About Becoming a Teacher

Education activist William Ayers invites new and prospective teachers to consider the deepest dimensions of a life in teaching. Should I become a teacher? How can I get to know my students? What commitments come with me into the classroom? How do I develop my unique teaching signature? In his new book, about Becoming A Teacher, Ayers muses on 10 such questions (and a little more) to shape and structure an indispensable guide that features hands-on advice and concrete examples of classroom practice, including curriculum-making, building relationships with students and parents, fostering an effective learning environment, and teaching toward freedom. This brilliant and concise text offers a conception of teaching as both practical art and essentially ethical practice.

Book Features:

• Specific strategies for becoming a successful classroom teacher.
• Foregrounds the ethical and intellectual qualities of excellent teaching.
• Recognizes the complexity of teaching even as it provides a map to achieve excellence.
• Accessible without oversimplifying the content and reducing teaching to something anemic and superficial.


Author: William Ayers
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Published: 04/05/2019
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.25lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780807761496

About the Author


William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), education activist, and author of Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (with Rick Ayers), To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, Third Edition, and To Teach: The Journey, in Comics (with Ryan Alexander-Tanner).