Why did I get a B? : and other mysteries we're discussing in the faculty lounge

Why did I get a B? And other mysteries we're discussing in the faculty lounge

Shannon Reed

Book - 2020

"This hilarious, inspirational, and wise collection of personal essays and humor from a longtime educator explores all the joys, challenges, and absurdities of being a teacher, following in the footsteps of such classics as Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, The Courage to Teach, and Up the Down Staircase. Shannon Reed did not want to be a teacher, but now, after twenty years of working with children from preschool to college, there's nothing she'd rather be. In essays full of humor, heart, and wit, she illuminates the highs and lows of a job located at the intersection of youth and wisdom. Bringing you into the trenches of this most important and stressful career, she rolls her eyes at ineffectual administrators, weeps wit...h her students when they experience personal tragedies, complains with her colleagues about their ridiculously short lunchbreaks, and presents the parent-teacher conference from the other side of the tiny table. From dealing with bullies and working with special needs students to explaining the unwritten rules of the teacher's lounge, Why Did I Get a B? is full of as much humor and heart as the job itself"--

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Subjects
Reed, Shannon.
Reed, Shannon > Anecdotes.
Teachers > United States > Biography.
Teaching > United States > Anecdotes.
Teaching > United States > Humor.
Autobiographies.
Anecdotes.
Humor.
Essays.
Genres
Autobiographies
Anecdotes
Humor
Essays
Published
New York, NY : Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Shannon Reed (author)
Edition
First Atria Books hardcover edition
Physical Description
xiii, 272 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781982136093
  • Author's Note
  • Preface: You Are Not Alone
  • Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Teacher?: A Quiz
  • If People Talked to Other Professionals the Way They Talk to Teachers
  • Part I. Preschool, Elementary School, and Middle School
  • How I Came to Teach Preschool
  • Other Vehicular Styles of Parenting
  • All Your Children Are Broken
  • It's Cooking Day at Preschool!
  • A Letter from Your Child's Teacher, on Winter Holiday Gifts
  • Middle School Parent-Teacher Conference Night, in Internet Headlines
  • How I Imagined My Teachers Conversed about Me When I Was Thirteen
  • Memo to Parents and Legal Guardians Re: Our Updated Schedule for Spirit Days at Mapledale Middle School
  • Part II. High School
  • How I Came to Teach High School
  • The Unspoken Rules of the Teachers' Lounge
  • An Alphabet for the School at the End of Beach 112th
  • Student Essay Checklist
  • A Conclusive Ranking of the Students at Hogwarts by Order of How Much I Would Enjoy Teaching Them
  • Dear Parents: We're Going with a Hamilton-Centered Curriculum This Year!
  • Somewhat More Free
  • Random School Motto Generator
  • The Other Class
  • A Field Guide to Spotting Bad Teachers
  • Paulie
  • It's Your Twenty-Minute Lunch Period!
  • To Stan, with Love
  • Field Trip Rules
  • Teachers Reveal the Holiday Gifts They Actually Want
  • I'm Going to Make It through the Last Faculty Meeting of the Year by "Yes, and..."-ing It
  • Part III. College
  • All Part of a Plan, Maybe; or, How I Came to Be a Professor
  • If Bruce Springsteen Wrote about Adjuncts
  • On Adjuncting
  • Classic College Movies Updated for the Adjunct Era
  • A Brief List of What Students Have Called Me
  • On Student Evaluations
  • My Ideal Student Evaluation Questionnaire
  • Worst, Weirdest, and Best
  • A Short Essay by a Student Who Googled the Professor Instead of Reading Jane Eyre
  • Moral Quandaries for Professors
  • I See You.
  • An Incomplete List of Sources I Have Seen Plagiarized
  • I Know You're Asleep Right Now, but Please Get Back to Me ASAP
  • Sports Analogies for Academics
  • "Why Did I Get a B?": An Answer in Four Fables
  • Taught
  • Everyone Who Attends Must Converse
  • Part IV. A Few Last Tidbits for the Cool Kids Who Like to Hang Out in My Room after School Is Out
  • My Last Pieces of Good Advice for New Teachers and Professors
  • How I Imagine Retirement from Teaching Will Be at Seventy-Two
  • Acknowledgments
  • Credits
Review by Booklist Review

University writing instructor Reed's decades spent instructing preschool, middle school, high school, and college students have provided her with ample material for her first book: a very funny, very heartfelt combination memoir and collection of wry riffs on teaching. Her author's note indicates that the essays are biographical, and are accurate, more or less. The shorter, often laugh-out-loud humor pieces are supposedly imaginative, but still ring true. Reed, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker's "Daily Shouts" column, consistently engages with her writing here, whether it's a blow-by-blow description of "preschool cooking day" or a partial list of plagiarized sources (such as the online menu of a Chicago steak house). Reed's love and respect for her students shines through in every piece, tempering every escapade and softening every punch line. And it's not all laughs. There are poignant stories about students, both inspirational and tragic; descriptions of deplorable schools and ineffective administrators; and the occasional gut punch: Bad teachers are completely deaf to the cries of human students. Reed's teaching experiences have ranged from accidental to grossly misinformed to maybe making a difference to pretty darn good. Readers will enjoy these ramblings by a thoroughly likable, relatable narrator.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Reed (creative writing, Univ. of Pittsburgh) offers a raw, intimate look at her journey to become a teacher. Initially, she never wanted to teach but eventually realized it was her calling; she's now taught for more than 20 years, at the preschool, middle and high school, and college levels. Juxtaposing personal narratives with humorous vignettes in a variety of forms (lists, dialogs, fables), Reed considers her own biases and discusses the realities, heartbreaks, and pleasures of teaching. The author offers a starkly honest, at times irreverent view of the triumphs and challenges of teaching. Readers will cheer at Reed's accounts of student victories and sigh in exasperation at her descriptions of incompetent administrators. While the variety of formats results in a slightly unstructured work, overall Reed's candid writing about a stressful yet rewarding career will resonate with educators. VERDICT For educators who yearn to see some of their own struggles and joys represented through another teacher's eyes.--Rachel Wadham, Brigham Young Univ. Libs., Provo, UT

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A teacher and writer shares her thoughts on education and life in general. Reed, who has taught at nearly every level, including her current position teaching creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, uses essays, lists, quizzes, and other elements to share her two decades of wisdom. Though the author didn't always dream of being a teacher, when a job opportunity opened up at a preschool, she took the position. One day, while explaining why the season was called "fall" and seeing the light bulb go on in one child's head, she caught the bug. "That was it for me, the first moment I was ready to admit I was no longer just a person who liked kids and liked that they liked me," she writes. "No. I was a teacher. I had taught. They had learned. They were smarter now! I was hooked." From the preschool, she moved on to an all-girls Catholic school in Rockaway. Because it was such a long commute from her apartment in Brooklyn, she often arrived late to class, but she loved "the diversity of the student body," which was comprised of students of numerous ethnicities. From there, Reed moved on to a high school, where she learned how to work with bullies, particularly one boy who not only verbally and physically attacked other students, but made rude comments to her. Eventually, she got her MFA, taught college classes, and found a comfortable, rewarding spot at Pitt. Using honesty and humor, Reed sheds light on what it means to be a public school teacher in a variety of locations, working with students from different backgrounds. She often indicates that she has learned as much from her pupils about everyday life as they have from her. Reflective essays that expose the good and the bad sides of being an educator. Good reading for aspiring teachers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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