Real Teachers, Real Challenges, Real Solutions: 25 Ways to Handle Classroom Challenges Effectively
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2004Abstract:
Sherry L. Annee, an Indiana teacher, says, "The book is divided into three major categories of challenges: dealing with students, dealing with yourself, and dealing with others." Specific challenges, such as planning effectively or resisting the urge to gossip, are examined in four-page chapters.
Breaux, A.L. & Breaux, E. (2004). Real teachers, real challenges, real solutions: 25 ways to handle classroom challenges effectively. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education
Full Text:
Real Teachers, Real Challenges, Real Solutions: 25 Ways to Handle Classroom Challenges Effectively
By Annette L. Breaux and Elizabeth Breaux
2004 (120pp/paperback)
Eye on Education
ISBN: 1-930556-64-0
$24.95
Reviewed by Sherry L. Annee
Science Department Chairperson
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
Indianapolis, IN
If you are looking for a book that offers quick solutions to common challenges faced by educators, then purchase a copy of Real Teachers, Real Challenges, Real Solutions by Annette Breaux and Elizabeth Breaux.
The book is divided into three major categories of challenges: dealing with students, dealing with yourself, and dealing with others. Examples of student challenges include managing student talking, getting students to participate, and dealing with disrespectful students. Personal challeges might include planning effectively, resisting the urge to gossip, or controlling your own actions and reactions in the classroom and other professional settings. The challenges addressed in “dealing with others” include things like working with parents, administrators, or co-workers.
Each challenge is discussed in a separate four-page chapter, which allows the reader to either read the book cover-to-cover or quickly turn to a challenge of immediate interest. Like good teaching, the authors begin each chapter with a compelling fact or original poem to capture the attention of the reader. This is followed by a brief description of the challenge in the form of a classroom scenario, which often contrasts the actions and reactions of two stereotypical teachers, one of whom is effective while the other is not. Each challenge is then analyzed in terms of “What’s Effective?” and “What’s Ineffective?” — thereby providing the reader with explicit advice about how to best handle the given challenge. Finally, each chapter ends with a “bottom line” as a means of reviewing the best ways to manage the challenge.
Although the authors rarely cite research other than from their previous works, the solutions are believable and able to be implemented with little difficulty. For example, the authors remind the reader “that treating students fairly does not always mean treating all students the same,” and that an “I don’t care” attitude “usually means, ‘I don’t understand, but I am not willing to admit that I don’t understand.’” Breaux and Breaux also highlight the importance of a good sub plan — not just a well-designed lesson but also the necessity of preparing students for a substitute in the classroom by assigning them different roles and tasks.
Real Teachers, Real Challenges, Real Solutions is a worthwhile addition to a novice or veteran teacher’s professional library. The authors utilize an engaging tone while motivating and empowering teachers to respond to common classroom challenges with compassion, courage, and a sense of humor. This book would prove especially helpful as a means of sparking conversation and brainstorming between a mentor and mentee.
