On the teaching of English as a foreign language.

Tales from the Chalkface is an enjoyable and anecdotal look at teaching that also provides a serious insight into teaching practices. This book is a small slice of teaching past written by Vernon Cutler, whose teaching career spanned 20 years. Vernon worked in primary schools from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and his book is an anecdotal look at teaching told from the inside. Tales from the Chalkface records the highs and lows of his time spent in education – from the highs of initial training and promotion, to the lows of workplace bullying and feeling overwhelmed when teaching his first class. Vernon’s writing rejoices in day-to-day encounters with the delightful, unsophisticated humour of children, as well as the humbling trust and unpredictable emotional and physical needs young children bring. He also finds himself wondering how a secondary trained teacher finds himself in charge of the reception class! Vernon learns first hand the truth of Shaw’s oft quoted assertion that ‘he who can does, he who cannot teaches,’ as he finds himself teaching swimming while unable to swim, and being in charge of the school football team, while not knowing the difference between off side and off the pitch!Throughout Tales from the Chalkface, Vernon enjoys the spontaneous humour of the children he teaches, and relishes in the trust parents and pupils alike place in him.

Waldo Frank was known for his serious works and so CHALK FACE came as a surprise to his readers in 1924. It's a dreadful story -- in the sense that it inspires dread -- of an unreliable narrator who loves his exclamation points and is so smug that he uses letters instead of numbers for his chapter names. John Pelan tells you the story of Waldo Frank in his introduction so you are prepared for the atmospheric tale that ensues.

In Running the Room: The Teacher's Guide to Behaviour, Tom Bennett rewrote the book on behaviour management, and outlined the psychology and dynamics underpinning student habits. In this companion, he goes into more detail about how to apply those principles to the classroom. Addressing a wide range of circumstances, he explores popular teacher dilemmas such as: How to deal with students who are late? What are the best ways to work with parents? Managing cover lessons successfully How to tame smartphones The best way to design a seating plan How to start the lesson for the first time Dealing with low-level disruption Getting the class quiet when you – and they – need it the most And many more. Using practical examples and evidence-informed techniques, Tom demystifies the puzzles that complex behaviour often presents, and guides teachers new and old carefully to a better understanding of how to run the room they way everyone deserves.

As a teacher in an inner-city school, Lucy Crehan was exasperated with ever-changing government policy claiming to be based on lessons from ‘top-performing’ education systems. She resolved to find out what was really going on in the classrooms of countries whose teenagers ranked top in the world in reading, maths and science. Cleverlands documents Crehan’s journey around the world, weaving together her experiences with research on policy, history, psychology and culture to offer extensive new insights into what we can learn from these countries.