This book will help you learn what it takes to successfully work with adolescents on a daily basis. By the time you finish this book, you will know how to prepare for the academic year, how to manage the various roles teachers play, how to cope with the challenges of teaching, and how to connect with your students and colleagues.

Are you thinking of becoming a high school English teacher? Are you curious about what skills you need to be an effective educator? Are you wondering about how to build and maintain important relationships with students and colleagues? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this book is for you... 50 Things to Know about Being a High School English Teacher, by Kelly Hawkins, offers an honest description of teaching English at the high school level. Most books on teaching only tell you about the positive aspects of the profession. Although there's nothing wrong with that, education is a complex world to navigate, and people should enter a teaching career armed with as much accurate information as possible. In these pages you'll discover one educator's experience over the last twenty-two years. This book will help you learn what it takes to successfully work with adolescents on a daily basis. By the time you finish this book, you will know how to prepare for the academic year, how to manage the various roles teachers play, how to cope with the challenges of teaching, and how to connect with your students and colleagues. So grab YOUR copy today. You'll be glad you did.

Problem-solving techniques for all aspects of the English teacher's job This unique time-saving book is packed with tested techniques and materials to assist new and experienced English teachers with virtually every phase of their job from lesson planning to effective discipline techniques. The book includes 175 easy-to-understand strategies, lessons, checklists, and forms for effective classroom management and over 50 reproducible samples teachers can adopt immediately for planning, evaluation, or assignments. It is filled with creative and functional ideas for reading response activities, writing assignments, group and individual projects, and speeches. Offers instructions for creating and implementing an effective classroom-wide behavior management program Shows how to practice the art of teaching English effectively and reduce time on labor intensive tasks Reveals how to work effectively with parents, colleagues, substitute teachers, administrators, and community resources The second edition includes coverage of technology in the classroom, advice for working with reluctant readers, a wealth of sample teaching units and more.

Charles J. Sykes offers fifty life lessons not included in the self-esteem-laden, reality-light curriculum of most schools. Here are truths about what kids will encounter in the world post-schooling, and ideas for how parents can reclaim lost ground---not with pep talks and touchy-feely negotiations, but with honesty and respect. Sykes's rules are frank, funny, and tough minded, including: #1 Life is not fair. Get used to it. #7 If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you FEEL about it. #15 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it "opportunity." #42 Change the oil. #43 Don't let the success of others depress you. #48 Tell yourself the story of your life. Have a point. Each rule is explored with wise, pithy examples that parents, grandparents, and teachers can use to help children help themselves succeed---in school and out of it. A few rules kids won't learn in school: #9 Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. #14 Looking like a slut does not empower you. #29 Learn to deal with hypocrisy. #32 Television is not real life. #38 Look people in the eye when you meet them. #47 You are not perfect, and you don't have to be. #50 Enjoy this while you can.

In this insightfully honest and moving memoir about the realities of teaching in an inner-city school, Ed Boland "smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher [and] shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students" (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black). In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them. Freddy runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented. In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students. Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.

These books show you how you can: - foster reflective, independent thinking in your class - boost the number of students who actively participate - prevent the discussions from falling flat or degenerating into bull sessions This volume features 18 student-centered lesson plans and include answer keys for teachers. Each lesson plan engages students in active learning.