Recommended Resources for New Teachers and Education Students

New teachers and education students, if they are serious, are always on the lookout for good print resources. Below are some that are highly regarded and that can extremely helpful. The first years of teaching can be scary, but you can read some of these materials and reduce your anxiety. You'll see many examples of how others confronted the same problems you are having or will have, and solved them.

The following list of books, all available from amazon.com, is by definition incomplete. Purchasing any good book is a good way to add to your professional library. This goes for education students as well as experienced teachers and administrators. When you read the reviews, you will see that not all agree about the merits of a particular book. That is how it should be! Do take a look at the books on this list. Some are "classics" and some are quite new; all have value.

Hot Fudge Monday: Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech to Students Who Have a Hard Time Swallowing Anything to Do With Grammar Randy Larsen
Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year Esme Raji Codell
Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom  Jim Fay (Preface), David Funk
Developing Talent in Young People Benjamin Bloom, Ed.
A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator's Guide to the Human Brain Robert Sylwester 
The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom  James W. Stigler, James Hiebert
Education on the Edge of Possibility  Renate Nummela Caine, Geoffrey Caine 
Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain  Renate Nummela Caine, Geoffrey Caine 
An Incomplete Education Judy Jones
Teaching With the Brain in Mind Eric Jensen 
The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of American Public Schools Martin L. Gross
Standards for Our Schools: How to Set Them, Measure Them, and Reach Them  Marc S. Tucker, Judy B. Codding
On the Outside Looking in: Stories from an Inner City High School Cristina Rathbone
The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless David Stevenson, Barbara L. Schneider
Defining the Humanities: How Rediscovering a Tradition Can Improve Our Schools:  With a Curriculum for Today's Students Robert E. Education's Great Amnesia Proctor
150 Ways to Increase Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom James R. Raffini
Designs for Self-Instruction: Principles, Processes, and Issues in Developing Self-Directed Learning Johanna L. Keirns 
Motivation in Education: Theory, Research and Applications Paul R. Pintrich
Teaching for Thinking Robert J. Sternberg
The Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand Howard Gardner
The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding Kieran Eagan
In the Classroom: An Introduction to Education Aretha J.S. Reed, Verna Bergemann, Mary Olson
101 Ways to Put Pizazz into Your Teaching Bonnie Williamson, Sandy Thornton
Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School  Theodore R. Sizer 
Saber Tooth Curriculum: Including Other Lectures in the History of Paleolithic Education J. Abner Peddiwell, Harold H. Benjamin 
Experience and Education John Dewey