Customer Reviews

Learn Me Good

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Learn Me Good is an often laugh-out-loud, 'probably-true' story of an engineer who loses his job and ends up teaching 3rd grade math in Dallas, TX.

The book is presented as a series of emails that Mr. Wooden...uh, Woodley...errr...Woodson (read the book, you'll understand that part) sends to a friend at his prior employer about the kids he's teaching and the crazy things they do and say. It's worth the small price of the book just to read the subjects & clever names with which he closes every email, I found myself snickering at several.

I've never raised or worked with children, so I don't read this genre (and wouldn't have, had I not read about it on the Kindle Boards), but I laughed loud enough to startle my dog a few times and found most of the stories to be at the very worst, amusing. Most people who have had or taught small children would get quite a kick out of it.

The author states up front that he's changed all the names and that 'most' of the incidents he recounts are true, lol. The book is a quick, easy read and the author's love of his new-found profession comes shining through in this light-hearted book. I finished it in two nights, which could have been one if I weren't so busy. The book is about 55,000 words. I'm not sure how many pages that translates into, but it's definitely novel-length.

A note about the Kindle edition: I didn't find any typos or grammatical errors (none that weren't intentional, lol), just a couple of odd line breaks. Formatting for Kindle isn't easy. I didn't fine them too distracting & they don't warrant a reformat, in my opinion. To those who worry about errors taking away from the enjoyment of an ebook, you can feel confident in buying this book, it won't disappoint.

John Pearson has managed to put his wry sense of humor into the book, Learn Me Good. For anyone who has spent their days working with elementary-school students, many of these situations will seem familiar -- but funnier because of John's writing style. For those whose only experience in elementary school classrooms was the period of time that they were in elementary school, John's emails describing his life as a teacher will give insight into what teachers really do all day long.

This book would make a great gift to any teacher.

John Pearson's "Learn Me Good" is an enjoyable little book that you can get for the Kindle fairly cheaply. As many others have explained, the book is a semi-autobiographical account of Pearson's first year of teaching as told by a series of emails to a former coworker at "Heat Pumps R' Us."

There are several laugh out loud funny moments in the book, usually describing kids being innocently silly or budding psychopaths. It is a pleasant and humorous read and for the most part is a G-rated read that most anyone could enjoy. The few PG-13 jokes (among the funniest) would probably go right over kids heads anyhow.

A few things keep the book from earning a few more stars. One ongoing joke about a kid incorrectly spelling a famed four letter word is met at one point by a reference to "Turret's Syndrome." Admittedly this is unintentionally hilarious, but goes to the greater point of the book needing a bit of editing. Also, at times I found Pearson tried a bit too hard to slam jokes and pop culture references into every sentence instead of letting it flow more naturally.

All in all, they are mostly minor complaints and Learn Me Good will give you some excellent laughs. For the price, it is hard to resist.

After each email ended, I was faced with a conundrum: keep reading on or stop and save the rest for later, savoring each email like a piece of fine chocolate. I wanted to keep reading on, but didn't want this book to end!

I stumbled across this book as I searched for books with the same themes as mine (humor, education). The book preview was enough to convince me to buy the book--I liked the author's style of humor and the writing was good.

This book is hilarious! I especially like how the author uses references from previous chapters in subsequent ones, adding to the comedy by making the reader feel like a story insider.

I have so many favorite lines, but I think "Calls me Ishmaels" takes the cake! I hope this author writes more in the future!

This is a very charming story about a former engineer's first year as a third-grade math teacher. The story is told in a series of emails from the new teacher to a former co-worker. The format means that there is not a lot of character development or action, but you still get a picture of how he feels about the various children he struggles to enlighten. Mr. Woodson's affection and dedication overcome his frustration with the school system, TAKS, and stoned parents. It's light reading, entertaining, and touching.

John Pearson's quick wit and descriptive storytelling made for great reading in between grading papers. Some of his chapters/emails almost made the paste I was eating shoot out my nose. Although the semi-autobiographical Learn Me Good details John's first year as a elementary school teacher, I found that it resonated with me as a middle school teacher as well.

Good stuff...

Wonderful, funny, insightful look into the crazy day-to-day experiences of teaching in the public school system. Vastly entertaining and hilarious-Mr.Pearson evokes the fascinating "characters"(students) that teachers have to put up with in the never boring world of teaching!

I had the pleasure of working with John (no I wasn't in the book...I was ripped off..j/k). I moved away from Dallas almost 2 years ago. When I was handed this book by one of our friends I just couldn't put it down. I am so thankful to have a true author out there that is telling it like it really is. Many people think that we just "babysit" the kids for 8 hours, get vacation time (and a lot of it) and don't endure much stress. Like my current principal says, "teachers endure so much stress during the 9 to 10 months that they do work, they DESERVE their summer break." Thanks, to John and this awesome book we now have given the world another side of teaching to look at and opening up the eyes of many "non-teachers" as to what really can happen in a day of the life of a teacher. Everyone should sit down and read this book, teacher or not! Be ready to laugh your butt off and step into the world of a true TEACHER!! I teach therefore I am...POOR!! AMEN!

The house is a mess as I couldn't put this down. I laughed out loud, much to the bemusement of my children, and have come to the conclusion that the grass isn't greener on the other side of the pond but pretty much the same, the kids just speak with different accents!

I only wish the school year were longer in Dallas as I wanted to carry on reading!

But leave our teeth out of it!!

Funny bits of stories about his first teaching class of 3rd grade students.

I would have preferred it written in a story format with his interactions with the children being in a continual story. The e-mail headings jarred my thought process. It made it a 'jerky' read for me. I understand why he wrote it that way and the (unread) remarks from answering e-mails gave me some smiles. Just not worth it overall to me.

I liked the way he handled the learning process(competitions and games) . It's sad that more parents don't take an active interest in their child's learning.