Education Teaching Books

I have a master's degree in special education but have been in the business world for over twenty years. This book has given me a new zest for the field of special education. The insights give each side of discussions and leaves the reader to make decisions. The on line labs are excellent. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for wide views of the current challenges and progress in the field of special education.

This is a great book for teachers to learn more about dealing with children who have exceptionalities. If you are a new teacher or an experienced teacher dealing with inclusion, this book will be perfect for you!

This is a great text if you are looking for an introductory course text for special education. It is well suited for college and university students or teachers looking to learn more about children as it is easy to read and very informative. With chapters ranging from Planning and Providing Special Education Services to Students with Learning Disabilities to Gifted and Talented Students this text can be of appeal to a wide variety of those who would like to know more about children and how to help children attain their potential. I learned so much - I hope you will too.

I was astonished by both how readable this book is and how much useful information is presented. The book is designed for those entering the field of education and those studying for the Praxis II exam. While the book is targeted to the teaching of exceptional children, regular education teachers, parents and other interested parties would gain a great deal of information from this book. Our assignment was to skim the book - a task I found nearly impossible. I kept getting drawn into the interesting and vivid examples in each chapter. I found the focus questions and review sections to be particularly helpful.

I love this book! I purchased a used copy in 2001 to help prepare for my (then) upcoming Massachusetts State Teacher exam in special education, which I passed on my first try. It is a very useful source of information and contains a ton of facts. It presents special ed topics in a logical fashion and has a nice companion website. I practiced all the online questions since I had to learn a lot of material in a short period of time. The text is geared towards elementary education. However, I read it, even though my field is secondary SPED, because there are many things in it that relate to special education in general that I need to know about. The discussion of historical special ed legislation is especially complete. I just wish I could get my hands on the companion videos that are (or were) offered by the publisher.

Good advice. But who's kidding whom ... it's going to take more than a great essay to get into Harvard. You need the GPA and strong test scores. If your grades and credentials aren't up to par, it doesn't matter how much lipstick you put on that pig.

Vernon M
Cambridge, MA

This is a fantastic book. As a first-generation student, I had no clue what to expect from a college essay; I had no idea what made an essay good and what made it bad.
Although this book doesn't directly teach you what a good essay is, the amazing essays in here allow you to 'absorb' the good writing and use it to your advantage.

Vernon (poster before me) is correct here; you still need the grades, the scores, the extracurriculars.. or else the book does not help much.
However, if you KNOW you have a strong profile but do not know what to expect from a college essay (like me), then this book is right for you!

I can't thank this book enough. I learned good writing only paying $14 instead of something astronomical for those editing services.

Ironically, with the help of this book, I got accepted into Harvard's rival school :)

[Handsome Dan] out.

I bought this book because I tutor English off and on and I was thinking of expanding my tutoring to help high school students write their college essays. I saw this on sale at my local Borders and I thought, well why not? It would give me some samples to show students and help me to focus on certain essentials that make a good essay.

As I started reading the essays, I was so surprised at the depth and creative writing skills of these students. When I went to undergrad, the essay that I wrote was very standard. I talked about my goals and dreams and what kind of student I was, but I didn't turn it into a story (even though I am a writer and stories have been a crucial form of communication for me for years). At the time, I didn't know that it could be done. While I did get into all of the schools to which I applied, I wish I had known that creativity was encouraged in admissions essays.

Since then, I have seen fabulous winning essays to top schools (such as the ones included in this book) and I realize that focusing on a key event of your life and letting it tell a deeper story is part of what connects the admissions counselors to you as a person and reveals depth of character.

This book has really great essays. Some of the commentaries following the essays are better than others. I think, unfortunately, because the reviewers are professional writers, they are more critical than the actual admissions counselors might be because they want you to submit "A" quality work. I think telling your story from the heart is more important than tiny details that only a literary editor would pay strong attention to. Organization is important as is a basic understanding of grammar, but you don't need to get so caught up in the technical aspects of writing this essay that you loose your natural voice.

Other than that, I think this book is a great resource for students (or parents helping their children) who want to go to a university or private college. It is organized efficiently so that you can see the different approaches that various students have chosen and, in general, the commentaries can assist you in pinpointing why a particular essay was so effective. I wish you the best of luck!

These essays were very good, some of them were very moving. I found that this book explained the college essay process and was an easy read.

This is a fantastic collection of application essays. If you or your child is in need of examples of well-written essays, these 50 essays are just the thing for you. Not only are the essays themselves printed, the book also provides an analysis for each, by the Staff of "The Harvard Crimson". Within each analysis, you learn what topics to choose, what to avoid and how to keep the reader from discarding your essay. If they worked for Harvard students, they'll definitely help you with your school.

I think this book is really good for someone who has toyed with the idea of graduate school long after they've finished their undergraduate degree or while in high school. However, if you are currently in college, this book is superfluous to knowledge you should gain in senior level courses.

came in good time; wonderful condition; thanks a lot; would buy from this seller again

This book is a comprehensive, step-by-step walk through the application process from thinking about going to grad school to accepting and declining offers (and what to do if you don't get in). It has checklists for choosing schools, one for each application you send in, and one to help in getting strong letters of recommendation. I would recommend this text to anyone applying to a graduate program in psych but would also encourage you to pick up supplemental books about writing a personal statement or whatever you'll need more than a chapter to help you.

While I'll agree with all the positive statements made in previous reviews, I must say that this didn't seem too different from the first edition, which I checked out from the library last year. I was expecting there to be a bigger difference. But nonetheless, a great book.

This is what you can expect from American Psychological Association: the autors go straight to the point, and have an excellent writing. Thanks to theirs suggestion, you can consult different bibliography for special cases (for example, for international students). They make the reader revaluate his goals (like: "given this reality, is this what you really want for yourself?) and, of course, they help you prepare an useful detailed year-schedule.

We purchased this book because we wanted to make sure our child was learning everything he needed to be learning at his grade level. It is very user friendly; it is written in such a way that it can be read by the child independently or jointly with a parent or caregiver. Our child actually looks forward to the time each day when we sit down and look at it together, and it has helped supplement and reinforce what he has learned in class. Highly recommend this series. (We have a kindergartner who also insists that we read from the book written for his grade level daily.)

This series of books is fabulous. My husband and I even enjoy reading them. We bought three books in this series ( fourth grade, second and Kindergarten) and all of them are wonderful. The kids really enjoy reading them and they are packed full of information. Every parent should purchase these books for their kids/grandkids.

This book is very good to my kid. It covers not only literature and math, but science, art, history, etc as well. Both my kid and I like it.

Consider E.D. Hirsch's book a cultural multi-vitamin. That is, you might eat well, but to be on the safe side a wide-spectrum tablet will fill in any undiagnosed nutritional gaps. Similarly, E.D. Hirsch has written a series of indispensable books that will supplement a youngster's curricular deficiencies. Every parent, every teacher should purchase, "What Your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Grader (and so on) Needs to Know."

We purchased this and the second grade edition this year. This is my first and last experience with these books and the author. The only part of the books I found helpful was the math sections. I feel the history was a bit over their heads and the study of Greek mythology for a second grader was rediculous. In the fourth grade edition I was very dipleased to see evolution as a main source of study. We are homeschoolers and I teach not only from the three R's but from the very Word of God. No matter what your religious faith or lack thereof, I feel that placing an emphasis on one view being taught in in a broad spectrum is ludicrous. I did not know the author's stand point before purchasing the books and will not line his wallet with my money again.
Brandi Sutherland
Knoxville, Tennessee

This book deals with teaching children English as a second language in public schools from age 5 up to adolescents. I teach primarily adults which this book does not tough upon. For that reason I would only recommend someone buying this book if you only want to teach large classes of children or young adolescents. Not appropriate for adults.

As an ESL teacher, I find this book actually to be useful for my grad school class and my own practice. Pretty happy with the purchase.

This book was worth the money. It is appropriate for secondary teachers (and many things out there are geared more toward elementary). It has a brief introduction to the theory behind the text in the beginning and then the rest is pratctical, skill-based lessons/activites for English Language Learners. As a language arts teacher, my only minor disappointment was that some of the lessons are geared more toward general content areas like social studies and science, but there is still plenty of good stuff for me to use.

This book is a step by step technique just as the title states. Great for any student teacher that needs a clear visual explanation on how to help ell's. For already teachers in the field it is a good refence book to help them focus on how other techniques can be applicable to thier lesson planning.

This book is well organized and coordinated with tesol objectives. Very user friendly, this is a must have resource for all ages.

The author gives you multiple ways in which you can manage your students.
So, yes it contains numerous "how-to-do" advice and strategies.

This is a great book for all teachers! Great techniques for getting or regaining control over your classroom!

This book provides some helpful ideas that work. However, you need to read the book carefully and earmark those ideas that are most helpful to you.

This is a great book for beginning teachers with little to no experience in the classroom. It gives you many ideas to push you in the right direction.

As a teacher who is going into my 5th year of teaching I was looking for something a little more in depth. I know my weaknesses and was familier with everything Mr. Bianco suggested. There were no real Ah ha moments while reading this book--I've heard it all before really. He gives you the basics, but if you are having specific issues beyond that, he just doesn't delve much deeper. I also found several things that were contradictory. He talks on one hand about making the punishment fit the crime, but on another page there are "disclipine cards" where a student randomly picks his punishment--like dusting the classroom!!! Very weird.

I will end this by saying that I do think this is a great book for beginning teachers, but having been in the classroom for several years, it didn't teach me anything I didn't already know!

I love this book. Every teacher should have one. College education teacher aught to use it for their student teachers, too. The reading is easy and the tips are quick and to the point. This is a very user friendly book. Buy it!

Very clever - the story, the characters' names - all of it. Perfect for a grade school student! I bought it for my seven year old and it got a big thumbs up from both him and his dad.

Very cute story and a nice way of using word play to describe geometric vocabulary. Great for an introduction to the concept and as a review for older children.

This 32 page children's book tells how Sir Cumference, his wife the Lady Di of Ameter, and their son Radius solve the problems of the king's table. King Arthur and his knights needed to have a council, but there was a problem with the table around which they met. It began as too long; after that was fixed, the table had too few sides, and other tables produced more objections. Geo of Metry makes tables in several shapes before a round table solves all the problems. The illustrations are great, with medieval pageantry and geometric explanations. A few other characters from Camelot appear, such as Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain.

This is a great book to introduce geometry to the young, making it fun and easy. Shapes and measurements are explained in the quest for the perfect council table for the king and his knights. When the round table is finally found to be the perfect shape, the king names certain measurements after Sir Cumference, Radius, and the Lady Di from Ameter. Very cute!

My kids (9 and 6) , who are homeschooled, loved this story and it resulted in them being able to instantly recall the proper names of geometric elements and classes (e.g., radius, circumference, obtuse, acute). This is probably due to the clever visual and contextual associations provided. We bought another book in the series right afterward with the same results. Plan to get them all.

My daughter has always had a problem learning Math but reading this book (along with the others in this series) has helped her immensely! The books themselves are a bit young for her but the concepts in them (Pi, Geometry, etc) are explained in a way I think she needed.

I would recommend these to anyone who has a child with problems in math concepts.

This curriculum covers everything in a naturally progressive way and is divided into subjects. It is not so full of work that you have no time left for supplimenting materials you choose for your child's particular needs.

It is missing to things however. Exams would make it easier for the evaluator to determine progress, which although many homeschooling parents disapprove of, will help satisfy state's requirements. It would also be practical if the book came with a built in planner at the beginning, with more information as to how the book was intended to be used.

I bought this for my 3rd grader. I also use it as a booster for my gifted 2nd grader. It is fun, clearly printed, and colorful. My kids don't feel fun doing it, not an "assignment".

These are great books as a supplement for any homeschooled child or traditionally schooled child. The bright drawings and colored pages truly help kids to keep at it and not get so bored with the work. Trust me, I've gone through my fair share of educational books and the plain black and white ones are never chosen over the colored artistic workbooks.

If you're juggling a few children at different ages (I have one school ager and two toddlers) this book is a great find. We can tear out pages to take them on errands. Very little preparation is required, just review the directions and assist child when needed. The areas your child is struggling with will be pretty glaring, so you can make quick review lessons to takle the problem areas. Having a worksheet based curriculum allows time for bible and life-skill lessons, as well as reading time with books of your choice. My child looks forward to his worksheets. The short and flexible lessons allow him to absorb the important stuff without feeling overwhelmed (he has adhd). It's also great for his confidence to get such immediate feedback.

This book is really worth the money. It covers all the things and it is a thick book--over 500 pages. I bought it at costco for $8.49 and really wished I bought more. If I can not find it in costco in the future, I would buy it at Amazon.

This is our second purchase of the Story of the World series. All three of my school age kids (6,8,10 yrs.) just love to listen to these tapes. It is giving all of us (mom included) a much more comprehensive picture of all the parts of history we have learned with other books. We highly recommend this product for your family as a history program or just for listening to in the car for fun. The acitvity book is also full of great ideas for making this as involved or as simple as you would like it to be.

My children (ages 6 and 14) studied through volumes 1 and 2 last year for our homeschool social studies curriculum. Volume 3 is everything we hoped for to extend our knowledge! The activity guides have proven to be a vital resource to cut some preparation time for lessons. In Volume 3 each chapter covers a slightly broader time frame, making it even more important to follow up the lesson with additional activities. We recommend Story of the World to all our homeschool friends.

I really love the Books. I have them all and they are so brilliantly written and engaging for my son. Makes planning activities for Social Studies so easy for me.
Thanks!

Coupled with the Story of the World text, the Activity Book has been the cornerstone of our somewhat reluctant venture into homeschooling. (We had a sudden overseas move and had to jump into homeschooling with little preparation.) Studying history has proven essentially effortless because the book and activities are so interesting that my 8-year-old begs to do her work. As non-religious academic types ourselves, we were wary of religious biases in the texts we chose for our kids; we've been very happy with the author's balanced treatment.

For the teaching parent, the lists of supplementary materials are invaluable -- exceptionally well-organized and researched, and the editors have been sure to include reading materials for different levels, which we have appreciated since it means we can easily include the 4-year-old in our stories. Every chapter includes review questions to test comprehension orally, then several worksheets which may include maps, coloring pages, and other activities. Many include recipes from the place and time being studied -- always a hit with the kids. All have worked well so far. The map work is a great follow-up as well, walking the student step-by-step through visual representations of different topics covered in the text (coloring the Triangular Trade route used by slave traders, for example). Although there's no way any student could complete all the suggested activities in a school year, I love the freedom of picking and choosing the activities that best suit and interest my daughter.

As suggested by the Activity Book, we're assembling all this work into a history notebook, a 3-ring binder full of my daughter's work. This serves the dual purpose of reminding her how much she's learned and giving us tangible proof of the homeschooling process. In short, this book has transformed us into homeschoolers and history buffs. Very useful.