I had the sweet opportunity to be interviewed by Pam Allyn, founder of LitWorld and author of several amazing books about how to raise a reader and promote literacy in children. She asked very thoughtful questions about Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus and I was glad to have the opportunity to respond. Check it out! It’s featured on the Education page of the Huffington Post.
“If teachers, parents, school boards, administrators, community members, and lawmakers can listen to each other and work on this problem together, we can lessen the tide of teacher attrition, ultimately improving the learning and working environment in schools for everyone. (p. 156)”
Those are the final words of this new book by Katy Farber. Depending on what statistics you use, we lose up to 30% of new teachers in the first three years, up to 50% in the first five. Some clearly should not have been teachers in the first place. But others bring the passion, knowledge and, at least potentially, the skill we need for all of our students. Some of those we lose early in their career are already great teachers, others are potentially so. The reasons that cost us these teachers also cost us those later in their careers, who all recognize are great.
This book can help us begin to address the problem.
Read the rest Kenneth Bernstein’s review on the Daily Kos here.
i want to to work
T
he book released today! Over at Fake Plastic Fish’s facebook page, Beth Terry linked to the book and her fans shared some more insight about the problem of teacher attrition. It’s a good discussion, and it is high time we started talking about teacher sustainability.
I’m headed out to the NSDC Teacher Leader Conference in Seattle soon, and am excited to meet the book’s editor and give my workshop on teacher attrition. Corwin Press will also have a booth where I can finally see the book, meet people, and discuss teacher attrition with people who can do something about it. Hoorah!
Ringbinder theme by 
Themocracy
http://changetheworldwithservicelearning.com