The Alberta Teachers’ Association

New School Year, New Teachers and New Resources

Beginning teachers face many challenges in their first years of teaching and, to help them, we have compiled a list of new books featuring an eclectic mix of themes and issues in teaching.

We are pleased to assist all teachers by offering library services in every part of Alberta. The ATA library ships books and DVDs at no charge to teachers, and it prepays return shipping—no matter where ATA members are located.

Visit the library online at www.teachers.ab.ca (click on Publications and then on ATA Library) to view the library catalogue, order books or find links to recommended websites. Teachers can follow us at #ATALibrary on our twitter account, @albertateachers.

Books

How to Handle Hard-To-Handle Parents
Maryln Applebaum. 2009. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin. (371.192 A646 2009)
This resource will help educators work effectively with parents, even the most difficult ones, and suggests ways to prevent problems before they happen. Applebaum’s strategies help to establish positive and harmonious relationships with parents to overcome adversity and boost student performance.

Teaching Media in Primary Schools
Cary Bazalgette, ed. 2010. London, UK: Sage. (372.340440941 B362)
When embedded in the primary curriculum, media education allows children to become more fully literate in the digital age. This book considers children’s relationship with media and suggests how to build on this knowledge to develop students’ critical awareness and build opportunities for creative expression.

Making Music in the Primary School: Whole Class Instrumental and Vocal Teaching
Nick Beach, Julie Evans and Gary Spruce, eds. 2011. New York: Routledge. (372.87044 B365)
This resource strikes a balance between theory and practice while introducing educators to teaching students in music.

Educating Children and Young People with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Carolyn Blackburn, Barry Carpenter and Jo Egerton. 2012. New York: Routledge. (371.9 B628)
The learning difficulties of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are not well understood. The authors strive to improve the educational outcomes for these children by providing a clearer understanding of FASD to teachers and by discussing resources and strategies that have proven to work with these learners.

The English Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-To-Use Techniques and Materials for Grades 7–12
Mary Lou Brandvik and Katherine S. McKnight. 2011. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. (428.00712 B821)
This useful guide is full of creative and functional ideas for reading response activities, writing assignments, group and individual projects, and speeches. It features techniques for organizing teaching units and designing daily lessons; working effectively with parents, colleagues, substitutes and administrators; working with technology; and working with reluctant readers.

Empowering Family-Teacher Partnerships: Building Connections within Diverse Communities
Mick Coleman. 2012. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage. (372.21 C 692)
Coleman discusses the many types of families that teachers are likely to encounter in their classrooms and offers insight into developing strong relationships with families—single parents, grandparents as caregivers, same-sex parents, stepfamilies and immigrant families.

Seven Steps to Separating Difference from Disability
Catherine Collier. 2011. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin. (371.8291 C699 2011)
When a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student struggles in school, how can you tell whether language or cultural differences are the cause or if the student has a learning or behavioural disability? The right assessment process is vital to helping CLD students. Collier shows how educators can adapt the widely-used response to intervention model to make sound decisions regarding a student’s education.

Starting Drama Teaching
Mike Fleming. 2011. London, UK: Routledge. (792.071.F598)
This accessible book is indispensable to new drama teachers and covers role play, playwriting and rehearsals and offers various approaches to drama.

Ultimate Guide to Assistive Technology in Special Education
Joan Green. 2011. Waco, Tex: Prufrock. (371.904334 G796)
Not enough is written about the array of assistive technology available for students in the classroom. This book provides a broad overview of assistive technology and focuses on the cutting-edge technology tools available to improve students’ areas of weakness.

The Art of Teaching Science: Inquiry and Innovation in Middle School and High School
Jack Hassard and Michael Dias. 2009. New York: Routledge. (507.12 H353)
Becoming a science teacher can be a creative process. Hassard and Dias present teaching tools that emphasize a humanistic, experiential and constructivist approach to teaching science.

Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners: Advanced Survival Skills

The Classroom Teacher’s Technology Survival Guide
Doug Johnson. 2012. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. (371.33 J66)
Johnson provides information about recent technologies and their use, and provides advice on upgrading time-tested educational strategies using technology. The author advises ways to manage “disruptive technologies” in the classroom.

Teaching Secondary Music
Jayne Price and Jonathan Savage. eds. 2012. Los Angeles, Calif: Sage. (780.71241 P945)
Leading music educators have contributed chapters on key concepts and approaches in secondary music pedagogy, with a focus on understanding music and facilitating musical progress.

Teacher's Survival Guide: The Inclusive Classroom
Cynthia Simpson, Vicky Spencer and Jeffrey Bakken. 2011. Waco, Tex: Prufrock. (371.9046 S613)
The authors address the most important issues that new teachers face when working with students with disabilities, such as collaborating with colleagues, establishing parent relationships, understanding legal issues and managing the classroom.

More Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Secondary Mathematics Instruction
Marian Small and Amy Lin. 2010. Reston, Va: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (510.712 S635)
Differentiated instruction helps students learn but challenges teachers, especially in developing mathematics lessons. The authors offer strategies for developing inclusive learning conversation and to inspire broader student participation.

How to Handle Difficult Parents: A Teacher’s Survival Guide
Suzanne Capek Tingley. 2006. Ft. Collins, Colo: Cottonwood. (371.192 T588)
This humorous handbook helps teachers deal with parents who do not see eye-to-eye with them. Each chapter features a funny caricature that illuminates common parent anxieties, followed by specific and practical methods for addressing the problem.

Achieving Aboriginal Student Success: A Guide for K to 8 Classrooms
Pamela Rose Toulouse. 2011. Winnipeg, Man: Portage and Main. (372.13 T725)
Toulouse has written an engaging book for teachers who have Aboriginal students in their classrooms or who want to infuse an Aboriginal world view into their curriculum. Although the primary focus is on Aboriginal students, the ideas are best practices that can be applied in assessment, classroom management and connecting local communities.

Friendship and Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Aged 5–11 to Cope with Bullying
Signe Whitson. 2012. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley. (302.3408342 W623)
Bullying among girls is harder for outsiders to detect than bullying in boys because girls are often bullied through social means by their friends. Whitson suggests group activities to address and curb this behaviour.

Videos

Article of the Week
Stenhouse. Portland, Maine. 2009. 15 minutes.
Teacher Kelly Gallagher says, “It is not enough to simply teach my students to recognize themes in a given novel; if my students are to become literate, they must broaden their reading experiences into real-world text.” He demonstrates how to address gaps in students’ education and develop their critical thinking and literacy skills.

Bullying Behaviors in Boys and What to Do About It
Kinetic Video. Buffalo, NY. 2011. 30 minutes.
Bob Ditter presents a clear and powerful overview of the complexities of bullying behaviour in boys and provides a practical and effective process for responding to such behaviour.

The Healthy Teacher
ACCESS. 2008. 23 minutes.
All teachers need to balance work life and home life and develop strategies to manage stress, which is especially prevalent among beginning teachers. This video provides practical information and motivation for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Stuttering: Straight Talk for Teachers
The Stuttering Foundation. Memphis, Tenn. 2010. 18 minutes.
This DVD answers educators’ common questions about stuttering:

• How to respond to a child that stutters in the classroom
• What happens in speech therapy
• How to handle teasing and bullying
• How to deal with oral presentation