Home » Education & Career » Tips for Teachers » My Face to the Wind, and other Books about Teachers

My Face to the Wind, and other Books about Teachers

© Irene Taylor

During Teacher Appreciation Week, teachers and parents may be looking for some great books about teachers to share with their students. Here are a few to consider.

My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher by Jim Murphy: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0... is an excellent fiction account of what life and the life of a teacher was like in the late 1800's in the wild new west. The story is set in Broken Bow, Nebraska, and tells the tale of Sarah Jane Price, a fourteen year old, who becomes the teacher in the one-room schoolhouse where her father had been hired to teach. The book is written in diary form, and the reader gets to see Sarah's thoughts, from her first very sad recollection so the death of her father, the resident school teacher, through her struggles to fit in after his untimely death and finally, to the decision to teach in his stead and the trials and joys that come along with being a "prairie teacher".

Sarah is not welcomed as the teacher at first, and has to recruit students, set up the school, find materials, and win the hearts of her students. It is a great read - and a great read-aloud, and tells the story of a very courageous young lady and her journey to become a teacher.

Another book which is very similar in theme is The Secret School by Avi: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0... This is also a story of a fourteen year-old girl, Ida Bidson, and her one-room schoolhouse in Elk Valley, Colorado. The story starts with Ida as a student at the school. When her teacher suddenly leaves, Ida's classmates vote that she become the new teacher. But knowing that this would not be approved by the adults, the idea of a secret school took shape. The rest is a wonderful story of Ida's trials and triumphs as a teacher.

For younger readers, two books are great fun and deal with the idea that many children have - that their teacher lives at school! My Teacher's Secret Life by Stephen Krensky: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0... looks at what teachers do after the students go home for the day. And what would you expect? They eat dinner in the cafeteria, do exercises in the gym, hear stories in the library and sleep in their classrooms. That is the belief until one student sees his teacher at the grocery store, the mall, and even roller skating! The conclusion - she must have a secret life that the other teachers don't know about.