Description
Book SynopsisIn the popular narrative teachers are cast as saints or slouches, heroes or zeros. They either forgo their material well-being for the reward of a higher calling, or they show movies, have too much time off, and are impossible to fire. Teacherland fills the gap between these two clichés with insight, humor, and conviction. How do you manage a room of energetic adolescents and ensure everyone is learning? What happens when some students begin with a distinct disadvantage while others have every opportunity? How do colleagues and friends help counteract the profession's inherent isolation? What happens when you make embarrassing comments in class, or can't use the bathroom when desired? How do you deal with Back to School Night and Open House, staff meetings and rallies and dances?These are but a few of the questions Teacherland considers, with the ultimate goal of improving our education system by humanizing the teaching profession. It aims to reframe the debate about what it means to t
Trade ReviewTeacherland delivers an up-close-and-personal account of the lives of teachers. If you want to go beyond the saints-or-sinners accounts of public education and understand what schools are really like, this book deserves to be at the very top of your reading list. -- David Kirp, author of Improbable Scholars, Berkeley professor and New York Times contributing writer
Aaron Pribble's Teacherland adds an important and poignant look at teaching through a practitioner's perspective. Told largely as a series of evocative and thought-provoking vignettes, the book challenges much of the overheated and simplistic political rhetoric surrounding education, offering readers a vastly more nuanced, creative, and memorable look at this vitally important profession. -- Sarah Carr, journalist and author of Hope Against Hope
If I were still training teachers, this would be my number one required text. It is insightful, very practical, and delightfully written—among the most creative books for teachers I’ve ever read. No book can produce a good teacher. But if one could, this would be it! -- Mark Phillips, Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University, Educational writer for Edutopia and the Marin Independent Journal
Not since Up the Down Staircase has there been a book about teaching that is as incisive, funny and interesting as Teacherland, written by a long-time teacher whose credentials include a best-selling book about baseball. This one gets an A plus. -- Russell Hill, author of Tom Hall & the Captain of All These Men of Death
Everybody seems to have a voice about education except educators themselves, who are often painted by pundits and policy makers in broad stereotypes—the "bad teacher" or the superhero. With humor, honesty, and humility, Pribble provides the antidote: a work of witness by a real, human teacher reflecting on the craft and the meaning of an authentic education. -- Adam Bessie, Professor of English, Diablo Valley College and Graphic Storyteller
Table of ContentsPreface: Saints and Slouches Acknowledgements Introduction Section 1: The Art and Craft Part I Chapter 1 Late for Class Chapter 2 The Crying Closet Chapter 3 Design and Conquer Chapter 4 Teaching is Coaching Chapter 5 Behind the Veil Chapter 6 Homework—To Assign or Not to Assign Chapter 7 Making the Grade Chapter 8 Teaching Tupac; or, Outposts of Affluence Section 2: The Lunchroom Chapter 9 Sticker Shock Chapter 10 Crop Dusting Chapter 11 That’s What Mentors Are For Chapter 12 The Weight Chapter 13 Happy Hour Chapter 14 Chocolate Walking Tour Chapter 15 I’m Here to Teach Chapter 16 The Flip Out Section Three: The Art and Craft Part II Chapter 17 The Dandelion of Judah Chapter 18 The Zen of Teaching Chapter 19 Why It’s Better to Get Diarrhea Than a Sub Chapter 20 Phallic Gerrymandering Chapter 21 Let’s Talk About Sex Ed Chapter 22 To Be Feared or Loved Chapter 23 Roll Tape Section Four: In Loco Parentis Chapter 24 B2SN Chapter 25 Parental Cocktail Party Chapter 26 Parents Just Don’t Understand Section Five: Student, Scholar, Teenager, Kid Chapter 27 When You Least Expect It Chapter 28 She Looks Like a Referee Chapter 29 Funeral for a Fallen Player Chapter 30 Why Jessie Should Attend Pomona Pitzer Chapter 31 Thinking about Jae Chapter 32 The Sheepdog and the Wolf Section Six: More than a Classroom Teacher Chapter 33 Sibling Tricycle Grudge Match Chapter 34 Staff Infections Chapter 35 Never Chaperone a High School Dance Chapter 36 How Do You Say “Teacher” in French? Chapter 37 Of Unions, Cows, and Cheese Epilogue: Who Cares? About the Author
