The First-Year Teacher: Be Prepared for Your Classroom

Originally published by NEA, this bestselling title has proved to be timeless to all new teachers. The planned revisions for the 2015 The First-Year Teacher, Planning a Classroom that Works, will make the book's content even more relevant and valuable for the aspiring, beginning, or seasoned K-12 teacher, who wants to improve and feel more confident in achieving teaching effectiveness. The 2015 edition will do more than prepare first year teachers; it will also help teachers rethink student learning and classroom management. Instruction, student learning, and classroom management must operate together for student outcomes. Karen Bosch plans to use a co-author, Morghan E. Bosch, for additional content in the areas of technology and extending preparation for the special education teacher and for the role of co-teaching. The new edition 2015 will add 2 chapters. New Chapter 4 will focus on lesson planning for more understanding of the teaching/learning process. The lesson plan referred to in this book, the learning plan, will be presented in an e-format with drop down boxes. A generic approach will be discussed that connects the teaching/learning process. The learning plan will use the 5 components of a modified Hunter format for instruction as well as discussion of the backward design by Tighe to provide a format for improving the learning outcomes of all students. This unique learning plan will also embed classroom management techniques needed to support classroom learning. As written above, “Instruction, student learning, and classroom management must operate together for student outcomes.” This generic approach extends pass the written plan and into the basic “how to teach” content and meet the state and federal standards. Added to this unique learning plan will be assessment strategies that focus on how to collect the learning quotient (LQ) during instruction. The authors have coined the new term which means that teachers need to know which students know the material, which ones don't, and collect a total of how many students understand the content taught. Based on this data, the teacher can make informed decisions on when to move on, or stay a little longer with the content. The electronic formatted learning plan which includes both classroom management techniques and original assessment strategies and in drop down boxes are unique features of this new edition. Improving teacher effectiveness and increasing student learning becomes even more important in the quest for high-stakes accountability, meeting Common Core Standards as well as individual state's standards of learning. The other new chapter (Chapter 6) will focus on the preparation of both regular and special education teachers and the role of co-teaching in classrooms. Teachers are not prepared for the collaboration and cooperation necessary for working and teaching together in the inclusive classrooms. All teachers need to be prepared to include, welcome, and teach all learners in the classroom.