See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers

Many new teachers have been waiting for someone to break the “stay positive!” code and talk about the parts of the job that make teachers question their career choices. While other books cover the eyes of readers to keep from scaring them, this one asks teachers to be brutally honest about how tough teaching truly is and whether the rewards are still worth it. The answer is yes.

From the Author -

I have never understood why so many books for the new teacher show apples and paper airplanes on their covers. In six years of teaching, no one has ever given me an apple. Any snacks students have offered me have come from vending machines, and teachers are not allowed to accept unwrapped food anyway. I have never seen a paper airplane, either. This generation of students knows that crumpled-up-paper balls are faster to make and easier to aim. Some unlucky teachers have had books thrown at them. In at least one case, a teacher was hit in the back with chunks of plaster from her crumbling classroom wall.

Even without serious discipline problems, new teachers often feel like failures. Not only do they take on all the issues plaguing the school system, they cause many of their own problems because of their inexperience. As a beginner, I sat through countless workshops listening to the heartwarming success stories of others. Then, carrying home piles of un-graded papers the night before report card day, all I could think was, “How did these poor students get stuck with a teacher like me?”

I also remember some generous, experienced coworkers who shared their own first-year horror stories. One described a parent who threatened to “f___ (her) up” during class time. Another talked about a hard-working student who was tormented every time he turned in an assignment, and a third confided that she was so overwhelmed she repeatedly turned in the same lesson plan. These stories were not inspirational, but during my first year they kept me sane. These were people who had become top-notch professionals. If their start had been so rocky, maybe there was hope for me.

“You know how you’ve always thought that if you were a teacher, you’d go insane? Well, this very funny book proves that you definitely would. But in a good way.”

—Dave Barry

Teaching, a profession with one of the highest attrition rates in the nation, is often stressful and relentlessly demanding—but it doesn’t have to be. In See Me After Class, veteran teacher Roxanna Elden inspires with no-nonsense advice, hang-in-there encouragement, and a healthy dose of humor, while directly addressing the challenges teachers face. Elden shares anecdotes and horror stories from more than 100 long-time educators from across the country that will have teachers laughing and crying.

Teachers at all stages of their career will be grateful for Elden’s abundant tips on dealing with impossible workloads, demanding parents, and many other frustrations. Complete with FAQs, classroom shopping lists, organization and time management tips and traps, and practical advice on what to do when everything seems to be going wrong, See Me After Class is the one book no teacher should be without.