Book Review: Teaching as a Human Activity: Ways to make Classrooms Joyful and Effective

I am a former middle school teacher who began her career amid No Child Left Behind and am currently an assistant professor of teacher education who taught throughout challenging times, including the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. I reflected upon the complexities of teaching and how difficult it feels at times to hold onto the joy of teaching, while reading J. Amos Hatch’s (2021)Teaching as a Human Activity: Way to Make Classrooms Joyful and Effective. Hatch suggests that teachers promote a love of learning by fostering authentic human relationships with students. By centering joy and care in the classroom, Hatch contends that teachers can build pedagogical resilience to cope with the uncertainty and stresses that impact education.