Testing Your Mettle

In this straightforward guide to what really happens in classrooms and hallways, veteran teacher and administrator Harry J. Alexandrowicz makes “reality training” available to both novice and experienced teachers.

Alexandrowicz draws from his 28 years’ experience in schools to help prepare teachers to handle the inevitable legal, philosophical, and common-sense challenges they face every day. These challenges are presented as brief vignettes followed by four possible solutions with space for the educators to write their proposed actions, followed by sections on what actually happened, and why.

The kinds of scenarios you will learn about include:

A parent threatens you

You witness students hazing another student

You discover a gun in a student’s locker

The school’s best athlete is failing your class

You see inappropriate student behavior outside the classroom.

This accessible “insider’s” view of the classroom will be an essential resource for teachers, administrators, and parents who want to gain valuable insights into how to handle what really happens in schools today.

Harry J. Alexandrowicz is currently superintendent of schools in Woodland Township, New Jersey. Over the past twenty-eight years he has served as a teacher, assistant principal, high school and middle school principal, and superintendent. In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor of educational foundations at Rowan University and has made numerous staff development presentations.