Rowman & Littlefield Publishers What Counts as a Good Job in Teaching?: Becoming a Teacher as We Race to the Top

Teacher evaluation in the U.S. is in flux as states increase and intensify their attention to it to qualify for Race to the Top Funds, and as accountability for teacher quality becomes more focused. This book describes a successful approach to preservice teacher education that is designed to help prospective teachers develop the habits of mind for teaching for deeper understanding even as their lived experiences as novice teachers conspire to encourage them to study for the test of the next day's evaluation rubric. Review What Counts is an important book for teacher educators. As the field struggles with how to evaluate teachers and teacher candidates, this book focuses on preparing teachers for any evaluation system. It is about preparing teachers to plan and teach for deep understanding, and there is nothing more important than that.--Ellen McIntyre, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at the University of Tennessee, and former dean of the College of Education at University of North Carolina at Charlotte Rising above the current discord and relentless cacophony associated with teacher evaluation nationwide, the authors of this text detail the elementary education teacher preparation program at one Tennessee university. Faculty at this university have orchestrated a program aligned with the state teacher evaluation system highlighting the significance of deep understanding, significant documentation, and insightful articulation. This text features the voices of teacher educators, teacher candidates, and classroom teachers contributing to the harmonious composition supporting the sustainability of professionals throughout their life-long careers.--Nancy P. Gallavan, PhD, University of Central Arkansas, Professor of Teacher Education, Department of Teaching and Learning, 2013-2014 President, Association of Teacher Educations (ATE) If you are interested in the preparation of effective elementary school teachers then this new volume by Gilrane and Reardon should be on your reading list. They offer an interesting and entertaining account of teacher education enhanced by a wide range of reflections by the University of Tennessee teacher education candidates. Practical while scholarly, this book documents the complexity of teacher education as well as the joy creating effective teachers.--Richard A. Allington, professor of education, University of Tennessee About the Author Colleen P. Gilrane is a faculty member in the Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She works with preservice and inservice teachers as well as advanced graduate students in literacy and in elementary education, and serves as Chair of the Institutional Review Board. Her teaching and research interests focus on working with teachers to create communities in which all learners have access to literacy that is rich, powerful, and joyful. Kristin T. Rearden is a clinical associate professor at the University of Tennessee, where she has focused on pre-service teacher preparation and elementary science education for over fifteen years. She received the University of Tennessee Alumni Association’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 2010 and was the Tennessee Science Teacher Association’s Science Educator of the Year for Higher Education in 2012. Hannah Louderback graduated from the University of Tennessee with a BS in Psychology and an MS in Elementary Education. During her graduate studies, Hannah completed her internship in a 2nd grade classroom and did research on the use of technology by students to self-assess their reading expression. After completing her degrees, Hannah was hired to teach 4th grade at a multicultural, Title I school in east Tennessee. This teaching experience enabled her to learn how to teach in a cooperative, one-to-one technology and arts integrated environment. After teaching 4th grade, Hannah was hired by the University of Tennessee at t