Didactic reading … Recommended … 4 stars
The revision
Classroom under construction Building the Foundation for Creative Instruction in the Classroom is a 107-page, 12-chapter manual for the new teacher, the tired teacher, and everyone else. The pages of this work designed to help teachers improve the effectiveness of their classroom provide practical ideas to encourage and boost instruction, as well as celebrations for all the good things teachers do.
The writer Grimes presents his ‘workshop in a book’ with Chapter 1 Beliefs and Decision Making. A teaching philosophy is essential to support and frame the underlying teaching practices. Grimes says that a teaching philosophy is a personal vision and sense of purpose for teaching.
Chapter 2 What’s in a Name? The names and what the teachers do with them is important. Asking a child what name he prefers is a good way to tackle the name problem.
Chapter 3 Pouring the base Grimes tells us that the classroom is a lively place, crowded, boisterous, and noisy. It is characterized by joy or anxiety, boredom or stimulation, fuss or silence.
Chapter 4 Time is your friend and your enemy Grimes discusses a truth well known to all teachers. TIME RULE THE SCHOOL, the day, the week and the year.
Chapter 5 The doctor is in Grimes notes that never before in our history has so much been expected of teachers, and teachers are expected to educate themselves voluntarily and receive insufficient compensation, even when they may be reprimanded by non-teachers. 1903 George Bernard Shaw set the tone: He Who Can, Does, and He Who Cannot Teach has been quoted often and aloud by many. Grimes also points out that Shaw was not a teacher and did not know what a teacher was about.
Chapter 6 Making the Degree Grimes claims that classification mechanisms are needed, including rubrics, however they are mechanical tools. Grimes notes that while student attendance may be required by law, their attention is not and that teachers must be able to create meaningful and compelling work for students. Grimes suggests removing D and F grades and reteaching the material until students earn AB or C grades.
Chapter 7 This Class Sucks Grimes claims that when students act, the reason for their behavior may have nothing to do with either the class or the teacher. Teachers need to be perceptive to what is happening with their students, not jump to conclusions, and approach problems in a win-win way rather than blaming and creating problems where they existed before.
Chapter 8 The Dog Won’t Eat My Homework The topic of homework is often fraught with excitement and irritation. Grimes provides a look at how homework can be successfully incorporated into the learning process and offers an overview of how homework affects students, teachers, and parents.
Chapter 9 Cooperation to learn and live Grimes discusses the importance of cooperative learning as a time when children work together with their teachers and with each other, while also providing a degree of courtesy to the competitive forces that are inherently present in schools.
Chapter 10 You Make the Call Grimes addresses those gray areas where good decisions must be made based on judgment, an understanding of school law, and common sense.
Chapter 11 Lest We Forget Grimes offers teaching strategies and activities that will facilitate the perpetuation of the memory of people and events important to our national history. We stay connected as a culture when we know, share and remember our shared heritage.
Chapter 12 Get A Life Grimes discusses the need to balance the professional and personal aspects of life. It notes that teachers who work in a year-round setting tend to have a more positive outlook on themselves, their homes, their social life, and their teaching than teachers who teach in a traditional setting.
Rich Grimes’ classroom under construction speaks to the core of successful teaching practices. Grimes discusses procedures intended to help teachers bond with each student with the understanding that teacher-student bonding is predictable as a requirement for student academic success. Explain how the teacher’s personal belief system will dictate the teacher’s attitude toward students, toward assigning homework, and toward reporting grades. Grimes presents suggests that teachers can achieve more success with their students by learning the correct pronunciation of the student’s name and using it frequently when speaking with the student.
I like your idea of homework that goes beyond the student and includes that parents and other family members get involved, energized and motivated because the family’s interest in the school and the child definitely contributes to the student incentive to learn and perform well. Grimes offers a number of activities that promote student participation.
As a teacher, I found Classroom Under Construction to be a valuable tool for beginning or not-so-beginning teachers. I have 3 suggestions to make the book more useful: spiral binding will help keep the book open on a particular page, the larger print and the darker print will be helpful for those who may have older eyes. Many new teachers are not in their twenties, they are part of the over the hill group looking for a second career. The book has so many valuable suggestions that it is a shame it can be left out simply because the block size and the boldness of the letters make it more difficult to read.
A must-have for all beginning teachers of any age Classroom Under Construction has a lot to offer those of us old warhorses who have been at it for a while. They sent me a business pocket book for review. And I’ll save this edition for my own library, if a spiral bound comes out, it’ll be even better. I will suggest this book to my future teachers when they come to my classroom.
I enjoyed the read, happy to recommend.