Lights! Camera! Educate! How to alleviate stage fright and become a star middle school teacher

By: Jane Halligan and Jennifer Brosky

This is a comprehensive guide that will enable a rookie teacher to learn and understand the dynamics of a middle school setting. It gives helpful information and suggestions on classroom set-up, getting prepared for open house, organization, disciplining, and working successfully with colleagues, staff, administration, and parents. It also provides ideas and tips on how to have middle school children become motivated and successful learners, while conforming instruction to the rules and regulations of the No Child Left Behind Act. Lastly, this book offers suggestions on how to maintain a healthy mind and body.

This book is intended for newly hired middle school teachers and those who have been teaching for less than three years. It also can provide veteran teachers with a new perspective on the middle school phenomenon. The information provided in this manual can be used as a supplement to or foundation for a district induction program. Some special features of this book include teacher, staff, and administrator quotes in each chapter, figure charts, and appendices.

As authors of this book, we wanted to take our years of experience and create a useful and helpful guide for rookie middle school teachers that will help lessen their insecurities and give them a true realization of what to expect during their first years of teaching. Jennifer Brosky and Jane Halligan have been teaching at the middle school level for twenty-one years combined and have each earned a master?s degree in the Art of Teaching. Jennifer and Jane are currently teachers in the West Chester Area School District, Pennsylvania. Jennifer received the Outstanding Service Award from the Coatesville Area School District, Pennsylvania in 2005. Jane received the Distinguished Reading Teacher Award from Sumter School District II, South Carolina in 2000.