What It Means To Be a Teacher: The Reality and Gift of Teaching

By Michael Gose

Finally, a book about teaching that tells it how it is. Michael Gose is a teacher who has made mistakes—and magic—like all of you. There's the time he attempts to teach The Owl and the Pussycat to a classroom of teenage boys. (A mistake.) And the time he saves a would-be dropout by showing up at his house every morning at 5:30. (The magic.) He knows what it's like to wait desperately for a bathroom break. He knows what it's like to wait desperately for a paycheck.

In his foreword, former NEA Executive Director Don Cameron writes, "In this excellent book, What it Means to Be a Teacher... Gose clearly and cleverly conveys to the reader what every good teacher knows: that a meaningful learning experience for the student(s) is also a meaningful learning experience for the teacher."

But the book itself is a great learning experience for those who should walk a mile in your shoes. We particularly love Gose's chapter on teaching conditions, and would like to send it to the school board members who mutter about summer vacations: "How would you like to work in a 900-square-foot office with at least 30 other people? Do you know any other job that typically requires one to make 1,200 decisions a day? Would you want to go to a school that long to work for that pay?" The answers could inform the popular debate on teacher compensation.

173 pp. $27.95 from Rowman & Littlefield Education. Visit Rowman & Littlefield Education to order.