Rating: 
Summary: SHE DIDN'T WRITE IT FOR THE VETERANS
Review: She knows that she is not the hero. She knows she did not win, rescue anyone, or even persevere. But she did want to tell future educators that teaching is no slice of cake. It is a DIARY. What do most people write in their own journals? THEIR thoughts. THEIR injustices. I met this woman and heard her speak at a future educators' seminar. She is feisty and spirited, just how I feel, and she knows that this book will affect people like me. Most schools are in between the 'all time lows' and the 'all time highs...' However, we need to know that the low is out there and that those schools also have the most important focus of education, just like any other school: children. Not every school is equipped with creative and spirited teachers and administrators who support you in all your teaching endeavors. If you have been teaching for many years, read it and remember the hell of your first year (as so many teachers agree) and the pride of a fresh graduate spouting the theories of Conant and Gardiner. If you are a new or to-be teacher, than get the most important lesson out of it, whatever it may be. For me, sometimes it is good to hold on to your own theories. You don not always have to conform to ways that disagree with your heart.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening!
Review: This is a great book for the teacher-to-be. I feel this should be read by anyone who wants to be a teacher or wants to see just how hair-raising the experience can be. It displays just how enthusiastic first-year teachers are and how they feel in front of the classroom.
Rating:
Summary: An honest look for aspiring teachers!
Review: I got this book for Christmas and finished it the same day. It is excellent! Madame Esme tells it like it is and she is fascinating. She made me laugh and she made me cry. I can only hope to be as spirited, creative and excited as Madame Esme as I pursue my teaching degree. She tells it like it is, both in the book and as a teacher.
Rating:
Summary: Need to Look At the Big Picture
Review: I am also a Chicago Public School teacher as Esme, and found this book delightful. For those of you who did not like it I don't think she was speaking for you -- she was speaking for herself. To say teaching is not like that is awfully presumptuous in my opinion -- not everyones teaching experience is the same. There were plenty of things I could relate to and plenty I couldn't but the book was honest and heartfelt and gave me a great perspective on her first year of teaching -- not yours and not mine. Get a grip, if you want a book that mirrors your teaching experience -- write your own.
Rating:
Summary: A first-year teacher's must-read!
Review: Although teachers in suburban schools will find themselves longing for the freedom of speech that Madame Esme exercises when dealing with her superiors, they will at the same time find themselves vindicated by knowing that SOMEONE out there is telling administrators what for! As a first year teacher myself who felt as though I was drowning, this book gave me hope and laughter -- two necessary tools for surviving the first year in any school. I completely don't understand the reveiwer who hated this book, claiming that not all teachers are "like that"; that "some of us have morals." This person must have read only a sentence or two in this book. Esme Codell has extremely lofty morals -- and all teachers should aspire to them. She has heart and creativity and strength. The only flaw to this book is that most first-year teachers are not as gifted and confident as Codell, so in that sense it may be difficult to relate to. However, it contains a wealth of fresh ideas, and like I said, those two magic ingredients of a teacher's survival -- hope and laughter.
Rating:
Summary: Teaching in the Inner City
Review: I have read many of the other reviews of this book and cannot understand the intense dislike this book achieved. People apparently either loved it or hated it. I loved it. It describes the school district I teach for, the school district I taught for. Both are inner-city district where it is clear on a daily basis that the children do NOT come first now, and may not come first for the entire next generation. The high-standards that Madame Esme sets for her students should be a model for all teachers. Her creativity and unique ability speak to those that aren't sure which direction to go in. The children we teach will live up or DOWN to our ignoble expectations whether or not we care to codify those ideals.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful portrait of what it's NOT like teaching!
Review: I am a teacher. I teach in the public school system. I am not "old-fashioned" because this is only my second year to teach. I saw very little that was redeeming in this book. This is a portrait of schools as dens of iniquity with teachers contributing to the delinquency of minors. If that's the "new" way to teach, leave me out! I was absolutely turned off by the whole book. This is NOT what it's like teaching in public schools and it is NOT representative of all teachers' feelings or views. I would hate to think that someone that is not a teacher would think that we all behave and/or think this way. We don't! I, personally, cannot figure out why the book was even written and published. This book gives teachers a bad name and I hope that readers will realize that we all aren't this way. Some of us DO have standards and morals. I hated this book and am sorry I wasted my money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: What a great book and an inspiration for any teacher!
Review: This is an awesome book. Anyone who is a teacher knows what it is like to battle with the administration, constantly. To be disrespected and feel hopeless. This is the opposite of that. Also, it is a wonderful portrait of what it is really like teaching in the public schools. I would venture to guess that those that did not like this book are either not teachers, or so stuck in old ideas that this book threatened them completely.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, please.
Review: I never once got the idea that A. anyone's ideas other than her own (or her somewhat warped mentor's)were interesting or creative or true or B. she even LIKED teaching these children. And while many of her lessons and techniques were good, they weren't original and credit might have been given to the books, university programs or educators from wence they came. I found this woman among the most boorish in print. There is much to be said about enthusiasm and the willingness to go the extra mile for your students, but there is also something attractive about a little humility. Esme Codell--at least in this book-- has none.
Rating:
Summary: Even Worse than Ally
Review: Codell is a naive, egotistical teacher who happens to be a good story teller. This a book I would only suggest to a reader who wanted a SIMPLE thing to read while drinking on a train. This story is an insult to all new and old educators. She is not at all critical of herself....Isn`t it ironic that Esme no longer teachers full time? If I didn`t hate teaching I, too, would have written a book and lived of the proceeds. Can you say "Good Publisher? " Unlike what Esme likes to beleive she has no answers to the dilemmas that are present in the eductional system. However America does need a hero.....preferably a good looking one.
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