Thursday, April 28, 2011

Educating Esme

It's kind of ironic that I would decide to read this book just as I'm preparing for retirement.  But, read it, I did, and loved it!

It's a diary of the first year Esme taught fifth grade in an inner city school in Chicago.  She was quirky and exciting and she got her kids to care about education.  She really stimulated their minds by giving them ownership of their own learning and they had fun doing it.

But that doesn't mean she didn't have discipline. The kids were always within her control and showed respect to her and the other students.

Esme was really big on reading to the kids and she got them interested in books that way.

I could go on and on about her unique ways of educating but I'd have to talk about the whole book.  It's so worth reading!

Even though I teach high school and she was an elementary teacher, her philosophy is universal.  Kind of makes me wish I wasn't retiring!

1 comment:

Darlene said...

Glad you enjoyed this one Linda. I bet you're really going to miss teaching. It sounds as if you had a career that you loved and put everything into. I think that's awesome!