• Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire

  • By: Rafe Esquith
  • Narrated by: James Yaegashi
  • Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (187 ratings)

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Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire  By  cover art

Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire

By: Rafe Esquith
Narrated by: James Yaegashi
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Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Rafe Esquith, the only teacher to receive the National Medal of Arts, has garnered the American Teacher Award and numerous other honors. Still teaching fifth graders in a small, leaky classroom in downtown Los Angeles, Esquith fosters a wholesome climate where character, humility, and diligence matter and support is unconditional. For his mostly poor and Hispanic students, Esquith models two maxims: Be nice and work hard, and There are no shortcuts. And his students thrive!
©2007 Rafe Esquith (P)2007 Recorded Books

What listeners say about Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring even if not what it claims to be

This is a very inspiring account of putting the creation of a classroom community and the building of character first in a way that brings amazing dividends in student growth. The author does not tell you that he is teaching a gifted class of Mexican and Asian immigrants but let's you think that he is dealing with all o the problem that a teacher of inner city youth deals with. Still, I came away with dozens of ideas for my 4th, 5th and 6th classroom by listening to this book.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • ZL
  • 04-17-18

Best for elementary teachers

This is a book that might benefit elementary school teachers most as the author goes into details about teaching each subject to a group of well-behaved 5th graders. What I found most inspiring was the 6 principles Rafe mentioned at beginning and he clearly carried out those principles through his teaching.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I wish I had read this book at college.

Rafe takes you through a magical and captivating journey that will inspire the mind and touch the heart. What a book!!!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • MM
  • 01-19-16

Good use of moral development theory

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. The author's use of Kohlberg's moral development as a classroom management/teaching strategy was inspiring. The actual writing was a little sloppy and not always politically correct in terms of characterizing certain groups of people.

What other book might you compare Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire to and why?

None

Have you listened to any of James Yaegashi’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't know if I've heard other books by Yaegashi.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

The actual writing was substandard but the concepts and the reader were great.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful book

Rafe Esquith's books are inspiring and full of helpful information for teachers.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I Re-read Thus Book Almost Every Yesr

This is my favorite teacher inspiration book. It is even better on audio, you go Rafe!!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

What works but no path from what doesn't

The author approaches the confounding crisis of the American education system with creativity and urgency. He talks at length about the doors he opens and the children who venture to walk through them. I found myself repeatedly wondering about the ones who didn't or couldn't.

Perhaps I count myself among those who haven't crossed the threshold. The picture he paints seems an impossible fantasy. For an effective classroom, be someone who has taught for 20 years. For all you first year teachers... good luck. Mr. Esquith briefly acknowledges the difficult realities of his classroom environment in the epilogue but rarely anywhere else. Repeatedly telling about only the successes makes it seem less believable not more. I appreciate the 6 levels of morality and his efforts to transform all of their time together into teachable moments.

This title being 13 years old it is not surprising that 95% of the book, movie, and lit titles are authored by white men. Perhaps I am yearning for this to be a different book.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

seems far fetched

At the beginning of this book, I was inspired. However by the end I felt the author must live in a magical world where there are no behavior concerns, no IEPs or county mandated curriculum. I applaud his ability to spend thousands of hours of time after school with and without students, but I cannot visualize the outcome in my own classroom.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A MUST READ!!!

This book is so insightful and inspiring. I am going to use what I learned from Rafe and apply it to my own teaching in my own classroom.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not really for high school teachers

There's a part about character development that is interesting and, as a high school English teacher, I found that part the part discussing English slightly helpful.

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