What Teaching Means

Date: June 14, 2012

Summary: In this episode of NWP Radio, join the editors of What Teaching Means: Stories from America's Classrooms, as well as several teacher-consultants/authors whose essays are featured in the text. We discuss the book, hear some essays from it, and talk about its audiences and uses in writing project work.

Excerpt from Show

Marni Valerio, co-editor of What Teaching Means: Stories from America's Classrooms, shares what they hoped to accomplish through this book:

We wanted to have a more open, honest conversation about the act of teaching. And it was funny, we didn't give a lot of direction in the call for submissions—we didn't say a whole lot about 'describe what a classroom day is like' or give any parameters—and we got such amazing, authentic voices. And so I think one of the things we really wanted to accomplish was to have some of the ideas being voiced about education coming from classrooms rather than from corporations or people who might very well be concerned, but maybe aren't in classrooms or aren't working with students on a day-by-day basis. So we wanted those educational ideas and what happens in our classrooms to be more widely known.