About the Book
Find your footing and step into your future as a grounded teacher!
"I put down the book feeling proud to be a teacher."
-Sharon Elin, NBCT
Chickahominy Middle School, Hanover County, VA
"A book I will refer to often, as well as use for the teachers I mentor."
-Patricia Eggers, NBCT
Brown Deer School District, Glendale, WI
"Offers intellect, relevant statistics, human examples, teacher stories, witty analogies, practical solutions, and most of all, hope for those at any point in their teaching career."
-Sarah Earle, NBCT
Hampton High School, VA
Do you feel grounded at the "big desk" or are you still searching for your comfort zone? Join best-selling author Dominic Belmonte as he explores the essentials of instruction, curriculum, and classroom management. Using his trademark humor and encouraging style, and always keeping a clear-eyed focus on the rewards of teaching, the author discusses:
15 ways to master classroom pacing, tone, undertone, mood, and behavior
5 sample lessons using Socratic Seminar, inquiry science, Magic Math Box, and more
Reflective approaches to important challenges, including high-stakes tests, bridging the achievement gap, and helping students deal with tragedy
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Martin J. and Patricia Koldyke
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1: Becoming and Celebrating Yourself as a Grounded Teacher: Five Requisite Precepts
Precept 1: Recognition and Belief That the Quality of Your Work is a Matter of Life and Death to Your Students
Precept 2: Immunity From the Toxic Cynicism of Your Colleagues
Precept 3: Recognition That Your Words Matter
Precept 4: Recognition That You Must Have a Reason to Be in Front of Your Students
Precept 5: Give Them Hope, Rather Than Love
2: Fifteen Indicators of a Grounded Teacher: Classroom Nuances and Other Cues
First Indicator: Avoiding Classroom Wheel Spinning
Second Indicator: Being Comfortable With Time and With Questions
Third Indicator: Attending the Lecture’s Funeral
Fourth Indicator: Mastering the Art of Asking Questions
Fifth Indicator: Planning Student Group Work Carefully
Sixth Indicator: Being a Non-Contributor to Classroom Disarray
Seventh Indicator: Knowing Speed Kills Everywhere, Even in the Classroom
Eighth Indicator: Avoiding the Rudderless Class
Ninth Indicator: Keeping an Ear to the Tone of a Classroom
Tenth Indicator: Beware of Your Own Undertone!
Eleventh Indicator: Avoiding Topic or Grade as Threat
Twelfth Indicator: Using Compliments Adroitly
Thirteenth Indicator: Prodding Gently (but Prodding Nonetheless!)
Fourteenth Indicator: Holding Students Responsible for Their Own Learning
Fifteenth Indicator: Holding Students Responsible for Their Own Behavior: “We Don’t Baby Our Babies Anymore”
3: Model Techniques of Exceptionally Grounded Teachers
The Socratic Seminar Method for High School English Classes: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Tom Anstett, Lincoln-Way East High School, Frankfort, IL
Getting Students Hooked Through the Power of Inquiry Science: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Jim Effinger, Naperville North High School, Naperville, IL
Presenting Poetry To the Recalcitrant and Suspicious High School Student: The "Search for the Central Experience" Method
The Magic Math Box and Elementary Math Approach: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Sr. Raeleen Sweeney, PBVM, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, IL
Literacy Travels: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Jim Sorensen, Chippewa Middle School, Des Plaines, IL
Lessons in Loving Science and Children: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Carolyn "Mama C" Cyriaque, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, IL
4: Further Nuances and Challenges for the Grounded Teacher
When Tragedy Affects the Classroom
Teacher Burnout: What It Is, Why It Is, Why You Must Combat It, or Leave Teaching Now
State and Federal Testing and the Fight for a Teacher′s Soul
Bridging the Achievement Gap With Your Minority Students: A Conversation With Gloria Harper and a Summary of the National Study Group for the Affirmative Development of Academic Ability
Epilogue: A Teacher′s Poem, the Subjects of Fear and Resilience
References
Index
About the Author :
Dominic Belmonte taught at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, for twenty years as an English teacher and chairman of the English Department. He is now President and CEO of the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. A member and past chairman of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators, in 1989 he co-created the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois program, a pre-induction teacher preparation experience that is now the Golden Apple Foundation’s largest program, named by Harvard University as one of 15 programs out of 1,200 nationwide as a finalist for its Innovations in American Government award. In 1996 Belmonte also co-created the GATE (Golden Apple Teacher Education) program, an alternative pathway to teacher certification for mid-career adults wishing a career in teaching secondary math or science or teaching elementary school children.
Review :
"Provides motivation and a sense of commitment even to a veteran teacher (me!)...a book I will refer to often, as well as use for the teachers I mentor."
"Offers encouraging, uplifting advice and support to help teachers remember the purpose and importance of their profession...The examples and vignettes offer a wealth of fresh, energizing techniques, along with ideas to pump life into stale and chalky routines. Thanks for the inspiration!"
"Provides a resource for developing teachers to reflect on their current practices and craft, identify areas of strength and needed change, and provides a beacon for knowing when they are becoming master teachers."
"I put down the book feeling proud to be a teacher...someone understands that I care more about my students than about politics, money, or prestige, and that my focus on students has inherent worth far beyond a paycheck!"
"Offers intellect, relevant statistics, human examples, teacher stories, witty analogies, practical solutions, and most of all, hope for those at any point in their teaching career...what I am most impressed with is that the author does not continually blame the system or others but gently reminds us, chapter after chapter, that just as our students come to the pivotal point of taking responsibility for learning, we as teachers must look inward and reflect upon our responsibility to really, really do the teaching."
"Belmonte offers advice on how to become a grounded teacher by advocating discussions instead of lectures and profiling the techniques of teaching veterans."
"Teaching on Solid Ground really is an overall ‘reader friendly’ reference and guide for becoming an ideal and appropriate teacher, very strongly recommended to all teachers, new and experienced, for its exclusive ability to relate to its readers and its deeply accurate reasoning for taking its recommended approaches."
"Both new and experienced teachers will enjoy Belmonte′s humorous and heartfelt reflections on the rewards of teaching. The author focuses on 15 ways to master classroom pacing, outlines 5 sample lessons, and suggests reflective approaches to testing, bridging the achievement gap, and other challenges."
