Becoming a Teacher? Working as a Teacher? Considering Teaching? Let's be honest with a question nobody actually wanted you to answer in your job interview: Why did you really become a teacher? Maybe you loved the subject, or someone said you were 'good with people', or, maybe it's simply that you just really wanted the free weekends and long holidays (HA!). Whatever the reason, you're here now, either with a raft of experience or just setting out on the journey. This book is the professional companion I wish I'd had on my desk when I started, and the one I'll now reach for when the moment calls for it. It isn't a rigid lecture on how to be perfect, or some 'consultant' who taught for 2 years before becoming an author wittering on about their vast experience of teaching and how we should all be doing everything different. This is an honest guide to the lived reality of the modern classroom, written from the perspective of someone who is still in the classroom. What's inside? - The "Why" and the "How": Using cognitive science to understand how people actually learn (so your students don't forget everything by next Tuesday). - The Practicalities: Everything from planning a lesson that works, to giving feedback that isn't just a "post-mortem" of past experience. - The Survival Guide: Navigating the staffroom "microcosm", managing workload without losing your mind, and knowing when to "call it" during a difficult parent phone call. - The Big Adventure: Thinking about your next move, whether it's climbing the leadership ladder or swapping grey staffroom skies for a tax-free post in Singapore or Dubai (note: other countries available). Teaching is cognitively demanding, emotionally complex, and genuinely one of the most important options to explore within our professional lives. This book doesn't try and tell you it's simple, but will hopefully remind you why it's worth it, and why, despite the frequent thoughts about resignation, we all keep coming back.