First published 2010
Steve Poizner has built and managed billion dollar companies in Silicon Valley. Now he faces twelfth graders at Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose, one of California's most challenging schools. His business expertise feels useless when a student's boyfriend gets arrested for bank robbery. The classroom demands different skills than the boardroom. Poizner adapts by organizing Jeopardy games and bringing outside speakers to campus. He works to show his students that learning can be exciting and that their world extends beyond the school's boundaries. As the year progresses, Poizner questions his purpose there but discovers he is getting an education of his own. The students respond to his unconventional methods. By year's end, Poizner earns Rookie Teacher of the Year recognition, but his real victory comes when every one of his students graduates.
Genres: american-fiction, education, biography-memoir, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Mount Pleasant High School, San Jose, California
Period: 21st-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Portfolio Hardcover