Teacher Training Books

I already was considered the maverick teacher--never using the curriculum always doing my own thing .....THIS inspires people like me who are "drama queens" and people who think "I COULD NEVER DO THAT" to realize
YES, YOU CAN !!!! It is fun, exciting teaching of the most important subject in so many ways that will teach the kids so they will NEVER FORGET !!
EVERY church teacher should read this..it is a bastion of GREAT ideas to get and keep the kids coming and learning and REMEMBERING !!!!!
It is this kind of teaching that keeps the kids begging to NOT go up to the next class because they love your class so much !!

I have greatly enjoyed the Creative Storytelling Guide. It is clear and easy to follow, even for a novice. I especially liked the hand-outs in the back. They were very helpful in teaching others some of the major points of the book. Read the book all the way through, or just the chapter that interests you. Either way, you'll find many suggestions that can improve your style and methods. This is a keeper for any Children's Ministry library.

My storytelling prof recommended that I read Steven James book, but I was a bit put off by the cover--it looked a bit cheesy for me.
However, I decided to trust her advice and once I opened the book--I found that she was right. James breaks down fears, story structure, delivering the story, creating the right environment, telling stories to different age groups. In fact, at the end of the book you're provided with handouts if you want to teach on the chapters.

It was so refreshing to be able to look at the bible the way God intended, to see that he gave us this wonderful story, full of intrigue and mystery and redemption that we are apart of. I think this book is not limited to Children's Ministry, but can be applied to adults as well. If you want to know more about how to tell a story well--you should definitely get this book.

William Cohen studied with management guru Peter Drucker while working toward his Ph.D. in executive management at Claremont Graduate School (now the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management). The lessons he learned from Drucker, he says, were life-changing, and in this book he aims to transmit to his readers the great man's wisdom. In fact, Drucker took a somewhat different approach with his students from the one in his books and articles. Thus, Cohen builds upon and reinterprets many of Drucker's insights and concepts. getAbstract particularly recommends this book to managers who are already Drucker fans and want to learn more - the book is really more like a CD of unreleased recordings by a great artist of the past than like an album of covers by a lesser artist.

William Cohen is the first graduate of Claremont University's PhD in Management program; Peter Drucker was his lead instructor. The value of the book is that it contains a few good insights from the best known management consultant; the downside is that the book is mostly filler, and the topic's inherent difficulty.

The inherent difficulty in studying the field of management is that it is impossible to create an all-inclusive management control panel for monitoring - a conclusion propounded by Drucker himself. Key variables differ in each situation - eg. an executive's personality, the importance of future products vs. improved current offerings, etc. Drucker's unique contribution was an ability to cut through the morass of each firm's uniqueness at a high level, and offer valued recommendations to various firms, from G.M. to G.E.

Nonetheless, some Drucker generalizations are uniquely applicable. These include:

"The first task of any business management is to decide what business it is in." (Allows focus.)

"What everyone know is frequently wrong." (Drucker illustrated this maxim by relating how Kaiser, lacking knowledge of how the English quickly built transport ships during WWII, developed a much quicker system. On the other hand, history is also replete with examples where ignorance was a serious flaw.)

"Continuing what led to past success will invariable lead to future failure - the environment will eventually change." (Examples include the explosion of energy costs, A.F. drones becoming available, the Internet and computers, new environmental laws, etc.)

"If you weren't already in the business, would you enter it today? If not, what are you going to do about it?"

"Great advances in any field rarely come from a single discipline. Rather, they come from advances in one discipline being transplanted to another sphere." (A likely example will be improving health care costs and quality through application of the Toyota production system.)

"Outstanding performance is inconsistent with the fear of failure."

Watch out for global competitors.

"CEO's are overpaid - should be in the range of 20X the average worker. Unions have become unaccountable for costs and performance."

Recommends written objectives for managers. (MBO)

"Self-development is up to the individual."

"Lead, don't manage. Don't use Theory X, nor a permissive form of Theory Y (creates chaos)."

Author William A. Cohen was a struggling young Air Force officer with no academic experience when he entered Drucker's PhD program in management, becoming the first graduate of Drucker's doctoral program. He used his newfound insights to further career and to gain a deeper insight into Drucker's approach and personality: A CLASS WITH DRUCKER reflects his experiences, expanding upon Drucker's lessons, revealing the teacher's personality through personal anecdotes, and providing fine tips on how Drucker's management tools continue to be applied in everyday business circles. Any business library needs A CLASS WITH DRUCKER.

I became an entrepreneur and business owner after I graduated school, so I never took business courses - especially at the graduate level. My customers have taught me some, I had some mentors and family advice, but mostly I have learned from by either making mistakes or having successes in my stores. And I am a firm believer in learning from books.
Business books seem to be about 80-20. 80% stinkers, 20% valuable. And then every so often that 20% turns out to have real gem. This book from Dr Cohen is a gem, with a lot of good, practical advice I can apply immediately to improve my bottom line. If you believe in continuing your business education with books, get this one. The advice is Peter Drucker's, and Dr Cohen fully credits the ideas to him, but I credit Dr Cohen for making these lessons readable, understandable, and easy to apply. Bravo!

Peter Drucker is revered as a management guru and his books and articles have been a mainstay in business reading for decades. Even if you have read some of his books, don't you think you should read more? But maybe you have read everything and wish there was something more. We see similar market hunger from the devotees of artists and musicians who have died. These folks look for anything not released or some draft versions of works.

William Cohen was working on his executive Ph.D. at Claremont when he studied with Drucker. While most of us know Drucker from his writings, and a much smaller number from presentations, a minuscule number of people were able to sit in his classrooms. Cohen has combed his notes and recollections to put together 19 chapters of what it was like to study with Drucker as a student and the lessons he learned from him.

It is an interesting enough book and Cohen does make contributions of his own. Just don't mistake this for a book BY Drucker and you will be just fine. While I would recommend starting with Drucker's classic works, this is a good supplement to the great man's direct offerings for those who want even more.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Great Book was in great shape. Teaches you alot about being a teacher leader.

The book served its purpose well for my class. It arrived quickly and easily.

If you wish to know the cutting edge issues shaping teacher education, please look no further than this massive (and overpriced) tome.

Leading scholars from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) summarize several years worth of study, compilation, review, and analyzation of the field. They present their findings in this big book.

A gem to be on the shelf. Check it out.

Written by Edward Pajak (Professor and Chair of the Department of Teacher Development and Leadership, Johns Hopkins University), Honoring Diverse Teaching Styles: A Guide For Supervisors is a brief (118-page) yet quite practical guide for encouraging and supervising classroom teachers. Descriptions of the four basic styles of teaching; tips for matching one's communication style to the nature of the teacher; understanding the clinical cycle; and much more, fill the pages of this succinct instructional manual specifically designed for helping educational administrators to assist teachers into becoming the best they can be.

After reading Gebhard's book, I decided to see what others thought about the book. I was quite surprised to see one reviewer give the book only one star. But, then I read the review and realized that this person had not actually read the book. He simply decided that he did not like the book because he thought the author had friends write the reviews. His review without reading the book is like not liking a person because someone told you a few things about her.

I like Gebhard's book because he does not claim to know the best way to teach. Rather, he wants us, as ESL teachers or future teachers, to learn how to make our own decisions about what to do in the classroom. He gives lots of examples of things we can do as teachers. (I especially like his section chapters on teaching skills -- conversation, listening, reading, writing -- and his chapter on culture and teaching.)He also provides real problems that real teachers have, and gives multiple examples of activities and materials that experienced teachers use. But, he does not tell teachers how they should teach.
The book is full of ideas and easy to read. As an ESL teacher, I can highly recommend it.

This is an absoulute work of superb scholarship. Dr. Gebhard is obviously speaking from years of both research and real-life experience. In an area filled with dull and lifeless preachings by secluded scholars tucked away in ivory towers, this work stands out as a testament to thorough reaseach complimented by understandable and readable conclusions. A must read for anyone in this field!

Excellent resource. I teach ESL to the Hispanic Immigrant Population in Anniston AL and have found this book full of useful suggestions and techniques for the classes we teach.

Have you been asked what TESOL is? This book gives you all the keys you need to understand teaching English to speakers of other languages. It works as an introductory texts for those majoring TESOl or will work in the ESL EFL arena.

This is a book on language teaching for language teachers. The book takes the view that language teachers must be responsible for making the ideas in the book real for their own particular contexts. The book starts with self-development as a theme and then moves on to teaching skills. Jerry Gebhard is careful to point out that he is not providing a bag of tricks as each application is backed-up with a sound theoretical perspective. The references in each section are excellent if the busy teacher has some time to read in more depth. Also, each chapter has activities that teachers can explore in order to apply the chapter information to their own particular context. What I especially like is that these activities encourage teachers to talk to other teachers and colleagues. This is where real self-development starts. This book, then, is a welcome user friendly addition to the field of English Language Teaching. If the user is a teacher, you have found the right book!