Long before he gained fame as the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Angel’s Ashes”, Frank McClure was a high school teacher in New York City. This is what the book “teacher man” is about, so want to present you some interesting extracts and quotes out of it! “l think of the twelve thousand and wonder what I did for them. Then think of what they did for me” (p. 66). I din ‘t really find out what he thinks they did for him, but at least they enriched his life.

Suppose he was indeed really happy with his life as a teacher, but sometimes he seems to be a little tired of teaching and tired of dealing with young people. Every class has its chemistry. They know you like them and they like you in return.

Sometimes they’ll tell you that was a pretty good lesson and you’re on top of the world. That somehow gives you energy and makes you want to sing on the way home” (p. 77). Have a little work experience, only 2 years of shadowing “real teachers” in partner schools of PH 00, but realized that McClure is true with his quote. Good lessons, which students liked, make you happy. But what I think about if you claim a class likes you and you like them is, that it should ‘t matter if you like each other.A teacher should be on a higher level, a more professional en, so that likes and dislike arena “t worth talking about.

But I found out it main t easy! There is always this relationship thing between teacher and students, and their parents as well. Think we are all human, we can’t turn off our feelings. And teachers I like, get (nearly) all of my attention. In the beginning of my teaching I was actually waiting for positive feedback and some comments about my methods. If my pupils din ‘ t say anything observed their faces whether they like it or not. It turned out to be dangerous, because I found myself just doing what they could like.And I should do what I think they should learn.

I should ‘t rely on their feelings, and what they want to do. So now am also very happy when children say they liked the lesson, am really pleased and tell my boyfriend, but I am not waiting for feedback any more. I am a teacher, good lessons should be standard and sustaining this level is my aim.

“Here was American high school writing at its best-raw, real, urgent, lucid, brief, lying: [some really good excuses followed] Towards the end of the term typed a dozen excuse notes on a stencil and distributed them to my two senior classes.They read silently and intently… Try it now.

Imagine you have a fifteen-sear-old-son or daughter who needs an excuse for falling behind in English. Let rip. ” (p. 85).

This was one of my favorite stories in the book. I loved it, it proofs we are all sinners, liars who turn out to be great fantasy authors with unbelievable creativity. The funniest thing is, that children do not know, that adults are writing brief, sometimes even dull excuses, without creativity at all. This is always the evidence for lying for the teacher, the more creative you are, the more liar you are.And McClure found out the best creative writing prompt: write an excuse for your child. Best idea ever, children write and write and on ‘t want to stop, they become more and more creative, their imagination rises and they are directly into the topic “story writing creatively’. On the other hand, the teacher remembers some of the stories and figures out, who wrote which excuse on their own. But I think I will try this “method” out in classroom, it’ s basic idea of writing creatively can ‘t fail, people are all the same.

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). For some reasons it seems to be a reward to leave classroom and never see nouns people again. Sometimes can ‘t understand why people in academic jobs earn more than teachers do, some of them have never seen a classroom as a teacher but decide about the school system of for instance Austria.

But what makes the school system better is what YOU as teacher do in classroom. Not any kind of publication about sociology effects on anything.It’ s only what you as a teacher contributes to the system, what makes the system better. So many of my colleagues can ‘ t imagine teaching their entire life.

The funny thing is: they haven ‘ t been a teacher up to now and are already at the point of claiming teaching is too exhausting for a life time. I think you should see your hours in classroom as gift and that you can be happy, for not sitting in an office doing any odd job where nobody remembers you when you are retired. Because if you do well you plant at least a little thought of you in every of your student, and those thoughts make you unforgettable.

There are two basic ways of capturing the attention of the American teenager: sex and food. You have to be careful with sex. Word goes back to the parent and you ‘ re called on the carpet to explain why you ‘ re allowing our writing students to read stories about sex. You point out that it was done in good taste, in the spirit of romance rather than biology. That is not enough” (p. 204). What proofs the guess of Frank to be true, is that I chose this quote to be interesting: because there is the word SEX in it.

It seems to be like an accident, you have to have a look at it, as soon as there is the word sex inside, it makes it worth reading. Maybe this is only due to our parents, who told us not to talk about sex. And then the teachers, relatives and then all together: society, which sin t open-minded enough to accept children and students to talk bout this topic. And then I was asking myself why is food such an important topic, is there a lack Of it, don t the students get enough of it? Suppose that our taste and favor develops in our early years.Every adult adores the kitchen of their mothers, nevertheless nobody appreciated it that much in childhood.

Moreover the tastes often changes completely after childhood, nobody, except of me, can ‘t stand those amounts of sugar we ate in our early days. “In all my years at Stuyvesant only one parent, a mother, asked if her son was enjoying school. Said yes.

He seemed to be enjoying himself. She smiled, stood up said, Thank you and left. One parent in all those years” (p. 235) I cannot understand why McClure seems surprised, because only one mother asked him about her son. Hint it just shows the relationship between this mother and her son is not so close and warm and trustful.

Otherwise she would just ask her son how school is, how much he likes it and if he feels comfortable or not. And average mothers don ‘ t need to ask the teacher how her son feels, they know it just by observing or asking their child out every day! “Find what you love and do it. That’s what it boils down to.

I admit I din “t always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You’ re on your own in the classroom, one man or woman facing five classes every day, five classes of teenagers.One unit of energy against one hundred and seventy-five units of energy, ticking bombs and you have to find ways of saving your own life” (p. 255). Maybe this picture of enemy what adolescents can be for McClure, is what makes him tired sometimes. Maybe he wants to calm them down with his story telling. But how he describes it, being a teacher seems to be very exhausting and challenging.

“First day of your teaching you are to stand at our classroom door and let your students know how happy you are to see them. Stand, I say. Any playwright will tell you that when the actor sits down the play sits down.The best move of all is to establish yourself as a presence and to do it outside in the hallway. Outside, I say.

That’s your territory and when you’re out there you’ll be seen as a strong teacher, fearless, ready to face the swarm. Thefts what a class is, a swarm. And you’re a warrior teacher.

It’s something people don’t think about. Your territory is like your aura, it goes with you everywhere, in the hallways, on the stairs and, assuredly, in the classroom. Remember those teachers most who had this aura, wherever they were.

They had this aura, which proofed that to 2 meter nobody was brave enough to come close.I was always trying to give my homework sheet from the rear to the first row in class, so that I din ‘t have the danger of coming to close to him. But that was a kind of fear, McClure is definitely not talking about fear, he is talking about respect and your own area as teacher. Every teacher knows this kids who stick to them with thousands of questions before each class like “what are we goanna doing today? ‘ ‘, “do we get the tests back today’.

Can definitely understand that you go nuts if this is the first question, even right before they say “hello” or “good morning” every day, every morning! You have to give yourself credit, not too much because that would be bragging. ” It happened to me once at the skiing course. I wanted to try out new test-skis, originally they were for rent, but now they should be sold. I tested them at the skiing course of a MS school. Let my pupils go down the slope, and I waited so that I could go down really quickly and race-carving. At the bottom of the slope my students waited for me and watched my skiing, which was extraordinary, because I really wanted o know if those skis can stand the pressure when doing a good carving- curve.

The students had a look at me and just said: “Mrs.. Raftered, you So I thought for future I will keep myself down on earth, otherwise pupils think I am a show-off. “On the Left side of the blackboard I print a capital F on the right side another capital F. 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” This is definitely a big issue in the classroom, but the bigger problem is that cost teachers don t know anything of students fears and problem.They even raise the psychological pressure by threatening other students, who are lazy, do not learning or who are just not interested. But those who take this serious feel increasing pressure, they have fears of course.

They know this exam will be harder because nobody did any exercises they should do. They can learn and work out a lot, but if they have problems with grammar, or if they are not the best linguists they fear this test. As tutor in English it happens a lot, that the majority of my work is to motivate y students, and to give them self-confidence for writing an own text or to speak English freely.