Book excerpt: If you have ever had the opportunity to observe a master craftsperson at work, one of the first things you will notice is how easy they make their work look. This principle applies to artists, athletes, plumbers and painters. It also applies to teachers. If you were fortunate enough to have some master teachers in your K to 12 schooling or for your university student teaching, you will have seen this principle at work. You will recall how easy they made teaching look. For the most part, their classes just flowed. The teacher would ask the students to do something, and the students did it. The teacher would cue the kids to transition into a new activity, and the kids transitioned. There was little conflict, few arguments, and the vast majority of classroom time was spent engaged in learning. It is a pleasure to observe these kinds of behaviors in the classrooms of master teachers, but this leaves us with an important question: how do they do it? Just how did these teachers get their students to be so cooperative and have their classroom running so smoothly? That is what THE SUCCESSFUL TEACHER’S SURVIVAL KIT: 83 simple things that successful teachers do to thrive in the classroom will show you – the kinds of things that master teachers do to make their classes work – both for themselves and for their students. You too can become a master teacher. This book will show you how.