Teacher Man: A Memoir

Frank McCourt, the author of ANGELA'S ASHES and 'TIS, wraps up his trilogy of memoirs with this account of the 30 years he spent teaching in New York public high schools, from his rocky beginning as a young man teaching English in a vocational school to his eventual destination--the rarefied halls of the elite Stuyvesant School. Throughout, McCourt was continually devising clever schemes to catch students' interest (which often succeeded) and fighting against the red tape and stultifying restrictions thrust upon him by school bureaucrats (which often resulted in his being fired).

"Full of gritty specifics, never preachy, often hilarious, McCourt's third book thrusts you right into the hormones-and-catcalls chaos of the classroom--where learning is not just a mystery but a flat-out miracle. Along the way, we get the best self-portrait of a public-school teacher ever written." - Joseph Paige (Newsweek, 11/21/05)

"McCourt's many fans will of course love this book, but it also should be mandatory reading for every teacher in America. And it wouldn't hurt some politicians to read it, too." (starred review) - (Publishers Weekly, 9/12/05)

"The same dark humor, lyric voice and gift for dialogue [from his two previous books] are apparent here....The teaching profession's loss is the reading public's gain, entirely." (starred review) - (Kirkus, 9/15/05)

"Yes, Frank McCourt...has done it again--distilled from the mash of his life a strong and alluring narrative brew....TEACHER MAN is an irresistible valedictory, about a man finding his voice in the classroom, on the page and in his soul." - Marie-Christine Flocard (New York Times Book Review, 12/4/05)

top secondary books

Math Doesn't Suck - Danica Mckellar +w Distinguished by its unique approach and celebrity author, MATH DOESN'T SUCK...  read more

2.  Teacher Man - Frank McCourt +w 3.  Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin +w 4.  Deadline - Chris Crutcher +w 5.  Just Another Hero - Sharon M. Draper +w 6.  Teaching Reading Shakespeare - John Haddon +w 7.  Inside Girl - J. Minter +w 8.  Lost and Found - Anne Schraff +w 9.  2Gether 4Ever - Dene Larson +w 10.  The Body of Christopher Creed - Carol Plum-Ucci +w

top teaching methods - general books

Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi +w Azar Nafisi formed a book club in Tehran comprised of seven young women who...  read more

2.  The First Days of School - Harry K. Wong +w 3.  How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls - Zoey Dean +w 4.  The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan +w 5.  Uncle Shelby's Abz Book - Shel Silverstein +w 6.  The Mind Map Book - Tony Buzan +w 7.  Teachers Have It Easy - Dave Eggers +w 8.  Table for Five - Susan Wiggs +w 9.  A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams +w 10.  Strategic Management Competitiveness and Globalization, Concepts and Cases - Instructor's Edition - Michael A. Hitt +w