Below are our tips for this week. Remember, we are not the end-all, be-all! We are just teachers sharing our
ideas with you. Feel free to modify strategies you receive from us to fit you and your classroom!
====================================== The Truth About Teaching
======================================
The Truth About Teaching
In her own unique and witty style Coleen Armstrong exposes the harsher realities of teaching often left unsaid and
ignored, and weaves them with words of comfort, encouragement, and advice. The Truth About Teaching expresses
the heartwarming, sometimes tragic, and often humorous thoughts and stories of this 31-year veteran teacher. It is a
testimony to the fact that reassurance comes from the knowledge that you are not alone.
Clicking on the above links will take you to an information page about this newest title available from Inspiring
Teachers. View sample pages and read what others have to say about The Truth About Teaching
================================= Education World New Teachers Column
===============================
Education World
New Teacher Column
This is my column on Education World. The current featured topic is "Managing the Quagmire of Disillusion". I hope
you enjoy it!
============= Weekly Tip
=============
This month we have an article from the author of The Truth About Teaching, Coleen Armstrong. I hope
you enjoy her words of wisdom.
Avoiding Negativity
Teachers tend to accumulate long, detailed lists of professional concerns––most of which are valid. Constant
venting, however, rarely accomplishes anything constructive. Here’s how to retain a more positive outlook and spend
less time swimming in toxic soup.
• Surround yourself with tireless supporters––parents, former students, close friends, your spouse––people who buoy
your spirits and reassure you of the enormous impact you're making on your students. Conversely, whenever you
stumble across a vitriolic editorial which puts down public education (or teachers), simply turn the page. A
negative climate should always make you run, especially early in your career, when it can suck you up and spit you
out like so much shrapnel.
• Read between the lines. Any student who approaches you for assistance or advice, or even stops to share some
corny joke is paying you a huge compliment. He/she is including you in his/her life! Where children are concerned,
with the peer group's approval so paramount, it really doesn't get any better than this.
• Listen to energizing audio books about teaching. Try Frank McCourt's “Teacher Man,” Jim Fay's “Four Steps to
Responsibility,” and Caroline Myss' “Your Sacred Contract.” Warning: Part of Myss' message will be, “Stop
bellyaching. You signed on for this assignment!”
• Clip and post cartoons and humorous news articles about teaching––like the one about the high school teacher who
played Frank Sinatra CDs during detentions. The kids considered listening to “My Way” a harsher punishment than
staying after school, so after a few weeks, this teacher's enrollments went waaay down. Gather a whole collection of
such clippings. A groan along with a smile is much better for the soul than just a groan.
• Embark on a constant crusade of professional improvement. So today's lesson on the Plantagenet kings dive-bombed?
How could you have made it better? What might you change for next year's class? This single evaluative act, by the
way, significantly increases the chances of there being a next year! Think of it as planting a positive mind-
seed.
Coleen Armstrong is the author of The Truth About Teaching: What I Wish The Veterans Had Told Me, available
through www.inspiringteachers.com. Coleen taught secondary English, German, and Spanish in the Hamilton (Ohio) City
School District for 31 years. During that time she won both state and national recognition, awards which included
Ashland Oil's Teacher Achievement Award in 1992, WKRC-TV's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993, and being named one of
five finalists for the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1996. Her first book, co-authored with Warren County
superintendent John Lazares, Please Don't Call My Mother: How Schools and Parents Can Work Together To Get Kids Back
on Track was published by Parenting Press in Seattle in 2001.
Want to respond and share ways you've avoided negativity? Respond to this email and we'll combine them all together
in our Idea Share!
====================== Inspirational Thought
======================
I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from
experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our
circumstances.
~Martha Washington (1732 - 1802)
====================== Thoughts for Reflection
======================
How is your attitude towards your job right now? Is it better now than earlier in the school year? Why do you think
there is a difference, if there is one? What makes you most satisfied with your job of teaching? What makes you
least satisfied? What changes in your habits might help you to be more satisfied and feeling less negative? Who do
you talk to and lean on among your colleagues? Is this person a positive or negative influence on you? Why do you
think you hang around this person? Do you want to be the kind of person that others look to for guidance? Why or why
not? What kind of influence do you think you are on others in your school? Are you happy with this? If not, how
might you change it? What types of activities do you engage in when feeling low, blue, or negative about teaching?
Do these activities help pull you out of that low period? What advice might you give to other teachers when asked
about how to avoid being negative?
=========== Feedback
===========
Want to respond and share ways you've avoided negativity? Respond to this email and we'll combine them all together
in our Idea Share!
------------------------------------
These thoughts and ideas are brought to you by Emma McDonald co-author of Survival Kit for New
teachers AND the AWARD WINNING Classrooms that SPARK. Find us at
The entire contents of this e-zine are Copyrighted by Inspiring Teachers and Emma McDonald. If you would like
to reprint all or parts of this e-zine, please contact Inspiring Teachers at 972-496-7633 or toll-free at 1-877-496
-7633 or via email to info@inspiringteachers.com