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Why Didn't I Learn This In College?: Teaching & Learning In The 21st Century
Offers strategies and survival tips for new teachers, covering everything from organizational skills to lesson planning.
330 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 22, 2012
I've read this book before so I didn't learn anything new, but if you have time to read only one book before a new school year or you're short on cash, this is the one to read.
This book takes all the best advice from every other teaching book and presents it in short, easy-to-digest sections. It also includes tons of blackline masters to help you implement the ideas in the book. There are also website and further reading suggestions if you want more detail about a particular topic.
This book has it all- first day suggestions, classroom management suggestions, teaching suggestions, student engagement suggestions, communication suggestions (with parents, students, and other staff members), organizational suggestions, etc.
This book takes all the best advice from every other teaching book and presents it in short, easy-to-digest sections. It also includes tons of blackline masters to help you implement the ideas in the book. There are also website and further reading suggestions if you want more detail about a particular topic.
This book has it all- first day suggestions, classroom management suggestions, teaching suggestions, student engagement suggestions, communication suggestions (with parents, students, and other staff members), organizational suggestions, etc.
July 6, 2020
Rutherford, P. Why Didn’t I Learn This in College? (2nd). Alexandria, VA: Just ASK Publications, 2009. pp. 322. $34.95 (paperback). ISBN: 9780979728013
Reviewed by:
Kelsey Slade
Ferris State University
Steelek4@ferris.edu
Why Didn’t I Learn This in College? by Paula Rutherford is a unique book written for K-12 teachers. The title is not meant to suggest that the information provided in the book is not covered in teacher preparation programs. The intention was to provide teachers with an accessible and user-friendly resource that includes the education covered in college programs, along with information from well-experienced teachers. Paula has written an abundance of books related to the education field and developed training/support programs for new teachers. She also spent many years as a teacher and administrator. I found this book to be entirely different than any other book I’ve read. The author covers many of the same issues and topics other teaching books do, but the organization and presentation is outstanding and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. She uses different techniques such as illustrations, bullet points, large text size, bolding of important words, and shaded text boxes. Each page throughout the book resembles a well-designed fact sheet for each topic.
The book is broken up into ten chapters. Each chapter focuses on a different topic related to teaching. The way the book is organized makes anything easy to look up and find. A table of contents is provided on the first few pages with each topic and page number. The author not only used tremendous organization techniques but also chose extremely beneficial topics for each chapter.
The first chapter is titled Teaching and Learning in the 21st century, which focuses on the main ideas that teachers need to know for being a teacher in today’s world. This brief chapter provides the six categories essential to the study of teaching and learning, as well as the top ten tips for today’s teachers. Chapter two is all about creating a positive learning environment. The author provides recommendations, research proven techniques and printable templates for classroom use. Chapter three is titled framing the learning. The author begins this chapter by listing three additional resources that could be beneficial as well on this particular topic. This chapter provides multiple suggestions on how to frame the learning for students. A few include: provide the agenda/outline, identify student’s naïve understandings and misconceptions, and help students access prior knowledge and make connections. The chapter concludes with a checklist for teachers to evaluate how they are doing and what they can improve on. Chapter four focuses on various ideas on how to make learning active for students. This chapter is full of examples, ideas and templates to use to keep student’s actively learning and participating in the classroom. Chapter five is all about integrating literacy into the classroom. The author focuses on approaches to balance literacy, reading strategies, and techniques/organizers for students to use.
Chapter six focuses on the ideas centered around assessing learning. This chapter provides techniques teachers can use to check if students are grasping information as well as systems students can use to monitor their own progress. Chapter seven focuses entirely on planning instruction. This chapter provides a guide to planning in a standards-based environment. It provides many templates that teachers can use when planning lessons. Chapter eight is all about setting yourself up for success as a teacher. It provides many recommendations and techniques to use to organize your professional life. The chapter includes things such as: paper organization techniques, ways to use technology as an organizational tool, substitute essentials and a list of things to do in the beginning of the school year. Chapter nine is centered around classroom organization. Paper flow organization ideas, interior design, classroom management techniques, time templates and group work strategies are all explained in detail throughout this chapter. The final chapter is brief and focuses on the teacher’s relationship with the parents. This chapter provides information on how to establish positive relationships and productive communication. Guidance is also provided on how to deal with problem situations.
I would recommend this book to any future teachers, as well as any current or veteran teacher. New teachers can learn an abundance of new information from this text, and veteran teachers can be reminded of strategies along with new ideas for the ever-changing demographics of their students. I am a worrier and over analyze every detail. I’ve had so many fears in my head of my first year teaching and not knowing how to handle certain situations due to inexperience. This book covered so many of those situations and made me feel much more confident with various strategies and techniques to tackle them. Other books I’ve read have mentioned some of these situations but none of them went into detail about techniques and proven strategies like this book provided. The author had a goal to create a user friendly and accessible resource for teachers covering the most important topics in teaching, and she most certainly achieved that. I look forward to implementing all that I learned in this book into my classroom and plan on keeping this book in my future classroom to reference when needed.
Reviewed by:
Kelsey Slade
Ferris State University
Steelek4@ferris.edu
Why Didn’t I Learn This in College? by Paula Rutherford is a unique book written for K-12 teachers. The title is not meant to suggest that the information provided in the book is not covered in teacher preparation programs. The intention was to provide teachers with an accessible and user-friendly resource that includes the education covered in college programs, along with information from well-experienced teachers. Paula has written an abundance of books related to the education field and developed training/support programs for new teachers. She also spent many years as a teacher and administrator. I found this book to be entirely different than any other book I’ve read. The author covers many of the same issues and topics other teaching books do, but the organization and presentation is outstanding and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. She uses different techniques such as illustrations, bullet points, large text size, bolding of important words, and shaded text boxes. Each page throughout the book resembles a well-designed fact sheet for each topic.
The book is broken up into ten chapters. Each chapter focuses on a different topic related to teaching. The way the book is organized makes anything easy to look up and find. A table of contents is provided on the first few pages with each topic and page number. The author not only used tremendous organization techniques but also chose extremely beneficial topics for each chapter.
The first chapter is titled Teaching and Learning in the 21st century, which focuses on the main ideas that teachers need to know for being a teacher in today’s world. This brief chapter provides the six categories essential to the study of teaching and learning, as well as the top ten tips for today’s teachers. Chapter two is all about creating a positive learning environment. The author provides recommendations, research proven techniques and printable templates for classroom use. Chapter three is titled framing the learning. The author begins this chapter by listing three additional resources that could be beneficial as well on this particular topic. This chapter provides multiple suggestions on how to frame the learning for students. A few include: provide the agenda/outline, identify student’s naïve understandings and misconceptions, and help students access prior knowledge and make connections. The chapter concludes with a checklist for teachers to evaluate how they are doing and what they can improve on. Chapter four focuses on various ideas on how to make learning active for students. This chapter is full of examples, ideas and templates to use to keep student’s actively learning and participating in the classroom. Chapter five is all about integrating literacy into the classroom. The author focuses on approaches to balance literacy, reading strategies, and techniques/organizers for students to use.
Chapter six focuses on the ideas centered around assessing learning. This chapter provides techniques teachers can use to check if students are grasping information as well as systems students can use to monitor their own progress. Chapter seven focuses entirely on planning instruction. This chapter provides a guide to planning in a standards-based environment. It provides many templates that teachers can use when planning lessons. Chapter eight is all about setting yourself up for success as a teacher. It provides many recommendations and techniques to use to organize your professional life. The chapter includes things such as: paper organization techniques, ways to use technology as an organizational tool, substitute essentials and a list of things to do in the beginning of the school year. Chapter nine is centered around classroom organization. Paper flow organization ideas, interior design, classroom management techniques, time templates and group work strategies are all explained in detail throughout this chapter. The final chapter is brief and focuses on the teacher’s relationship with the parents. This chapter provides information on how to establish positive relationships and productive communication. Guidance is also provided on how to deal with problem situations.
I would recommend this book to any future teachers, as well as any current or veteran teacher. New teachers can learn an abundance of new information from this text, and veteran teachers can be reminded of strategies along with new ideas for the ever-changing demographics of their students. I am a worrier and over analyze every detail. I’ve had so many fears in my head of my first year teaching and not knowing how to handle certain situations due to inexperience. This book covered so many of those situations and made me feel much more confident with various strategies and techniques to tackle them. Other books I’ve read have mentioned some of these situations but none of them went into detail about techniques and proven strategies like this book provided. The author had a goal to create a user friendly and accessible resource for teachers covering the most important topics in teaching, and she most certainly achieved that. I look forward to implementing all that I learned in this book into my classroom and plan on keeping this book in my future classroom to reference when needed.
January 21, 2021
I don't know if this is a solid book in the sense of enjoying a straight read through, but it's hard to argue that it isn't a good resource. I think it's filled with good practices and reminders for teachers. The information is what you want to hear, but of course some of it is like "duh, collaboration"
It's a good one to hang onto and revisit.
It's a good one to hang onto and revisit.
July 13, 2023
There were gems in here but the version I read felt dated too.
November 22, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⚡️
3.5 stars
this is definitely dated (hence the half star) but it gave lots of great little practices for class that i'll definitely use in the future
3.5 stars
this is definitely dated (hence the half star) but it gave lots of great little practices for class that i'll definitely use in the future
August 17, 2008
As I suspected, much of what is in this book I DID ACTUALLY LEARN IN COLLEGE. I'm just too fresh out, I suppose. However, having "learned" it doesn't mean I don't need review. I did appreciate the great ideas for emergency sub planning and the lists of activities organized according for what sort of "activity" you want; kinestheic, group work, pairs, metacognition, etc.
September 2, 2010
Flat out good stuff!
July 12, 2013
Good book, hopefully you did learn this in college or you had poor teachers.
July 1, 2011
Lots of good ideas for new teachers in here.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews