Teaching can be an exhilarating and exciting career despite, or perhaps because of, a never-ending round of challenges, difficulties and problems to solve. Beginning teachers face new challenges every day. This book points the way for school leaders to help them meet these challenges and encourage them to stay in teaching. New Zealand is no better…

Teachers sometimes feel that much of what they learned about teaching was learned in the classroom---not the college classroom, but the room in which they teach. As every teacher knows--or eventually learns--a good sense of humor is essential to having a happy, healthy teaching experience. This book points out some of the things they always forget…

Many people--political leaders, school administrators, school board members, interest group leaders, community leaders, parents/guardians--seek to impact education, but efforts to improve education will be enhanced if they are based on reality and the experts on the classroom reality are current teachers. Anyone who seeks to improve education must…

The book tracks co-author Paul Weinberg during his first year of teaching as he is introduced to the daily tribulations of an urban Los Angeles high school. Paul's father Carl Weinberg, who fifty years earlier himself began his career in education an urban secondary school teacher, shares his experiences side-by-side with those of his son.…

This book describes the teaching experiences of Stella Gipson Polk, who taught in one-room schools in rural Texas. She was 16 at the time she took her first teaching job in 1918. After high school graduation, she had intended to enter a 4-year college or university. However, World War I left numerous schools without teachers as many were called…

This book presents letters, a personal narrative, and a diary relating the experiences of nine women teachers who traveled from the East to teach on western frontiers before the Civil War. During 1846-56, the National Popular Education Board recruited 600 experienced teachers from New England and New York State; trained them in Hartford,…

Research indicates that exemplary teachers share various characteristics, including a desire for continuous renewal. This book reports on a study to investigate exemplary teachers' personal and professional renewal throughout their career and selected factors that have enabled and/or constrained their renewal. The study involved six participants;…

This book describes the experience of a young and inexperienced teacher during 1926 in rural Marengo County, Alabama. Susie Powers Tompkins accepted her first teaching assignment to earn money to continue college after her freshman year at Alabama College. However, for Tompkins the rewards of teaching went far beyond just earning money. She found…

This book describes outcomes of a special teacher-preparation program at "Central College," which recruited high-ability students. Data were derived from individual and group interviews, analysis of student journals, observation, administration of standardized instruments, and videotapes of teaching performances. Following the foreword and…

As late as 1913, half of U.S. schoolchildren were enrolled in the country's 212,000 one-room schools--the heart of American education. Although only about 428 of these schools remain in use as of 1994, the country school continues to be a powerful cultural symbol. The first section of this book examines country schools' educational and cultural…

This book focuses on the lives and work of women teachers in two rural California counties between 1850 and 1950. It explores the social context of teaching and what teaching meant and provided to women teachers. Chapter 1 explores the shifts between 1840 and 1930 in representations of the woman teacher in the United States. Chapter 2 discusses…

This report presents the results of the 2000-01 Status of the American Public School Teacher survey. This survey has been conducted every 5 years since 1956. In 2000-01, surveys were sent to 2,826 of the nation's approximately 2,953,000 public school teachers, with a 67.4-percent response rate. The resulting data are presented in the areas of: (1)…

Written in 1917, this book relates the author's experience as a beginning teacher in rural Kansas. The purpose of the book was to provide preservice teachers an overview of educational practices in rural schools at that time. In addition, educational policies are proposed that specifically aim to improve rural schools. The author was barely 20…

"Education Indicators" are facts and statistics that help to describe a public education system. They are tools which are useful in examining and measuring the effectiveness of the system. Examples include information such as the amount of local funds raised to support local schools, per pupil expenditures, pupil-teacher ratios, and…