Education Teaching Books

Leadership Capacity For Lasting School Improvement by Linda Lambert (Professor Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Educational Leadership at California State University - Heyward), brings together real-life experiences and the experience-based wisdom of educators around the world to present and illustrate the five major prerequisites for high leadership capacity, as well as offering in-depth advice on the complex task of leading an education institution. Individual chapters directly address the changing role of the principle, parents as leaders, district leadership, major participation patterns and more, in this excellent and highly informative resource ideal for anyone charged with a role of leadership responsibility in the corridors of academia.

This book is written for practising school leaders. It offers guidance in fine tuning whole-school cultural change, a topic that practitioners have handled intuitively and singularly for ages.

The intellectual modelling that underwrites Lambert's book are the Leadership Capacity Matrices For the readers of my vintage, it is good to see useful variants of Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Theory of Leadership model. Instead of plotting task behaviour against relationship behaviour that Hersey and Blanchard used, Lambert has used degrees of participation and the degree of leadership skill on the axes.

Seeking Quadrant 4.
Clearly quadrant 4 is the outcome that school leaders seek- High on participation and high leadership skill. The pointers are:
1. Principal, teachers, parents and students as skilful leaders.
2. Shared vision resulting in program coherence.
3. Inquiry-based use of data to inform decisions and practice.
4. Broad involvement, collaboration, and collective responsibility reflected in roles and actions.
5. Reflective practice that leads consistently to innovation.
6. High or steadily improving student achievement.

The role of the school leader can often be a lonely task and there is a dearth of material which actually guides school leaders through aspects of change that articulate, finesse and embed intentions.

For me this is a timely and practical book.

If you are like most new parents or parents of pre-school aged children, you are wondering if public school is the right choice for your child. More and more families are choosing for one parent to stay home and educate the children at least through third grade. With so many books available on the subject, choosing has become a chore. As a homeschool mother of 5, I found this book for be a great basic tool that answers many of a parents questions and makes decision making so much easier. I highly recommend this no only for parents of young children , but also for libraries and churches. Also recommended by The Education Garden and many homeschool groups.

I'm completing my second reading of this most helpful book. I was beginning to have doubts -- 3 months into our first year -- about homeschooling my 7th Grader; however, Linda Dobson's description of the decompression process gives me courage to move ahead! Thanks so much.

We ordered this book when it became obvious that in our area, homeschooling wasn't just the best choice; it was (for us) the ONLY choice. "The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child" covered a great deal, mostly from the advice-to-parents angle (as opposed to covering curriculum/testing requirements). We learned about the emotional/logistical hurdles we would be likely to face, and how to clear them with ease. Overall, the book covers the objections, concerns, fears and difficulties a novice homeschooler will face, and offers concrete suggestions, reassurance and encouragement. Don't expect Pollyanna; expect real, helpful advice from other parents who have been where you now are.

This is a great book for deciding if homeschooling is right for you. It makes all the arguments for homeschooling and uses great examples of others who have chosen to homeschool vs. public shool. It demonstrates personaly the results of that decision. Plus gives lots of info of the different methods used ect. A great read for anyone contenplating home education! An easy read for those hungry for all the basic ingriedients of getting started! I highly recomend this for those (like me)just entering into the world of homshooling!

This book has become my new Bible of sorts. I am new to homeschooling and have read and re-read this book at least a dozen times. So many questions and fears and situations that I have had have been addressed in this book. you come away feeling so much more comfortable and confident in your decision. Thank you! Thank you for this book!!!

I am using this book as a reference while homeschooling my middle-school son. It is far and away the best book of science experiments and demonstrations at this level that I have encountered. Every possible chemistry topic at the middle and high school level is covered with multiple examples, all well -indexed and clearly explained. Many can be done with simple materials around the house although some require more sophisticated glassware and a few involve chemicals and/or procedures that would require an institutional setting (for example, needing a fume hood). The latter are well indicated. Best of all, the activities are FUN--we did the Cartesian Diver today and it was a blast!

My only very minor gripe is that a few activities are repeated several times in slightly different formats. More thorough editing and/or cross-referencing would be helpful.

I would recommend the book for homeschoolers such as myself who want to give their students real lab experiences, and also probably for "regular" teachers in middle or high schools.

An innovative compilation of chemistry experiments.

This book has tons of labs and demonstrations. Many of the labs and demonstrations can be found in other chemistry texts and on-line, this book brings them all together with good explainations and illustrations. Herr and Cunningham have included additional information for the teacher and there are thoughtful extension questions provided for the students. This is a good resource book. I allow my students to try the labs after school and when they come in on their free periods. My only gripe is that it sometimes takes careful reading to follow the procedures as they are written in paragraph form.

This text is readable and seems to cover the course content well (The class I am enrolled in is a Master's level class called "Human Growth and Development). However, the SIZE of the book makes it difficult to manage easily. I would have preferred a thicker book with smaller dimensions in height and width. As it is, you need two hands to hold the book, and it's not easy to read it curled up in a chair! That also makes highlighting while you read difficult, unless, of course you are sitting at a desk or table while you are reading.

Great book - covers lifespan from birth to death, looking at development from the perspective of many important theories and theorists, as well as from many different systems.

This is not a book of ice breakers or social games, but true reflective activities to do with your staff or educational group. Very useful and practical.

Kevin Sheehan has simplified the great qualities of important leaders and placed them in an entertaining text. A gift which I have passed on to my dearest friends, this book is both inspirational and educational. My highest recommendation.

Poignant, powerful stories. Beautifully written with a distinctive and important design. This book's not to be missed--by you, your friends, your business colleagues. Bravo!

Within his book A Leader Becomes A Leader, Kevin Sheehan delightfully illustrates the essence of true leadership. He poignantly definies a diverse group of past and present leaders; while exploring their life events and characteristics of greatness. Encourage your friends, family and coworkers to read this motivational book!

The author does a phenomenal job of breaking the topic down into small manageable and inspiring readings; also covers a great cross-section of leaders and the characteristics that made them successful. I ordered a dozen copies as executive and motivational gifts.

J. Kevin Sheehan presents a celebration of what's possible in his biographical snapshots of great leaders. By focusing on the unique character traits of outstanding leaders the author transforms the mysteries of leadership into something very real. He answers the question "what made them great?" in an extremely concise and inspirational style. Great as a corporate gift or graduation present. My children have used it for school projects and I have found inspiration for my own business. No home or school library should be without this most valuable tool.

This book is chock-full of helpful tips on differentiated instruction that will work with not just students with autism, but ALL students. Paula has written yet another masterpiece for all those who work with autism.

I highly recommend anything that Dr. Kluth has written. You will not be disappointed by her common sense thinking and practical tips for teaching.

A Land we can Share is directed primarily at educators and para professionals working with children with ASD to welcome then into the world of literacy.

My perspective is somewhat different. I am a parent of a 7 year old girl with ASD. We are currently in the throes of teaching our daughter to read (in collaboration with her teachers and therapists at school, of course). Whereas with my older children, the process of teaching them to read happened almost intuitively and naturally (on our part as parents), for our youngest the process has involved more effort. We have had to try more things, read more literature, consider different approaches, test more software programs and reader packages.

And much as parents really just want a simple solution, the instructional rigour of Paula's book is at once insightful, engaging and inspiring. It resonated with us, in that it delved in a practical and useful way into different literacy approaches, and provided examples and suggestions that we find useful, and that can be passed on to classroom teachers and reading assistants. But even more significant than its practical applications were the themes of approach and attitude that permeate the pages. Those messages are the catch cries of so many parents with children on the spectrum. We tell teachers, administrators, friends, onlookers - try different things; children are all different; just because something works for most kids doesn't mean there won't be a different approach that will help the rest of the kids, put aside judgment; practice real inclusion.

I would highly recommend this book (as well as Paula's other books) for parents. Read it. Practice it with your children. Pass it on to teachers and school administrators.

What a wonderful resource! I was inspired to try some new things in my classroom. All were successful and motivating for my students. I teach early childhood special education and it is always a struggle to keep my expectations high, yet attainable... I LOVE the premise "presume competence" that Paula and Kelly use throughout their work. That statement was a "nudge" to remind me that my students can always do more. I know that as long as I encourage them and offer them the necessary tools, they will succeed. I began using some of my augmentative communication devices (for the students that required more assistance) with some of my stories. WOW!!! Talk about interest level increasing! My students focused on the stories at hand AND all wanted to use the devices to `help' read the stories. THANKS for the great ideas!

This is an important book for all teachers, regular ed. and special ed. This book reminds us all that every student is capable of literacy, we just have to give them the right opportunity. With great recommendations and strategies included, this book will become one that you reference over and over again.

Loved it. I recommend this book for anyone touched by autism and have advised friends and family to buy it.

The school I began teaching out is a small, rural high school that has no mentoring program. In lieu of such a program, the principal gave each of us new teachers 101 "ANSWERS" FOR NEW TEACHERS AND THEIR MENTORS which we read through and discussed together during our first year on the job. The book is a combination self-help/encouragement book. The 101 "answers" in the book are basically just tips for teachers who are starting out in their careers. The sections in the book are divided up into six categories: classroom management, planning, instruction, professionalism, motivation and rapport, and a teacher's influence. Most of the "answers" are words of encouragement. Overall the book is directed more towards elementary teachers than secondary teachers. Some of the situations and advice given just aren't applicable with high school students. I did find a few of the tips in the classroom management and planning section to be useful, such as giving students productive bellwork to work on at the beginning of class. However, tips like these that I actually found helpful, are only a handful of the 101 "answers." Most of the "answers" have to do with things like reminding yourself why you went into education, treat everyone you meet with respect, you are making a difference, and Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Team! Go!, you can make it after all. Overall, this is just an average advice and encouragement book directed more towards elementary teachers than those at the middle school and secondary level.

We have purchased this book for the last three years for all of our new teachers. In addition we are purchasing it this year for every mentor in our district. It is an excellent resource for new teachers as they experience the range of situations presented to them in their teaching environment as rookies. It is a practial resource for mentors and a reminder of their importance. Many of the practial tips are used in our induction program and as conversation topics at monthly support meetings. In my opinion, this book is a must have for every teacher!

This is one of the best books I could have ever bought. I am a student teacher right now and I learned a variety of strategies just from reading this book. It makes you want to just go out and conquor the classroom. I would reccommend any teacher, or prospective teachers to buy this book! It is wonderful. Thank you Ms. Breaux!

Hands down, the best book for teachers on the market. Very practical and extremely user-friendly. I ordered a copy for all of my teachers - not just the new ones and mentors. The `Answers' in this book are for EVERYONE.

I like this book because I feel it is very important for all teachers, whether or not they are mentors or beginners, to remember what it is like to be a new teacher. I think that everyone can benefit from being reminded how to act appropriately with their students and their fellow teachers. The tips presented in the book are easily accessible and easily implemented.

I have also had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Breaux speak and was very impressed. She speaks like she writes!

I purchased a book for every teacher. Their responses have been very positive. It has renewed the spirit of the veteran teachers and has provided another learning tool for the new teachers. Thanks to Annette Breaux for this common sense book!