Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 » (Reprint)

Rafe Esquith has taught at Hobart Elementary School for twenty-two years. His many other honors include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine's As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey's Use Your Life Award, and the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama.

The fifth-graders inside are either immigrants or children of immigrants; most live in poverty and few speak English as their first language. They also play Vivaldi, perform unabridged plays by Shakespeare, and go on to attend the finest universities in the country. Rafe Esquith is the teacher who helps them achieve these accomplishments. And this extraordinary bestselling book is his gift to all those who care about our children's future: a detailed, unforgettable guide to turning kids on to the wonder of learning, the power of the imagination, and the wealth of finding oneself.

Publishers Weekly

Esquith might be the only public school teacher to be honored by both Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama; he is the only school teacher ever to receive the president's National Medal of the Arts. For the past 25 years, Esquith has taught fifth graders at Hobart Elementary in central Los Angeles. Like most progressive educators, Esquith is outraged by the tyranny of testing, the scripting of teaching under "No Child Left Behind" and the overwhelming bureaucratization of the education industry. Still, he's done wonders with the basic curriculum developing a hands-on arts program, a money-management curriculum and a sports-based statistics unit. Esquith and his Hobart Shakespeareans are world famous for the rock opera they create every year. Throughout each school day, Esquith teaches life skills: how to think about problems, how to plan a strategy to solve them and, most important, how to work together and be nice to each other. While his goals are inspiring, he's also practical most chapters include affordable, how-to directions for a variety of his most effective classroom activities; he's even got a few tips for revamping those inescapable "test prep" sessions. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Prologue: Fire in the Classroom     ix
There's no Place Like Home
Gimme Some Truth     3
Searching for Level VI     13
The Method
Reading for Life     29
Writing     45
Add It Up     62
We Won't Get Fooled Again     73
What a Wonderful World     85
Rocket Man     96
Art Lover     106
Put Me In, Coach     123
Taxman     133
The Madness
Think for Yourself     145
Celluloid Heroes     159
Goin' Mobile     172
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (but I Like It)     190
Do They Know It's Christmas?     201
Will Power     208
Epilogue: Rest in Peace     224
Acknowledgments     229
Appendixes     231