First Year Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-To-Use Strategies, Tools & Activities for Meeting the Challenges of Each School Day (J-B Ed:Survival Guides)

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This is a great book for new teachers who want concreted examples and ways of doing things. There are reproducible pages in every chapter, and many of them are ideal for elementary and high school. This book is a definate must for teacher's who want a guide that really goes over everything and gives concrete pages to reproduce! This book takes you step by step including a checklist of important questions to have answered before you walk into the door. There are so many great ideas in here, you have to check it out for yourself!

I am a third year teacher. When I was a student teacher I found this book, and it helped me tremendously! When I was awarded my first teaching career I unfortunately lost the book in all the moving that I had to do so I bought it again and reviewed some things in the book. Then I moved back to my home city. Unfortunately, I lived in an area that was devasted by Hurricane Katrina, and I lost the book again so now I am buying it a third time.
I love the book enough to buy it 3 times and I would buy it a fourth if I had to. I love the way the author explains things. When I first started teaching, I was horrible with organization, but the author has made me a pro at it.
I think this should be a must have for any new teacher, and for a school district to buy for their first timers.

I found this book way more helpful than Harry Wong's The First Days of School. The First-Year Teacher's Survival Kit has tons of useful information and lots of great checklists -- like the one that lists things to do 1 month before school starts; 2 weeks before; 1 week, etc. As a career changer who does not have an education degree, I thought the information in this book was clear, direct, and just what I was looking for.

This teacher seems to have spent time in a classroom, maybe too much time. She talks to her readers like we're the ones in elementary school. There are some good ideas here, and it's better than nothing, but this book is full of observations like "create a syllabus" and "fighting is frowned upon" that I don't need to pay $30.00 to read.

I gained an enormous amount of insight, strategies and techniques from this book. As a student who is about to start her teaching internship, I really liked this book. It involved classroom management, classroom planning, dealing with administration and parents as well as making time for your personal life. This is one of the most comprehensive resources I've seen so far. I highly recommend it.

This book has been helpful for the new teachers I mentor, and for *me*. It's overflowing with practical and immediately useable ideas and activities. One of my mentees didn't want to give it back to me--I had to buy another for my own use. :) These are not necessarily novel ideas, but the sections are comprehensive. As an experienced and successful teacher, I found this book ideal for trying out some new strategies and especially for remembering others that I hadn't tried for a while. New teachers I worked with found strategies they were comfortable with--and the assurance that need to use different strategies with different students is normal for ALL teachers.

As a first year teacher I am looking for books that offer concrete advice and practical techniques to help kids learn. This book offered little of either of those, instead giving long lists of one-sentence platitudes and self-surveys with no relevance to the classroom. While this book may offer some insights for the aspiring teacher, you can find most of what's in here in other teacher prep books or just by asking other teachers. For techniques that are detailed and applicable (if a bit old fashioned), check out Fred Jones' Tools for Teaching.

Julia Thompson has provided an excellent book for both beginning teachers and veterans looking to improve practice. She is both philisophical and practical and I'm going to give this book as a gift to all of my beginning teacher friends! I've read many similar books and this one is the best yet!

I purchased this book along with Wong's First Days of School, and I actually prefer this survival guide. I am a career-changer, currently enrolled in a Master's program, and I am going to be teaching my first class this fall. In grad school I've learned content, content, content and some pedagogy, but nothing about the day to day activities and challenges that I am going to face as a first year teacher! I felt completely clueless about what to expect and what I should be doing to prepare myself. (And I didn't want to wait until the first day of school to find out!) This book has provided invaluable guidance. It has worksheets, self-quizzes and a lot of suggestions that have helped me build confidence and gain a little better clue as to what I should be expecting. If you have been teaching for a while, a lot of it may appear to be common sense, but for those of us new to the profession, it has a lot of great tips and solid common sense suggestions that I have found extremely helpful.

I could only wish I had owned a copy of this book when I began teaching thirty one years ago. Thompson handles every aspect of the teaching life with clarity, with humor, and with clear and direct suggestions. Her approach is directed enough that even a beginner can follow her guidelines, yet she offers even the most seasoned veteran new things to consider. Bravo!

Though a fan of Harry Wong's "The First Days of School" I was recently shown this text by a colleague of mine. She had received an extra review copy in her mailbox and we were talking about texts to use in our related college classes.

I spent an afternoon in this book, thinking, "Wow I wish I'd had this as a first year teacher." This is basically a "big book" of short articles, essays, lists, and anecdotes covering every aspect of classroom teaching.

The text is beautifully designed, logically organized, and well-written. This book explains so many of the practical aspects of teaching. Aspects that will quickly determine a young teacher's success in the classroom (and in many cases the duration of their career in it).

For twenty bucks, even veteran teachers should have a copy on the shelf.

I purchased this book to help me prepare for my first year, and I love it. I find that while the famous "First Days of School" is motivating and inspirational, "Survival Kit" is more practically useful. It has lists for many occasions which I find easy to use and very helpful. Ideas and topics I might never think of and those I've thought of and forgotten are both here, and it's great to have them together at my fingertips in one reference. I believe this is an essential resource for a new teacher at any grade level.

I bought this book just days before starting my first teaching job, and it really helped me to be prepared for the first day, and I'm sure I will refer to it throughout the year. I am an elemntary music teacher and the book is really geared toward classroom teachers, but it was still helpful.

Don't be fooled by the title. Julia Thompson's book provides valuable information for teachers of all experience levels. This book is like having a mentor sitting next to you in your living room. I don't care how well you know your subject, when was the last time you actually had another teachers opinion on rearranging the classroom? New teachers you will gain a valuable insight on the little things college classes miss, and us old vets will still learn new tricks. Intelligent, Thorough and on Topic!

This book has many ideas that are valuable to any subject. Great forms for copying, ideas for classroom management problems, how to make a great impression, etc. I reference it weekly.

Julia Thompson enlightens all teachers as well as other professionals in an easy-to-read informative look at what makes for a successful careers. The first half of the book details in short sentences and checklists tools for all jobs, i.e. coping with stress, dress, and overall professionalism. The second half delves into the classroom with insight on how to prepare and also what to expect. All teachers, whether beginners or seasoned pros will find this book extremely helpful without the heaviness of most educational tomes. A must buy !

Fantastic book for first time teachers. It provides great insight and feedback as to how to get started and particularly how to maintain control of the classroom. One book that didn't miss anything pertaining to kids education, a book that every first time or any teacher should have in their library.

I work with new teachers throughout the year and this book is exactly what they need. The tips in the reader friendly book can help the first year teacher be prepared on the first day. I highly recommend this book for school divisions or for any teacher you know who is about to start their first year!

Overall, I found this book helpful for a first-time teacher. I recently returned to reaching after a 10 year career in the Arts, and was overhelmed by how things had changed. This book does a pretty good job of laying out what you need to do and know to make it as a first year teacher.

It won't necessarily make you a better teacher (only practice can do that), but it can make an impact in your life by letting you realize that a lot of others have been through this before.

This item is a great tool for a first year teacher! It has been very helpful so far in my first year of teaching! It makes a great graduation gift as well!

I found this book to be very good for the first year teacher (and for Pre-Service teachers also). The book has a lot of ideas to use in the classrooms.

Wow. I bought this book for myself, knowing that it might be helpful as a college supervisor of teachers. I started earmarking important pages and soon found that I was marking each page, so I just bought copies for all my students. I find this book more useful that Wong's first year teaching book, but that's great also.

Because it is written by a teacher who seems to have such a wonderful, loving attitude towards teaching and students, I wanted -- truly wanted -- to offer only a positive review on this book. The truth is, however, that -- as a 20 year veteran of teaching -- I recognize that there is so much advice given in this book that goes against educational research, that I simply cannot recommend it to any teacher. Some of the comments related to grading, setting up the classroom, curriculum design, etc. go against what we know about how kids learn. A better resource related to how to set up an effective classroom might be Harry Wong's First Days of School -- or for someone trying to better understand the research, I'd recommend Stiggins, Marzano, Wiggins, McTigh, Tomlinson, or Jensen.

This is an excellent book for teachers - old and new! Great ideas on class organization. It has wonderful tools, activities, strategies and everything else you can think of to help you through the school year. It has everything from dealing with parents, administration, students, and co-workers to making your classroom organized and fun! It encompasses all grade levels, K-12. It has over 400 pages of ideas. This will be an invaluable tool for me! I can't wait to use some of the ideas in this book!

This book has so much useful and insightful information that I will be referring to it for my whole teaching career. I wish it had been a required text for education classes. Many questions could have been answered and many unpleasant situations could have been avoided during substitute and student teaching.

It is right up there with Harry Wong productions!

This text is jam packed full of helpful hint and strategies to prepare for the world of teaching.I am a fifth year BED student and I have found this book very applicable to real life world of teaching. In my opinion I think this text should be taught in classes like theory and practice at university. I recommend this book to anyone pursuing teaching it is fabulous resource and well worth your money.

This professional guide is so complete covers all the issues you might get to face as a new teacher!!! Great ideas to handle all types of exams!!! The images, charts, clues and advices are great!

BH
This is a BIG book. It has many (probably ALL) the rules you need to know to succeed but has very few examples and "real life stories". For me, examples, illustrations (of decorated classroom walls, for example) and stories are essential.

As a mentor of K-8 beginning teachers, I was looking for a book with implimentable, concrete ideas. This survival guide is largely a book of lists and general knowledge. It might be more applicable for high school teachers. If you are looking for materials to get your first year off to a solid start, I do recommend Harry and Rosemary Wong's book How to be an Effective Teacher: The First Days of School and their CD set How to Improve Student Achievement. I spent today reviewing First Year Teacher's Survival Guide... and How to Be An Effective Teacher... while listening to the CD set. The Wongs' materials will guide any teacher to becoming an effective teacher. The survival guide would be a 'nice to have'; the first days of school book is a 'must have'. I'm returning the survival guide.

Purchased for a gift....Amazon made it easy and it's a wonderful guide for any starting teacher, lots of ideas!

This book is pretty useful, but very dry. I've found some helpful insights, but most of this I already knew from my teacher education program. It was a nice refresher, though. Rookie Teaching for Dummies has basically the same info in a user-friendly guide. Also, I can't find the Activities at all.

I am going to teach at small private school and I have not gone through credential program; so I was desperately looking for a good book to fill me in for preparation of my first year.

The first thing to note is that this is more like a reference than a guide (at least in my opinion), and even the author mentioned to use this book as a reference, despite the big "survival guide" labeled on the book cover.

What's the difference between guide and reference? In this case, guide would be how to do specific task or skill, given some type of situation; think about tutor, or someone/thing that helps you to "walk through" issue. Reference is listing of information for specific or particular topic; think of dictionary or encyclopedia. Although there were sequence of topics, they didn't seem to be integraded enough to be used as a guide. Some of you might say guide & reference are the same thing or disagree with my view.

That being said, let's talk about some negative aspects. This is not a quick reading like the other book I've read Your First Year As a High School Teacher : Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional. There are way too many lists / bullet points, each having short as sentence or as long as a paragraph. Because of this format, it was little difficult to read through fluently. Another things is that the organization seem too "hectic" in a sense. There were boxes everywhere, which made my eyes wander around trying to read different boxes and quotes that are separate from the main reading.

Although these are negative, they are of minor significance.


I found this book to be more positive. Used as a reference book, it's a great book. It provides you with tons of information, different ideas and perspectives. Although there weren't too much of student activities, I found that there were many strategies and tools as stated. Each chapter (section) also contains some sort assessment of your knowledge, skill, or forms that you can actually use by copying or use as template to make your own customized version.

As for the content, it's rich in many information regarding skills you should acquire, behavior to perform as teacher, connection with students, delivering good instruction, evaluation, and dealing with possible problems with students, faculties, or stresses. And yes, it also talks about classroom management and handling student behavior issues, along with motivation.

It also provides you with lists of organizations, and fairly updated or recent URL to websites that was mentioned in the book.

It is fairly comprehensive. But I think they should publish two versions, one for primary and other for secondary school; some ideas & contents clearly are not appropriate for some grades levels.

One other quirky thing about this book is that it smells. I am not sure if it's the paper or ink (lots of blue colors), but I smell oil-ish smell, which is bit distracting. Maybe it's just by book fresh from the print.

Anyhow, I think first year teachers without much experiences would definitely benefit from this book.


PS - I highly recommend visiting ADPRIMA website: [...] The website provides you with great theory about lesson planning & extreme importance of creating proper objective which determines rest of the lesson plan; it was just what I was looking for and needed.

I bought this book because of the high reviews it got; if I knew the information that this book provided--I would not have gotten it. Every teacher should start out knowing what this book has to offer as soon as they went through schooling during their Undergrad or Credentialing stages of their career. It wastes time and pages talking about NCLB--when obviously as a "first year teacher" you already know of NCLB and the hurdles it presents. This doesn't help you or provide you with any information or techniques that you shouldn't have already learned in school; especially if you got your credential from CA--none of what she tells you or talks about is new or an eye opener. A waste of money. Will sell you mine! Actually I only give this **, not ***. (couldn't edit; browser froze)