John Wiley Ten-Minute Inservice: 40 Quick Training Sessions That Build Teacher Effectiveness 1st Edition

Although this book was written for administrators, I too found it to be thought provoking. I am a teacher, and I strive to reflect on my craft to ensure that I am performing at my best. I liked that the strategies in this book were concise, but deep, and they really do make a difference. These ideas would take the drudgery out of attending long, boring, in-service meetings that accomplish nothing but a sense of resentment from teachers - because they feel like they are wasting their time. I am purchasing another copy for my own Principal. (My personal favorite - the smile, and how the Principal is supposed to tell teachers that he will be stopping by their classrooms just to observe them smiling while they teach. I love how the little things can make such a huge difference. I really like how teachers are told what the exact expectations are, and then they are allowed to reflect on their personal outcomes.)

This book is gold! It is a must read for anyone who works with educators. It offers simple but powerful and short but life-long techniques for teachers on all parts of the expert teacher continuum to use. The techniques offered here will be able to help practitioners manage their classes and maximize contact time as well as the education/school experience of their students. I really appreciate that it does not simply offer "theory" but that it is more on the "practical" side of a teacher's reality. Not only does it take 10 minutes to share the techniques offered, but it actually takes about 10 minutes to read each.I recommended it to both a Principal and a Teacher Educator and after glancing through it both expressed how valuable it seems and their desire to have their own copies.Highly recommended text from two expert authors.

This book gives simple, practical tips for classroom management. It is a quick read, which is a bonus for time-strapped educators. Even though I have taught for many years, I was able to find some fresh ideas to try in my classroom. The know-it-all tone can be somewhat annoying at times, but overall, the book is worth the price, and I will pass it on to colleagues.

If you are a building principal, get this book! I used this book all of last year. I gave each of my staff members (110) a journal to keep notes in. After some general recognition at my faculty meeting I went directly into a ten-minute inservice. The staff was very receptive and took good notes. We did a follow up with each of the departments/teams during the smaller admin team meetings. At the end of the school year the staff had several quality notes within the journal. Additionally, I took some of the lessons within the book and used them with my new teacher meetings. Within the new teacher meetings we were able to ding deeper into the meaning and how to work through some of the issues with teaching and education.

I recently purchased this book and after reading the first section I wondered where has this book been all of my career? The author brings a laser focus approach to discussing the most relevant and necessary topics for staff development. The suggested approach to the successful Ten Minute Inservice is direct and at the same time supportive of the staff members who are our audience. The book is practical in its approach, fully acknowledging that there is never enough time in the day. It reminds us, that every minute counts and that a well organized, ten minute meeting can deliver as powerful a message as a day-long in-service on the same topic.

If you are an administrator looking for those quick, "goto" ideas that improve school climate, this is extremely useful. If you are a teacher whose administrator is not insightful enough to purchase this book, gift them one. Finally, if you are a struggling or new teacher, who wants to change your classroom for the better, run, don't walk to your keyboard and get this sucker shipped out. Whitaker is spot-on. Sometimes, what seems like common sense, just ain't so common...

This book is good for people who have never taught and never had PD. The topics are good, but they are very generic. Many of them don’t address the pertinent issues faced in schools.

Nice and concise. I've used two of the suggestions so far and it was really fantastic. The one using a hand signal to get kids attention worked great with teachers and then I was able to show teachers how the "smile" worked in an assembly with the kids. That really backed up the principle for the teachers.