Sara Solano

EDU 211

Professor Deborah Sullivan

Tony Danza Assignment

October 7, 2020

I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: Book Analysis

Chapter One

As Mr. Danza anxiously waits for his students to enter the class, the advice received

during orientation and from his circumstantial encounter with a veteran teacher that worked as

a store clerk replayed in his mind. During orientation the woman providing instruction stressed

that teachers must “engage the students”, her grimace while she said it displayed her

bitterness, and with resentment she followed with this comment: “no one seems to question

why the burden is all on the teacher engaging when we ask so little of the students, or for that

matter the parents”. Her comment was meant to warn him about the frustration, that stems

from the debilitating pressures that teachers have to endure. In this case, I believe her advice

was not effective due to its negative nature regarding the profession but it was valid because it

touched on the very important subject of accountability for teachers, students and parents. She

feels like only teachers are held accountable for student success and highlights the lack of

accountability placed on students and parents. It is a teacher’s job as well as the parents to

motivate the children to take responsibility for their own education. Therefore, student

accountability arises from a teacher’s effectivity and active parental involvement. However, the

pressure for a teacher is higher because many parents lack the capability to provide that much
needed support for their children. An effective educator who is passionate about the profession

understands this and should be willing to go the extra mile, to seek parental support. If there is

no success in their attempts, a teacher has to try and fill that gap and provide the necessary

support to impart self-accountability.

The second advice “don’t smile before Christmas” received from the veteran teacher, in

my opinion was also extremely negative and not effective. His advice implied that in order to

gain respect Mr. Danza needed to put on a harsh façade. This piece of advice is invalid and

irrational. Although it is true that a teacher must be stern to assert clear student and teacher

boundaries, it is inaccurate that a teacher has to be an unapproachable figure. In my opinion,

the contrary is more effective to gain student respect. Students are more likely to respect their

teacher, when he or she is an approachable individual that cares about students’ well-being,

not only in the academic sense but also about their personal lives.

At the end of his first lesson Danza also gets advice from his supervisor. He consoles him

by reassuring him that all first- year teachers go through the nervousness and scramble at the

beginning. He reminds him about the importance of lesson plans which he had forgotten to use.

The lesson plan has to encompass more than the curricula, it should include each lesson goal,

as well as how to asses students’ retention. This advice is valid and very effective, because if he

had kept his lesson plan close and glanced at it throughout the class, Mr. Danza would have had

better classroom management, utilized time more effectively by not derailing from the lesson’s

goal.

There were many factors that motivated Mr. Danza to become a teacher at the age of

almost sixty. He was enduring a difficult time in his life, in which many drastic and sudden
changes had occurred and he wanted to do something meaningful in the next step of his life.

First of all, he had recently become unemployed with the cancellation of his talk show. The

termination of his show was a hard hit for Danza because he really loved his job. When he

looked over his work during the show, he realized that the most fulfilling aspect of it was the

help he was able to provide to underprivileged schools through it. He had recently seen a Teach

for America documentary and loved the high energy and passion displayed by the kids during a

show they put together. What moved him the most about watching the documentary was the

absent audience, which was indicative that these children lacked support. He compared it to

the support that his own children were fortunate enough to receive and was inspired to help.

Danza had studied to be a teacher during his youth but never got to exercise his profession due

to the unexpected career opportunities that came his way. He felt this was his opportunity to

retake this career path and make a difference in kids’ lives.

Chapter 2

On Mr. Danza’s second day on the job, he found out by a colleague that he was

supposed to sign in every morning and that it was crucial to do so. The Vice Principal was

unforgiving about the offense and scolded him. The Vice Principal’s reaction was accurate in the

sense that it was a serious legally binding safety procedure and there was no room for error.

What was inaccurate, was how condescending she was with Mr. Danza. I believe her reaction is

atypical in smaller community school, but typical in an urban school setting like this one. In an

urban school, administrators and teachers are under constant stress and use fear in order to be

respected. If I had a similar encounter with a principal on my first day, I would be shaken up,
humiliated, and lose a great deal of confidence. Losing confidence would definitely impact my

teaching---after the fact I would second guess everything and it would show in my performance.

Mr. Danza’s confidence took another shot when questioned by a student about his

abilities as a teacher. Being challenged this way is intimidating and it would certainly take me by

surprise. In the other hand, the challenge would encourage me to try even harder to meet his

educational expectations.

Unlike the advice received by the veteran teacher in the first chapter, Mr. Danza

receives a wonderfully inspiring letter from a retired teacher, that gives him insightful advice in

all aspects from proper attire to school politics. He mentions that being a teacher is like being

“part salesman, part actor and lots of compassion”. He is making it clear that a teacher’s job is

complex and to succeed much more than academic knowledge is needed. A teacher has to

“sale” the material to students. Make them buy into the importance of what is being taught

and persuade them to give it their all. A teacher is an “actor”, they have to entertain students

to engage them and can never bring their personal problems or bad moods to the classroom.

Also, a teacher has to hide any feelings of preference for a specific student. “Compassion”, lots

of it, is absolutely a necessary quality to have as an educator. He makes this point, by telling Mr.

Danza to always allow opportunity for extra credit, to minimize homework keeping in mind the

responsibilities that students have after school, and to make sure that students understand and

are aware of their grade weeks before their parents--- to give them the chance to make an

effort to improve. The advice he gives him about keeping, a simple, comfortable professional

wardrobe was also very good. Wearing a comfortable attire will allow a teacher to be more

energetic in class. Also, wearing simple clothes and hiding tattoos is a good idea because it will
avoid distractions in the classrooms, and will help in keeping a respectable image with students.

He also advised Danza to find like minded teachers, “teachers who get it”, to help him get to

know the rest of the staff “candidly”. This is excellent advice because knowing what to expect

from colleagues can be tremendously useful information for a first-year teacher. He also gave

him very helpful suggestions for effective classroom management. Utilizing fun innovative ways

such as music, sounds or gestures to cue students into following directions is very effective.

Establishing a routine early on is key for effective classroom management because students

“respond to routine”. Having a routinely procedure in place, will prevent misbehavior and

chaos, and maximize educational time. I loved all the advice given I this letter and I am certain it

will all serve me well in my future as a teacher but the advice that struck me the most was the

one about self -reflection. He recommend to at the end of each day to sit and analyze if the

work put forth was the best, and if not to think about what should have been different and

work on improving.

Chapters 5 – 6 and pgs. 159-163

In the following chapters Mr. Danza dabbles with different teaching methods and uses

his creativity to engage students. Chapter five opens with the question, “HOW BEST TO REACH

your students?” Questioning yourself this way as an educator I identify it as a “best practice”.

Before introducing material to his students, Mr. Danza thinks about how can he make the

students relate to the material by leading them to connect with the material on a personal

level. When he has to introduce the class to their first book assignment, he chooses to assign

“Of Mice and Men”, a challenging but short book. He anticipates that the size of the book will
give the students confidence. This is another “best practice” because if students are intimidated

by the work they are inclined to give up before trying and cause them a great deal of

unnecessary stress. One of the students complains that no matter how hard he tries he “just

doesn’t get it”. Mr. Danza gives him many suggestions on how enhance his comprehension but

soon realizes that the problem is that he, like many other students, just don’t like reading. Mr.

Danza understands the role that being a good reader plays on students’ education; so, he

challenges himself to get his students to love reading. Danza knows that instilling love for

reading won’t be easy but knows that a good start is giving them reading material that will

appeal to them. He switches gears and makes them read “Twilight”. Just like with “Of Mice and

Men”, he quizzes them weekly and holds an open-discussions in the classroom. His strategy

works. Almost everybody in the class is into the book and have no problem with

comprehension.

When is time for his first unit test, Mr. Danza creates a scavenger hunt to review the

material. The students are excited to participate in the activity, it is learning disguised as play

topped off with a side of competition. The game was very successful in aiding retention of

difficult and challenging material like the “Of Mice and Men”, all students including the

complainer, did great on the test. Continuing the trend of finding ways to excite his students, he

includes the new school hot topic which is uniforms in his lesson. Students are passionate about

the subject and are eager to express it. He decides to turn it into a debate which again is very

successful which leads him to make it a weekly feature in his class. This is an excellent strategy,

because it enhances students’ critical thinking and debating is another method to excite

students about the class topic.

 The next topic Mr. Danza has to introduce is Shakespeare. He admits to be intimidated

by it and seeks guidance. Seeking guidance from other educators is a “best practice”. Before

introducing the material to his students, he wants to “convince” himself that learning this is

worthwhile. An educator has to have conviction about what he is teaching and make a

connection to the material to be successful in making students connect with it. He starts of by

teaching students about Shakespeare in a “historical context” and asks the students to create

projects of their choosing to demonstrate his importance and influence. Allowing students to

get creative and take charge of the research not only enhances autonomy and critical thinking,

but the knowledge about the writer will connect them to him. Students are able to further

connect with the text by translating the difficult Elizabethan to their slang. This is another

victory because students grasped very challenging material and demonstrated it during

assessment.

Another “best practice” displayed by Mr. Danza was the time he took to care for his

students’ individual well-being. When Pepper got into trouble with the Vice Principal for

making a distasteful joke, Danza took it upon himself to make sure Pepper apologized properly

for his mistake and got him out of trouble. He showed care and instilled moral values. This

same student was later attacked by another, and in this occasion too, he took the time to

assure the issue was resolved and was there to provide emotional support. A second student’s

work was in decline, and even though she didn’t like him, he sought out to find out the reason

for the change and showed compassion for her situation. He also held her accountable for her

school work by telling her that she could not allow stress to interfere with her work and that
there was “no excuse” for it. His empathetic approach and the advice provided actually did the

trick and geared the student back on track.

Mr. Danza follows the retired teacher’s advice and finds ways to connect with his

colleagues. He organizes a teacher talent show for a good cause, and creates much excitement

between faculty and students. This gesture, actually changes the minds of other teachers who

doubted his ability and hones intentions of being a teacher. His efforts did not stop there and

later in the year he organized a teachers’ happy hour. This allowed for teachers to get

acquainted outside of school grounds, unwind, and be able to discuss freely about any topic.

There they are able to find common ground in their passion for education which at the end of

the day inspires and motivates them to continue to put forth their best effort knowing they are

not alone in it.

Chapters 11-12

Mr. Danza has made it to the end of the year and is preparing to review the curriculum

in the last six weeks left. The pressure is on when he is informed that attendance plummets at

the end of the year and the last two weeks are a total loss. He is even more disappointed when

he finds out that a final exam is not required by the district and most teachers opt against it. He

is very surprised by the news and wonders how do teacher evaluate student learning. He needs

to know that his efforts have paid off and decides to go ahead and administer a final exam. He

uses a variety of tools to review the material and decides to employ what was one of his most

successful review methods which was the scavenger hunt. This time he takes student

suggestions and offers extra credit as the winning prize. The competitive and fun nature of this
exercise brings forth students’ best effort. Unfortunately, there is a big scare when a student

passes out in the middle of the game. Mr. Danza steps up to the plate and drives the student

and his father to the hospital.

The final exam is complete and Mr. Danza is very proud of it. He has compiled a

comprehensive exam, that like his quizzes, included different types of assessments that will give

students the opportunity to show their comprehension. However, the exam is eleven pages

long, and he is discouraged by one of the teachers that calls the exam “risky”. At this point

there is no time left for make ups; therefore, if students fail, they won’t be able to recover. He

decides to stick with the exam because he is confident and is certain his students will do well.

Mr. Danza’s confidence speaks volumes about the belief that he has in his students’ ability to

learn and the quality of his work. The day of the exam all students show up despite the fact that

school attendance at this point vis almost none existent. Students are calm and are not

intimidated by the length of the exam. Mr. Danza walks around and encouraging them and

making sure they stay on track.

After grading the exams, he learns that his prediction was correct. All his students had

done well on the test including his IEP students. As he read the essay portions of the exam, he

notices that majority of the students had written that the most important thing they have

learned is one of the life lessons he has imparted throughout the year. Mr. Danza has had a

wonderful impact on the children including those who had given him a hard time. He is further

rewarded by his success when he is invited to join a secret teacher club. There many confess

they had no confidence in him but there is no doubt, Danza is a teacher. At the meeting he gets
to meet in person the veteran teacher who had written him the advice letter at the beginning of

the year. He announces that he was the one who voted him into the club.

Is the last week of school and high emotions are rolling. The kids are particularly rowdy

and are driving him insane. But when he loses his patience students displays of affection remind

him how much he cares about them. He gets very emotional at the thought of saying good bye

to his students and breaks down in tears. Several times, including when he watches a movie

with the class at the students’ insistence. The movie is about a teacher who like him starts

teaching in an urban school and has to deal with very difficult students. He realizes that this was

how the students were testing how genuine his feeling were towards them and they are not

disappointed. When the last day of school arrives, Mr. Danza is again honored by being the

featured speaker at the graduation. His students hang around and help him pack up the room

and present him with a scrapbook done in his honor. When all students are finally gone, he

feels a sense of uncertainty. He doesn’t know if his presence there has had the impact he would

have hoped for. He is heartbroken at the idea of not seeing his students again and wonders if

his emotional attachment to his students was only because he only had one class. He is also

emotional when saying good bye to his colleagues. He has built friendships and has come to

deeply admire many of them. One of the teacher’s gestures with him appease his doubts with

the message that making a difference at least for one is admirable. He knows that he was able

to reach and make a difference for at least some of his students in the short time he had with

them.

Mr. Danza’s embodies the most important aspect of what is required to be a teacher

which is genuine care for the students. Despite his inexperience and many hiccups, his
commitment to success and his enthusiasm to make a difference helped him use his ingenuity

to reach his goal of imparting knowledge and making a difference in kids lives. His success went

beyond academic success, he taught his students life lessons, moral values, and provided them

with emotional support. He didn’t enter the classroom knowing exactly what to do, but he was

brave enough to stick it out and figure it out along the way and his students were grateful for

his efforts.