The book under consideration is called Reluctant Disciplinarian: Advice on Classroom Management from a Softy who Became (Eventually) a Successful Teacher and is written by Gary Rubenstein. The work reveals a humorous look at the actual world of teaching and is considered as a helpful guide for classroom conduct. The chapters presented for a detailed analysis can be appraised as both entertaining and rather useful since they enlarge on how to improve the mistakes in teaching and how to develop your own way of conducting lessons. In addition, the given extracts give an idea about personal experience of the author in teaching and the way he overcomes the adversities in schooling.
In the chapter, What Does Work the author singles out the core points of successful teaching. Hence, he identifies what approaches are used while conducting the class and what methods failed to conquer the pupils’ attention. To be more exact, Rubenstein gives a list of rules that a successful teacher should do. Hence, one of the most efficient tools that greatly affect the fruitful teaching is mastering the teachers’ look (Rubenstein, 1999, pp. 78). This is an effective means to visually control the pupils’ performance. According to the writer’s advice, the look should be quick and subtle (Ruvberstein, 1999, pp. 79). Further, Rubenstein initially proposes to use the conventional approach of conducting lesson so that a teacher could adjust to the class atmosphere. The following saying “Seek Advice” is rather essential and teaches that there are situations when it is necessary to rely on other opinion rather than yours. Moreover, the rule supports the idea that teamwork and cooperation are of paramount importance for an organized teaching. Finally, the chapter enlarges on the issue of reasonable ignorance (Rubenstein, 1999, pp. 87). This tactics suggests that sometimes it is better to skip the bad situations that happened during the lesson thus giving a slight attention to it in order not to spoil the rest of the class.
The following chapter, Developing a Teaching Persona is a brilliant guide to personality shaping. What is peculiar and striking about this chapter is the author’s unusual approach to forming the teacher’s image. Hence, by breaking the accepted stereotypes, the author managed to grasp the children’s love and respect thus developing a unique style of conducting the lesson. Arising from this, Rubenstein’s strong belief is that there is no an ideal psychological model of a teacher (Rubenstein, 1999, pp. 107). Instead, he rejects the idea of modeling a framed teacher’s behavior so that it is not necessary to be in disguise of a stereotyped educator. The rule reveals that there are no perfect people as well as there are no perfect teachers. The standards that a teacher builds only distract children and make them feel bored and indifferent.
In conclusion, it should be stressed that both chapters are organized in the anecdotal was and the pieces of advice given by the writer were taken from his own experience of being a teacher. Therefore, the book is of great value for both the beginners in teaching and highly qualified professors that also face daily conflicts with children. In addition, the writer involved the stories and experiences of other teachers though some of them contradict Rubenstein’s personal ideas about teaching. Anyway, it is universally acknowledged that bad teaching and bad experience is an experience that learns to eliminate those mistakes in future.
Reference
Rubenstein, G. (1999). Reluctant Disciplinarian: Advice on Classroom Management from a Softy who Became (Eventually) a Successful Teacher. US: Cottonwood Press.