The life of a teacher is complex, and on the best days, you head home knowing that you have positively impacted the lives of your students and in a broader sense potentially bettered the world. Those are the days that you think about when you decide to become a teacher, those are the days they tell you about in college, those are the days you teach for, but those are not all the days. And those other days? Well, they don't get mentioned much, do they? This book is for those days, and sometimes weeks, months, years... when it's hard to see the fruit of the seeds you're planting. It's about developing the resilience to be the best educator in the dimmest of times and becoming the light for others in your field. It takes reflection, planning, and work, but it's all worth it to reclaim the joy in teaching. Joy in Teaching is a book to inspire reflection and to motivate action. This is a book for educators who see the need for a new approach to teaching for their students and themselves. It is for all those who want to know they are not alone when the profession they have dedicated their lives to begins to lose its joy. It is a beacon of light amidst the turbulent turmoil of a profession in which statistics prove has the ability to devour. Nobody decides on a career in education for selfish reasons. Those who choose this path have done so because they care deeply and desire strongly to make a difference. The rewards of teaching are great, but often it is not without sacrifice. Educators face pressures at all levels and each year more and more is added. No one benefits for frustrated or burned-out teachers. However, the benefits from happy, caring, strong teachers are immense. The time is now to reclaim the joy in teaching. Perfect for personal reading and for book studies and professional development, Joy in Teaching clearly lays out methods and tools to boost teacher resilience, reduce job-related stress, and support career retention in schools.

This edited collection addresses the growing need for ideas and methods conducive to holistic educational practices and aims to encourage more personal growth in students too often distracted by the background noise of war, violence, racism, and environmental deterioration. The contributors are working teachers and professors who have integrated a degree of spirituality into a wide range of classes in both urban and rural settings across the US. This ground breaking collection will provide practical advice about how to implement an ethical and spiritual curriculum while avoiding religious dogmatism.

"While no check-list of attitudes, dispositions, behaviors, or actions can define what thriving teachers look like, the teachers interviewed here give us powerful examples of what it takes to face their profession with courage, their content with enthusiasm, and their students with love." -Sonia Nieto One in four public school students in the U.S. now speaks a language other than English at home, and the number of emergent bilingual and immigrant children in our schools continues to grow daily. What does it mean to be a teacher today, when students are more diverse in language, culture, race, and social class than ever before? What does it take to thrive, when the demands of teaching have never been greater? Sonia Nieto found and interviewed 22 teachers of varying backgrounds and school settings who help answer the question of what effective, culturally responsive teaching looks like in the real world. Their stories of success, failure, frustration and hope will resonate with everyone who has struggled to meet the needs of diverse students in our current sociopolitical context. Nieto explores the common themes that arose throughout the interviews, of teaching with a social justice perspective, the moral dimensions of teaching, advocating for students, and challenging the status quo. She raises a persuasive argument that teaching is an ethical endeavor, that we must honor students' identities and believe in their futures, and that ultimately teaching is an act of love. The stories of Nieto's passionate teachers will inspire and motivate you to find joy in teaching students of diverse backgrounds. Read a sample chapter

Gathering concepts and techniques borrowed from outstanding college professors, The Joy of Teaching provides helpful guidance for new instructors developing and teaching their first college courses. Award-winning professor Peter Filene proposes that teaching should not be like a baseball game in which the instructor pitches ideas to students to see whether they hit or strike out. Ideally, he says, teaching should resemble a game of Frisbee in which the teacher invites students to catch ideas and pass them on. Rather than prescribe any single model for success, Filene lays out the advantages and disadvantages of various pedagogical strategies, inviting new teachers to make choices based on their own personalities, values, and goals. Filene tackles everything from syllabus writing and lecture planning to class discussions, grading, and teacher-student interactions outside the classroom. The book's down-to-earth, accessible style makes it appropriate for new teachers in all fields. Instructors in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences will all welcome its invaluable tips for successful teaching and learning.

Presents a collection of essays and practical advice, including lesson plans and activities, to promote writing in all aspects of the curriculum.

Aimed at motivating teachers to create a welcoming and challenging environment for their students, this professional book is told through a series of anecdotes and stories. It will remind teachers of the intrinsic rewards of teaching (to teach children to love learning) and the powerful role they play as models in this endeavor.

"Start with Joy is a guidebook describing ways teachers can make joy and purpose the center of their teaching and students' literacy learning. Organized by seven pillars, based on the science of happiness, this book offers reasons why students' happiness matters now more than ever, providing lessons, strategies, resources, and children's literature suggestions for how to make sure joy and purpose are at the heart of all instruction"--