teach passionately

American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom by Katrina Fried
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: non-fiction
Review: Anyone who's been lucky enough to have a really good teacher knows how inspiring they can be and what a gift it is to be in their classroom.  So I expected a book that collects the stories of 50 "extraordinary" teachers to be similarly inspiring.  Unfortunately, this book didn't exactly inspire me.  Each teacher gets 3 or 4 pages in which to tell their story, and they are all informative in their own way, but it's clear that simple words on a page aren't the best medium for most of these teachers.  This should come as no surprise, as it's their dynamic natures and imaginative thinking that have earned them their "extraordinary" label.  Most of the teachers couldn't be clearer in their belief that you must teach to the student, and not to the test, and meeting the needs of each student in their classroom requires more energy and enthusiasm than can be demonstrated between the pages of a book.  But there is one thing that they all communicated clearly: the best teachers are the ones who have a passion for the profession, and every person included in this book has that passion in spades.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review.