Teacher man frank mccourt ebook

He assumes that the students and administrators are going to see right through him. McCourt, an Irish immigrant, attempts to relate to his students by telling them stories from his upbringing, many of the same stories that would later make their way into his most famous memoirs. He uses that to get them engaged in the material. One pattern he notices is how many times his students provide him with phony excuse notes, and how creative they are.

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Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes! Your guide to exceptional books. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email. Write a Review. Book Summary McCourt's long-awaited book about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer.

Prologue If I knew anything about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis I'd be able to trace all my troubles to my miserable childhood in Ireland. Read Full Excerpt. Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers! Quickly acknowledging his interest for literature he joined the New York Library and began educating himself in his spare time after work. Drawing confidence from these efforts, he talked his way into a NYU and gained a degree in literature.

He then embarked on a career in literature that would span over 30 years. Looking back now, he estimates that he probably taught up to 12, children and long before his writing fame he recalls how he would receive letters from former students Read More. More about membership! BookBrowse Review. Reader Reviews. Read 1 More Reader Reviews. Non-members are limited to two results. Become a member. Still, Teacher Man is impossible not to recommend.

Apr 29, Zara rated it really liked it. This memoir made me miss teaching, and writing, and being a student, and Stuyvesant High School, and all of my wonderful and weird and thoughtful and mysterious and empathetic English teachers throughout the years. And now I'll greatly miss listening to Frank McCourt on my daily walks around my newly strange neighborhood.

Feb 23, Heather rated it did not like it Recommends it for: no one. Shelves: nonfiction. I do not like this book. I thought, "He's a teacher, I'm a teacher. I should read it," and "He wrote 'Angela's Ashes' which people seem to like, so I'll read it.

I actually bought the book for someone else, but then I decided to read it myself and give her something else. I'm glad I didn't give it as a gift. Frank McCourt was a high school teacher in New York and is an immigrant from He was actually born in America, but his family moves to Ireland, and he I do not like this book.

He was actually born in America, but his family moves to Ireland, and he moves back again. His writing makes it sound like he's really full of himself. I don't have a thing in common with this guy, as a person or as a teacher.

I am really happy I don't teach in a big city, though, and this book showed me that. McCourt seems quite self-obsessed in this book. I couldn't even finish it! I only made it to part 3, and it's been sitting on my dresser ever since, collecting dust. View all 3 comments. Jan 15, John rated it it was amazing Shelves: books-i-own , biography-memoir. You have nothing to lose but your tears of woe anticipating when he'd return with his next book; the foremost memoirist of our time is back.

Frank McCourt's "Teacher Man" is a spellbinding lyrical ode to the craft of teaching. It is a rollicking, delightful trek across nearly thirty years in New York City public school classrooms that will surely please his devout legion of fans, and perhaps win some new admirers too.

Truly, without question, it is a splendid concluding volume in his trilogy of memoirs that began in spectacular fashion with "Angela's Ashes". Indeed, we find much of the same plain, yet rather poetic, prose and rich dark humor that defines his first book, along with his undiminished, seemingly timeless, skill as a mesmerizing raconteur.

Is McCourt truly now one of the great writers of our time if he isn't already, with the publication of "Teacher Man"? I will say only that he was a marvellous teacher I still feel lucky to have been a prize-winning student of his. It starts, promisingly enough, with him on the verge of ending his teaching career, just as it begins in the lawless Wild West frontier of a McKee classroom I was nearly in stitches laughing out loud, after learning why he was nearly fired on two consecutive days, no less.

Frank manages to break every rule learned in his Education courses at New York University, but he succeeds in motivating his students, raising the craft of excuse note writing to a high literary art. He finds time too to fall in love with his first wife, Alberta Small, and then earn a M. But before we get there, we're treated to a spellbinding account of his all too brief time as an adjunct lecturer of English at Brooklyn's New York Community College, and of another short stint at Fashion Industries High School, where he receives a surprising, and poignant, reminder from his past.

Soon Frank will forsake high school teaching, sail off to Dublin, and enroll in a doctoral program at Trinity College, in pursuit of a thesis on Irish-American literature. But, that too fails, and with Alberta pregnant, he accepts an offer to become a substitute teacher at prestigious Stuyvesant High School The nation's oldest high school devoted to the sciences and mathematics; its alumni now include four Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry, medicine and economics; for more information please look at my ABOUT ME section, or at history at www.

After having spent fifteen years teaching at Stuyvesant High School, you'd think that this would be this memoir's longest section, replete with many tales rich in mirth Room , located a few doors from the principal's office, was Frank's room throughout his years teaching full-time at Stuyvesant High School.

Indeed I'm surprised that it is so brief. Yet there is still ample fodder for Frank's lyrical prose to dwell on, most notably a hilarious episode on cookbooks and how he taught his creative writing class to write recipes for them. He describes with equal doses of hilarity and eloquence, his unique style of teaching at Stuyvesant, which he compares and contrasts with math teachers Philip Fisher and Edward Marcantonio - the dark and good sides of Stuyvesant mathematics education in the s and s I was a student of both and will let the reader decide who was my teacher while I was a student in Frank's creative writing class.

Will "Teacher Man" earn the same critical acclaim bestowed upon "Angela's Ashes"? Who knows? Is it deserving of it? I think the answer is a resounding yes. Regardless, Frank's many devout fans - his flock of McCourties - will cherish this book as yet another inspirational tale from the foremost memoirist of our time.

Without a doubt, he was the most inspirational, most compelling, and the funniest, teacher I ever had. I am still grateful to him for instilling in me a life-long love of literature and a keen interest in writing prose. Am still amazed that he encouraged me to enter a citywide essay contest on New York City's waterfront, and would, more than a year later, in my senior yearbook acknowledge my second prize award by thanking me for winning him money His was also, not surprisingly, the most eloquent set of comments I had inscribed in my yearbook from teachers.

He is gone now, but I am sure that for me, and for many of my fellow alumni of his Stuyvesant High School classes, he will live in our hearts and minds for the rest of our lives. Resposted from my Amazon review Jan 25, Helga Cohen rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction , biographies-and-memoirs , ireland-challenge , education. The 3rd book of the Frank McCourt series is an inspiring book about his 30 year teaching career.

It describes how he found his voice by teaching Creative Writing and all of the other classes he taught in the many different schools he taught. It was in the last school he taught as a teacher for creative writing, after 30 years of teaching, that was instrumental for him write his first highly popular book, Angela's Ashes about his childhood in Ireland.

I recommend this book as part of the series o The 3rd book of the Frank McCourt series is an inspiring book about his 30 year teaching career. I recommend this book as part of the series of his life. May 31, Jane Upshall rated it it was amazing Shelves: books-read-in , audible.

I finished all three books. Love this author! I appreciate the fun humor of the Irish. Some really great stories in this novel. Jan 25, Bettie rated it it was ok Shelves: skoolzy-stuff , tbr-busting , winter , autobiography-memoir , brit-isles-ireland , published This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.

To view it, click here. This is an unabridged version, read by author, running for 9 hours. His pedagogy involves the students taking responsibility for their own learning, especially in his first school, McKee Vocational and This is an unabridged version, read by author, running for 9 hours. His pedagogy involves the students taking responsibility for their own learning, especially in his first school, McKee Vocational and Technical High School, in New York.

On the first day he nearly gets fired for eating a sandwich, and the second day he nearly gets fired for joking that in Ireland, people go out with sheep after a student asks them if Irish people date. Much of his early teaching involves telling anecdotes about his childhood in Ireland, which were covered in his earlier books Angela's Ashes and 'Tis. He talks about when he was training as a teacher and didn't know anything about George Santayana, but was able to give a well-prepared lesson on the war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.

Other highlights include his connection between how a pen works and how a sentence works in explaining subjects and grammar, an area which he struggled with himself and his use of resources like the students' excuse notes and cookbooks.

He taught from the time he was twenty-seven and continued for thirty years. He earned a Teacher of the Year award in During the time of the book he went to Trinity College to try to take his doctorate, but he ended up leaving his first wife because of the strain.

McCourt's self-deprecating style emerges in descriptions of his shyness, lack of self-esteem, shame at gaps in his education, negative descriptions of his physical appearance, social ineptitude, jealousy when women with whom he has slept promptly leave him for other men, difficulties in his marriage, and a brief period of psychoanalytic treatment. These failures are compensated by successes, albeit often grudging and incomplete, in the classroom.

Wikipedia Read by the author I had read this one before, but decided to listen to the audio version from the library because 1 it's good, and 2 it's read by the author. Hearing the author made it even better the second time around. His accent is great, and his sense of humor comes through better on the audio.

A couple times, as he tells a story, he chuckles, and it's so great I had to rewind to hear it again. View all 4 comments. Aug 15, Tamara shales. Returning to America after an infinitely sad childhood spent first in America in Ireland, McCourt went to serve in the military and then enrolled at New York University and became an English teacher.

A New York public school teacher. And that's where another story about his life begins. The story of a teacher man who will struggles with the class management, syllabus completion, surviving that Asking himself how to motivate American teenagers? How to interest them in grammar and literature, poetry?

How do you inspire them to start writing? With love, patience, experimentation. Because all of us teachers have to find our own way, path, key that opens the sometimes well-locked door of attention and interest of our students. They will learn that the English triffle recipe does not go with the sounds of a bongo drum, and that the Benedict Egg recipe is best read with the sounds of a violin. And along the way, he will tell them his life story in Ireland. For some of them, this teacher will remain forever in their memory, for some he will save their lives in a way, for some he will inspire and encourage them.

That is what he wanted: to free them from any fear, personal, artistic, creative, professional, fear of life. Whoever, like me, is engaged in this profession, cannot help but fall in love with this somewhat strange insecure and yet fascinatingly interesting and original teacher. His wife doesn't understand that. A divorce follows. He lives miserably. And when he becomes a famous writer, which he describes at the very beginning of the book, he remains modest, normal.

How can you not love him? And how can you not feel the yearning to sit in his classroom, at least for a moment Oct 16, Stela rated it liked it Shelves: campus-novel , biographies. I've always loved to read about teachers' experiences and methods, so Frank Court's Teacher Man perfectly matched my horizon of expectations, so to speak. It was emotional, entertaining, interesting and, of course, instructive.

I especially liked the apparently random memories, and the fact that he insists upon personal events only when they have an impact on his teaching. I think it would have been a joy to see him in front of his students with his unorthodox but such efficient method of teachi I've always loved to read about teachers' experiences and methods, so Frank Court's Teacher Man perfectly matched my horizon of expectations, so to speak.

I think it would have been a joy to see him in front of his students with his unorthodox but such efficient method of teaching that his students didn't even know they were taught.

I definitely have to read Angela's Ashes! Mar 22, Roberta rated it it was amazing. Any teacher who walks in the room with out one, well you might think you are a "grand" teacher, but in the end, the best teachers are the ones who simply love their students, therefore love being a teacher. Jun 11, Liz rated it liked it. I really wanted to love this book. Having just qualified as a teacher, it very much appealed to read a novel about somebody from a deprived background falling almost accidentally into the teaching profession in New York without being remotely prepared for what he has let himself in for.

The first few chapters delivered exactly what I wanted - inspirational quotations about teaching, about how misunderstood the profession is and the common assumptions that get thrown around regarding the amount o I really wanted to love this book.

The first few chapters delivered exactly what I wanted - inspirational quotations about teaching, about how misunderstood the profession is and the common assumptions that get thrown around regarding the amount of time off teachers get. It was quite gratifying to know that even in s New York, this was the same as it is today. But as the novel went on, and McCourt documents his journey through the profession and the various schools which he finds himself working in, it started to get a little dull, and by the last 50 pages I was skim reading large chunks of it.

Enjoyable in parts, but a bit of a drag to get through. Not really got much else to say about it which I think shows that it did not have a great effect on me. May 31, Sabahat rated it really liked it. I am a sucker for anything to do with school teachers, so there was a great likelihood that I would enjoy this one, and I did, despite the fact that there were parts that went on for too long: sometimes 4 pages of the same story and the same words and phrases repeated to frustrating effect.

At times the writer's self-deprecation pushed even a compulsive self-deprecator like me over the edge. But McCourt is also remarkably brave in his constant admission of his cowardice and for possessing a char I am a sucker for anything to do with school teachers, so there was a great likelihood that I would enjoy this one, and I did, despite the fact that there were parts that went on for too long: sometimes 4 pages of the same story and the same words and phrases repeated to frustrating effect.

But McCourt is also remarkably brave in his constant admission of his cowardice and for possessing a characteristic there is almost no use for in our contemporary life: humility.

There are some remarkable moments here, tender without being sentimental, shocking without being sensational and educational without the accompanying pedantry. Most long term teachers will be able to relate to the portrayal of teaching as an exhausting, dispiriting but simultaneously exhilarating job. McCourt's stories manage to bring alive all these contradictions on the page. Readers also enjoyed. Videos About This Book.

More videos Biography Memoir. About Frank McCourt. McCourt was born in Brooklyn; however, his family returned to their native Ireland in He is also the author of 'Tis , which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of the previous book and focusing on life as a new immigrant in America.

Teacher Man , detailed the challenges of being a young, uncertain teacher who must impart knowledge to his students.