I am giving my copy away because I know that it will go to good use in someone else’s hands. Maybe someone knows a student that is going to become a teacher soon, or perhaps you are already a teacher and would like to read a book written by a kindred spirit. I honestly have not had enough time to read it but based on opinions it seems like it’s a great read. It has to be to be a 10 year anniversary edition with extra material. I mean she’s hugely popular and her diary was written to be a dialogue for teaching at risk-students. She sounds like she was quite an exciting first year teacher.

Order your copy HERE!

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Questions with Esme from Algonquin:

In Educating Esme, the children refer to you as Madame Esme instead of Ms. Codell. Do kids still call you Madame?

Everybody calls me Madame. It’s my nickname. I received a lot of criticism about hanging on to the moniker Madame that first year: That’s one thing I don’t regret in the least. I think names are powerful and personal and part of the American idea of reinventing yourself.

Educating Esme is widely used both in university programs and also for pleasure reading. To what do you attribute the book’s continuing success?

I think readers appreciate that it’s an authentic diary. For some people it’s eye opening for others it’s all to familiar. People can come at it from wherever they are whether they are teachers or teachers-to-be or maybe were students once upon a time. Since it’s from my limited point of view it’s fun to consider, “would I have made the same choices or mistakes?” “Would I have done things differently, or better, or the same?” “Would I have fired her, or quit?” The reason I published my diary was to create a dialogue around teaching in urban schools – what works, what doesn’t and what it looks like from a teacher’s perspective. And that conversation is still relevant.

Personal

My sister-in-law is a teacher and had a terrible experience with her first year. In fact, her first year was so bad that she quit teaching. There were a lot of factors. Being a first year teacher, I don’t think she had the support she needed especially since she was in an area where the children were difficult children. It sounds like she could have used this book when it was first released.

So I know this book can help someone out there. I hope the right person finds this giveaway.

Also, just so you know; my sister-in-law is teaching again.

About Esme Codell

Esme Codell is a nationally renowned advocate for literacy and literature-based instruction, dubbed “one of the nation’s most sought-after voices for empowering teachers” (People) and a “Superstar of Education” (Scholastic Instructor). Her diary, Educating Esme, was first published in 1999. Over 200,000 copies later, the irreverent and ground-breaking book has been hailed as “the gold standard” of the first-person account (The New York Times) and declared a “pop culture phenomenon” (Publishers Weekly)."

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