Educating Esme Book Report

1498 Words6 Pages
I found Educating Esme to be refreshing, honest, intelligent, quick witted, smart and logical. As I was reading the book there were times when my jaw literally dropped and I laughed out loud. Esme is the type of teacher who has so much back bone it might not be good for her; even though she is right most of the time. I was very comforted many times when reading this book for many reasons. Esme begins the book with the most prominent issue facing new teachers; discipline and classroom management. Luckily for Esme, she had a great cooperating teacher in one of her student placements. The teacher taught her to ignore bad behaviors until you can’t stand them anymore. In the school district I am at now, the discipline of the school is very strict…show more content…
My cooperating teacher told me that it’s a good thing if the administration knows your name for positive things not for discipline problems you cannot take care of in your own classroom. As I have had to learn by experience and practice, classroom management is all based on judgment calls. There is no rule book for classroom management and each and every class is different. Having read this book a few months ago when EDU 511 first started I have had a lot of time to be in the classroom. In practice, there are certain behaviors that I have learned to ignore. Some behaviors such as crudeness (as witnessed today), nervous habits of students (a student of mine puts his desk on his feet and balances the desk throughout my lecture), and letting my students run to the bathroom at the beginning of class are things that I have not let get to me. I have been able to pick and choose my battles. You…show more content…
When I was reading the book I was so surprised at how much Esme used multiple intelligences and different use of texts, media, visual, and other many good practices. Esme’s classroom was a canvas of stimuli and visuals. When told by a colleague that her room was distracting Esme thought to herself that the teacher in question was jealous. I have to agree with Esme, I believe the teacher was jealous of Esme’s enthusiasm, youth and spirit. The teacher may have genuinely been concerned with presenting too much information to students but through my classes at Sage, excessive stimuli is good of students with ADD because it gives them many things to focus on instead of causing behavioral problems. I want to have a classroom that has a lot of visuals and educational posters on the wall. Everything in my classroom will have a purpose and will be directly related to what I am teaching or be ongoing projects. I really liked Esme’s ideas and
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