If you are new to the teaching field—or if you work alongside someone who is—then this book was written for you. In it are the reflections of award-winning first-year teachers who talk candidly about their successes and setbacks, with a particular emphasis on the relationships they formed with their colleagues, university professors, and their students' parents.

If you wanted to know what the first year of teaching school is like, you'd ask teachers who just completed their first year on the job. This book attempts to capture the fascinating and inspiring answers of exemplary first-year teachers to some key questions: What was it like the first year? What were your toughest challenges, your greatest rewards? Did you get the right preparation? Do you have any insights you could offer new teachers?