Recommended books for new and trainee teachers

How to teach

Phil Beadle

Areas covered: management of students; knowledge and understanding; methods and organisation; lesson planning and assessment

Phil Beadle knows what he’s talking about. He’s an English teacher who has won the secondary teacher of the year gong at the National Teaching Awards and most importantly he’s learned what works in the classroom the hard way, at the chalkface.

You won’t find any dry educational theories in this book, nor any of the edu-jargon so beloved of the DfE. Instead this is a practical guide to how to manage learning and behaviour in today’s classrooms. There’s no rose-tinted idealistic view of pupils desperate to learn, it’s realistic and it tackles the behaviour issues you will come across (including dealing with chewing gum!).

As TES columnist and experienced headteacher Geoff Barton describes it, How to teach is “the book that tells you everything traditional teacher training courses don’t”. This book really is invaluable for an NQT about to take control of their own classroom for the first time and for trainees about to embark on teaching practice.

Here are a few of our favourite bits from Phil’s book...

Not Quite a Teacher: target practice for beginning teachers

Tom Bennett

Tom Bennett, the author of this book, is a well-known face in the TES offices; he’s the behaviour expert on our behaviour forum and he also writes a regular behaviour hints and tips column for the TES website. Somehow he also finds the time to fit in his role as a department head at an inner-city secondary school in London.

Not Quite a Teacher is a guide for both NQTs and trainee teachers. The book takes an interesting approach mixing Tom’s advice with his own teacher training experiences. Tom didn’t have an easy time through his training and his tales of woe should offer reassurance to any new teacher who feels like they’re going under.

The book starts off with guidance on routes into teaching, runs through teaching placements and then onto getting your first job and the induction process. As you go through the various stages Tom offers reassurance that things really do get easier.

Here are a few of our favourite bits from Tom’s book...

The Ultimate Teaching manual: a route to success

Gererd Dixie

Educational consultant and advanced skills teacher in initial teacher training Gererd Dixie is a regular visitor to TES towers. Gererd has hosted several popular online advice clinics for us, including one on setting up your first classroom.

This book is the 'Highway Code of teaching' and as a result is easy to dip in and out of to get advice.

The book is particularly strong on lesson planning with detailed guidance on how to structure your lessons effectively. Gererd also goes into detail on the different types of learning styles and how to incorporate them into your lessons.

Here are a few of our favourite bits from Gererd’s book…

A guerilla guide to teaching: the definitive resource for new teachers

Sue Cowley

Areas covered: Becoming a teacher; being a teacher; anatomy of a school; you and your career; life at the chalkface; ICT

Sue Cowley was a regular on Teachers TV where she specialised in programmes about classroom management, check them out on TES Resources

So you’d expect the classroom practice sections of this book to be strong, and they are with handy guides to setting up your first classroom, lesson planning and behaviour management.

For trainee teachers there’s some useful advice on preparing for the scariest bit of the training process – teaching practice. The sample lesson planning documents will also come in very handy.

Here are a few of our favourite bits from Sue’s book…

PGCE Survival Guide

Tim Handley

Find out what being a trainee teacher is really like straight from the horse's mouth. This book is compiled from content contributed by recent PGCE graduates and more experienced teachers. The book takes you step by step through the process from your first day at university through to, hopefully, finding a job.

The book is edited by one of our bloggers Tim Handley, a recent PGCE graduate from the University of East Anglia, and is full of practical advice. Highly recommended.

Here are a few of our favourite bits from the PGCE Survival Guide...

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