VOA标准英语2009年-Book Offers Tips for New Teachers

Faiza Elmasry | Washington DC 04 December 2009

Codell's first year of teaching inspired her diary book, "Educating Esme"

When Esme Codell first entered her assigned classroom as a new teacher, she encountered 31, 10-year-olds and many unexpected challenges. To cope, she invented her own style of teaching, which she explained in her 1999 book, Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year. It sold over 200,000 copies. A new, expanded edition includes more tips for young teachers.

Becoming a teacher wasn't Esme Codell's childhood dream. She didn't even consider it as a career until she saw how deeply the profession touches kids' lives.

"I think a lot of people who are going [into] education want to be a teacher from the time they were very small," she says. "A lot of people pretend to be teachers and get their brother and sisters all lined up and make fake worksheets and all that. But, growing up, I didn't really want to be a teacher, but my decision to become a school teacher really happened after I worked as a children's book seller for a number of years. I really saw the value in connecting children with books, and the possibility of their own lives through books. I tried to think of a job that was most like being a book seller. That was being a teacher. So I decided¹ to pursue my education degree and came to it that way really," Codell says.

 

Having worked as a children's book seller before teaching, Codell saw value in connecting children with books.

 

Teachers are not encouraged to think out of the box

When Codell became a teacher, at the age of 24, she faced classroom challenges her education degree hadn't prepared her for.

"Some of the children came from very violent and unhappy backgrounds," she says. "But, the thing that really struck me the most was how difficult it was to get the administration to back me on varied² approaches and trying to think out of the box. Because they have their own agenda and they have people they have to answer to. I think teaching, if you're going to be an effective teacher, it's a leader's occupation not a follower's occupation," she adds.

Real world experience handling classroom problems

Written in the form of a diary, Educating Esme includes dozens of the situations that took place in Codell's classroom, some heart-breaking, some hilarious³. She recounts how she struggled with a wide range of problems, from trying to improve her students' poor performance in reading and writing to dealing⁴ with children who constantly disrupted class. One of the biggest mistakes new teachers make when encountering wild behavior, she says, is giving it a lot of attention, which is exactly what the misbehaving child wants.

"It's tricky⁵ to not give a child the attention for the things that we don't like and ignore it and then focus on positive things they do so that they learn," she explains. "It's a behavioral modification⁶ technique. But really the best way to ensure classroom management is to engage the children. Working with textbooks usually doesn't work, handing out worksheets usually doesn't work and yelling till the sound of your loud voice becomes like the TV buzzing, that doesn't work either. What does work and what worked for me has to do with daily read aloud to children," she says.

Reading aloud to students works wonders

The technique of managing a class and teaching through reading out loud resonates with Heather Cella, who began teaching the same year Codell did.

"I was Esme's neighbor teacher," Cella recalls. "She and I had our first year teaching together. She helped all the time to find really good books for teaching certain areas [of study]. And you can use good literature to model thinking as a reader. So, as I'm reading [a book to the students], I can demonstrate how I'm making a prediction, how I'm making a connection. And conversely, [there are benefits] for writing. They have a prime example of where they can go as a writer," Cella says.

 

In"Educating Esme," Codell provides practical tips for new teachers

 

Find a mentor⁷ and individualize style are two tips

In Educating Esme, Codell provides other tips drawn⁸ from experience. For example she explains how she individualized the teaching process and found a mentor.

"I was really, really fortunate in that I went into first year teaching with a lot of confidence because I had an incredible mentor," she says. "My mentor was an evil, old, cantankerous⁹ woman who pulled ears and yelled at the children. Even though I don't think I would want to imitate her approach, what I came away with was an admiration¹⁰ for her investment in her approach. I wanted to have an approach that I could feel equally invested in," she says.

Esme Codell encourages other new teachers to do what they can to personalize their teaching style. And she recommends that they be trained to build bridges with their students' parents so they can orchestrate efforts to help children learn.

Esme Codell spent seven years teaching in Chicago schools before she resigned and returned to books, this time as an author.
 

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

3 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

6 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

7 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 cantankerous   

adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的

参考例句：

• He met a crabbed,cantankerous director.他碰上了一位坏脾气、爱争吵的主管。
• The cantankerous bus driver rouse on the children for singing.那个坏脾气的公共汽车司机因为孩子们唱歌而骂他们。

10 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。