Half of all new teachers quit. This book is your lifeline.
You survived student teaching. You landed the job. And now you're staring down a classroom full of teenagers, wondering how on earth you're supposed to connect with them, teach your subject, manage the chaos, and still feel like yourself at the end of the day. The education courses prepared you in theory. But nobody told you what to actually do on Day One, or Day Two, or the hundred days after that.
Teaching Matters is the honest, conversational guide you wish a veteran teacher had handed you before your first bell rang. Heidi Marks Morris draws on decades of classroom experience and a lifetime of being a student, from the kindergartner who got lost exploring her own school to the kid who skipped a grade, navigated new cities, and learned what it really means to be seen. Part memoir, part instruction manual, part philosophical treatise, this book walks you through the entire arc of your first year: setting up your classroom, surviving the opening days, building genuine relationships with students, and finding lasting fulfillment in a career that matters. It is readable, accessible, and refreshingly specific.
Inside, you will discover:
- A chronological, practical roadmap from classroom setup through the end of the year - Real stories and hard-won wisdom that make the advice stick - Strategies for connecting with students, managing your energy, and staying in the profession you were called to
Heidi Marks Morris is a veteran high school teacher with more than thirty years of classroom experience spanning English, Spanish, and math. Over the course of her career, she has also worked for a nonprofit and served as a substitute teacher across multiple schools, giving her a rare, panoramic view of the education landscape. She remains in touch with hundreds of former students, many of whom have become colleagues and friends, a testament to the lasting connections she builds in the classroom.When Heidi returned to full-time teaching in 2020, she was struck anew by the challenges facing rookie educators. With half of all new teachers leaving the profession within five years, she felt compelled to offer the kind of honest, practical guidance she wished she had received at twenty-one. Using Stephen King's On Writing as her stylistic model, she crafted Teaching Matters to be genuinely readable, warmly conversational, and immediately useful. It is part memoir, part philosophical treatise, and part instruction manual, organized chronologically from setting up a classroom through the arc of the school year.Heidi lives in Grants Pass, Oregon, with her husband. Now retired, she is channeling the wisdom and joy of her teaching career into writing that serves the next generation of educators.
