Seven Simple Secrets: What the Best Teachers Know and Do!
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2006Abstract:
Laurie Wasserman, an NBCT and special education teacher in Massachusetts, calls Breaux and Whitaker’s book a good inspiration for both novice and veteran teachers. Its seven topics, Planning, Classroom Management, Instructional Practices, Attitude, Effective Discipline, Professionalism and Motivation and Inspiration, include vignettes about teachers’ experiences and is “practical, easy to relate to, and very humorous,” says Wasserman.
Citation: Breaux, A. & Whitaker, T. (2006). Seven simple secrets: What the best teachers know and do. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Full Text:
Annette Breaux and Todd Whitaker
2006 (136 pp./paperback)
Eye on Education
ISBN: 1-59667-021-5
$29.95
Reviewed by Laurie Wasserman, NBCT
Grade 6 Learning Disabilities
Andrews Middle School
Medford, Massachusetts
Seven Simple Secrets is quite simply a splendid, motivating book both for new educators and
those veterans like me who enjoy an easy-to-read book that can help us
become recharged and inspired. The book is co-written by two of Eye on
Education’s most popular authors -- Annette Breaux, a former classroom
teacher and motivational speaker; and Todd Whitaker, a former teacher
and principal and associate professor at Indiana State University.
Together, Breaux and Whitaker have written a concise, meaty book
summarizing seven “secrets” that will help educators “change your life
both in and out of the classroom.”
The book is divided into seven chapters which encompass the seven secrets
we need to follow for success: Planning, Classroom Management,
Instructional Practices, Attitude, Professionalism, Effective
Discipline, and Motivation and Inspiration. Each chapter begins with a
bit of witty and clever poetry that pertains to the particular secret:
“A Student Always”
Doctors go to school
And then they get a degree
But we expect them to keep learning
So as teachers, why don’t we?
How could we ever stop learning
Once we have a degree?
There’s still so much to learn and do
To uncover and to see
So if I truly am the teacher
That I claim to be
Then I’m a student always
To teach, I have to be!
The chapters are divided into several parts and present vignettes about
different teachers and their varied approaches to their students,
lessons, assessments -- and most importantly, about their attitudes,
both in the classroom and with one another.
The book is practical, easy to relate to, and very humorous. I found myself
nodding my head at stories that sounded awfully familiar, as the
authors asked us to reflect on the really good and really bad teachers
we had as students. Each secret includes wonderful, easy-to-follow
examples of how to reach all kids, diffuse potentially serious
discipline problems, deal with negative colleagues (both in and out of
the faculty lounge), and other basic advice, like the best way to
praise kids, align tests with our teaching, or work with parents.
I enjoyed reading about the importance of modeling and practicing skills,
as well as the very crucial, but sometimes overlooked, relating of
skills to our students’ lives. The authors remind us to always be clear
in our planning, to have an objective, and to never tell our students
what they’ve learned, but rather have them tell and show us.
The advice given in this book is perfect for college students who want to
be teachers, novice teachers, as well as seasoned veterans. It
encompasses a wide audience. Seven Simple Secrets is a
perfect midwinter book that can re-energize folks who may have lost the
spark they had in September, and it is the type of book that can be
read in parts as needed -- or over a week-end.
