Up Drafts: Case Studies in Teacher Renewal

Blending profiles of highly successful literacy teachers and practical, theoretically sound guidelines, this book argues for schools at all levels to provide opportunities for teachers to refresh themselves professionally and personally. The eight teachers profiled in the book employed a range of approaches for staying alive and creative in the classroom, from cultivating their own and their students' voices to imagining alternative "scenarios"; from engaging in reflective action research to thinking maternally; from writing poetry and criticism to making pottery and raising horses. After an introduction ("Biographies of Passion and Self-Exile" by Roy F. Fox), essays in the book are: (1) "Making Myself Visible: Voice as Renewal" (Lucy Stanovick); (2) "The Woman Who Resurrected Words: Writing as Renewal" (Susan Baruffi); (3) "Collecting Dreams: Imagination as Renewal" (Jill Weisner); (4) "Washing Dishes or Doing Schoolwork? Reflective Action as Renewal" (Janet Alsup); (5) "'Miss White Will Not Be Here Today': Feedback as Renewal" (Marilyn Schultz); (6) "'Logic and Sermons Never Convince': Maternal Thinking as Renewal" (Marilyn Richardson); (7) "Finding Her Way: Searching as Renewal" (Patrick Shaw); (8) "Chaos and Renewal" (Roy F. Fox); and (9) "Toward a New Model for Teacher Renewal" (Roy F. Fox). (Contains 57 references.) (RS)