Letters to a New Teacher: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Year Ahead

by Jim Burke, Joy Krajicek, Parker J. Palmer (Foreword by)

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 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 Krajicekletters 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 questionsfrom 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.

Genres: Teaching, Professional Development, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

A longtime English teacher, Jim Burke is the author of more than 20 books and senior consultant for the Holt McDougal Literature program. Jim has received several awards, including the 2000 NCTE Exemplary English Leadership Award. In 2009, he created the English Companion Ning―the largest online community of English teachers in the world. More recently, Jim has served on the AP English Course and Exam Review Commission and the PARCC Consortium.

Reviews

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to explain my thoughts on this book in a few lines, so without going into detail - the book is exactly what it says in the title (a new teacher writing questions and a veteran teacher answering (sometimes in a bit too much depth)). I found most of Burke's counsel helpful and encouraging - odd as this sounds, I chose this book as one of my "pump up" books for the fast-approaching school year. [Megan-this is a book you and I would have discussed in detail on our drives home from student teaching...those were quite the conversations.] I would recommend this book to teachers in their first years teaching middle or high school English. Burke tries to be universal in his responses, but I don't know that a math teacher can appreciate all the references to literary works, writing types, etc.

[Blake Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book during my second year of teaching, having taught part-time for the first. I was in a struggling school and I was a struggling teacher. This book is the only thing that gave me the hope to keep going as a teacher.

[abbylee Oqueli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out really interesting and then got kind of repetative and boring.

[Bug]

Highly recommended to me by very experienced teachers--So I feel confident recommending it without reading. Have not yet had time to read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because even though it was between two high school teachers, I can walk away with a lot of new insights that can be applied in the lower grades.