Letters to a New Teacher: A Month-By-Month Guide to the Year Ahead

by Joy Krajicek and Jim Burke

Joy's questions and Jim's responses evoke in us an appreciation for what it means to do the work called teaching with the "living intensity of soul." May such soulful teaching flourish among us: here is a book that can help it be so.
Parker Palmer and Sam Intrator Every new teacher needs a mentor, someone smart, experienced, compassionate, and reliable to give advice, share strategies, and lend a supportive ear. What if every new English...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0325009236
• ISBN13: 9780325009230
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.4" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 12

Customer Reviews

For EVERY Teacher, New and Experienced!

I'll be honest. I bought this book because it looked interesting, and I needed a couple of dollars to get to the "free shipping" $25. In the end, this is the book from that order that I have not been able to put down. It provides invaluable insight into teaching, education, and the system. Not so much a "guide" to teaching, more of a catalyst to reflect, inspire, and think. This book should be on every English Student-Teacher's required reading, and is strongly recommended for the rest of us!

Jim's deepest book yet

I just finished "Letters" and I gotta say, what a tremendous book!! It is a different text than ones previously written by Jim and truthfully, I was exceptionally impressed by the intimacy. Mr. Burke reveals so much of his true self -- both as a person and as a classroom educator -- that I now feel like I know him as a friend now that I have read this book. In certain places, it's literally like a stealing a wonderful glimpse into a man's soul -- really good stuff!!! Obviously, Jim has a gift for words. The voice of the book is strong, distinct and nakedly honest-which I absolutely loved. If there is one element which might have been my favorite, it's the fact that Jim never skirts away from the confusion, the lack of surety and the imprecision of our profession. (NOTE: I am a teacher as well.) What we do is so much more art than science and in this world of standardized tests which only measure us in a scientific manner, Jim unabashedly address the "grey" in an NCLB universe that only evaluates the black and white. To be so brave about this admission, the conceit that, "Hey, there are times when I am simply going on faith here and there I times I fall flat on my face," is bold. Especially because society's impression of what an educator should be is so unrealistic. The misperception about educators is that they are professionals who should know exactly what they are doing at all times and know exactly how to do it in an effective manner which can be statistically quantified by evaluations and measurements. And Jim spends quality time saying, "Hey Joy, it's cool to flub it up. That's how you learn to become better in a job where you never stop either striving to become better or learning." But society doesn't want to hear that. Not when Joy's students are the ones who will ostensibly suffer. No parent wants their kids to be taught by a teacher who is inexperienced and lacks educational mastery. Yet, Jim so honestly admits that even he, the author of 13 books, an award winning veteran of the classroom, a dedicated professional (which, BTW, Jim Burke's commitment to education is the HIGHEST I have ever seen - it makes me feel like a complete and total slacker), blah, blah, blah... even Jim Burke still finds himself "flubbing it up" now and then. This book is just so human. In my estimation, Mr. Jim Burke is to be saluted for giving voice to the paradox that is teaching. We strive to be great but we are set up by the public education system at large to be mediocre at best, with too little time, too many students and not enough resources. Yet still, we forge on. And this book inspired me to keep doing so. Read this book -- you will be a better person for it!!!

Keep This At Your Side

I met Jim Burke five years ago when I purchased his book The English Teacher's Companion. It remains an invaluable source in my practice. Since then, I have added each one of Mr. Burke's books to my collection and have always found relevant and concrete information that I can take into my classroom the next day or use over the course of a unit. Jim Burke's Letters to a New Teacher is the next best thing to having Jim Burke in the room next door. In the book, coauthored with Joy Krajicek, Mr. Burke allays the fears of a first year teacher who seeks advice on a range of topics-from classroom discipline to teaching writing to creating a unit. Each response, written in a convivial style, offers concrete solutions to Joy's problems and has already proved beneficial to me in the middle of my sixth year teaching. When creating a unit, for example, Burke offers several specific suggestions that will allow the teacher to create steps that assure student success. When teaching writing, this book has helped me to see that not only is learning to write is a process, but also learning to teach writing is as much of a process. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned from this book is that it helped to reaffirm for me that accepting the calling of being a teacher means accepting an eternal process of learning. There never will be an end, per se, only a deepening. Burke includes several poems in his responses to Joy. Each one helped me to rethink what ideas I have about the teaching profession, about my students and about the ideas I have for my classroom. I strongly recommend teachers add this title to their collection. The letters in it will only help to reach for the excellence in ourselves that we demand of our students.

Strength for the journey

Jim Burke is an inspirational teacher; his books have long been a source of support and wisdom. What is so wonderful about "Letters" is the insight Jim and Joy give into the very real questions, struggles, and satisfaction we all experience as teachers. It is refreshing to read such a honest portrayal of the hearts of two teachers. I came away from the book hopeful, knowing that there are others asking the same questions I ask, even in my fifth year in the profession. Reflective teachers will relate to this book and be helped by it, no matter how long they've been at the job.

A Fountain of Encouragement

Jim Burke is one of those rare people who, when you ask him a question, turns and looks you full in the face before he gives you a reply. You get the sense that he is really listening-ruminating over his own appreciation for the question as well as his desire to genuinely answer. In his new book Letters To A New Teacher, Jim does just that. He doesn't rest on his accomplishments as an award-winning teacher--dispensing golden sound bites of truth and then walking away. Rather, he invites the reader into a conversation. A conversation initiated by Joy Krajicek. He shares the uncertainty, the failures, and the discoveries of the life of a teacher. He hears the yearning of Joy, who like many of us who teach, long to grow in our understanding of the relationship between teaching and life. For Jim teaching is not merely about a subject as much as it is about a lifestyle--a lifestyle of learning how to listen, how to recognize our own gifts, how to challenge ourselves to excellence, and how to grow our students. This is a book to be shared with every teacher, whether novice or veteran. What emerges is a fountain that brims over with encouragement.