#AWW 2019 Gabbie Stroud “Teacher”

• Author:  Gabbie Stroud
  
• Title: Teacher
  
• Published: 2018
  
• Genre: biography  (290 pg)
• Trivia: 2019 ABIA Awards short list
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #AWW2019
• @AusWomenWriter

 

Introduction:

1. Gabrielle Stroud was a primary school teacher from 1999 to 2015.
2. In 2014, Gabrielle Stroud was a very dedicated teacher.
3. Months later, she resigned in frustration and despair.
4. She realized that the Naplan-test education model
5. …was stopping her from teaching individual children
6. …according to their needs and talents.
7. Gabrielle tells the full story:
8. how she came to teaching…
9. what makes a great teacher…
10. what our kids need from their teachers…
11. and what it was that finally broke her.

 

Conclusion:

1. This book is a good effort of a teacher moving
2. from the classroom into a writing career.
3. I’m sure we will be hearing more from Gabbie Stroud
4. and I hope her writing skills will be even better.
5. I have seen many reviews on Goodreads and I
6. cannot agree:  this is not a 5 star book.
7. It is enjoyable but not profound.
8. In my opinion...less is more:
9. less family backround
10. — mother, sisters, boyfriend, chit-chat with daughters
11. even more reflections about teaching
12. — chapter 16 a teaching adventure at a Heritage School
13. in Canada was wrapped up in less than a chapter!
14. I’m sure there must be more to tell.
15. Writing style: this all comes down to the reader’s
16. own preferences.
17. I felt that Stroud could improve her writing by
18. less use of clichés...
19. Ch 8:
20. “I felt older, fatigued but the cup was still half full….”
21. Ch 26:
22. “…the glass is half full…but the water didn’t taste right.”
23. Ch 30:
24. “We all fall down Gab, our true measure is how we rise up.”
25. Ch 30
26. ” I did’t leave teaching….teaching left me.”
27. Dialogue: is conversational, simple.
28. Pathos: There were very few experiences
29. …that stirred up my emotions of pity, sympathy, and sorrow.
30. Problems were mentioned..but in a light, fluffy tone.
31. I was not swept away by Stroud’s story
32. …as I was  with the personal essays of written
33. Ashleigh Young in “Can You Tolerate This?“
34. This is the type of depth in the writing I hoped
35. Stroud would tell me about….the teaching profession.

 

1. What finally broke Stroud? (..in my opinion)
2. Teaching was changing too fast
3. …and Stroud’s adaptation was too slow.
4. Jack Welch…CEO of General Electric Company 1981-2001
5. phrased it perfectly.
6. ..and we all can learn from it:
7. “When the rate of change on the outside
8. …exceeds the rate of change on the inside
9. …then the end is near.”

 

Last Thoughts:

1. There was one spark in chapter 5 that
2. I thought would ignite the book:
3. Core message…
4. ” You showed me how to teach
5. …now show me how to be a teacher.”
6. Unfortunately this memoir/biography…fizzled out. 
7. I hate flat soda.