Townsend Press

About Making a Difference

Sample passages from the Preface to Making a Difference:
The personal essays in Making a Difference were selected from the winning entries in two separate Townsend Press writing contests for developmental teachers. These essays, by teachers across the country, were written in response to the following topics:

• What Made Me Decide to Be a Teacher
• The Most Influential Teacher I Ever Had
• How I Learned to Teach
• The Pleasures and/or Pains of Teaching
• The Comic Side of Teaching
• My Most Fulfilling Experience as a Teacher
• My Most Unforgettable Student
• What Students Have Taught Me
• My Personal Advice to New Developmental Teachers
• How I Energize the Developmental Education Classroom
• My Most Successful Assignment(s)
• Why I Would Decide to Teach Again
• Lessons I Never Learned in School

Entrants were required to be part- or full-time teachers at a two-or four-year college and to be teaching a developmental reading, writing, or ESL course within one year of submitting an entry.

The essays in this book are representative of the hundreds of often moving pieces that we received - rich, loving, and passionate accounts by writers for whom teaching is not just a job but the most meaningful of professions. The essays remind us of what we already know but tend, in the course of busy and sometimes frustrating days in the classroom, to forget: that helping students learn carries its own intrinsic rewards; that making a difference in another person's life can be a source of real joy.

As part of a special offer, Townsend Press has made this title available as a free electronic book. Click here to download your free copy of Making a Difference.