Dream and the Reality of Teaching

Keen Babbage, Ed.D. has 26 years of experience as a middle school and high school teacher and school administrator. He is the author of 13 books about teaching or about school administration.

• Chapter 1 AcknowledgmentsChapter 2 IntroductionChapter 3 Chapter 1 — Reasons To Be A Teacher; Reasons Not To Be A TeacherChapter 4 Chapter 2 — The Work of Teaching Requires Heart, Mind, Body, and SoulChapter 5 Chapter 3 — Teaching Is Not What You ExpectChapter 6 Chapter 4 — What Great Teachers Know About The Work of Great TeachingChapter 7 Chapter 5 — What Teachers Cannot Control and Cannot ManageChapter 8 Chapter 6 — What Teachers Can Control and Can ManageChapter 9 Chapter 7 — How Do I know If I Should Be A Teacher?Chapter 10 Chapter 8 — What If?Chapter 11 EpilogueChapter 12 About The Author

Babbage, an experienced educator and author of 13 books about teaching and school administration, steers prospective teachers through a maze of issues concerning the profession they are about to enter. Even a veteran teacher will find the book reassuring, supportive, and encouraging as the hard work of teaching is explored. Hints and helpful tips are discussed in an easy-to-read format so that the reader is clear about the aspects of teaching that are to be expected and those that are not. For example, stories, scenarios, and suggestions to teachers are provided to sort the important issues that an educator can control from those that he or she cannot. The author's expertise as a school administrator and professor shines through for the reader in his account of the reasons why one should become a teacher, stay in the profession, and make it a lifetime career. This book insists individuals be introspective and maintain their choice to teach with passion and heart, but most of all it clearly honors the teaching profession. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduate students and above.