3 Cheers for Teaching: A Guide to Growing Professionally and Renewing Your Spirit

Rating:
Summary: Teachers could use support from a cheerleader and a peer!
Review: For the teacher in a slump. Some support from a cheerleader and a peer. America should use that kind of support these days. The author is a career teacher who has worked the slums and the suburb, felt her own downtimes, and has helped others keep a sharp edge. Solid advice and inspiration on growing, on investing in what teachers know best: kids and learning and the skills that ignite the process. Skills which increasingly involve high tech. But technology alone won't make the difference. "Computers cannot replace us. They will never replace the dynamic and intuitive nature of being an educator." DeAmicis also addresses the increase in politics vis a vis curricula and procedures. Concerns by parents and tax payers. The California phonics debate. Merit-based system. She identifies elements of a successful teacher: not just a goal-setter, but one who gets absorbed, focuses attention, finds joy. The author divides her good advice into three step-by-step sections. Self-discovery and exercises that invigorate the self. Then some solid growth and planning. Followed by the celebration of achievement. "We need to acknowledge our growth even as we make plans to move further ahead." Great ground rules on getting to know the student and the self, protecting values, revitilazation, maintaining a vision. "If you can see it in your imagination, then you can make it happen." Classroom-tested solutions. Good for summertime mulling.