The Dream and the Reality of Teaching

Becoming the Best Teacher Students Ever Had

By (author) Keen J. Babbage

Not available to order

Publication date:

05 May 2011

Length of book:

172 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781610480178

The dream of teaching is that a career in teaching can be fascinating, meaningful, inspiring, and rewarding. The reality of teaching is that a career in teaching can be exhausting, frustrating, heart-breaking, and disappointing. How can the dream endure and thrive while the reality is confronted and mastered? Keen Babbage guides prospective teachers through an analysis of the profession they are considering and of their match with that profession. For one who is already in a teaching career, this book gives the reader an opportunity to reflect on progress that has been made, problems that have been encountered, and how to hold onto the dream of teaching while facing the increasingly complex reality of teaching.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 Chapter 1 — Reasons To Be A Teacher; Reasons Not To Be A Teacher
Chapter 4 Chapter 2 — The Work of Teaching Requires Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul
Chapter 5 Chapter 3 — Teaching Is Not What You Expect
Chapter 6 Chapter 4 — What Great Teachers Know About The Work of Great Teaching
Chapter 7 Chapter 5 — What Teachers Cannot Control and Cannot Manage
Chapter 8 Chapter 6 — What Teachers Can Control and Can Manage
Chapter 9 Chapter 7 — How Do I know If I Should Be A Teacher?
Chapter 10 Chapter 8 — What If?
Chapter 11 Epilogue
Chapter 12 About The Author

Babbage, an experienced educator and author of 13 books about teaching and school administration, steers prospective teachers through a maze of issues concerning the profession they are about to enter. Even a veteran teacher will find the book reassuring, supportive, and encouraging as the hard work of teaching is explored. Hints and helpful tips are discussed in an easy-to-read format so that the reader is clear about the aspects of teaching that are to be expected and those that are not. For example, stories, scenarios, and suggestions to teachers are provided to sort the important issues that an educator can control from those that he or she cannot. The author's expertise as a school administrator and professor shines through for the reader in his account of the reasons why one should become a teacher, stay in the profession, and make it a lifetime career. This book insists individuals be introspective and maintain their choice to teach with passion and heart, but most of all it clearly honors the teaching profession. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above.