What is a successful teacher?

McCourt explains about how he feels that he wasn’t a good teacher until he left the urban setting and into a calmer suburban classroom. Maybe McCourt’s definition of a successful teacher is taking a class and that has failed in every way to learn and be successful and turning it all the way into one that would fit the definition of a perfect classroom, like the one you see in movies or in classroom model posters. I feel that success can be measured in different ways than just taking your end result and comparing it to the “right answers”. I want to take McCourt’s career and analyze it to see how successful his impact was on his classes.

I want to compare McCourt to some professional baseball/football managers. I feel that a teacher is very similar to a head coach or manager in professional sports because it is up to them to make executive decisions, run practices/class meetings, come up with a plan for success and ultimately take responsibility for the brunt or success as a direct reflection of themselves. I feel that there is no one definition for what a successful teacher is just as there is none for a head coach/manager. I would like to make 2 distinct classifications of teachers: builders and finishers. In sports, certain coach’s success are measured on how they took a laughing stock of a ballclub and turned them into a playoff potential team. Other coach’s are known for taking a team that has potential but seems to be at a dead end in success and cant can’t seem to convert their talent to the next level of winning a championship, into winning one. Both coaches are considered to be just as successful in the giant leaps they progress a club forward. Teaching, in my opinion, is the same! McCourt realized that when he was in an urban setting early on in his career he was not able to take that extreme setting and turn it into gold. I will say that he could be considered to be a good builder in the fact that he earned the respect of his students through perseverance of the stunts they tried to pull on him and never had any intentions of writing anybody up. He positively impacted that setting and might have very well set that class up for success for the next teacher who replaces him. It wasn’t until later in his career when he left the urban setting until he called himself successful. I believe that in this situation he was dealt a decent hand of students and he turned that hand into a royal flush.

McCourt considered himself to be more of a finisher of a teacher and as a result wrote off his early years as a failure when it absolutely was not. He played two different roles in both settings and I feel that he was just as successful in the first as he was in the later.

great.....

Its kind of funny looking at everyones post and how everyone wrote how they always struggle with reading books but not to sound redundant....cuz so do i. I thought that Frank McCourt's personal attitude throughout the book was annoying. He played it off like his life was so horrible and he was a never-ending sob story but there is more to this story. He wrote how nervous he was and how he didnt think the students would really want to listen to him but that is only his point of view. Although he looked at himself as a crummy teacher, maybe his methods really touched his students and they actually learned something from his teachings. That kind of pissed me off but i loved how sarcastic he was like Justin. People who know me know me as kind of a jerk and that i use my sarcasism to get me through. I dont use these "talents" to be a dick but sometimes i come across as one...oh well...haha.
Anyway...I wasnt a big fan of how he only looked at himself as a good teacher when he was teaching in the high end school but not when he was teaching in any other place. I understand that every person who pursues the field of teaching needs to explore the occupation to find where they belong but to only feel that sense of belonging when the students you are teaching are the smart kids who understand everything that McCourt was talking about. This situation made me angry because i want to teach high school history in an urban school district and i feel that they are just as capable of learning as any other student from anywhere. I feel that McCourt was secretly insinuating that inner city students just cant learn.?. I dont really know how else to look at it but i guess i can say that the major message i got from the book was that no teacher can effectively reach students unless they discover their methods of teaching to reach the students. Out of two thumbs....one up and one down on this one guys.

MY response to teacher man!! :)

In terms of reading all together, if a book does not grab my attention I will never finish it. While this book was an assignment I genuinely enjoyed reading it and feel that I have learned more then I thought I would have. Throughout the book I tried to find meaning and explanation, but it wasn’t until I just read it, rather then trying to analyze it, that I could see what he was doing.

I loved the part of the book (which starts on page 123) where he takes a simple “click” pen and uses it to describe sentence structure. I swear if I teacher had ever explained it to me like that I may have had an easier time understanding the different parts. With out just one part of the pen/sentence, it can not work. He may have made it a little simpler by giving each part of the pen a different name such as noun, verb etc. and then “put the sentence together” But I felt he at least reached the kids and did a good job.

I also really enjoyed the part of the book where he made an assignment out of all the excuse notes (starts on pg. 83). You probably would not get away with the Adam and Eve ones today, mainly due to issues with religion, but to have the students doing things they already know how to do to boost their confidence in the class is a great way to approach a subject. A great line form this section is “Their smiling. They know. We’re in this together. Sinners.” Everyone in the class knows at one point or another they have written a note like this, and the fact that McCourt never turned them into the principle basically makes him god to the students. I wish I had the opportunity to write excuse notes in high school or middle school. How great would that have been!?!

I feel as though McCourt’s life was mirrored through his students. There were many instances when he wanted to help his students but felt as though it wasn’t his place and he was also scared to do so. But his antics kind of piss me off. McCourt gets so down on himself throughout this book and feels as though he can not teach and that he truly doesn’t know how. It makes me angry that he never really puts fourth the effort to get to really know his students, such as the boy with the jar of paint. And it really bothers me that through all the years that he taught the best of his teaching career was at a rich school where the students behaved and where he didn’t really have to start from scratch with teaching his subject. While a situation like this would obviously be EASIER for a teacher, if you can not help those students who truly need it then are you really helping anyone at all? Including yourself? I don’t think so. As I stated before, his life was somewhat mirrored through his students. So what, when he had a good class he was a good teacher? NO! That’s not how it should be, if you are going to be a teacher, even if it’s all you could think of for a profession, you need to be able to reach all students good OR bad!

Yet I feel as though I am not here to criticize how that man taught for so many years, these are merely observations. But I must admit, McCourt doesn’t just tell you about the classroom, he pulls you into it with him. And im sure if he hadn’t I would not have even been interested in reading the book at all. The only thing I am somewhat left puzzled with is how he actually approached writing the book. He talks about his past and how difficult of a life he had when he was a child and I am wondering if it is extensions of his other books? OR if he throws his past in there to give descriptions and maybe reasons to why he is the way he is and teaches the way he teaches. I just feel as though some of the past experiences he writes about really have nothing to do with the story. It may be me not understanding what he was getting at but, even still, I thought the book was overall very interesting and thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Make one mistake on your first day and it takes months to recover."

This quote alone sent shivers down my spine. Despite this very stern and frightening warning to start Teacher Man, I truly enjoyed reading this book. Much like the previous post, I sometimes have trouble starting a book especially if its an assigned one. But as soon as I picked up Teacher Man, I couldn't put it down.
While reading the book, I felt an instant connection to Frank McCourt. To start, we're both Irish and I always feel an instant bond with anyone sharing my Irish heritage. On a deeper level, I think we have very similar personalities. I can be an extremely sarcastic person and, at the same time, a very self-conscious and insecure one. Most of the time, I use this sarcasm, much like McCourt to aid me in uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations.
What I got most out of this book was idea of being flexible in your teaching. All too often, teachers are worried about content standards and the thought of teaching for a test. McCourt initially felt this kind of pressure from his peers and administrators. It wasn't until he was really given free rein of his classroom that he found his own style and voice in teaching. As tempting as it may seem to conform and cave into pressure my first year, from reading this book, I will resist as much as possible in order to find my own niche like McCourt did.

My Reaction & Comments

I'm normally not a big reader unless it is something that catches my eye so to pick up this book and begin reading was a task that took some time. However, once I began reading I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. I think it is very helpful in many different ways to read about the teaching stories of fellow teachers. As I stated in the other blog it brings mixed emotions of comfort, excitement, and fear all at the same time. In this book I think Frank McCourt and I could have a pretty good relationship. From what I am taking from the book he was a very self-conscious yet sarcastic person. He ALWAYS does exactly what his qoute states, "I was sick of my miserable childhood, too, the way it followed me across the Atlantic and kept nagging at me to be made public." pg. 171 He used his sarcasm to get him in and out of weird situations and then relfected on these questionable moments. As you read you find out the way he is changing whether it is on a personal level but mainly through the way he handles his classrooms. It was not until he got to Stuyvesant that he says, " In my years of teaching this was the first time I felt free in the classroom." This bothers me a little because he is in a very prestigious school where students are looking to go to Harvard and Stanford and it's not until he has students that are "top notch" that he feels he can actually teach. I understand that you need to find your nitch whether it be elementary, middle, or high school students but thats normally where it ends. How come he coudln't adapt to the other schools students? It was not until he knew he didn't have to follow the regular curriculum because the kids were smart that he found himself and his teachings. What does this say for future teachers? Not everyone will be at a high class school and many would not want to be. I am not knocking him because I think his creativity in the classroom was phenomenal and the students responsed to this. The reason that Stuyvesant worked for him can be answered in one of the his quotes from the beginning of the book, "Even when I was small, eight or nine, I wondered why people won't stop bothering people and I've been wondering ever since." He is the type of person who wants to do his own thing and it was not until Stuyvesant that he didn't feel entirely threatened by his job, adminsitrators, students, etc.


"Make one mistake on your first day and it takes months to recover." pg. 12

"In the high school classroom you are a drill sergeant, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low-level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer....." pg. 19

"Adolescents don't always want to be set afloat on seas of speculation and uncertainty. It satifies them to know that Tirana is the capital of Albania. They don't like it when Mr. McCourt says, Why was Hamlet mean to his mother, or why didn't he kill the king when he had the chance?" pg. 200

"Find what you love and do it." pg. 253

His epiphany!
"I was finding my own style of teaching. I was learning to be comfortable in the classroom. ...to do whatever I liked without bureaucratic interference..." pg. 204
"Why can't teachers treat us like human beings?" pg. 60

In Class Questions

Here's the questions we had to answer originally in our groups...I think it can get us started.


Why do you think your book was written the way that it was? How are the stories of teachers and students presented? What works and/or doesn't work about that format?
How does literacy play a role in your book? What do reading and writing look like? Why?
Who is the hero in your text? Is there one? More than one? None?
What questions do you have about the book?
How does the story/ies in the book connect to your own teaching? Ideally? Practically?
Does reading a book about teaching change in any way the way you think about teaching? Learning? Our educational system?

Our Book Group....

Ok, so here's the deal...When you have completed Teacher Man post comments, questions, or anything else that may have come up in your readings. I will also post questions that we were given in class as well as some that I have found online to help us out. Remember everyone has to have posted by Dec. 5.