Education Teaching Books

I was required to get this book for a class in ed. leadership. It is better than most textbooks as each chapter is a seperate article. It is reader friendly.

Book is a text for a master's class. It is very informative, taking excerpts from books by proven leaders and leadership teams. Not for pleasure, it's great if you're on the move up the ladder.

Once again Jossey-Bass did it with this reader. From the opening stanza relating universal leadership to the particulars of the industry of education, to what the future of educational leadership may hold, this collection of essays, insights and overviews takes either the graduate student or the neophyte dabbler on a roundhouse roundup of every imaginable facet of the issues facing societal gestational institutions.
Well worth the cost, plus.

This book was required for an educational leadership class and I have found it to be very useful. The articles are well organized and contain relevant info and authors (Fullan, Singhe, etc.) I'm happy to report that I just found it I'll be using it again in a second class this fall.

nice assortment of works by leading educational writers. Very up to date with current issues/

Kimberly Hill Campbell defines several kinds of short texts. She then applies the same reading strategies to all of them. If you want to know about strategies, read Strategies That Work by Harvey and Goudvis or anything by Laura Robb. The majority of the recommended reads in this book, particularly the short stories, are tired and over-anthologized. The most agonizing thing about this book, though, is that Campbell never misses a chance to reference how she rose above the texts and curriculums imposed upon her to become a special teacher. This book is absolutely not worth reading.

I was a little skeptical about getting this book because I do not like to read this type of text. There are so many books like this out, and they all just seem to involve the latest "fad" of teaching. "Less is More" is not like that at all. This book is the one resource that will forever change my teaching style and my classroom. As a Middle School Teacher, I had been frustrated with being forced to teach short texts, partly because I felt like I didn't know "how" to incorporate standards in such short lesson plans. This book has so many good ideas and teaching methods to incorporate short texts into the classroom. If your curriculum insist you teach novels, or certain authors, Campbell has lists in the book of alternative shorter texts by the same authors as some of the great novelists. This book is amazing and I think every middle school or high school english teacher needs it for their classroom!

I am a student teacher and have found this book to be an invaluable resource in my classroom. This is such a refreshing alternative to the numbing onslaught of longer texts (novels) currently at the forefront of language arts curriculum. Why aren't we using shorter texts (short stories, essays, memoirs, poetry) more often? It is important for me, as a language arts teacher, to inspire in my students a love and appreciation of literature. I have recognized and acknowledged that an over-emphasis of longer texts has the tendency to do just the opposite. Less is More provides clear, intuitive ways to incorporate shorter texts into the curriculum with as much success as novels.
The book is a joy to read and is worth its price for the resources alone. As a student teacher in a teacher education program, I have waded through numerous "teacher resource" books. I have found none of them to be as applicable than Less is More. I would urge anyone reading this to have a "look inside".

I wanted to be in this author's classroom. She gave practical and eloquent reasons for using short texts to access rigorous concepts and higher order skills. Using these texts gives teachers the opportunity to go deeper with student learning and the students with more frequent practice.

"Shaping School Culture" is a good overview of the components of culture in a school community. The ideas could easily be applied to any group culture. Although there is nothing earth-shattering and no brilliant revelations, it provides a good lens through which to view the cultural dynamics present throughout the school.

Every group you've been a proud member of has had a strong identity. Cultures can be intentional or accidental and likely a mix of both.

This book offers lots of anecdotes describing what works and what doesn't. A school's cultural strengths will overcome many other challenges like low funding and large classes. Where principals, teachers and students set their expectations for their small society has everything to do with successful education and having fun at school.

If you are an educational professional, parent or student, this will give you lots of ideas to improve the culture of your school (or your own organizatons).

I found this to be an excellent resource for any educational leader who is looking to create a positive school environment. The authors give many real life examples of leaders who changed the culture of their school and detail how they went about making this change. There are many practical ideas that any leader could begin incorporating right away.

In addition, the book is well written. This is not "heavy" reading, but nonetheless I have found myself returning to it time and time again for ideas and inspiration.

If you are wondering how one person could possibly make a difference in a school, this book will help show you the way.

In Shaping School Culture: the Heart of Leadership, Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson illustrate that nothing is more important in schools than culture. They believe that school culture is vital to the success of schools. The authors state that "the culture of an enterprise plays the dominant role in exemplary performance" (p. 1). At first, I was skeptical. I did not believe that culture was more important than structure, strategy, goals, or management. I believed that culture was something that played a role in atmosphere and changed from year to year with the staff. I quickly came to realize that culture is the heart of schools and is a stable element.
The reason I was skeptical is because I did not believe that my school had much of a culture. I thought about a few traditions and pondered the high turnover among staff. This book opened my eyes to the fact that our school does have a relatively strong culture and that many of the changes that were made were based on our core norms.
In the first part of the book Deal and Peterson examine the components of school culture including values, beliefs, assumptions, and norms (p. 26).The authors expand upon this and include rituals, ceremonies, stories, architecture, artifacts, and logos in school culture. The authors use examples to distinguishing positive cultures from toxic cultures. This was interesting to me because I could see that the last two principals at our school did a great job of building school culture. They had revised our school motto, mission statement, and value statement. They had established rituals and ceremonies. They had started programs that included year-long rituals and ceremonies. These were all positive steps towards a better school culture. I was also better able to understand the toxic cultures within our school and how these subcultures create negative school environments for the students and the staff.
The second part of the book shows principals how to create a positive culture in their schools. The key components discussed are examining, reflecting, and reflection on events that have shaped culture in their schools. The final and most crucial component for establishing school culture is executing a plan of action. The last few chapters of the book are filled with advice on how to improve school culture such as developing student-centered mission and value statements, building upon established traditions and values, recruit staff that share values, and sustain core norms (p. 116).
The authors forced me to think about the relationships between school rituals, artifacts, ceremonies, symbolism and our school culture. I realized that our school has a great foundation on which to base school culture. I enjoyed this book because it challenged my previously held beliefs about my school. I was also impressed with the author's strategy for changing school culture and the components they outlined for a positive school culture (p. 117).
After reading this book I believe that nothing is more important about a school than its culture.

This book is a must read for any individual who wishes to create positive change within a school environment. It is written with clarity and wit, appropriate for any agent of change within the field of education. All who have experienced serving in an administrative capacity for a school district or educational service agency will quickly relate and definitely benefit from both the information and insight that is provided by Terrence E. Deal and Kent D. Peterson. In particular, principals will find this book to be an invaluable resource in understanding the potency of school culture and how it relates to leadership techniques, issues, and decisions. Deal and Peterson uncover the impact and consequence of school culture with lucid and powerful examples that support their perspective while entertaining the reader. They unravel the intangible mystery of why those that choose to lead seldom make any real progress toward credible and sustainable changes in our schools.

The functions and impact of the values, belief-systems and norms within school buildings are discussed and explained in terms of their hierarchy in the creation of positive and negative school cultures. The authors provide a multitude of scenarios of actual school environments that lucidly illustrate the numerous "hidden" messages that provide the infrastructure and mindsets of school culture. Surprisingly, many of the determinants of school culture will provide the reader with instant (and many times humorous) personalized images drawn from their own experiences.

Principals and administrators who read this book will inevitably view their own schools with a refined and newly directed perspective. In addition, they will view their role as a leader within the context of culture. The authors force a leader to consider the dynamics of culture through exploration of school rituals, artifacts, ceremonies and the implications of their symbolism. The authors map out a strategy for change using the regularly ignored mundane routines of the school as the underpinnings for reshaping school culture.

This book will "change" and broaden the way any leader comprehends "change".

Great book for CT teachers preparing their students for the CMTs. Nancy provides frameworks for students to use when writing responses to various open ended questions. This book is a great resouce and investment.

That's A Great Answer is an excellent resource for primary grade teachers! Not only does Dr. Boyles' work help teachers introduce ways to respond to open ended questions but provides teachers with literacy objectives, great books and lesson examples. The teaching tips offer step by step examples of how to address each literacy objective for open response questions. In addition, the templates specify reading and writing strategies on how students may begin the process of writing their answers. Thanks to Dr. Boyles, the students in my classroom along with many others are moving towards producing high quality responses to open-ended questions and most importantly "learning to respond meaningfully!" All primary grade teachers especially in CT who are interested in improving their students' oral or written response to text must have this book!

This book is an excellent resource for all K-3 teachers. The teaching tips and answer frames provide the necessary scaffolds for all children to achieve success when answering open-ended comprehension questions. As always, Nancy provides teachers with book suggestions that pair perfectly with each objective. A must have!

Deaf who are skilled ASL recommend this as top rated book learn ASL:
"It is best book and professional ASL"
Set up similar to a thesaurus.

My wife and I have been studying ASL for several years and we have a number of dictionaries, books, videos, etc. The Gallaudet Dictionary (book) is excellent and has a great many signs not found in other dictionaries. The enclosed CD is fabulous. It is worth the price all by itself. I especially love the ability to slow down or stop action the video of the "sign" to catch the nuances. I have already recommended this book to several friends who are also studying ASL. If I had to pick one ASL dictionary to buy, this would definitely be the one.

HI. I got the Dictionary and CD and really love it and the price is excellent. I ordered the same for my daughter also taking ASL in Hawaii. Thank you!

I being new to ASL the book was good because it had many signs. But there was nothing telling you how to make the sign except for the CD that came with the book showing how to make the sign. The CD is very good and it takes time to use it. The book just needs more description of how the sign is done as if you don't have a CD. If i had a look at the book first i would not have bought it.

I have been taking American Sign Language classes for almost two years now. Many of the "book" dictionaries try to illustrate the proper motions and facial expressions for ASL signs, but trying to show these signs in static two-dimensional images, even with descriptions, left me uncertain in many cases. I did use some online dictionaries that demonstrated ASL signs with video clips, but the online dictionaries I found did not provide an extensive number of signs. The DVD with the Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language is outstanding! By typing in the sign you want to see, you can jump directly to a video demonstration for that sign (for more than 3,000 signs). The DVD, like the written portion of the dictionary, is also more up to date than many other ASL dictionaries. When you cannot practice ASL signs with others, observing video clips is the next best thing. This DVD dictionary is an excellent aid.

This book shows the heart and soul of the great Vivian Paley who I had the pleasure of meeting when she visited our graduate school class this spring. You'll find insight not only into the child's mind and how children can be educated, but how children (and as they grow to be adults) are damaged by exclusion. An inspiration for this Ph.D. student.

Mrs. Paley's premise is simple and built on two premises, the classroom is a public institution, and children do not have the right to exclude another child from playing with them. Because school is public territory, privacy does not exist, not in friendships, playtime, or stories. Students must include everyone in the public arena of school. Paley decides that her class needs YCSYCP. Please consider one outcome of YCSYCP.

Gender Typing. We must understand the class. This class exhibits two stages of gender typing; Pre-YCSYCP, and Post YCSYCP. During Pre-YCSYCP, traditional gender typing rules were in effect. Females play with dolls and boys conformed to Berk (2002). Charlie was assertive and aggressive in his play activities-playing Transformer and attacking the bad Transformer. Charlie preferred to play with other males. HE was a play boss and the one of the individuals that justified YCSYCP.

Post YCSYCP, Paley (pg 127) explains that the students switched from traditional roles to cross gender roles. She tells us that the students are no longer looking for exceptions to YCSYCP and now are accepting opposite sex roles. In this situation, cross gender activity should not necessarily be viewed as a positive outcome to YCSYCP. The student's have a need to be part of the group and YCSYCP, which demands total inclusion. As a result, students performed cross-gender activities due to a need to belong rather than a result of higher cognitive thought.

Teacher Influences. Paley's YCSYCP is troublesome because of the the underlying reason for implementation. Paley chose not to work one on one with problem students. Paley would rather listen to the moral wisdom that comes from the mouths of children; therefore, she created one rule to direct the class's behavior. As a result, the students did not learn effective conflict resolution strategies as advocated by Johnson and Johnson (1995) or the application of effective leadership principles. Leadership stresses your responsibility to those with more and less authority than you. Paley is working strictly on a "feel good" emotional level. She does not want children's feelings hurt. She fails to teach students how to handle sticky situations. Here is reality: the mission is first, never accept defeat, and never leave a fellow team member behind. These traits exist within the military and outside of the liberal ideologies. These concepts should be adapted to our classrooms. There is a distinct possibility that some of her former students are now champion homosexual rights or have become vegetarians and joined PETA to fight for animal's right with impassioned vigor.

Paley laments, "Can morality be legislated?" She continues to explain that teaching straddles the moral fence. We should question Mrs. Paley's idea of moral values. Please consider her background, Paley taught at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. This progressive school is built upon the influence of educator and philosopher John Dewey. Dewey also has exerted his influence upon society in two other areas. He signed the Humanist Manifesto. This document is a long range plan designed to remove God from our society. If you have never read this document, look it up and realize it's implications upon our society. Dewey also had ties with the early origins of the ACLU, which actively fights against moral behavior based on Christian tradition. Is Mrs. Paley one of the godless? Should we trust Mrs. Paley's moral judgment?

Mrs. Paley has authored several books and has won an award. Please be critical of this book, especially if you are selecting it for a class assignment. She starts with a lackluster short story premise and then proceeds, performing written self-stimulation to extend the tale to a tedious, fatiguing ending. The first rip in reality is excessive use of the narrative form, which makes up >90% of the book with an occassional observation included. The reader is left deciding if these are factual events or just the passing pondering of a humanist practitioner?

The second rip in reality is the incorporation of the "Magpie in fairy land." The fairy tale makes considerable sense if you immediately put Paley into the magpie's place. Unfortunately, this writing device is not needed, annoying and does not strenghten the story just adds excessive filler. This book would benefit from publication as a Readers Digest article-it should be condensed with the "Magpie in fairyland" sequence removed.

Very few things rate five stars. Check out Master of Puppets, Clockwork Orange, Ring World, Opeth, and Death Rides a Horse. Paley is a tepid writer: therefore, this book does not deserve more than one lackluster, tarnished, and monotone, star.

I picked up this book at my daughters' school parent lending library- a school that works hard to implement policies like 'you can't say you can't play' (YCSYCP) and it often works. It certainly works inter-age but problems remain between age-mates. I, too, was a rejected child many times and hate to see any child rejected.

The author teaches kindergarten in a Chicago laboratory school and is troubled by the behaviour of children who are excluded and the children who exclude. She explores the idea of setting 'YCSYCP' as a rule by talking to her student and to older students. The younger children have a lot of questions about how the policy will work, and the older children think that if it becomes a rule early on in schooling, it has a better chance of working. Interwoven with the text is a story that the author uses to illustrate these points to her kindergarten students.

After reading well into the book, I wondered about the author since the writing seemed so.... simple, and was surprised to read that she had been honored by the MacArthur Foundation for her storytelling in the classroom. I tried to read her interwoven story with a more open mind and found it to help a little in understanding the point of the story.

The changes in the classroom as a result of 'YCSYCP' were interesting since the children overall became more inventive and more welcoming, as the author hoped they would. The author was able to define changes she had made in her classroom- like eliminating time-outs- as part and parcel of 'YCSYCP'. I think the simple language worked for these children and could be a good starting place for even older children. As the children mature in their understanding of what happens when the habit of exclusion is broken, they will be able to step back and examine exclusion and rejection in more philosophical terms.

I think this book and others you can find like it are worthwhile as people search for ways to make schools more humane and functional for all students, not just the favored.

This book expresses what many of us know inherently, but Paley finds a way to say it, to bring it into your conscience, and to do it with a lyricism that is her writing "voice." It makes me wish she were my Kindergarten teacher...well, not really, since I still love my dear Mrs. Shabay and Miss Reezak!

If you're a teacher or a parent, the focus is on what is important about play, and most especially, the KINDS of play kids engage in. Makes me want to set up a "dress up" room in my house - - and I don't even have kids yet!

I picked up this book at my daughters' school parent lending library- a school that works hard to implement policies like "you can't say you can't play" (YCSYCP) and it often works. It certainly works inter-age but problems remain between age-mates. I, too, was a rejected child many times and hate to see any child rejected.

The author teaches kindergarten in a Chicago laboratory school and is troubled by the behaviour of children who are excluded and the children who exclude. She explores the idea of setting "YCSYCP" as a rule by talking to her student and to older students. The younger children have a lot of questions about how the policy will work, and the older children think that if it becomes a rule early on in schooling, it has a better chance of working. Interwoven with the text is a story that the author uses to illustrate these points to her kindergarten students.

After reading well into the book, I wondered about the author since the writing seemed so.... simple, and was surprised to read that she had been honored by the MacArthur Foundation for her storytelling in the classroom. I tried to read her interwoven story with a more open mind and found it to help a little in understanding the point of the story.

The changes in the classroom as a result of "YCSYCP" were interesting since the children overall became more inventive and more welcoming, as the author hoped they would. The author was able to define changes she had made in her classroom- like eliminating time-outs- as part and parcel of "YCSYCP". I think the simple language worked for these children and could be a good starting place for even older children. As the children mature in their understanding of what happens when the habit of exclusion is broken, they will be able to step back and examine exclusion and rejection in more philosophical terms.

I think this book and others you can find like it are worthwhile as people search for ways to make schools more humane and functional for all students, not just the favored.

Looking over the comprehension books, I felt the reading passages were grade level appropriate. Sometimes it will be listed as 2nd or 1st and be too difficult or easy. These would have pleased Goldilocks.

This has been a great resource to me as a First Grade Teacher. The book is mostly ready to copy printables. Each week, you make photocopies for the students of the two pages of homework. One page is a short story with illustrations, and the other page has questions or a quick activity, along with a note to parents. I have found these to be very helpful in building comprehension and fluency skills. I also think that it has been good for the parents of my students because they have more direction, as far as what they can do to help their child read. Each assignment focuses on a different skill (cause and effect, punctuation, sequence of events, etc.), and the parent note really helps to inform and guide parents through the homework as they help their child. I also like that the homework is due at the end of the week, so parents can pick which night is more convenient to help their child with the homework.
Overall I am very pleased with this resource.

The stories in the book are great,however, there aren't any user friendly suggestions for using the book in the classroom. Since I've already purchased the book, I will probably use it once or twice just to get my money's worth.

I teach 5th graders who usually hate to read and hate to write even more. However, they LOVE the stories in this book. Rather than use it as a read aloud guide, I let the kids read the story independently and then create their own endings to the cliffhanger. Then we have a writing contest -- they love it!

The short stories are entertaining, especially those modern versions of the well-known fairy tales. They are very funny. However, if you are an EFL teacher, you may want to know that the English used in the stories is quite colloquial and "American", which may or may not be a good thing to you.

This book is wonderful! My students love the stories. Comprehension Cliffhangers help students, not only with comprehension and vocabulary, but also their writing! I use it weekly. As a teacher, I find students have no problem creating, for example, an adventure story but they often have trouble writing an ending that leaves the reader satisfied. This book gives students the opportunity to be creative and think of their own ending but also compare and contrast their ending with that of the authors. If you are a teacher looking for a book of short stories that grab each student's attention this is the book. Check it out!

I am a speech therapist in a clinic and this has been wonderful for my older school age clients who are hard to engage.

PhD...hmmmmm....why is the daugther and not the mother writing the review. The daughter has no actual experience with the material and is only second hand passing on what her mother has claimed to be true.

I personally, as a homeschooling mother of 10, have heard nothing bad, but only good about Saxon math, and my personal experience with it so far is fine.

It is a matter of what the child works best with in my opinion as I have have used Saxon, BJU, ABeka and OTC math ciriculums with each of my children as I taught. I have good friends who will use nothing else.

It works very well, so do not be thrown off by one second hand PhD opinion. Probably she is in the same NEA group that thinks homeschooling dumbs down kids anyway.

My mother is a Ph.D. in mathematics and taught Jr. and Sr. High math for several years before moving up to teach college math. She has been pretty vocal that the only math text that will result in imparting a poor understanding of mathematical concepts--a false sense of mastery while using it, but poor retention after--is Saxon. She says that every time she has a home schooled student who is really struggling at the college level and they say "But I did so well in math before!" and they are traumatized at the level of tutoring help they need to make it in college, they all have in common the fact that they learned math using Saxon texts in high school.

After she impressed this on me, I was really leery about choosing jr. & sr. high school curriculum a couple years ago and asked her to go to me with convention to help me pick something out. She said, "You are good at math and a good teacher. Just pick something you like that is NOT SAXON!" I'm not exaggerating. It's the spiral learning method that they use. It doesn't give enough thorough practice of all the variations of a particular concept before moving on and too heavily relies on review throughout. That seems to impedes long-term retention. She thinks the fact that it is so dull and methodical is also ridiculous in this day and age of fabulous graphics and the trend to make math more interesting and multi-modal for the average student who doesn't love math.

I find it interesting that on their website, of the 6 research studies of their curriculum, only one includes high school; the other five utilized k-8 or 6-8 curriculum. Maybe all that dry rote learning makes a student test better. But the sad part is when it comes to taking that learning and building on it, they don't really understand the concepts behind it and can't apply future learning to what they simply practiced over and over but don't really know. Kind of like cramming for a test by going over everything you've learned right beforehand and blocking everything else out until you take the test and then POOF! everything you repeated over and over in your head beforehand just seems "gone" once you go back to normal habits of thinking/doing and you stop all that repetition.

I have to say that I had a good experience with Saxon mathbooks. The explainations were great for kids learning on there own, when (ie homeschoolers) the subject is commonly one that a parent tends to be least able to confidently guide and instruct their child. The critical review I just read seems qualified by "PhD... etc", however I do know many people who benefitted from the Saxon math line of texts. Retention and learning methods do vary among student after all, and perhaps the instructor referred to encountered students who had not gone far enough into subsequent texts.

The Saxon Algebra 1/2 and 1 are good for providing very easy to understand explainations to students needing help. In my case (and apparently my son's as well) they are also great sources for advancing self-study on your own when they want to challenge themselves. Perhaps that doesn't qualify him as prepared for advanced college concepts, but when the child is age 10, and typically bored/unchallenged at school... it gives them a great guide to develop further at home.

I must also comment on the suggestion made by Ms. Shirley that there is not enough practice (but at the same time too much review?) in Saxon... hogwash! There are plenty of exercises throughout. And I haven't found anything dull or mehodical about the texts, and learning didn't POOF away. On the contrary, I've never read a better written self-instructed textbook. Furthermore, the criticism of research studies focussing on K-8 is unfair and "ridiculous"... this is where kids should be learning basic algebra!

Ms. Shirley's review seems to impede the understanding that this is Beginner's instruction.
Homeschooling instruction (and the level of advancement) is often very inadequate in math, but that is a seperate issue you cannot use as proof against the publisher. Our reviews are both subjective just like styles of learning.