Stories of Beginning Teachers

Alysia D. Roehrig is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame.Michael Pressley is director of the Master of Education Program, professor of psychology, and Notre Dame Chair in Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of numerous books and editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology.Denise A. Talotta teaches at the Marist Brothers International School in Kobe, Japan.

"Stories of Beginning Teachers should become a prerequisite reading for all college students considering the teaching profession. Beginning and experienced teachers, alike, will be insipred to reinvent themselves and create effective solutions to the more than 500 professional concerns that Roehrig, Pressley and Talotta so concisely and effectively present. No prior work has identified the challenges facing the teaching profession as vividly as this book. Each chapter goes beyond merely tugging at our heart strings to convincingly demonstrating the numerous solution-processes that have been used by first and second year teachers to address complex professional isues. The comprehensive presentation of kindergarten through high school issues will make this book valuable to a wide audience and variety of college courses. I can't thank Roehrig, Pressley and Talotta enough for providing research that moves beyond cliches to concrete illustrations of how to make all teachers' dreams come true. Forwarned is forarmed and Stories of Beginning Teachers can enable all teachers to develop the abilities to provide maximum learning opportunities for all students under their care." —Cathy Collins Block, Professor of Education, Texas Christian University"The findings in this book are timely and important. The authors make good use of both primary and secondary sources and the stories written by the beginning teachers are very appealing." —Ann Loranger, associate professor of education, University of New Hampshire". . . a resource for beginning teachers, teacher educators, inservice providers, and supervising teachers." —Childhood Education"Stories of Beginning Teachers: First-Year Challenges and Beyondshould be required reading for all student teaching candidates, as well as suggested reading for new teachers. Roehrig, Pressley, and Talotta have provided the reader with a text that has been too long in coming. It is a powerful and compelling account of the challenges faced by new teachers and veteran teachers and provides a view of the world that is larger than ourselves. [I]t makes a major contribution to the literature on classroom management and to the stories that teachers tell." —Teachers College Record"Mentor teachers and professionals who develop teacher preparation programs will find this book with its real-life, emotionally charged case studies to be a practical and relevant tool for communicating the realities of teaching. The individual who is preparing to enter the classroom for the first year would do well to learn from the experiences detailed in this book." —Catholic Education"[A]n extremely detailed list of the problems new teachers are likely to face, drawn from case studies of first- and second-year teachers. [T]he case studies included in the second part of the book will support new teachers by assuring them that they are not alone, that others have faced the same challenges in the past, and that they will pass on their experience to others in the future." —Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy". . . an informed and informative survey and description of the unique and manifold challenges new classroom teachers face. . . . Stories of Beginning Teachers is especially commended reading for anyone contemplating embarking on a teaching career." —Library Bookwatch