Into the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Starting Student Teaching

by Rosalyn McKeown

Overview

Student teaching can be an endeavor fraught with anxiety. Those entering the classroom for the first time face the daunting challenge of translating coursework on the theory of teaching into real-world experience. Common questions for anxious student teachers include: Will I be a good teacher? Will I ever get control of my classroom? How can I do all of this grading and plan for next week at the same time? This helpful guide by teacher educator Rosalyn McKeown offers practical suggestions for student teachers, interns, and teacher candidates just starting out in a secondary school classroom.  This easy-to-read text enables new educators to rapidly advance their teaching skills early in their pre-service experiences.
    After exploring the pitfalls of inexperience and providing helpful guidance on maintaining order in the classroom, McKeown focuses on teaching skills. She advises readers on writing objectives and lesson plans, creating interesting ways to start and end class, introducing variety into the classroom, lecturing, asking meaningful questions, and using visual aids. Among the other topics discussed are setting up a classroom, recognizing differences in learning styles, and developing an individual teaching style. Sidebars scattered throughout the text offer useful advice on everything from how to deal with stage fright and distracting noises from outside, to planning for block scheduling and avoiding the attributes of a boring teacher.
    With McKeown’s own list of expectations for her classes, templates for hall passes and lesson plans, and scores of tips garnered from years of experience, Into the Classroom provides information a first-time teacher needs to enter the secondary classroom with confidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781572339088
Publisher:	University of Tennessee Press
Publication date:	10/21/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	989 KB

About the Author

ROSALYN MCKEOWN is the Secretariat for the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability at York University in Toronto Canada.. Previously, she taught teacher preparation courses at SUNY Stony Brook, the University of Tennessee,  York University in Toronto as well as education courses at Portland State University. Her articles have appeared in the BioScience, Journal of Geography,Oregon English Journal, Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, and the Journal of Environmental Education.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Author’s Note Part I: Before Entering the Classroom Part II: Classroom Instruction Part III: The Bigger Picture Part IV: Becoming the Teacher You Want to Be Afterword Index

Editorial Reviews

I used this book as my first handout to my student teachers. It set their mind at ease as it provided them with a framework of teaching issues they would face.   In their class evaluations they often mentioned how this book helped them make sense of the mountain of information they received from professors, host teachers, journal readings, and fellow teacher candidates. The book was however more than an organizing framework.  It is also a wonderfully written compilation of sage advice that helped them avoid the early mistakes and to face the classroom experience with confidence.
Charles Hopkins
UNESCO Chair
York University, Toronto, Canada

From the Publisher