Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder ISBN: 0-380-71089-7 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 September, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.28 (67 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The best book I've read on education.
Comment: In all the talk about education issues these days, it's easy to forget that what's really important is the relationship, the energy, between students and teacher. When the teacher closes his door and is face-to-face with thirty kids--THAT'S where it's at. It's not test scores or textbooks or innovative curriculum--it's what happens between PEOPLE in a classroom. This book shows that dynamic relationship between eager, active kids and a caring, active teacher. It's not all pleasant, and successes are sometimes small, but a pervasive caring underlies it all. As a teacher, this book reminded me that sometimes the best thing I can do for my kids is to leave all that paperwork, go for a walk, go to bed early so I can be there for them the next day.
Rating: 5
Summary: Experience is key
Comment: When I did my student-teaching, I spent the entire year in the same 3rd grade class. The final 3 months was when I student-taught. In reading Tracy Kidder's Among Schoolchildren, I was consistently reminded of the ups and downs that progesses throughout a school year. Kidder was able to capture Chris Zajac's experiences and weaved it into a compelling story that kept me hooked. Her students reminded me of my own experiences teaching and the difficulties & triumphs you can have. At the end, Zajac was tired but happy. Thus she gave creedance to the phrase, "happy-tired". Teaching is not a type of job that once you go home, you don't think about it. This is a profession where your life is affected by those you interact with 9 months out of a year. Then you wonder, just as Chris Zajac did, "Did I make a difference?", "Is he or she going to make it?", "What else could I have done?". One thing I have to say is this is not a book of solutions in dealing with troublesome students. It's more about life as a teacher in a poverty-stricken community that could very well be your own.
Rating: 2
Summary: Accurate but poorly written
Comment: Kidder leaves out important parts of Ms. Zajak's story. Why, for example, would a teacher let a child like Robert stab himself, hit himself, and commit other self-destructive acts, without sending that child for an evaluation? Too much of this book is praised without looking seriously at Kidder's failure to cover the entire story. Ms. Zajak spends too much time with the Clarence issue and not enough time with her other students.
As a teacher in a small, inner-city, 99% Hispanic school in Chicago, I agree that the issues addressed in this book are real. The students in today's classroom have the same problems as Ms. Zajak's students had in the 80's. This book offers few productive solutions. This book was assigned reading for both my undergraduate and graduate education classes. Most of the students in my graduate classes; many of whom are adults with children of their own, rather than young, recent graduates; felt this book was poorly written, mildly depressing, and written in such a way as too make Ms. Zajak look like a woman on the verge of "teacher burn-out". What parent would want their child to be taught by a woman who has never left her home town for more than one month? Is that an example for her students?
Most of my graduate class agreed that this book is too freely praised, and that another perspective on teaching should be offered in contrast to Kidder's.
 |
Title: My First Year As a Teacher by Pearl Rock Kane, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation ISBN: 0451188918 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder ISBN: 0375506160 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esme Raji Codell, Esme Raji Codel ISBN: 1565122798 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
 |
Title: Soul of a New Machine, The by Tracy Kidder ISBN: 0316491977 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution by Gerald Grant, Christine E. Murray ISBN: 0674007980 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
