Review
Finally, a book about teaching that tells it how it is. Michael Gose is a teacher who has made mistakes―and magic―like all of you. There's the time he attempts to teach The Owl and the Pussy Cat to a classroom of teenage boys. (A mistake.) And the time he saves a would-be-dropout by showing up at his house every morning at 5:30. (The magic.) He knows what it's like to wait desperately for a bathroom break. He knows what it's like to wait desperately for a paycheck. ― NEA Today
And so it Gose. Teaching is a profession like no other: filled with great joys and challenges, successes and pressures. The impact of a teacher is profound. Michael Gose guides his readers through numerous experiences and introduces us to countless characters―students, parents, colleagues―that have influenced his definition of teaching. Gose passionately recounts his journey for us, and he offers valuable insights from lessons learned. Told with equal amounts of humility and pride... -- Kris Janati, principal, Sacajawea Elementary, Vancouver School District, Wash.
Dr. Gose is insightful and funny. Regardless of your experience as a teacher, his teaching experiences truly reflect the nature of teaching. No class can prepare you for the successes and failures you will experience as a teacher. Yet this book gives great perspective on many factors involved in education. -- Hannah Punzalan Housley, kindergarten teacher, Yountville Elementary School, Calif.
What it Means to be a Teacher captures the essence of teaching as both an art and a science requiring not only the lifelong development of one's own heart and mind, but the commitment to nurturing the hearts and minds of one's students. By sharing the best and worst, exhilaration and frustration, rewards and embarrassments, Michael Gose reveals the dynamic, personalized nature of what it means to be a teacher. Many authors tell only their own stories from their own perspectives. In contrast, Gose invites his readers to recall and reflect upon their personal adventures as student and teacher, mentee and mentor. Gose―ever the teacher―encourages them to create their individual definitions of what it means to be a teacher. Aspiring teachers, student teachers, current and former classroom educators―really anyone who seeks insight into the world of those called 'teacher'―should have the opportunity to experience What it Means to be a Teacher. -- Lisa Kodama, learning and education policy director, Washington Education Association, center for education quality director, Washington Education Association
What you have done is to tell stories, largely, that make vivid the kind of experiences that teachers have in the classroom and elsewhere...American education desperately needs people who can provide a broader, more human picture of what education is about than our preoccupation with standards and other mechanistic procedures for assessing our work...You really have prepared a rich resource for prospective teachers and for experienced teachers, as well. -- Elliot Eisner, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University School of Education
In this excellent book...Michael Gose uses his experiences as a teacher to educate all of us...He clearly and cleverly conveys to the reader what every good teacher knows: that a meaningful learning experience for the student(s) is also a meaningful learning experience for the teacher...If you are at all interested in the reality of teaching; if you want to learn about a teacher devoted to education and young people while at the same time coping with the education bureaucracy, this is a book for you. -- from the foreword by Don Cameron, former executive director, The National Education Association (NEA)
This book keeps it real. Gose sees teaching not only as a profession, but as a heuristic journey full of life's joys and pains, and he keeps you guessing about what you would have done in the author's shoes.... This book is about getting to know a profession which is a lot more complicated than most people realize. Gose's stories always seem to startle, puzzle and awe and give you 'membership' into a mysterious profession full of the real-life and most important lessons on life.... Gose's stories offer the richest details so that you can make them your own and imagine that you had experienced them first-hand. You feel that you gain years of teaching experience as you live vicariously though the eyes of a down-to-earth, charismatic teacher. His stories from the classroom teach you not only about becoming a great teacher but also about taking small steps to become an even better person. -- Charles C. Park, assistant principal, Hilton D. Bell Intermediate School, Calif.
About the Author
Michael Gose, Ph.D. has been a fourth-grade teacher, tenth-grade English teacher, director of an experimental school, vice principal, principal, professor, director of secondary education, social science teacher, and teacher education division chair. He is currently professor in the Humanities/Teacher Education Department at Pepperdine University's Seaver College, Malibu, California.
