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Teacher Toolkit: Helping You Survive Your First Five Years
'This is a book by a teacher still in the classroom after 20 years. Want to know how to survive? Read this book; it's fizzing with ideas.' Ty Goddard, Co-founder of the Education FoundationA compendium of teaching strategies, ideas and advice, which aims to motivate, comfort, amuse and above all reduce your workload, by bestselling author Ross Morrison McGill, aka @TeacherToolkit.Teacher Toolkit is a must-read for newly qualified and early career teachers and will support you through your first five years in the primary or secondary classroom. It is packed with advice, tips and ideas for all aspects of teaching practice, from lesson planning to marking and assessment, behaviour management and differentiation.Ross believes that becoming a teacher is one of the best decisions you will ever make, but after more than two decades in the classroom, he knows that it is not an easy journey! He shares countless anecdotes from his own experience, from disastrous observations to marking in the broom cupboard, and offers a wealth of strategies to help you become a true Vitruvian one who is resilient, intelligent, innovative, collaborative and aspirational.Complete with a bespoke Five Minute Plan in every chapter, photocopiable templates, QR codes, a detachable bookmark and beautiful illustrations by renowned artist Polly Nor, Teacher Toolkit is everything you need to ensure you are the best teacher you can be, whatever the new policy or framework.Ross is the bestselling author of Mark. Plan. Teach., Just Great Teaching and 100 Ideas for Secondary Outstanding Lessons.Vitruvian teaching will help you survive your first five 1: Be resilient (surviving your NQT year)Year 2: Be intelligent (refining your teaching)Year 3: Be innovative (taking risks)Year 4: Be collaborative (working with others)Year 5: Be aspirational (moving towards middle leadership)Start working towards Vitruvian today.
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
15 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book. It is simple to digest yet informative. It is definitely a must-read for 21st-century educators out there!
January 13, 2021
My new teaching bible. This is a book I will continue to return to throughout my teaching career. It covers 5 key attributes of great teaching and correlates these perfectly to the first 5 years of teaching. I'm in my 4th year of teaching and found the previous sections a great read to reflect and use as a reminder of all the important 'little bits' that impact on teaching practice.
The book was set out in a way which was easy to read with clear subtitles, top tips and reflection boxes. I loved the '5 minute' parts which gave manageable tips. Throughout, it had links to the teaching standards which offered a great reminder to what teaching is all about.
A great book for CPD for teachers at every stage of their career and one I'll revisit annually.
The book was set out in a way which was easy to read with clear subtitles, top tips and reflection boxes. I loved the '5 minute' parts which gave manageable tips. Throughout, it had links to the teaching standards which offered a great reminder to what teaching is all about.
A great book for CPD for teachers at every stage of their career and one I'll revisit annually.
July 20, 2022
GUYS, I'VE HIT 5 YEARS.
This book must have worked, not really thanks to this book.
This book must have worked, not really thanks to this book.
April 10, 2024
Reviewing this book retrospectively after reading it when it was first published in 2015.
At the point of reading, I was fresh out of Teach First. 2 intense years of teacher training, I'd made it through some challenging hurdles in a disadvantaged secondary school in West London....and felt like a complete charlatan. On a referral from a friend who was all into her teachers on twitter, strongly recommended teacher toolkit aka Ross.
This book gave me the confidence that not only did I have a wealth of pedagogical knowledge, but that there was plenty left to learn and the way its worded made me feel like even experienced teachers can learn something too. And I felt motivated. Looking back over the notes I made, the post it's they are covered in of techniques I'd tried and with who (which was fun to reread 9 years later) I took a lot of food for thought away from this book.
I actually reread this in 2021 while on MAT leave, and even at that point, after 9 years of teaching I still had things that were renewed, simple things I had long since forgotten and things I'd not tried last time!
Even now, as a prior mentor to trainees, I still recommend this book before they start their first teaching post. I'd recommend it veterans like me too who are into their pedagogy and just want some different/variety of techniques to their toolbox. Ross uses his own experience backed by research. A must read that is well written and personable.
At the point of reading, I was fresh out of Teach First. 2 intense years of teacher training, I'd made it through some challenging hurdles in a disadvantaged secondary school in West London....and felt like a complete charlatan. On a referral from a friend who was all into her teachers on twitter, strongly recommended teacher toolkit aka Ross.
This book gave me the confidence that not only did I have a wealth of pedagogical knowledge, but that there was plenty left to learn and the way its worded made me feel like even experienced teachers can learn something too. And I felt motivated. Looking back over the notes I made, the post it's they are covered in of techniques I'd tried and with who (which was fun to reread 9 years later) I took a lot of food for thought away from this book.
I actually reread this in 2021 while on MAT leave, and even at that point, after 9 years of teaching I still had things that were renewed, simple things I had long since forgotten and things I'd not tried last time!
Even now, as a prior mentor to trainees, I still recommend this book before they start their first teaching post. I'd recommend it veterans like me too who are into their pedagogy and just want some different/variety of techniques to their toolbox. Ross uses his own experience backed by research. A must read that is well written and personable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews