Teacher Man – Chapter Review

Teacher Man - Chapters 1-3

McCourt's Teaching Journey

An Introduction
Welcome to Teacher Man
Synopsis-

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt is the story of one man's journey through 30 years of teaching
in New York City. As in his famous Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, McCourt employs a unique sense of
humor and flair for storytelling to draw the reader into his memories for a time and share his
perspective on his inimitable career. In doing so, McCourt freely admits his struggles and
mistakes while celebrating adolescence at its best and worst. Frank has great admiration for
teachers and their perseverance while shines through his stories. As you click on each chapter
link, we will attempt to share with you what touched us, challenged us, and ultimately helped
shape our thinking about teaching as a career.

From Teacher Man-

"Instead of teaching, I told stories. Anything to keep them quiet and in their seats. They thought I
was teaching. I thought I was teaching. I was learning. And you called yourself a teacher?"
(McCourt, 2005, p. 19)

Commentary-
This section of the book is about how Frank McCourt became a teacher and to show how his
teaching style developed. His first job at McKee High School required him to discipline his
students more than actually teach them, so he would end up telling them stories about his life in
Ireland. I find it interesting the way Mr. McCourt became a teacher; he went to college on the GI
Bill and just barely passed his classes. He said that one of his professors told him he was “half-
assed” and Frank agreed. McCourt knew that he was not working hard in school or applying
himself. He barely passed his teacher certification, and he was so insecure about teaching the
entire time he was in college. Mr. McCourt doubted himself so much but he turned out to be a
great teacher. I think he was lucky that he was a good story teller and that his stories did hold
educational value. Even after he earned his Teaching License he went back to working at the
docks. By the end of the book McCourt's teaching style has changed completely and he is
teaching in a very different atmosphere. Even though Frank McCourt was so unsure of himself
and about becoming a teacher he turned out to be a very successful one.

Final Thoughts-
I think that the beginning of this book shows how McCourt really evolved and that at first he was
not exactly the greatest educator. I think this is inspiring to future educators, and should be
viewed as motivation. McCourt's teaching career shows that it takes time and experience to
develop a style and comfort in the classroom.
Teacher Man - Chapters 4-6
If You Bark or Snap, You Lose Them

From Teacher Man-

Facing dozens of teenagers every day brings you down to earth. At eight a.m they don’t care how
you feel. You think of the day ahead: five classes, up to one hundred and seventy-five American
adolescents; moody, hungry, in love, anxious, horny, energetic, challenging. No escape. There
they are and there you are with your headache, your indigestion, echoes of your quarrel with
your spouse, lover, landlord, your pain-in-the-ass son who wants to be elvis, who appreciated
nothing you do for him. (McCourt, 2005, p. 67)

Commentary-
Early on in McCourt’s career he is beginning to realize the dog eat dog atmosphere in the
classroom. You can go from having a classes full attention, to losing them in a matter of seconds.
Having been a student, I’m sure we have all been in the classroom where our peers did all in
their power to push the teachers patience to its highest level. McCourt is realizing no matter how
much they throw at you, or how bad of a day you are already having, it doesn’t matter. Every
class needs to be taught and approached with the best of your ability, or the students will have
you for breakfast. Following in a similar idea, McCourt is doing his best to maintain the classes
attention and interest. This leads McCourt to an "epiphany", and he creates a writing assignment
that has the class extremely excited. After seeing all the different excuse letters from the class, he
decides to assign the class excuse letters as an assignment. By making a writing assignment fun,
the class participates and becomes enthuised.

Final Thoughts-
McCourt realizes that day in and day out there will be times where things outside of the class are
bothering him, but he knows that he needs to suck it up. As a teacher for the class you need to set
the tone for the day, and showing weakness or anger towards the students can just make things
worse off. The students may do their best to be uninterested or uncooperative, but McCourt sees
with his excuse letter writing assignment that the students can be hooked in if you come at them
from different angles.

Teacher Man - Chapters 7-9

Difficulties of Grading, Evidence of McCourt's Perspective on Grading

From Teacher Man -

Every June during my eight years at McKee, the English department met in a classroom to read,
evaluate, grade the New York State English Regents examination. Barely half the students passed the
examination. The other half had to be helped. We tried to inflate the grades from high fifties to passing,
the mandated sixty-five. We could do nothing about multiple-choice questions, the answers were right
or wrong, but we helped with essays on literature and general topics. Give the kid credit for being there.
Sure, what the hell. He could be someplace else getting into trouble, bothering people. Three points for
showing up, for selfless citizenship. Is his writing legible? Sure. Another two or three points. (McCourt,
2005, p. 107)

Commentary-

From my personal experiences in public schools, I know that teachers put a large emphasis on
standardized tests. From my college education, I have realized teachers put pressure on their students
to perform well due to the fact that pressure is put on them by their school administration whom
experience pressure from the state. Questions regarding grade inflation have always crossed my mind.
Do teachers inflate regents’ grades to make themselves look as if they are teaching the “right” thing? Do
teachers actually get away with this? From my own experiences, I have never successfully been able to
find the answer. However, McCourt shed light on this situation and, arguably, answered my question.
McCourt’s response to inflation was pretty much what I expected. In classes where writing is required,
ambiguity is always a worry for the test taker. In my own personal experiences, I remember comparing
my essays to my classmates and not being sure as to why one of us received a few points higher than
the other. However, due to the fact that standardized examinations are never returned, I have never
been able to physically compare to tests. Although I am not completely surprised by McCourt’s "inflation
policy,” it definitely bothers me.

Final thoughts-

McCourt is trying to teach, to his best ability, his students, at a vocational school in Staten Island.
However, he is struggling with gaining their full attention. Some might conclude that McCourt is doing
less teaching than optimal as he shares lots of personal stories with his students and etches for
assignments that he could assign that they will be interested in completing (for instance, he has them
write write excuse notes as a creative writing assignment). I think McCourt struggles in that he gains a
reputation teacher who just shares stories rather than teaches. However, one might not be able to
blame McCourt due to the student population he is instructing. As McCourt transitions from his position
at vocational schools and community colleges to an elite public school, one see's that McCourt's
teaching style drastically changes.

Teacher Man - Chapters 10-12

From Coasting to Coming Alive

From Teacher Man-

I failed everything, I looked for my place in the world. I became an itinerant substitute teacher ,
drifting from school to school. High schools called me for day - to day work to replace sick
teachers. Some schools needed me when teachers were called for long spells of jury duty. I was
assigned English or where ever a teacher was needed: biology , art, physics, history ,
mathematics. Substitute teachers like me floated on the fringes of reality. (McCourt, 2005, p.
178)

Commentary-

Frank McCourt seemed to be drifting in confusion of how to handle his classroom. How could he
get these students like him and engage them in the material instead of always having to resort to
putting the material aside an engaging them through unrelated conversation. It seems as if
McCourt was more concerned about being liked than actually teaching. Frank always seems to
scared of disciplining the students and instead he would embarrass himself. " I wanted to be
brave , concerned , committed teacher , stand up to him , defend my twenty-eight rowdy black
girls...But I was a long way from bravery, and what would I say anyway?
(McCourt,2005,138).Frank wanted to be that teacher , the one who wasn't scared to discipline
but be respected at the same time but he was so lost in his own world and consumed by his own
issues of inadequacy . There were times that he had to control himself and he was challenged by
his students and himself. Does he loose it or keep his cool and deal with the issue at hand , or
does he forget about it, let the student walk all over him and go on with the lesson? McCourt ,
genuinely cares about his students however , his feelings about himself and lack of confidence
and self esteem prohibited him from being the teacher he truly wanted to be. He had good
intentions . He wanted to find ways to turn bad behavior into material to teach the class. When
Andrew in Chapter 11 was misbehaving and leaning his chair back McCourt used that to his
advantage and told the class to use it as material for a story. From chapter 10-11 McCourt seems
to be in a limbo and it really showed in the classroom. He decided to go back to Dublin and try to
pursue his doctorates and "rise in the world" but when he failed to do so after two years he
returned and worked as a substitute teacher. Frank finally starts to get some of his fire back when
he is offered a position at Stuyvesant high school , a prestigious well known high school.
McCourt was not used to students who actually wanted to learn and were eager to listen. This
was something that really helped Frank to become a better teacher. He still struggled with how to
discipline or whether he should speak up about certain thing but he was actually teaching and
that was something he wasnt used too.

Final Thoughts-
Frank McCourt was not afraid to really tell people about his experience. Some may read this
book and think he was not a good teacher but he was just being real. His struggles were things
that are experience by all teachers. His journey to find him self as an educator was bumpy but he
learned a lot along the way , and his students learned from him. He tried to be different and even
though he didn't have results he was always remind in different ways that he was doing
something right. When he went to teach at Stuyvesant he seemed to have a sense of freedom ,
and administration gave him more leeway to be creative.

Teacher Man - Chapters 13-15

Keeping the Classroom Interesting
From Teacher Man-

This is Stuyvesant High School, where, the minute students step inside, doors swing open to the best
universities and colleges in the country and if you don't succeed it's your own damn fault. The moms
and dads are cool, confident, cheerful, self-assured when they're not worried, concerned, despairing,
uncertain, suspicious. They have high expectations and nothing less than success will satisfy them. they
turn out in such numbers every teacher needs a student monitor to manage the flow. They are anxious
about their child's standing in the class. (McCourt, 2005, p. 232)

Commentary-

When you are an English teacher, it seems like you are setting yourself up for a hard time with the
students. I know with my past experiences in taking English classes, students do not necessarily love the
class and are always looking for reasons why they actually need to take English and what they are
learning by reading books they don't enjoy. McCourt was faced with this problem along with the
problem of having to make sure he kept the parents happy and not have them ask questions about the
things their children are learning. In other classes like math and science students actually know what
they are learning and have a definitive answer to questions. As McCourt said English is a lot of discussing
about things and interpreting things and high school kids like to leave the classroom knowing what they
learned. In many cases with books students do not really care about the meanings of thing and do not
like to discuss it. Since McCourt started to realize this, he wanted to try things that would engage his
students. Some of the things he tried to do were take his students to a park to learn outside of the
classroom. He also got them to read different things and incorporate things such as using recipes to
learn in class. The students were not always on board with his teachings, but it was something new he
wanted to try and hoped it would help spark interest in his class. McCourt wanted to show his students
that English is a part of every day life for everyone. It wasn't just about reading literature like most
English classes, it was turning ordinary things into English class and showing them how to think outside
the box.

Final Thoughts-

When McCourt was at Stuyvesant he may not have always had the best reputation with his students
because they did not always understand what he was trying to teach them. He wanted to be a teacher
that did things differently and did not want to be just a regular English teacher that does the same
things every year. He took a risk doing these things and had to worry about how parents would react to
the lessons. Everything he did, he did for a reason and even though his students may have doubted his
tactics, I think he made his class interesting and different is sometimes better.

Teacher Man - Chapters 16-18

From Fear to Freedom
From Teacher Man -

What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school? You can say you’re trying to
graduate so that you can go to college and prepare for a career. But, fellow students, it’s more
than that. I’ve had to ask myself what the hell I’m doing in the classroom. I’ve worked out an
equation for myself. On the left side of the blackboard I print a capital F, on the right side
another capital F. I draw an arrow from left to right, from Fear to Freedom. I don’t think anyone
achieves complete freedom, but what I am trying to do with you is drive fear into a corner.
(McCourt, 2005, p. 253)

Commentary-

Later in his career, Frank McCourt becomes a teacher at Stuyvesant, a highly selective public
school. His students aspire to be admitted to the best colleges and universities and are not always
comfortable with Frank's rather vague expectations of their work. In this poignant passage, Frank
not only identifies himself as a fellow learner in this great adventure called education, but also
shares his rather unusual goal in the classroom. He is not interested in students writing papers
full of big words and perfect grammar, but rather in them finding their own voice in the world as
he is striving to find his. Frank has struggled his whole life with fear and doubt and has come to
realize by doing battle every day in a public school, that he is stronger and has more to offer than
he ever imagined as a poor immigrant with a marginal background. Frank's greatest hope for his
students is that they will confront their fears and go on to become authentic people pursuing their
own goals and dreams rather than trying to fit in someone else's mold. All of his unorthodox
methods- singing recipes, holding a multiethnic picnic, and writing restaurant reviews are ways
of allowing his students to embrace their heritage and not be afraid to show themselves and all
they are to the world. This is important to everyone who wishes to become a teacher. Frank
teaches us that one should not try to be colorblind and ignore all their students' differences, but to
embrace them; celebrate them; and to push the fear of not fitting in or being good enough away
while sharing with the world who they are and what they have to say.

Final thoughts-
After 30 years in a classroom, Frank realizes that it is time to retire and finally pursue his own
dreams of being an author. His last story is a contrast of Rachel, a picture of a perfect life free
from difficulties, who feels she has nothing to write about and Guy, a boy who lost an eye and
became partially paralyzed in a freak accident. Despite his struggles, Guy says he "wouldn't
change a thing" (p. 257). This is a perfect ending note because it completely echoes what we've
come to see Frank believes and teaches us-count your blessings, embrace YOUR story, and cast
away fear and doubt to do what you love in life.

Frank McCourt's best quotes

"I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching" (p. 26).

"Teacher? I never dreamed I could rise so high in the world" (p. 33).

"A good teacher should launch enough pivotal questions to keep the class
hopping for forty-five minutes" (p. 52).

"Teaching is harder than working on docks and warehouses" (p. 57).

"I think of the twelve thousand and wonder what I did for them. Then I think of
what they did for me" (p. 66).

"Sometimes they'll tell you that was a pretty good lesson and you're ontop of teh
world. That somehow gives you energy and makes you want to sing on the way
home"
(p. 77).

"Here was American high school writing at its best-raw, real, urgent, lucid,
brief, lying" (p. 85).

"This is the situation in the public schools of America: The farther you travel
from the classroom the greater your financial and professional rewards" (p.
157).

"There are two basic way of capturing the attention of the American teenager:
sex and food" (p. 204).

"In all my years at Stuyvesant only one parent, a mother, asked if her son was
enjoying school" (p. 235)

"Find what you love and do it. That's what it boils down to......It's you and the
kids" (p. 255).

Discussion Area
Frank McCourt has much to share with us about the
profession of teaching. Below are some discussion
questions, based on McCourt's work, that one might
consider while thinking about teaching as a career. Please
feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Dealing with teenagers

In chapter 10-12 we can see that Frank was really challenged with dealing with students and how to
approach certain situation. Is is better to speak up and be a strong disciplinarian or is it better to try and
be "friends" with your students so they will like you ?

Taking Care of Yourself (Teacher) Before Students

At the end of the book, McCourt tells a substitute teacher that in order to be a good teacher, teachers
must take care of their own needs before the needs of their students. Do you think that this is hard for
some teachers to do since their job is to take care of students? Do you think that this is completely
nonsense?
Teaching to Different Populations
McCourt begins his career by teaching at vocational schools and community colleges. At these schools,
McCourt had to make sure he had his students attention and that they were concentrating on the task
at hand rather than spending his time solely teaching lessons. When McCourt accepts at job at
Stuyvesant High School, he teaches a whole different population as the high school is an elite public
school. There, he is able to complete lessons as students might be motivated differently. Do you think
teachers need to customize their lesson plans to the student population they are teaching? How can
teachers do this when they are told by administration what standards to teach?

Pathways To Teaching
McCourt begins his memoir by telling the reader about his childhood and schooling in Ireland. He
continues with informing the reader about previous jobs such as working on docks. I concluded the
point McCourt was trying to make is that no schooling could adequately prepare a teacher for his or her
own classroom. From my experiences in a first grade classroom, I can relate to McCourt. When I planned
on becoming a teacher, the teacher who I was volunteering for told me that I was doing the best thing
possible, getting actual experience in a classroom. She continued to tell me that none of her college
classes prepared her for her own classroom. McCourt displays that one could become a teacher with
practically no teaching background, as it is not necessary nor does it adequately prepare one for the
profession. Do you think that teachers who come from other backgrounds bring a different insight into
teaching or do you think that all teachers need to come down the same pathway into teaching?

Higher Education
Frank McCourt taught for many years at technical high schools where students prepared for careers
instead of college. In fact, in one scene a girl was discouraged from attending college even though
McCourt felt she was capable. Today, with our society's shift from an industrial economy to the
information and services era, there is much more of a push for everyone to go on to college. How do you
feel about this shift in our society? Is it necessary given the changing job's market?

The experience of being different

The immigrant experience is a prevalent theme throughout the book. Frank spend most of his childhood
in Ireland before returning to the United States. Many of Frank's feelings of being different parallel
those of his immigrant students and give the reader a sense that he deeply understood these young
people. Have you ever felt "different" in a classroom? How can a skilled teacher make everyone in the
room feel a valued part of the class?
Lessons
Throughout the book, Frank McCourt shares important lessons he learns in classroom management,
being sensitive to student differences, dealing with administrators, and finding one's own style in the
classroom. He also admits that he learns as much from his students as they learn from him, a comment
that teachers frequently make. As someone who has been a student for many years, what are some
things you wish teachers would learn?