OOPS: What We Learn When Our Teaching Fails

As a beginning teacher, I am constantly learning and trying to better my craft and art of teaching. There are numerous books describing what one should do to create the perfect lesson plan, how to keep the classroom managed, and how to create a wonderful learning environment. These things are all good and well, but to be honest many of them are quite unhelpful. They seem to be written by people who have had no or very little actual experience teaching in the classroom. OOPS isn't such a book. Instead, it's a collection of stories by all kinds of teachers writing about the different failures that happened to them while they were teaching. Some of the stories are quite humorous, such as the teacher who forgot to reserve a bus for a field trip, and some are poignant. Some teach a lesson and others simply tell a story. Whatever the case, all of these stories are real and they give a more accurate picture of what life can be like in the classroom as opposed to much of the educational literature that I have read. I think this would make a good gift for any teacher, especially those who are just starting out in the field and find that the reality of teaching doesn't meet up with the expectations they had during their teacher preparation classes.

This is definately a book for teachers, but it is definately one that we can use -- especially for us beginners who seem to make one mistake after another.The concept is simple -- some of our most famous teachers, the folks who wrote the books we read in college about how to be wonderful teachers, will own up to some of the mistakes they've made. Some mistakes are big, some small. Some are heartbreaking and others are funny. But most importantly, they simply ARE. New teachers (and experienced) are going to make mistakes. We're human. But we try awfully hard not to and tend to get down when we do. These stories say to us, in the words of a popular science fiction tale, "we are not alone." And, perhaps, from some of them we get ideas of how to move on with our lives and careers after we've made some of those really doozy mistakes.This collection of short tales is ideal for keeping in your desk or by the chair at home for those times of doubt when you need a pick-me-up.