Teaching on Solid Ground

Dominic Belmonte taught at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, for twenty years as an English teacher and chairman of the English Department. He is now President and CEO of the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching. A member and past chairman of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators, in 1989 he co-created the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois program, a pre-induction teacher preparation experience that is now the Golden Apple Foundation’s largest program, named by Harvard University as one of 15 programs out of 1,200 nationwide as a finalist for its Innovations in American Government award. In 1996 Belmonte also co-created the GATE (Golden Apple Teacher Education) program, an alternative pathway to teacher certification for mid-career adults wishing a career in teaching secondary math or science or teaching elementary school children.

• Foreword by Martin J. and Patricia KoldykeAcknowledgmentsAbout the Author1: Becoming and Celebrating Yourself as a Grounded Teacher: Five Requisite PreceptsPrecept 1: Recognition and Belief That the Quality of Your Work is a Matter of Life and Death to Your StudentsPrecept 2: Immunity From the Toxic Cynicism of Your ColleaguesPrecept 3: Recognition That Your Words MatterPrecept 4: Recognition That You Must Have a Reason to Be in Front of Your StudentsPrecept 5: Give Them Hope, Rather Than Love2: Fifteen Indicators of a Grounded Teacher: Classroom Nuances and Other CuesFirst Indicator: Avoiding Classroom Wheel SpinningSecond Indicator: Being Comfortable With Time and With QuestionsThird Indicator: Attending the Lecture’s FuneralFourth Indicator: Mastering the Art of Asking QuestionsFifth Indicator: Planning Student Group Work CarefullySixth Indicator: Being a Non-Contributor to Classroom DisarraySeventh Indicator: Knowing Speed Kills Everywhere, Even in the ClassroomEighth Indicator: Avoiding the Rudderless ClassNinth Indicator: Keeping an Ear to the Tone of a ClassroomTenth Indicator: Beware of Your Own Undertone!Eleventh Indicator: Avoiding Topic or Grade as ThreatTwelfth Indicator: Using Compliments AdroitlyThirteenth Indicator: Prodding Gently (but Prodding Nonetheless!)Fourteenth Indicator: Holding Students Responsible for Their Own LearningFifteenth Indicator: Holding Students Responsible for Their Own Behavior: “We Don’t Baby Our Babies Anymore”3: Model Techniques of Exceptionally Grounded TeachersThe Socratic Seminar Method for High School English Classes: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Tom Anstett, Lincoln-Way East High School, Frankfort, ILGetting Students Hooked Through the Power of Inquiry Science: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Jim Effinger, Naperville North High School, Naperville, ILPresenting Poetry To the Recalcitrant and Suspicious High School Student: The "Search for the Central Experience" MethodThe Magic Math Box and Elementary Math Approach: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Sr. Raeleen Sweeney, PBVM, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, ILLiteracy Travels: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Jim Sorensen, Chippewa Middle School, Des Plaines, ILLessons in Loving Science and Children: Exceptionally Grounded Teacher Carolyn "Mama C" Cyriaque, Golden Apple Foundation, Chicago, IL4: Further Nuances and Challenges for the Grounded TeacherWhen Tragedy Affects the ClassroomTeacher Burnout: What It Is, Why It Is, Why You Must Combat It, or Leave Teaching NowState and Federal Testing and the Fight for a Teacher′s SoulBridging the Achievement Gap With Your Minority Students: A Conversation With Gloria Harper and a Summary of the National Study Group for the Affirmative Development of Academic AbilityEpilogue: A Teacher′s Poem, the Subjects of Fear and ResilienceReferencesIndex

"Provides motivation and a sense of commitment even to a veteran teacher (me!)...a book I will refer to often, as well as use for the teachers I mentor."