light in tone, has a serious intent: to reassure trainee and beginning teachers that are parachuted into difficult schools without anything like the right level of preparation. Tom Bennett walks you through the training and initial teaching practice, offering practical advice and wisdom from the more experienced vantage point of hindsight. This double-narrator style allows you to identify with the situation, learn from the experience and then critically reflect on your own teaching journey. But most importantly, this is a teacher training guide disguised as something actually readable.

Tom Bennett is a teacher in East London, the chair of an independent group advising the Department of Education on behaviour, and the founder of the grass-roots and teacher-led researchED movement.