The Field Guide to Teaching: A Handbook for New Teachers

The goal of The Field Guide to Teaching: A Handbook for New Teachers is to provide very specific and practical guidance for those who are entering the teaching profession. The book offers guidelines, hints and fundamental information geared to help the novice teacher avoid common pitfalls and to make a start on the road to becoming a professional educator. It is written from the point of view that those who read the book are unfamiliar with the profession beyond the training they have or will receive in their college teacher preparation program or other alternate route program.

The book also includes:

• Brief and practical format.
• Voices in the Classroom features are comments and anecdotes from teachers, administrators, and parents about their experiences with education.
• Legal Sidebar features highlight court cases and laws that impact teachers.
• Stating the Facts features provide statistical data from databases, or sociological and psychological research.
• Do and Don't features at the end of each chapter.

Are you ready to teach your own class? The Field Guide to Teaching is a practical guidebook that will help you navigate the first steps in your teaching career, whether you are currently a Student Teacher, a graduate seeking a teaching position, or a new teacher; whether you teach Elementary, Middle, or High School.

• Guidelines, fundamental information, pointers, examples, and resources that will help you avoid common mistakes and begin your career wisely;
• Insight into the hiring process, navigating the education system, and getting started in your first year;
• Fundamental information for planning and organizing, hints for managing your classroom, examples of teaching models and methods, instructional activities, and assessing and grading;
• Pointers for understanding your students, adapting for special needs and diverse students, and involving family and community;
• Hints for working with your colleagues, and resources for growing professionally and personally. Get ready to teach!

Features of The Field Guide to Teaching:

• Briefcase CD packaged with the text contains checklists, sample forms, sample lesson plans, templates, classroom ideas, and other resources for new teachers to use. At the end of each chapter, For Your Briefcase feature lists the things new teachers can do to stay organized and get a head-start in teaching effectively, including relevant CD resources for each chapter.
• Guidepost features highlight pertinent questions and concerns that new teachers commonly have, choices they will be presented with, and possible solutions or courses of action to take.
• Caution boxes alert readers to possible pitfalls to avoid.
• In Real Time features offer frank, practical information on specific situations or issues that teachers may encounter.
• Voices in the Classroom features present first-person comments and anecdotes from teachers, administrators, students, and parents about their experiences with education.
• Legal Sidebar featureshighlight court cases and laws that influence teachers and their duties.
• Stating the Facts features provide brief statistical data to increase new teachers’ awareness of the factors influencing their students and the school environment.

Also Available from Merrill/Prentice Hall:

• Developing a Teaching Portfolio: A Guide to Preservice and Practicing Teachers, Second Edition, by Ann Adams-Bullock and Parmalee P. Hawk, ISBN 0-13-113213-X
• Using Technology to Support Learning CD-ROM: An Annotated Database of Technology Integration Strategies, Third Edition, Margaret D. Roblyer, ISBN 0-13-172116-X
• Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, Second Edition, Adrienne L. Herrell and Michael L. Jordan, ISBN 0-13-098462-0