Out on Good Behavior: Teaching math while looking over your shoulder

Book excerpt: “Tell the administration what they want to hear, then do what is best for your students.” That’s advice Barry Garelick tries to follow in the process of becoming a fully credentialed teacher which entails being monitored by two mentors. As the Mark Twain of education writing, Garelick presents this collection of essays which chronicle his experiences at two schools, teaching math. With essays such as, “Not Making Sense, and a Conversation I Never Had; “Math Talk”, Stalin’s Hemorrhoids and Murder of Crows”, Garelick gives the reader a verité-style glimpse into the daily routines of math teaching and exposes a lot of the nonsense that teachers are advised to follow, and which they feel guilty about when they don’t.