Education Teaching Books

This is the only how-to teacher book that I've read cover to cover in the last 10 years. I love Hairy. I ordered Giggles in the Middle: Caught'ya! Grammar with a Giggle for Middle School and also read it cover to cover.

In a desolate, lifeless, serious world of standards that my colleagues bemoan and administrators preach, these books are small green seedlings of hope.

Caught'yas has great ideas to engage all students in correcting writing errors. I really liked that it is personalized for every class and stresses that it should be fun.

I bought the book at Christmas break and my 4th graders look forward to it every morning when they come in the door. Brilliant!

I was excited about using the book, so when I received it I became a little discouraged because some of the vocabulary was over my child's head. However, I was able to adjust it to her level. This book is geared toward a teacher with many students, so if you're homeschooling, you'll just have to overlook that part. Most of the book is explaining what Caught'Ya! is, how it works and samples. She gives very detailed steps for using the sentences with lots of ideas included. She has broken down the sentences into vocabulary, spelling, diagramming sentences, writing assignments, showing writing and tests. She has also included as examples copies of her students' work and how she graded it.
As I write each sentence on the blackboard we use at home, I have changed some of the sentences and vocabulary words as I said. Since we've been using this daily for about three or four weeks now, I decided before I wrote this review to ask my child how she likes using this program. Her response was, "I love it. It's lots of fun." I can also tell you she has progressed a great deal since we started. I haven't even really begun to explain commas to her, yet she was asking me should she put one in a sentence she was working on. I've been pretty impressed with her progress, especially since she's ADHD. It's been tough for her to grasp this part of learning, so finding something that works is quite an achievement.
The most important part of all of this is the hype as Ms. Kiester says in her book and as I say each day to my child as we start a sentence, "Do I get to Catch Ya! today?" She responds with a defiant look and a slightly mischievious twinkle in her eye, "I don't think so!"

Although the concept is a good one, I swept this book under rug. As an English teacher, I am always willing to find fun activities to peak my student's learning, but I refuse to use stories that sound disrespectful toward teachers and students. My job is to teach respect for peers and to build character while teaching the beauty of Engish, but this book offers neither.

I needed this book for a class. The only problem I had was that I could not upgrade to express delivery

There is no picture of the text because on the front it says it's the international student version for use outside the US. Very misleading information on the site.

This book is a good way to learn step by step how to write an education based proposal. If you are in any other field this won't be something you want to use. The CD & wkbk are nice compliments to the text. The CD is worth purchasing it helps with the SMAs.

This is a good book for beginning researcher. It explains difficult concepts with simple to understand words. There are also samples that are very good guide for proposal writing.

How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education with PowerWeb is a great tool... The book came in brand new condition along with the workbook and cd.

Review:

Kronman is an intensely literate & learned Yale law professor (who also has a philosophy degree); he's also a political liberal (who worked for the SDS in the sixties & who currently supports Obama). This work, however, is a work of cultural conservatism.

Few will argue with Kronman's critique of higher learning. Both cultural progressives & cultural conservatives in the humanities will concede that college & university culture has one goal in mind: to train young minds to think professionally--that is to master a set of competencies (lexical & methodological norms) that will allow them to succeed in their chosen fields. That sounds rational enough, but the problem with this is that the professionalization of the humanities has also meant the mechanization of the humanities into a set of procedural norms that are no longer spiritually nourishing.

Kronman, who has also written a book about Max Weber, argues that the university's current predicament is the result of a long process of secularization. Kronman claims that there is a resurgent need for spirituality at the present time & that the humanities once again need to provide not just professional but spiritual guidance.

Kronman is not suggesting a return to any specific religion, what he is suggesting is a return to basic questions & concerns ( ie what is the meaning of life ?, what is the best way to live?) that he (somewhat arbitrarily) calls "spiritual" into the matrix of higher learning. This is his suggested cure not just for what ails higher learning, but for what ails humanity.

A return to basic questions & concerns sounds like a fine idea, but Kronman opens himself up to a number of problems when he equates globalization with westernization & a return to basic questions with a return to the canonical texts of western civilization (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill). Kronman is not exactly dismissive of multiculturalism for he believes that students should learn about other cultures, but he believes that ones primary loyalty should be to one's home culture. In other words, Kronman believes that students will not find fulfillment in "superficial multiculturalism" but by immersing themselves in strictly western ways of being/knowing/valuing/believing.

Kronman obviously means well, but he simply doesn't account for the fact that the modern classroom is full of students & teachers with roots in many different cultures & traditions. To be fair to Kronman, he does respect other cultures & traditions, and he thinks that we need to learn about them, but what he fails to acknowledge is the possibility that we may learn something from them as well. As smart as he is, Kronman's anglocentric bias prevents him from seeing the world (or the classroom) as it is: a multicultural contact zone. And he fails to see that contact with cultures & histories & traditions other than western ones does not entail a loss to the existing tradition but an addition to it.

I think Kronman, and those cultural conservatives like him, believe that their way of life, the western way of life, is threatened by multiculturalism & globalization. So Kronman reacts by writing a book that suggests we institutionally defend the west against encroachments from the nonwestern world. But the best of what has been thought in the west is not in any danger when we amend or compare & contrast those thoughts with the best that has been thought outside of the west. In fact, studying other traditions simply adds to the number of ways we can ask & answer the basic questions that concern all of humanity (and not just that portion of it that we call western).

The best possible future will be fashioned not by those who formulate east/west or west/other relations as a contest for superiority between separate worlds, but by those who have the imagination to build upon the best of what has been thought regardless of that thoughts national or hemispheric origin.

Many cultural progressives & conservatives agree that the idea of the university is in trouble. Kronman's book is valuable for diagnosing what ails the modern university and the modern world, but his prescription is overly conservative, short-sighted, and does not engage the imagination in the way that a much more comprehensive and much more far-sighted (and much less anglocentric) set of higher learning reforms would.

Editorial:

I think the idea of a return to basic questions & concerns is a good idea, but I think that the problem with education today is even more basic than that. Kronman is a lawyer & an academic who is enlivened by argument & thus he no doubt enjoyed producing this text which is an intervention into a lively debate with a long history. The problem with Kronman is that he assumes that others will be enlivened by the same things that enliven him. The problem with academia is that too many academics assume that what interests them will & should interest 18-22 year olds. Very few academics really make an attempt to understand what interests & enlivens young people & why, and so many well-intentioned academics fail to recognize that the classroom is a stifling place for many creative-minded students who are not spiritually enlivened nor fulfilled by this or that academic's version of educational life. I'm guessing that a concentration on western texts will alienate more students than it will assist or spiritually nourish. I think I am safe in saying that most students who read Kant do not find themselves to be having anything like a religious experience while doing so. What makes most people feel spiritually enlivened, I'm guessing, are things like love & hope & possibility, and not Plato & Kant & Mill.

Academics will better serve their students when they better understand student needs. And the quickest way to do this is to pay attention to what they spend their time doing: constructing & editing their MySpace & Facebook pages. MySpace or Facebook might seem like a foreign & irrelevant universe to academics but if they take the time to understand why these sites are so appealing to students they might better understand their students. MySpace & Facebook allow students a rare opportunity to express themselves; and to connect with distant and not so distant others; and they provide a unique way for students to produce & manage their private & social selves & worlds. If academics understood this then they might find better ways to understand & connect with students and, more generally, understand how contemporary individuals cope with contemporary realities. Discussions of common fears, hopes, & desires as well as discussions of contemporary ways of expressing & coping with common fears, hopes, & desires might prove more interesting & useful & satisfying than a seminar on The Republic, Critique of Pure Reason, or On Liberty (though these texts, of course, have their place as well). But if the university truly concentrated on basic real-world questions & how real people answered them then a university would cease to be a place that accredited people according to professional ability and instead a place that accredited people according to their value to each other and their community. And that, sadly, isn't a reality. The reality is that real life & real people simply do not get the respect that Plato & Kant & Mill do and that is why professors value & teach Plato & Kant & Mill and that students share not their own selves & thoughts but their critique of the great thinkers (whose realities & concerns may or may not coincide with their own). This overvaluing & overpraising classic texts & undervaluing & underpraising self can be dehumanizing. Status at the university level is conferred upon those who publish books & not upon those individuals who connect with students. The university used to attract an attractive type: the gentleman scholar with one foot in the library & one foot in the street. Nowadays most professors are seasoned professionals more attuned to the realities of their profession (which means the realities of publishing) than the realities of living & functining in the world that most of us live & function in. To rehaul the university and make it a more inviting & enriching place to spend four or more years will take more than a return to basic questions, it will take a reconsideration of what it is we truly value about the humanities, how best to teach them, and what kind of people are best suited to take on this invaluable role.

Professor Kronman's book fills a lamentable gap in the literature pertaining to higher education, to the extent that most of what is written on higher education today is rather empty. This is the kind of book that a thoughtful person, having finished college, would come across and after having read it would realize that they were utterly misguided in their undergraduate caree. That being said, I feel the book should be required reading for anyone considering graduate school regardless of the field of study. His analysis of the "modern research ideal" seems to me right on. I would, however, agree with some previous reviewers that the book could have been shorter, and at times I found myself painfully aware that he was making a point he had aready sufficiently made. Nonetheless, the final chapter is quite profound and alone worth the cost of the book.

Yet, as a side note I find it striking that no mention of St. John's College in Sante Fe and Anapolis was made in the book. The "great books" programs at Yale, Columbia, etc simply cannot begin to compare with that of St. John's College. This omission is difficult to reconcile considering that the author sees the "great books" tradition and its secular humanism as the best way out of the current education crisis, and no other college or university better represents secular humanism than St. John's.

This is an important and carefully thought-out book. It's not for the faint of heart, or for anyone looking for a quick, punchy exposé of the current college scene. Rather, it is a deeply reflective and philosophical exploration of the differences in the intellectual objects of the sciences (both social and hard) and of the humanities. By appropriating the "research ideal" of the sciences, one that makes knowledge instrumental to a measurable goal, the humanities have lost sight of their traditional and more important aims, ones that are intrinsic rather than instrumental, that involve learning for its own sake and that bring meaning to life. The substitution of cultural relativism (called here "political correctness") for the pursuit of truth is a second siren's song that has distracted the humanities from its honorable mission. Both these points are important and well made. The book reads like a man's intellectual life's work. His heart is in it.

Kronman's study, however, is limited by the narrowness with which he defines the humanities. A law professor and Philosophy BA from WIlliams College, he seems chiefly to be talking about his own undergraduate major, Philosophy (see the appendix where he offers a sample curriculum), which has as one of its clear aims the understanding of "what living is for." That formulation of the central question of the humanities -- and it repeats throughout the book until it becomes almost grating -- is finally a limited (and I might add instrumental) one, that applies less to those branches of the humanities that encompass the arts than it does to Philosophy (or Theology). Much study within the humanities, rather than asking and answering quasi-ecclesiastical questions, offers the pure pleasure of satisfying intellectual curiosity, preserving culture, or simply engaging individual creativity. These also very important functions fall outside of Kronman's analysis, which is therefore not as comprehensive as it might be.

The narrowing of the humanities to the navel-gazing suggested by the book's subtitle "Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life" is thus unfortunate. The humanities (and even Kronman's analysis of them) are larger than this question implies. That might sound funny since what larger question is there than "What is living for"? But since it is a question so large as finally to be unanswerable -- and not finally the only concern of the humanities or only the concern of the humanities -- Kronman risks making a serious inquiry feel trivial.

I will get to the point: this writer needs an editor. The flood of words that make the same point over and over should have been halted by someone who recognizes when ego overwhelms good sense. There is much in this book to like and appreciate, but approximately 3x too many words expressing it.

Kronman points to a very real and important trend in modern higher education. He gives a very cogent half-diagnosis of the source as well - that of the urge within humanities disciplines to ape the research methods of the natural sciences and thus exclude any sort of prescriptive 'values' from the research paradigm. However, Kronman underplays an even more important part of the source of the problem - the fact that a socially all-pervasive 'free market' mentality subtley and overtly pushes all that cannot be assigned a quantified ('bottom line') demarcation to the periphery of what is viewed as important, and finally legitimate, in human life. This is much more broadly manifested than in academia (witness how completely political legitimacy and fund-raising totals are equated in the current election cycle) but it is certainly also manifest in the concerns toward which Kronman points. Interesting is the fact that just as many in the 'hard' sciences, confronting the connections between their research and such realities as our genetic future, global warming, radical consumption inequality between and within societies, our continuing addiction to war and militarism, and so on, are beginning to recognize that the 'value-free' research model has always been more ideal than real, the humanities folks now jump on the same paradigmatic bandwagon. Kronman puts his finger on a real issue, but his analysis is arguably more focused on a case in point symptom than on the real source of the problem itself.

This is the textbook of my class in college student development. This is a must read book for all the people who interest in the student services. It does not contain a lot of student develop theories, but it mentions all the aspects of student services from college student development theories, learning theories, to the function of student affairs and human resources in higher education. Even though you may not have time to read through this book, it can be a good handbook for you. You will find this book as a good reference in your professional life. For people who interest in the theory, I suggest you read this book with the other book "Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice" by Nancy J. Evans, Deanna S. Forney, and Florence Guido-DiBrito.

This book has been valuable in helping me prepare for another year of teaching. Caution: it is heavy on the research!

I have read other reviews and I have found a lot of negativity.
This book does tell you that these (the strategies named in the book) strategies do work because of research indicating that it does affect student behavior. And, it does indeed tell you how to do things in the classroom, and it tells you what to change or address. So, yes go ahead and buy this book...its good stuff. The actual book is much smaller than the photo.

"Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher" is a good book for new or about to be teachers. The book will give the novice clear explanations and root know-how to managing you class.

I bought this book for a graduate course I'm currently taking. I wish I had this book years ago, when I first started teaching. Classroom management is the most important part of effective teaching. This book combines research and clearly explains what's most effective and what isn't.

I think like many classroom teachers, one of my main difficulties is finding a good classroom management style that works. So I was looking forward to reading this book and getting some new ideas and information. However, the book does not really go into much detail about how to implement the strategies that they list. They really just kind of scratch the surface, naming a few effective strategies, but then spending the majority of their time talking about HOW effective these strategies are.
Imagine if your favorite television show was Lost on ABC. You found a book in the store called Lost -- America's New Classic. So you bought it, expecting to find cast information, episode synopses, and spoilers for upcoming seasons. Instead, upon opening the book, you find the results of studies done with Nielsen families and network executives, proving with hard data just how popular Lost is. No real information about the show, just a lot of tables, pie graphs, etc. to show its popularity.
This is effectively what Classroom Management That Works does. It does give a few tiny samples of some strategies to try, but mostly, they give charts and graphs about how many standard deviations away from the norm you can expect to be if you implement these strategies.
In some cases, in fact, I was not sure exactly how accurate I could take these results to be. When one study is done with 1,021 subjects, and another is done with only 109 subjects -- can you really compare the results side-by-side?
Overall an interesting read, but to be honest, not all that helpful.

Thank you very much for having this wonderful book that my studens and I have enjoied so much.
Proud to be your customer any time,
Danelys.

This is an amazing book. I am a children's yoga teacher. This book has changed how I teach. The children love the stories. Their attention is totally on the story. Then when you add yoga to it, it gives the children a chance to embrace and act out the story. I would highly recommend this and Sydney's other book to everyone. You don't have to be a yoga teacher to enjoy this. The art of telling stories has been lost and I'm glad Sydney is bringing it. it is a great way to connect with others.
Sandy

Written for teachers, librarians and yoga instructors, author/yoga instructor Sydney Solis details how yoga is beneficial for young children and how incorporating this ancient spiritual practice into storytelling can help to achieve a deeper level of understanding. The book gives excellent concrete examples of how to deal with real situations that might arise with children including how to maintain control of the class and how to set rules. A class curriculum is outlined including folk tales, their theme, country of origin along with corresponding yoga poses for each character or action. A chapter with black and white photographs and detailed explanations of how to do the various poses is also included.

This is one of the few good yoga books to help teach yoga to children of all ages. It has information on what should happen during the yoga class for different ages of children. It includes stories, songs, games, and ideas to get kids motivated. All my yoga students who are children love the stories and games that come from this book. It has encouraged me to be more free during a children's yoga class.

If you teach children's yoga or want to begin yoga with your children at home then this book is the one to buy. I have structured my class using the recommendations that Sydney Solis gives in the book with warmups and centerings, etc... I have also used all the stories in the book and have went on to use other stories and folk tales I personally enjoy incorporating yoga as I tell the story. My yoga students and my own children thoroughly enjoy each class I teach and I appreciate Storytime Yoga in helping me get started.

Using this book for a grad. course on collaboration and consultation. So far, the information it's provided seems to be quite valuable.

I do not know how I got two books ordered unless it was when I was trying to do the free book offer you had. I was denied credit however. Maybe this is how it happened. I was unhappy that I had to pay shipping on the book I had to send back. I do not need two of the same book. The book is very helpful for the class I am taking I will want to keep it for reference in the future.

Arlene

Much of the same information repeated throughout the chapters. Also would like to see chapters shifted around. didn't think the order was appropriate or logical.

I bought this book as a requirement for a class, but am finding it easy to read and full of useful information.

This book does make some important points about teaming, but is generally a waste of time and money. It is filled with common sense information, and each chapter can be easily summarized in a few short sentences.

This book is great! I love the plays the kids can act out and also the way the lessons are laid out makes it easy to teach and for the kids to understand. The activities are fun and my class doesn't moan and groan when I do activities from this book!

This is a great book for any teacher. It gives great ideas for teaching writing in an exciting way! I recommend Melissa's other books as well.

I am using this as my guide for writing instruction in my classroom. This book is full of fun activities that involve the students, while delivering the message.

After borrowing this book from a colleague, I decided I had to have my own copy. It's a resource I keep going back to each year. My sixth graders love the activities, which are fun and easy to follow. Melissa Forney knows how to motivate students to improve their writing.

Great ideas for beginning writers in terms of organization. Breaks down the steps simply. Explains what makes interesting writing.

this book explains the material in an understandable way. it has lots of examples and the homework section covers everything.
i highly recommend it.

I teach a university course based on this textbook and I really like it. It is full of mathematics that students can apply readily to everyday situations, without being heavily computational. The problem sets are relevant to the chapter text. Also, the problem sets are divided into three categories ("walking", "jogging", and "running") based on the level of thought that must go into them. The four chapters on statistics and probability are not quite what I'd like them to be, because in my opinion they cover too much statistical ground in hardly any depth. They would be better if they just did some basic statistics and didn't try to get students at this level into normal curves and standard deviations and all that. My students are particularly fond of the graph theory unit (chapters 5-8). In fact, their only complaint of the book so far is the high price.

This is a great resource for special education. It covers all the special labels in depth as well as gifted children.

This seems to be a great book! I bought it for class to learn more about current rules and laws in contempoary special education. It is very thorough! The only reason why I am giving it 4 instead of 5 stars is because I didn't receive a CD with mine, and I think it is supposed to accompany it.

This is the book every special education major needs to know the things that are important for your teaching. It covers many disabilities and many of the questions on the Praxis are covered in this book.

I didn't get the CD with mine. I didn't feel I needed it. I had a 50/50 consensus that it was important. There were some things in it that could help you practice, so if you are not sure of a lot of things in special ed, get the CD. My teacher required it and I never used it and someone told me they never opened theirs up. Its a matter of preference.

I am a student and this book was the required text. I found it to be straight-forward, easy to reference, and packed with material. I plan on keeping this one around to reference back to.

This is a great book. I used it in my class with Eastern New Mexico University. It was a great breakdown of individuals with disabilities and great resources. The class is finished but I will keep this book for future referrences.