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The Emergency Teacher

The Inspirational Story of a New Teacher in an Inner City School

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The Emergency Teacher

By: Christina Asquith
Narrated by: Nancy McLemore
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About this listen

Christina Asquith presents a moving firsthand account of her year teaching in one of Philadelphia’s worst schools. Told with striking humor and honesty, her story begins when the School District of Philadelphia, in desperate need of 1,500 new teachers, instituted a policy of hiring "emergency certified" instructors. Asquith, then a 25-year-old reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, joined their untrained ranks. More challenging than her classroom in the crime-infested neighborhood known as "the Badlands" are the trials she faced outside, including a corrupt principal, the politics that prevented a million-dollar grant from reaching her students, and the administration’s shocking insistence that teachers maintain the appearance of success in the face of utter defeat - even if it means falsifying test scores. Her story will inspire, educate, and entertain.

©2007 Christina Asquith (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Educators Witty

Editorial reviews

At age 25, Christina Asquith left her newspaper job to work as an emergency teacher in the Badlands area of Philadelphia. In this audiobook, narrator Nancy McLemore expresses the gamut of emotions that Asquith goes through as she navigates a school system that provides no support for teachers. Asquith starts off with optimistic hopefulness, and as she progresses through the year, struggling to do her job properly, McLemore shades her voice with dismay, exhaustion, and anxiety.

Asquith returned to journalism after a year of teaching, but her story remains relevant to listeners who care about education and wish to make a difference themselves.

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an interesting description of an inadequate education system

in a long repetitive documentation of systemic neglect, it was refreshing to learn what worked in this earnest teacher's classroom techniques. it's an important memoir.

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