Book Review: Feeding Teacher
If You Don't Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students!
But a better subtitle might be something like "trite soup for your educational soul."
The book opens with a confession that it is neither research-based nor theory-driven in its approach to the topic. The topic is not instruction per se or behavior management of students. The text is is written primarily with school administrators in mind and focuses on self-motivation and the keys to maintaining a positive institutional climate within the school.
I called the book trite. The author seems to use triteness as a strategic tool for promoting memory. I found myself thinking at some point in each chapter: "That's really corny; I'm going to have a hard time forgetting that."
Acronyms form the basis of much of the book's trite humor. Having read the book I can now identify the DUCKS in my building - the people Dependent Upon Criticising & Killing Success. They quack. Up and down the hallway they go: "The principal's plan for remediating basic skills is unworkable (quack, quack). Don't you think it's (quack, quack) unworkable? I think it's (quack, quack) unworkable! How are we going to schedule those sessions and when (quack, quack) are we going to have time to plan? (quack, quack, quack, quack)." Don't let your teacher's lounge become a pond for DUCKS. Open a season on DUCKS and hunt them down. I don't think actually killing and eating them was ever suggested; but Conners does suggest giving out little wooden duck calls that people could blow on during things like faculty senate meeting whenever they thought someon was just quacking. I pictures the fist fights that wouldlikely erupt at my already-tense faculty senate meetings...
What we really want is to turn the DUCKS into EAGLES (Educators Affecting Growth and Learning for Every Student). How do you do that? You become on of the CHEFS (Chief Head Envising Future Success) so you can make sure that everyone is FED(Fueled Every Day) with MEALS (Meaningful Experiences Affecting Longterm Success) that include DESSERTS (Defining Experiences Structured to Support, Encourage, and Reward teachers' Spirits) and nice after dinner MINTS (Masterful Ideas Needed To Survive. Then everyone will be HAPPY (Having a Pleasing Personality Year Round). You get the idea. And that's only about half the acronyms used in the book.
Conners' book runs to about 140 pages divided into eight chapters. It is sprinkled with inspiration quotes and peppered with lists of strategies and suggestions for creating a positive atmosphere at your school. The book also includes a 50-question self inventory to help you decide if you're part of the problem or part of the solution at the moment. It is a book designed to convince you that teaching is the most important profession in the world and, that given that fact, we can't afford to be petty and self-consumed at work.
Thumbs up on this one. I'd give it as a present to teachers I like...
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