Behind the Teacher's Desk: The Rules Were Made for Everyone but Me

Claire Hébert is a young science teacher who has recently joined the staff at a fictitious high school. She is struggling to balance her personal life with the workload, students with attitude, cell phones in the classroom, new initiatives from the board and inconsistent discipline at the school. The story follows her through second semester as she tries to decide whether or not she will stay in the profession she loves. The reader meets academic, non-academic, considerate and inconsiderate students and sees how they and the inconsistent administrative support affect the teacher. The novel—fiction based on fact— describes a series of incidents and how they were handled. These incidents would be good discussion topics for student teachers or potential administrators.