About Teacher Jitters
Even teachers get the jitters sometimes!
Mrs. Hartwell lets her class know that she is missing school the next day to take a class for teachers. “And to tell the truth, I’m nervous,” she admits. Her students can relate. Sometimes school can cause the jitters. What if she doesn’t know anyone? Or the work is too hard? And who will she sit with at lunch? The students jump in to remind her of all the jitter-calming strategies she has taught them:
- yoga stretches
- deep breathing
- doodling
- positive affirmations
- sharing feelings with a friend.
The next day, although Mrs. Hartwell misses her students’ smiling faces as she walks into class, she is happy to have the strategies she practiced with her students. And they worked so well that she comes back to school the next day with a new idea for the classroom…and the teachers’ lounge.
Fans of the series will love Teacher Jitters, getting to see everyone’s favorite teacher in a student role and navigating nerves that both students and adults experience.
Reviews:
School Library Journal
When children have that lightbulb moment where they realize that adults have feelings too, their world shrinks and gets a little more comprehensible, and suddenly, empathy is born. There’s also power in adults being honest with their feelings. This title addresses all of that and more, demonstrating how adults and kids can have similar experiences. Mrs. Hartwell tells her students she has to go to a teacher class the next day, and she’s nervous. The kids band together to remind her of the coping mechanisms she has taught them, adding some of their own wisdom into the mix. The rest of the book outlines Mrs. Hartwell’s day in a new class, with fears that seem familiar to anyone who’s stepped in a new school. The expressive faces and outlandish situations depicted in the illustrations drive home that everyone, even grown-ups, are students at heart. VERDICT An amusing disruption of the norm, teaching kids how to handle nerves by cleverly making the student the master. –School Library Journal
Resources
Lesson Plan ideas: Helping Students Cope with Nerves: Discussion and Activities – Julie Danneberg