Education Teaching Books

These are a great tool for students grades 1-3! I love that my students create their own Star of the Week posters without going overboard. These are perfect!

I really like using this in my classroom. It's a great way to get to know each student throughout the year. I allow for them to share their poster, and have a mini share with their favorite things that they bring from home.

GREAT for a beginning of the year project with kids... let them use their imagination and their markers!!

I plan to use these personal posters with each student of the week. After the poster is completed and returned, it will be laminated and displayed. The students can take them home at the end of the week to display at home or give as a gift to a relative.

I have my students fill out there poster whenever they are chosen as the Star Student of the week. Each student can present their poster, take a few questions, and then bask in the glory of having their poster hanging in the hall for the week. Also, after the poster has been presented, I have every student write a friendly letter to the Star Student. All letters are made into a booklet that the Star Student receives at the end of their week.

Bravo American Education Publishing! You've done it again! As with all your "Complete" guides (of which I have used several), you have combined interesting facts with enjoyable games and wonderful, full-color illustrations. I don't know what my highly color sensitive child would do without this wonderful series of workbooks. I hope to see additional titles out soon.

This title combines a comprehensive look at government as well as information on all presidents through the last one and workbook pages which could accompany more in-depth reading about states' histories. There is a good bibliography, including recommendations for CD ROMS, Videos and Web Sites.

All this company's workbooks are worth taking a look at.

I am homeschooling and I bought this book for my children, ages 8 & 9. It is teaching them so much about the presidents and about the states. It has made learning fun and interesting! I love the flash cards of the presidents too.

i homeschool my daughter and we love this book and use several other books in the complete book series. full of fun and accurate information that is easy to read and enjoy. great for the homeschooler or any child that loves to learn!

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

This book gives tips and suggestions for the beginning workshop teacher. Ideas for constructing mini-lessons, organizing books and classrooms, and month by month suggestions for topics to use to make your workshop a success.

This book is a companion book to Serafini's "Lessons in Comprehension". You do not need to have that book in order to use this one, but because minilessons in "Lessons in Comprehension" are cited throughout the book I would recommend using them together. If you've read a lot about balanced literacy it does repeat a lot, however, there are useful new ideas like poetry discussion groups.

Activities are not organized in a developmentally appropriate manner. Does not cover some of the most basic activities to develop awareness of speech sounds (e.g. listening, discriminating) and includes an abundance of activities that would be difficult for children at the pre-reading/early reading level.

I tutor kindergarten students in phonemic awareness and found this book to be an invaluable resource in preparing lessons for the children. While many books tend to emphasize phonics, the children that I tutor cannot yet recognize sounds within words, a necessary pre-requisite to phonics instruction. This book is one of a few that gives specific sound - related activities. One tool that I found to be very helpful is a scope and sequence chart that gives a suggestion as to when to introduce new concepts in phonemic awareness. The book also includes a variety of activities including songs, worksheets, and games that help keep kids actively involved in learning to hear sounds within words. The author also included extra picture cards which can be used to personalize and revise the worksheets and games to keep them fresh and interesting. I recommend this book along with Janiel Wagstaff's Irresistible Sound-Matching Sheets and Lessons that Build Phonemic Awareness, and Jo Fitzpatrick's Phonemic Awareness: Playing with Sounds to Strengthen Beginning Reading Skills to anyone who works with children that need to focus on phonemic awareness, whether tutoring in small groups or in a classroom setting.

I found this book to be very helpful. It is full of fun learning games that target exactly what I need to be teaching at the begining of first grade. The children enjoy the activities and master the skills. A teacher can't ask for more than that!

This book has helped me a lot with homeschooling. Unlike other books of prereading activities I have seen, many of the activities in this book can be done with just a parent and child, even around the dinner table (we are a weird family, I know).

I have also read Blevins other titles, and I particularly enjoyed Phonics A to Z.

This book has been so useful with my inner city first graders. I love it!

This is one of the best I've read on integrating writing. The author gives beautiful strategies for ELL and Special Ed students, as well as challenging your brightest students. Great examples, easy to apply in your classroom, links to quality science kits. I am giving this book to all of my colleagues!

Such beautifully simple projects in this book. Designed for younger children (3-7-ish), this book is divided seasonally so if you follow a seasonal rhythm you will be sure to have some wonderful environmental activities for your children. Many of the ideas I enjoy myself like sewing gnomes, making butter, making suet for birds.....


Waldorf-oriented or not - I highly recommend this book!

Nurture a sense of wonder and curiousity in your child by allowing them to discover nature. I have a 3 1/2 year old and this is the wonderful book to help her discover and explore her world. There are a wide range of natural, fun and simple activites that range from age 2 to age 5. The projects are easy to follow and are clearly illustrated and shown through each season.

Fall activities include: leaf crowns, leaf banners, nature's people, laterns, apple drying, baking apples, wheat to bread, harvesting pumpkins, making corn husk dolls and grating the cobs. Winter activites include: star windows, nutmeg grating, finger knitting, sewing gnomes and yarn dolls. Spring activities include: wing wands, streamers, pinwheels, kites, dish gardens, butterfly mobiles, flower crowns, pressed flower cards, making flower necklaces, butter making, wool preparations and gardening with children. Summer activites include: shooting star streamer balls, butterfly crowns, walnut boats, bark boats, parachute people, paper birds, bean tepee, berry picking, making berry cobbler and basket weaving.

In addition to seasonal activites, Earthways also includes: making children's cloth aprons, creating a seasonal garden or a nature table, recycling, discussion of toys from nature and creating a more natural outdoor play space. There is also a section of various gift and candle making activites.

Aside from being a great introduction to Waldorf, the book offers wonderful activites for the family to create, explore and discover together. Quality family time at it's best.

For parents wanting to learn more, the book has a tremendous resource section of suppliers, organizations and environmental books. There are resoures for teachers. I absolutely love the seasonal picture book resource section, it's 4 pages long!

Would you like to incorporate more natural, independent, or creative play? I encourage you and your family to grab a basket and go on a nature walk to collect nature objects. Collect some shells, rocks, pinecones, acorns, twigs, flowers, leaves, seed pods and display them on a low shelf or table in your house. See how your child's imagination and creativity take flight, as your child comes to the table to plays with these objects. I was amazed when my daughter stood up 3 pinecones to represent our family and began to play with them.

This is a must-have book for any parent and child who loves nature, or wants to include nature in their child's life. It is well written with realistic arts and crafts projects that will actually work--not frustrate your child. It also has a very deep Waldorf flair to it for any parents who are looking for ideas to do at home. LOVE this book!

While this book is chock-full of ideas which any homeschooling family can use, or anyone who spends time with small children for that matter, I think its best fit is for the preschool teacher in a traditional classroom. I bought it after having quite a library of Waldorf books and didn't find it as useful, but after having read through it several times over, I can definitely see its niche -- and it does a tremendous job once you have it in the right slot. If you are already working with children and have decided to gradually transform your classroom into a Waldorf environment, this book is absolutely the one to buy. Combine it with A Child's Seasonal Treasury by Betty Jones and you'll have a Waldorf kindy classroom in a bottle. (Betty Jones includes lots of verses, rhymes, fingerplays, and other movement activities plus art and recipes but doesn't give much of a context for how they are done -- while this book covers mainly handwork projects but gives more help with making the transition. They complement each other perfectly.)

Carol Petrash, a warm and inspiring writer, takes you by the hand at the beginning of Autumn. With ideas for how to gradually transform your classroom environment, she introduces each season and has you start making changes -- first a little in Autumn, then more ideas for Winter, continuing on with new changes in Spring, and so on -- and shares her ideas for "Bringing Nature In" (self-explanatory) and "Supplying the Missing Links" (which focuses on re-establishing connections that children are missing with the natural world, such as how butter is made), both recurring categories throughout the book.

She also gives general craft ideas organized by season throughout the book (such as Wheat Weaving, Leaf Crowns, Lanterns, Star Windows, Finger Knitting, May Baskets, Shooting Star Streamer Balls, Walnut Boats, Paper Birds) but "Bringing Nature In" and "Supplying the Missing Links" are the real heart of the book -- and what makes it such a gem. Some examples are Creating a Seasonal Garden, From Wheat to Bread, Pumpkins, Indian Corn, Beeswax, Butter, Wool, Gardening with Children, Building Playhouses Outdoors, Berries, and Basket Weaving. For each, she gives several ideas so you really get to explore the topic. Instead of just one activity, it is more like a "weekly theme" on Berries, perfect for how a classroom teacher would use this book. She even includes a sample field trip slip.

If you're familiar with Waldorf there's not a lot here that will be new, but if you are just starting out, this books covers a lot of ground at a very reasonable pace -- and a reasonable price. Instead of tearing your hair out trying to replace all your children's toys at once and learning how to bake from scratch, etc., try this book and let it slowly help you find your way. Enjoy this year of change, and by the summer you'll be proudly observing the transformation in your home and in your lives and you will take much pleasure and pride in watching your children grow, learn, and flourish.

I just recently got this book, and we love it is much. There are loads of great seasonal craft ideas. All of my kids love this and they range in age from 13 to 6 months. (Ok so the 6 month old doesn't do anything yet... but the other 4 do)
I would recommend this book to every family.

H

This book is an absolutely wonderful resource for teachers who feel they might be at the end of their chain or are simply looking for a way of revitalizing their classroom. The ideas are hysterical, practical, and easy to implement in most cases. Just reading the book can make you laugh and get you ready to brighten up your classroom with laughter. We all deserve a little laughter in our day, students and teachers alike - this book is highly recommended! :)

"If they're Laughing..." was a great read for two main reasons. Firstly, in today's classrooms sometimes there is not a lot to laugh about. This book allows the teacher to find ways to laugh with the students everyday. I believe that students that laugh and enjoy school will work hard to get to school everyday. Secondly, even if you don't use these ideas in class, there are lots of funny stories and anecdotes. I was chuckling to myself as I was reading and relaxing (this is definitely not a typical textbook / teacher guide read). If you are looking to add some fun and humour to your classroom, "If They're Laughing..." is a MUST! END

After reading the reviews given to this book, it is obvious to me who are the ones who were told to read the book and who are the ones who were asked to read it as well as offered support with the content. It is just like our students. If we just say "read the book", how engaging is that? If we are given the support to utilize the theory, the book makes much more sense. So, I can understand both ways of seeing the book. I, fortunately, am in a district where we were asked to look into this program (which is really what Working on the Work is) and decide if we would like to use it, as a district. We first, though, were given the opportunity to attend a conference where the presenter was from the Schlechty school. This was where the "practicality" came from. The reviewers are correct in that the book does not give those practical, concrete examples and studies we, as teachers, crave for our own learning. But, that is exactly the point of the program. How can we make our tasks as engaging as we are? The standards at the back of the book are going to be the most useful for teachers. Those are how you structure a lesson to be most engaging. So, I highly recommend that if you get this book that you pair it with some kind of support or research, so that the practical part can be understood along with the theory.

The thesis of the author, offer students work that is meaningful and engaging, is a paradigm shift. The usual way of improving students' experience in the classroom is to offer professional development seminars to teachers so that they might become better educators. However, Schlechty shifts the focus away from improving instruction to working on the work that we require students to do.

I thought the book was convincing of its proposal and an approach that educators need to work on. My only disappointment with the book is that the author did not offer any examples of what "engaging" work might look like. Educators often are bombarded with "theory" and little "practical" examples - which would have been great to have in an Appendix. It is in the "practical" that the book is lacking. Yet, it is a great read and a revolutionary approach.

Anyone with educational experience knows that good teachers try to make lessons engaging and meaningful. All this program does (if your district uses it) is create more work for educators with no real support or help, just a lot of demands in time and paper work. If you don't or didn't share and get help from your colleges before this program shame on you! How did you get through your Collage of Education? Anyone with business experience knows this is just a great example of marketing; it plays on the notion of helping and lets administrators look like they have a plan to the public. If your district administrators needed this program they should have resigned their positions. After a few years of experience you should not have to invest the kind of money and resources this program requires. Who is making the money? Who gets the kick backs? Not the classroom teacher who works longer hours than paid for already. Don't fall for the hype; this is just the latest educational reform gimmick. Making someone rich? Mark Twain had it figured out when it came to school boards. Look it up.

This is the sort of book school administrators love and teachers hate. It's long on vague, lofty sounding goals and absolutely no specifics to help teachers get there. What teacher wouldn't want to be more engaging? Who wouldn't want to inspire their students? Simply stating "be more engaging" doesn't get a teacher there any more than the teacher telling their student to "be smarter". But admin types love Schlechty's program. It puts the burden on the teacher to "work smarter, not harder...", "work the work" and "be more engaging and entertaining", and absolves students, parents and administrators from any responsibility for student improvement.

I'd like to see specifics. And I'd like to see specific approaches backed up by hard research that will tell me the approach works. I haven't seen that yet, not in this book or any of the other 1,000 wunderkinds that run around the educational establishment spouting the latest miracle makeover.

But I'm an optimist. I'm still looking for any information that will help me become a better teacher, information that's backed by experience and hard, objective research showing measurable results. I didn't see it here....

Schlechty's Shaking Up the Schoolhouse is the parent to Working on the Work. Both books make the effort to provide information and put forth a different perspective. It's disheartening to read the reactionary comments from educators who are familiar with Schlechty and the WOW book. When is the blame shifting going to stop? How long will teachers focus on all the things they cannot control instead of on the things they can? Nothing gives a teacher more freedom by administrators than success. By shifting our focus to what we give our students to work on, we do work smarter, which brings more joy to the passion for kids that led us to teaching. Teaching the same way we always have is why we continue to have a 30% drop out rate at the high school level(and rising). The book does not say that no teachers want to be more engaging. It simply gives a framework for improving the tasks that we assign our students. If you don't like your job, get out! Education has to continue to make the paradigm shifts needed if we are to expect a responsible, informed citizenry. Here are the facts:

-Research tells us that the engagement precedes learning. Without authentic attention and investment, true and deep learning does not occur.
-Research tells us that a variety of tasks and instructional delivery is required to meet the needs of the variety of learners in any given classroom.
-Research tells us that the most effective teachers are those who are risk-takers in the classroom and make great effort to connect personally with their students.
-Research tells us that last year's lessons won't necessarily work with this year's students.

Any job you take will be evaluated, be it education or not. If we, as teachers, do not continue to reflect on the kinds of work we give our students, then we are simply a warm body in the classroom. What's the great harm in looking more closely at our lesson design and thinking outside the box? I say this book is an interesting read that can encourage any educator to take stock of what is happening in their classroom. Open your lessons up for some reflection and criticism. That's the only way we can grow as educators.

A cursory examination of a number of relatively mild disorders along with a few paragraphs about general instructional methods for each. For a book touting itself as "how the brain works" it contains an embarrassingly basic discussion of brain function, consistent with a high school anatomy and physiology textbook. The chapter on autism, while (finally)addressing a true "special need" would only be new information to a complete neophyte. This book is a disappointment. The title is the only weighty thing about it.

As a high school teacher with several special education students in my classes, I found this book to be extremely informative. Written in plain language rather than a medical text, it helped me to understand better the problems these students face. The book contains numerous suggestions for activities and techniques that I have tried and they were very effective. I strongly recommend this book for any teacher (and parent)who deals with special needs children.

I have two special needs children and have found this volume indispensable. The material is presented in a concise, clear manner. I cannot recommend it highly enough.