Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

Joy's questions and Jim's responses evoke in us an appreciation for what it means to do the work called teaching with the "living intensity of soul." May such soulful teaching flourish among us: here is a book that can help it be so. - Parker Palmer and Sam Intrator Every new teacher needs a mentor, someone smart, experienced, compassionate, and reliable to give advice, share strategies, and lend a supportive ear. What if every new English teacher could have one the nation's most-recognized master teachers as their mentor? Now they can. Letters to a New Teacher is the chance of a professional lifetime, an opportunity to read the letters and emails Jim Burke exchanged with novice teacher Joy Krajicek - letters in which Jim opens his practice, his mind, and his heart to guide Joy through her first year in the classroom. Jim fields the whole gamut of questions - from typical classroom-management matters to challenging instructional situations to sensitive topics like the boundaries of student-teacher relationships. His answers open the classroom experience up for novices to understand how to organize their space and time, how to plan instruction yet maintain flexibility, how to communicate effectively with the two-hundred personalities they encounter each day, and how to maintain professionalism under pressure. As gentle, humorous, and supportive as they are practical, Jim's responses to Joy's questions are immediately useful and are presented in chronological order. From August through June, you'll watch as her questions become increasingly complex and see how Jim's answers build upon one another to create a considered, consistent, and disciplined way of thinking about the teaching of English. Start a your career the right way. Read Letters to a New Teacher and put the thoughts of a master mentor to work in your classroom. Or give Letters to a New Teacher to a novice so they can discover a wellspring of ideas, a source for emotional sustenance, and a buoy for their spirits during difficult moments.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools. “[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

New teachers need support from their peers and mentors to locate resources, information, new ideas, emotional support, and inspiration. This timely book explains the research and theory behind social networks (face-to-face and online), describes what effective social networking for educators looks like, reveals common obstacles that new teachers face in establishing support networks, and offers valuable practical advice. The author follows the stories of four first-year teachers, illustrating the significant impact that social support networks can have on teachers’ lives and challenging common misconceptions of professional support. This book offers action guides to help teachers become “intentional networkers,” including a companion website with tools for networking and collaboration. This is a must-have resource for pre- and in-service teachers. Book Features: Research-based frameworks on teachers’ social networks and professional support.Suggestions for mentors, teacher educators, and school administers on how to help new teachers to effectively develop their social networks.A companion website that will offer discussion forums, resources, and networking tools. “Dr. Baker-Doyle’s book adds an interesting and timely facet—the role of social networks—to the always important discussions about how new teachers can excel in their work. Her research will be of value to those who do professional development with educators and to practitioners alike.” —Susan Fuhrman, President of Teachers College, Columbia University and the National Academy of Education “Without question, this book is a major contribution to the public and academic conversation on school reform and teacher development. But more importantly, it is destined to improve the professional life of any teacher that reads it.” —Marc Lamont Hill, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discusses the importance of training, supporting, and retaining new teachers, presents a step-by-step process for structuring an induction program, and features a list of replicable induction programs.

This guide is for leaders of pre-K-12 gifted education programs and for district personnel who are responsible for planning and implementing professional development activities for teachers at all levels of schooling.

This practical, hands-on guidebook offers support for your first years in the classroom by presenting strategies to overcome ten common challenges. Expertly curated by experienced educators, this book delivers quick access to timely advice, applicable across a range of educational settings. With contributions from National Board-Certified Teachers, National Teachers of the Year, and other educators involved in robust induction and mentoring programs, The New Teacher’s Guide to Overcoming Common Challenges provides: Wise and practical tips from accomplished veterans and successful new teachers from across rural, suburban, and urban settings; Web access to an online teacher community and customizable resources created by the book’s authors that can be quickly downloaded for immediate use in the classroom; Newly commissioned material that addresses the shift to remote learning brought about by the world pandemic. Accessible and stimulating, this book is designed for a wide range of users, including PK-12 school districts who offer new teacher induction programming, traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs and teacher cadet programs, and individual in-service teachers. Don’t face the challenges alone—learn from those who have been there!