Somebody Else's Kids

Rating:
Summary: A Triumph
Review: "Somebody Else's Kids" by Torey Hayden is a first hand account of one teacher's struggle to teach four mentally disturbed children who have been labeled "unteachable". The book leaps the emotional spectrum as it goes from heart-wrenching and tragic to charming and witty. Hayden does an excellent job of drawing you into her classroom and into the lives of "her" children. And although from the moment you open the book it follows a typical Hayden format, what follows after is an amazing story of love, loss, and hope. Once in a great while does a book come along this stunning and this powerful, that it could only be called a triumph of the human spirit. Above all else,though, it is a work of non-fiction and should be deemed as a fitting tribute to all the children who have slipped through the cracks of our nations's public school system.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book to read, informative.
Review: Anyone who dreams of being a teacher should read this book. Once you start this book you have a hard time putting it down, you wonder how Torey will make it through the day. This is a very realistic view of the day to day experiances of a teacher. I have suggested this book to all my friends (educators and non-educators).

Rating:
Summary: A book for the heart
Review: Ashamedly, I admit that I did not want to like this story. After finding out that Torey Hayden was a special education teacher, I almost set my heart against her. Embarrassingly, this comes from a fellow teacher, although in general education. All I could think of was the smaller class sizes, reduced work loads such as no report cards, progress reports, or thirty papers to grade, increased budgets for supplies and resources, and more flexible schedules such as being able to send students back to their "regular ed" room when needed. I'll admit it, I guess I was almost as bad as Edna Thorsen (inward cringe). However, let me say this loud and clear: SHE WON ME OVER! The impact that Torey Hayden had on these students was remarkable and left me in tears at the end of the book. Her school year was one to end all years. I love that her attitude about her job is to put herself out of buisness, only a true special needs teacher would view it in that manner. Tomaso's story was one I could actually symthasize with having had experience with such a student. I did not envy her as I read about her incident with the knife. I even felt myself sweating along with her. It was his story that had me in tears at the end of the book. The one thing that she had tried to teach him (and sometimes you're lucky if they get just one thing) had rung true and caused him to be a hero of his home town. Lori's story was heart wrenching and my heart went out to both teacher and student on this one. Hayden has done a service to all teachers out there. It's made me take a closer look at the students with special needs in my own class and to work together better with my special education colleagues. This is a must read for ALL educators.

Rating:
Summary: SHE WON ME OVER
Review: Ashamedly, I admit that I did not want to like this story. After finding out that Torey Hayden was a special education teacher, I almost set my heart against her. Embarrassingly, this comes from a fellow teacher, although in general education. All I could think of was the smaller class sizes, reduced work loads such as no report cards, progress reports, or thirty papers to grade, increased budgets for supplies and resources, and more flexible schedules such as being able to send students back to their "regular ed" room when needed. I'll admit it, I guess I was almost as bad as Edna Thorsen (inward cringe). However, let me say this loud and clear: SHE WON ME OVER! The impact that Torey Hayden had on these students was remarkable and left me in tears at the end of the book. Her school year was one to end all years. I love that her attitude about her job is to put herself out of buisness, only a true special needs teacher would view it in that manner. Tomaso's story was one I could actually symthasize with having had experience with such a student. I did not envy her as I read about her incident with the knife. I even felt myself sweating along with her. It was his story that had me in tears at the end of the book. The one thing that she had tried to teach him (and sometimes you're lucky if they get just one thing) had rung true and caused him to be a hero of his home town. Lori's story was heart wrenching and my heart went out to both teacher and student on this one. Hayden has done a service to all teachers out there. It's made me take a closer look at the students with special needs in my own class and to work together better with my special education colleagues. This is a must read for ALL educators.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Will Touch Anyone's Heart
Review: I am a Macon State College student, and I had to read a book for my education class. I chose this book because Torey works with kids with problems, handicaps, and learning disabilities. My major is Special Ed. The book showed me that there is always a chance to make it work with a kid. That being a teacher can be the greatest profession in the world. By reading her life as a teacher was inspirational, gave me that extra push. Anybody that whats to work with handicap kids should read this book. After reading Someone Else's Kids I went and bought three more of her books. They are also great books that deal with special kids.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for any age.
Review: I am a student at Macon College majoring in education. I read this book for a class and I think it was a great book to read. I enjoyed knowing that there's someone out there who is concerned about the welfare of our children. A good teacher goes past the limit making sure the students memorize information for a test. Tory, the teacher in this story was aware of the different diversities she had in her class,and she was able to accomadate each one according to their needs. I was overjoyed by the patience she showed to each of her students. She put her own life on hold to make sure her students got the attention they needed and deserved from a teacher.It's great to know that there's someone out there who loves somebody else's kids!

Rating:
Summary: one of the best
Review: I came to this book by accident. I was in the bookstore to buy a book that was required reading in school. That's when I spotted Somebody Else's Kids by Torey L. Hayden. I had never read a book by her so I was a bit hesitant about buying it. Now that I'm done reading it, I'm more than happy that I ended up buying it. It amazed me that a person was capable of caring as much as Torey did. She really made a difference. And she never gave up on "her" kids. Not even when things were rough. This world needs more people like Torey. I guarantee once you start reading it you won't be able to put it down. I know I wasn't able to!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I enjoyed reading this incredible book. I had trouble in school, so I could really see where Lori was coming from. I wish I had more people who took my problems as seriously as Tory took hers. I have seen children like Tomaso who just needed a loving hand to help them along. It takes hard work and a lot of patience to deal with children like that, but reading this book helps people to see that maybe the struggle is really worth it. Poor Claudia needed a lot of help that Tory could not give to her and that is a very common situation for young children, parents just don't want to see that. Tory helped Claudia hang on. The whole book was very emotional. I am someone who hardly ever finishes books and I could not put this one down until I finished it. It held my interest so well that I finished It in just a couple days.

Rating:
Summary: Keeps you interested, fascinating.
Review: I found Somebody Else Kids's a very interesting novel. It seems almost like a journal of Torey's experience dealing in the resource center for a year. She has a fascinating way of dealing with problem children but everything she does seems to work. I would recommend this book to all teachers going on to teach special education. A great book!

Rating:
Summary: Tee's thoughts on Sombody elses kids
Review: I found this book to be very interesting. Hayden shows a very real side of being a teacher. She had to take what she was handed and deal with it. The kids in this story can be and are in every school in america and teachers have to deal with them everyday. Hayden showed that it is not always easy to teach at risk or mentally handicaped children,but then again it is not easy to teach anyone. I would recomend anyone to read this book but especially if you are wanting to teach special-ed students.