About book Educating Esmé: Diary Of A Teacher's First Year (2015)
This book really annoyed me. It is, as it says, the "Diary of a Teacher's First Year", and it sounds like in her first year, Madame Esme (as she insists on being called, a source of endless and essentially pointless conflict with her principal), is a really fabulous teacher. She dreams up and flawlessly executes all kinds of spectacularly innovative and effective lessons. Her students love and respect her. She gets grants. She wins awards. She improves test scores.And that's where this book just loses me. Where does this 24 year old with no experience get the self-confidence to stand up to her administrators so cockily day after day, and each time with zingers worthy of a sitcom writer? Why does she seem to need no help or advice, but instead to be so creative and resourceful that she can do the instructional equivalent of leaping tall buildings in a single bound every day? Why do her students exist solely as funny or touching anecdotes that generally serve to show how totally awesome she is? And how does she find the time for all of those bulletin boards? I just don't believe that Madame Esme could possibly be as great as she clearly believes she is.My experience of being a first year teacher, and those of my many friends with whom I endlessly discuss classroom highs and lows-- even though some of us have been out of the classroom for several years-- was one of a bottomless pit of insecurity, a never-ending fear that your inexperience and idealistic zeal were shortcomings that were hurting the children you came more and more to love every day. I felt like these inner-city children were entrusted to me to be my guinea pigs-- their educations handed over to my care so I could experiment with them and maybe come up with a successful teaching method here and there along the way. Countless lessons that I thought out carefully and put hours of loving creative energy into were total flops and left me with a classroom full of fidgety bodies and blank or confused eyes. Yes, some of the lessons clicked-- I will always remember the thrill of realizing that I had finally actually eliminated run-on sentences from my children's writing or the way that all of the children started calling the bathroom "the loo" because they were tickled by our read-aloud book ( Roald Dahl's Boy)-- but for each success I am haunted by endless failures-- sweet, little Randy who stared at me with dark serious eyes, ringed by the longest lashes, reminded me, his husky little voice, dripping with concern as he urged me not to strain my voice by yelling during the week I came in with laryngitis, the way he read so fluently and beautifully, with inflection and emotion, but failed every single spelling test and writing assignment that I gave because he wrote by grouping letters together in completely random strings that meant absolutely nothing, I never got anywhere with addressing what was clearly a serious learning disability of some sort. And I worry about him and feel guilty about letting him slip through even now, 8 years later. There were so many kids and so many problems and I had so little support. And this is where my problems with Educating Esme lie. Esme identifies tons of very real problems that are detrimental to our children's educations-- the poverty, violence, and fear that mar their unstable home lives day after day, the gangs that provide them with a sense of belonging and importance and rob them of their true potential and opportunity, educators who lack vision and creativity-- but she makes it sound like with a little hard work and some chutzpah she managed to turn it all around. She never points the finger at herself or identifies any shortfalls in her own classroom. I think this creates a myth that does a disservice to all of the hard-working teachers out there who do so much with so little and don't see any progress. Yes, having smart innovative people working in our classrooms is important and they can do incredible things, but they cannot single-handedly overcome an education system that is broken. The problems in our classrooms are just too big for one twenty-something with an over-developed sense of her own importance to tackle. And in the end Esme's ego gets in her way. And in the end she lasts through just one year before she takes a cushy suburban job where she still feels under-appreciated. This book seemed like Esme patting herself on the back for managing to survive one year of the substandard system that rules the entire lives of too many American children. And possibly conveniently forgetting any rookie mistakes she might have made. She minimizes the difficulties that our teachers face and maximizes her own brilliance. But it is entertaining reading.
I find this diary of a first year 24 year old teacher a bit irritating.Not only is Ms. Esme ( there I called you Ms.!!!)unlikable and unrelatable , her diary actually is quit a boring read and it shouldn't be considering the backdrop. Esme teaches 31 inner city 5th graders in Chicago who are improverished and have many social, emotional pyschological and learning issues and disabilities, ranging from homelessness to abuse to neglect and lets not forget Esme IS a first year teacher. Considering what i knew I thought this would be an enjoyable read but Esme or Madame Esme as she insists on being called, ( and is endlessly discussed and argued about with her principal, or bitched about to fellow teachers whom she clearly looks down on )IS JUST perfect!!These children are all facing HUGE issues and she has 31 students!!! Esme handles each issue effortlessly and occasionaly cusses afterwards. After a student steals a book from the library she worked so hard on and funded herself , she bans everyone in class from using the library. when a mother complains"my daughter don't steal,what don't you trust her" ( keep in mind NO one is as aeticulate as Esme )Esme matter of factly responds " no i don't trust them they are 10 and 11 year old children learning about accountabiliy" ectr ectr blah , blah BORNG!!!!! She wins awards, comes up with the "best" bullentin boards puts on "amazing events and plays" "i know the older teachers are going to say my room is over-stimulating but my room is the best " "i would want my kid to be in this classroom" .My room is AWESOME!!I"m AWESOME blah ,blah, blah! Ive made all these inner city chldren awesome with all of my , wait NO EXPERIENCE , in less than a year! her students whom didn't even know the alhpabet in the begining of the year at best and couldn't speak or read english at the worst , somehow manage to score the highest in the entire school on the Iowa standarized test! Guess how? ALL ESME!!!She regards other teachers as "weak", "babies" or just know "her kids will eat her alive she is too sweet and cries alot" but they don't pull that shit with Madame Esme, because she has become the worlds most creative, empatheic, inspiring, talented, hardworking,and perfected the tough love approach with discipline all in less than a few months?!? Seriously?? oh and dont forget how "AWESOME" she is!!!Her children beg her to continue "Reading Aloud Time' , yet are homeless, gang members, drug dealers, neglected, abused and bring guns to school, but when Esme has them gather round to read to them they just cannot get enough . She seems way too overly confident to be believable and while I understand the book is a "diary" the writing is so elementary , i would put it at a 4th grade reading level! It took me one small sitting to read, and while a few good ideas and lessons may be found only if you can tolerate this annoying woman and childlike read! I would have put the book down after the first chapter had it not been so short and for the lack of other reading materials on my lanai at the time!
Do You like book Educating Esmé: Diary Of A Teacher's First Year (2015)?
This is one of those books that you appreciate so much - a story of showing up, struggling through a lot of shit with both humor and strife, and making a real difference in the world around you. Esme is my hero. People like her make me think that maybe I too could make a difference. Our education system is in a permanent rut, filled with tired, overworked, and bored teacher who for many years have been overworked and underpaid. Teachers like Esme, who struggle against the system to actually encourage kids to learn, are rare and invaluable. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in human interest stories, education, inner city schools and children of migrants.
—Shirly
An unflinching peek into an inner-city teacher's first year in teaching, Madame Esme' spares nothing in showing the reader her inner sanctum. By turns creative, silly, tough and loving towards her 31 fifth grade students, Esme's year-long journal was both gutwrenching and inspiring. Confronting physical and emotional abuse, she manages to also babysit (for the day) a 2 year old sibling, move furniture for her nosy assistant principal, and endure years of micromanagement and belittling comments from her bumbling principal. Outspoken in her views and not afraid to work hard for the benefit of her students, her colleagues are not sure how to take her. Slowly, she begins to feel isolated. Two years was the length of her stint at her first school. Leaving the position for a librarian's role in a more affluent area, she comes back to see only half of her charges graduate eighth grade. A twinge of regret about leaving her trying first teaching gig end the book. "Is it the students, clean and coddled, polite excuse-makers? Is it the mothers with their lemonade smiles, employed husbands, and tantrums when their children get C's? I've heard that a posse of them rail on me weekely at the local manicurist...Why am I not happpy? I left an abusive job for a dispassionate one." (p. 193)Her advice for aspiring new teachers at the conclusion of the book is honest and helpful. Never pious, Esme's book spoke to the heart of what it is to teach the inner-city child, and then leave for supposed greener pastures. Having experience in both teaching positions myself, I found Educating Esme to be the absolute gospel truth, and hope all teachers, not only new to the field but established ones as well, read her thoughts. Truthful and right on the mark, this one will remain with me.Favorite passages:"This is my destiny, to have this group of children before me. As they were growing, aging to be fifth graders, I was training, and now we meet, in this unique place and time. The moment felt holy." (p. 26)"In the recessional, as I watch them, MINE, the ones I loved, I overflow with the joyous greed of a rich man counting coins. Wrongly I have thought teaching has lessened me at times, but now I experience a teacher's great euphoria, the knowledge like a drug that will keep me: Thirty-one children. Thirty-one chances. Thirty-one futures, our futures. It's an almost psychotic feeling, believing that part of their lives belongs to me. Everything they become, I also become. And everything about me, they helped to create." (p. 194)
—The Reading Countess
Esmé Codell’s first teaching job was as a 5th grade teacher in one of Chicago’s poorest schools. Her students were bright and sassy and full of spunk, and she alternatively loved them and hated them. More so, however, she struggled with the administration’s lack of imagination and the many obstacles they threw up in her way (she and the principal just couldn’t see eye to eye most of the time, and were constantly engaged in a power struggle over things as ridiculous as ‘Madame’ Esmé’s title of address in her classroom). Still, she gives an inspiring account of her devotion to her kids and their classroom – the extra time she spent with the kids, the extra money she spent out of her own pocket to purchase them a classroom library, and the things she taught them. Since this is, essentially, her journal, it details Esme’s trials as well as her triumphs. Great (and fast!) read! I can’t decide if, as a student (I was pretty quiet and shy), I would have loved or hated having Madame Esmé as a teacher. She sounds awesome as a person, but I think she would have scared the living daylights out of me if I were a kid. She’s like her kids – smart, nervy, and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. I’d like to know her, but not in the classroom!Excerpt: “Well, they stabbed the substitute today. In the back, with a pencil. The paramedics said it was only a flesh wound. She didn’t press any charges, she just went home.‘Who did it!’ Mr. Turner howled at them. They were silent. Who in their right mind would say anything? He stomped out.I sat behind my desk and looked at them. They were sitting very nicely. The mood in the room was somewhat pleasant. I had been gone only twenty minutes. Mr. Turner had called me out to troubleshoot some computer problem and had called in a substitute who was on break from filling in for another teacher. When I came back, this woman was gone. In twenty minutes, had they really managed to stab someone?‘Would anyone tell me…why?’ I asked, genuinely curious.” (p. 100)
—Arminzerella
