"Dear Abby" for Substitute Teachers joins Teachers.Net Gazette

July 7, 2008 - PRLog -- Teachers.Net http://teachers.net announces a new feature in its Teachers.Net Gazette webzine: a Dear Abby-type advice column for substitute teachers, with the author of a new book about substitute teaching tackling questions submitted by readers.  "Dear Barbara - Advice for Substitute Teachers" will appear in the Teachers.Net Gazette each month, helping substitute teachers with the challenges and issues unique to their temporary teaching assignments.

"Barbara" is Barbara Pressman, author of Substitute Teaching from A to Z (McGraw-Hill, 2008) a comprehensive guide for those who take the helm when a permanent member of a teaching staff must be absent from the classroom.

Pressman is soliciting questions and plans to use the monthly column to share techniques for effective classroom management, information about how to introduce oneself to the students in a way that establishes authority and parameters; what to carry in a substitute's 'bag of tricks'; techniques for survival in the classroom; and how to solve other problems submitted by substitute teachers.

In her premier column Pressman responds to a question asking how to deal with an eighth grade bully who cries, "Not fair!" when her inappropriate behavior is addressed, and the dilemma a substitute faced when, just before the beginning of a first grade math lesson, several children asked to be allowed to visit the school nurse.  Read the column at http://teachers.net/gazette/JUL08/pressman/

"I don’t want to deny a sick child a visit for medical help, yet I am almost positive some faking was going on! What should I do?" queried the worried teacher. Pressman responds to each with the knowledge and experience of the teaching veteran she is.

An adjunct professor at the College of Education, Florida Atlantic University, Barbara Pressman has been a classroom teacher for more than 20 years, and a supervisor for student teachers for 10 years. She currently mentors Substitute Teachers as well.

To submit questions about substitute teaching, email blpressman@yahoo.com.

The Teachers.Net Gazette debuted in March 2000 and remains the pre-eminent online source of articles and information written by and for educators. The current issue and all Gazette back issues are available at http://teachers.net/gazette/.

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