Teaching Books

Learning by Doing should be the consummate staff development guide for all schools. Creating a common language, the right language, about PLC's is what needs to happen to get all of the arrows going in the right direction in any educational environment on any initiative. I look forward to implementing it with my new school!

Professional Learning Communities are the big buzz currently. Does your school district have professional learning communities? Have you wondered where to start? Have you wondered how your professional learning communities are doing? If you've wondered about any of those, then this is the book for you.

Learning by Doing is a great handbook for administrators and teachers to use as they implement professional learning communities in their school. This handbook gives an overview of the different components of the professional learning community process. As schools implement the professional learning community process this handbook is also a useful tool to assist in self reflection and evaluation.

As a school is developing professional learning communities, this handbook is a great resource to use through the process. It begins by giving advice on how to clarify the purpose of professional learning communities, how to build collaborative teams, and how to establish team norms. The collaborative foundation is essential to the success of the professional learning communities. The professional learning communities must collaborate in order to increase student achievement.

The handbook also shares information about how to collect data, how to use the data to improve results, and how to implement interventions in order to improve student achievement. These components help the professional learning community develop strategies to help each individual learner in their classroom. Schools must develop and support a pyramid of interventions in order to meet the students' needs.

This handbook includes many useful reproducible handouts and continuums which help analyze the progress of each professional learning community. The continuums are great conversation starters for the professional learning communities to use to evaluate their progress. This handbook can help your school improve the PLC process through self reflection and evaluation.

If you are looking for tools to help your Professional Learning Communities improve, this book is for you.

If you want to learn an entirely new set of buzz words, this is the book for you! It is not enough that we have RTI's, IEP's, IDEA, SLP's and the beloved NEA. We need PLC's as well! And we also need to (drumroll please) LEARN BY DOING! That's a new one, I always thought that teachers were supposed to learn by not doing!

What was most remarkable about this book was the utter lack of usable content. While it does an excellent imitation of Charlie Brown's teacher (indecipherable blah, blah, blahs), it says absolutely nothing new. It is uncanny, the book is utterly devoid of originality or new information. Just a plodding restatement of old ideas wrapped in new jargon.

Yet when another reviewer pointed out the obvious, that the emperor was in fact stark naked, he was immediately attacked by the true believers. I in no way wish to deny those who love fads and jargons from their periodic "fix" of meaningless initials and empty slogans. But could you please stop forcing it onto your fellow educators?

This book is a must read for any administrator or potential administrator that is looking for new ways to improve their schools. Very practical and flexible with many scenarios and worksheets that can help you to determine where your school is and how to get it where you want it to go.

Excellent Book!! Extremely valuable resource for schools that are working toward a true Professional Learning Community. Easy to read and very practical.

You could stumble into each class paying as much attention as possible, trying very hard to understand how to become a better teacher, reflecting after class upon what you did well and what you did not do well ... or you could read McKeachie's book and take all of his experience and that of his co-authors into your repertoire of teaching tips.

One could dread reading a book that talks too much about the details and administrative issues that may arise in teaching. One could also dread a book that speaks only about philosophical issues in teaching. One does not need to dread this book because it addresses both practical and philosophical matters but not in excruciating details. It is written by an intelligent group for intelligent readers and yet it is simple prose, not the pretentious academic jargon that I so often encounter.

I loved it and highly recommend it to all PhD students, junior faculty, and faculty teaching others how to teach.

This book contains much information that is essential for a new college
instructor. For those of us who have been in the field, it also offers
an opportunity to reflect on class policies and teaching approaches through the lens of current thinking in cognitive psychology and practice in education.

There's a reason this book has gone through 12 editions over several decades, and that's because Wilbert McKeachie is the most widely respected expert on matters of college teaching. This latest edition is up to date with the latest theory and practice, and McKeachie has certainly not fallen into the pattern that is common with many multiple-edition books, in that he has avoided simply adding quick cosmetic updates. A look at the table of contents will tell you all you need to know about this expansiveness and inclusiveness of McKeachie's tips, and it's hard to imagine any area of the discipline that he hasn't covered. The only real issue with this book is that it is focused on teaching environments in which small class sizes or receptive administrators will allow for more personalized teaching strategies. However, not everyone will have that luxury, and other environments (especially large classes) are typically treated as mere exceptions and receive only cursory coverage. Another issue with the quality of this edition is some of the chapters that have only been edited by McKeachie but have been written by his colleagues, because these outside submissions damage the overall consistency of the book and the authors tend to focus on their own research and theories, as opposed to McKeachie's universal wisdom. [~doomsdayer520~]

This book was only slightly helpful in my classes. The advice in this book sounds good to educators with its trendy terminology and emphasis on some amorphous "deep learning" but many students hate the collaborative exercises in this book and shut off to being taught in this manner. McKeachie is writing to other educators, none of whom understand how students in this generation actually think. Although most of the book was junk, there was the rare teaching strategy I found useful, but none of them were particularly ground-breaking or innovative.

For the 12th edition of this book, McKeachie has added more valuable chapters that will benefit experienced as well as novice college instructors. Each chapter is fairly short -- often no more than 5 or 6 pages -- and edited to eliminate "fluff." Each quickly gets to the point and offers practical suggestions for such things as how to handle problem students in the classroom, how to create good test questions, and how to handle sticky issues that come up in grading. McKeachie has kept up with technology, too, and there is a new chapter on "teaching with technology" and an awareness throughout the book that today's students often prefer electronic media to face-to-face communication. The book is loosely structured and thus chapters can be read in any order. I especially recommend the series of chapters on testing and grading, as they provide great advice even for instructors who think they've heard everything. I use this book in my course on college teaching, along with Joe Lowman's book Mastering the Art of College Teaching and Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members. This trio of books will serve you well, especially if you have never been formally trained in how to organize and run a college course.

this book is new...fresh....new....really good looking...however the shipping and handling fee was freaken $17.99 for expedite shipping...i got the book overnite! GreAT on that but..the feee is definitely too much.

After his time spent as an educator, Jonathan Kozol devoted his career to that of an educational reform activist. He has visited what seems like thousands of schools throughout the United States and the communities that make up those schools to bear witness to the shameful secret that lies hidden in plain sight. Kozol's message in "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America" is not too different from the message he has written about in previous books - America still has 'second class citizens' who do not receive the same schooling, services, opportunities, rights, the same anything that the white majority does. With his argument that school integration has regressed to a level almost on par with the school segregation that existed before Brown vs. Board of Education, his message is a wake up call to anyone in education and to any American citizen.

As a teacher I have witnessed what Kozol writes about firsthand. I taught in a de facto segregated school that exhibited the classic signs of neglect Kozol mentions - antiquated building, overcrowded classrooms, military-style discipline, heavy emphasis on test preparation - the list goes on and on. I've witnessed firsthand the trials and tribulations that children of color and poverty can often bring to the classroom, only to have their education shortchanged as well. Kozol's plea is passionate; it is a shame that America continues to have segregated schools and that some school districts do whatever they can to guarantee that minorities are excluded all the while claiming that race isn't the issue. It is a shame that minority children have to go to classes in condemned buildings and that their curriculum is centered almost solely around raising test scores in math and reading to meet government demands. How can they meet those expectations when they do not receive the same education as the majority students? It is a shame that the landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education has failed and we still hail it as a triumph. It is a shame that schools named for courageous civil rights leaders are segregated schools, bearing witness to the exact opposite of what these leaders hoped to bring about. It is a shame that too few seem to care about these issues and that it may take a movement even larger than the civil rights movement to make any changes. It is a shame that some fail to recognize still that separate is never equal.

Why should those who have the most receive the most (in terms of education and opportunities) while those who have not or have the least receive the least? This is a question that one elementary student posed to the author. He was saddened that the only response he could give her was that after numerous years of asking that same question, he didn't have any good answer for it. Perhaps there never will be one. And even though that is one issue other reviewers have raised with "The Shame of the Nation", there are limited answers or suggestions Kozol can give with the state that education is in today. One author and the teachers and principals and government officials that he interviews cannot give a simple answer to a complex problem that is sadly most likely never going away and that will only continue to get worse. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., America will never be a first class nation while it still has second class citizens. If we are failing our children in their education, how are they ever going to be prepared to succeed in life?

Sheesh....if Kozol is suppose to be some type of expert in public education, you think he would have marshaled a few facts to bolster his case. If, as other reviewers assert, the target audience for this book is the comfortable suburban parents and schools, then the book has failed. Suburbanites are sophisticated enough to require valid data to support an argument. Kozol offers nothing but anecdote and appeals to emotion. Not very convincing.

Kozol's got this rag doll in his mouth and won't let go. Who can blame him? The schools are in bad shape and, one supposes, someone is at fault. Why not blame everyone except the students? An alternative perspective might suggest the rise of a new phenomenon rarely mentioned by those advocating increased funding: Willful ignorance and the cult of pride. I work in the inner city. Many of my students refuse to do anything and are backed up by their parents. "You can't make me" is their slogan. No administrator will back up a teacher who assigns homework to kids who won't do it. The kids come to school three days a week and routinely take 6-weeks to visit their grandparents south of the border. The girls wear $100 nail jobs, $150 tennis shoes, and won't carry their books because they have bad backs. 25% of the kids stay home on rainy days. Charter schools make the rules the public schools refuse. The kids drop out because they won't accept discipline programs based on "consequences." After years in the local PS, they can't cope with being forced to take responsibility. No doubt, Kozol knows well that some schools have more lap tops than others. This may be a "savage inequality," but for the life of me I can't see how a lap top is going to make up for the lack curiosity in students devoted to gang culture.

Jonathan Kozol is very good at exposing the shameful conditions of inner city schools serving an overwhelmingly poor and minority student population. As after I read his earlier book "Savage Inequalities" a number of years ago, I came away shocked at just how bad things still are for so many of this nation's schoolchildren.

Kozol's solution to all the problems facing urban schools is simply to fund them at the same level as the wealthiest suburbs. There is no examination of whether that funding target is appropriate, which is a very important question. Perhaps the ritzy suburbs are spending too much and wasting money on frills such as lavish sports facilities and so on. It's one thing if the residents in that community are willing to pay for those frills but quite another to ask the overburdened taxpayer to provide the same to all schools.

Kozol takes the typical educrat position on all the hot button issues, from vouchers to standardized testing to phonics to gifted & talented programs (all of these are bad in his view) to universal government-run preschool (good in his view). He doesn't provide much in the way of convincing data to support his arguments, which suggests that they are based on ideology rather than sound research.

This product arrived in a timely manner, and was in perfect shape, and as represented on the website.

Great bible. It is used for our entire Catholic school. The kids enjoy using it and I occasionally will use it as well. Highly recommended

Hello i was very happy with the the service and the book was i perfect condition. thank you

I ordered this Bible for my 11 yr. old grandaugher and she thinks it is wonderful. It was in excellent shape and shipped very fast.

Excellent Easy to use Bible. Great for the Young adults in our lives. Makes great sense out of scripture. Hard to Find and Usually expensive, Extremely reasonable on Amazon.

I do not think it's a great product, the exercises are way too simple and sometimes confusing

I have bought this book and i am very disappeared. Inside this book you can find hundreds of rules but you have to remember all of them and keep in mind during all the time you use English language. In my opinion it is not possible. Just imagine yourself talking to somebody and thinking about more than thousand rules. You have to have some time to choose appropriate grammar form. It takes lots of your time and it will be extremely difficult for you to speak.I think the author should to have thought about it before writing this book, but he did not.

Many exercises are stupid. You just should choose answers between Past Simple and Present Simple. Oh and do not forget to read the article about
can, could, be able to... So I read only few articles and it was more than enough for me.

I had the intermediate of this book when I was studying intensive English. It is very good because it shows examples and allows you practice a lot. It is a complete self-study and reference book.

I like that one. It contains everything you may need, while you are using a little advanced English. Your grammar will become very good. It can be very useful in every way if you are just studing English or you want to live in English speaking country or you want to study there, or work for foreign company. In every way I recommend this book highly to everybody that want to speak English well.

A very good explanation of various grammar points. The exercises that go with the explanations helps to reinforce the rules of grammar. An excellent homework resource, not just ESL students, but also for native speakers of English.

In the book, "Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary",Marcus Borg explains what the situation, times and daily life was like when Jesus lived. He then goes into the experience of God and Jesus' teachings regarding that knowledge.
I believe that the book helps modern Christians and non-Christians alike to gain a more full understanding of the message of Christ, going to the heart and spiritual dynamic that was intended to show people the true inward path to realizing God.

I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this book left me flat and somewhat agitated. I couldn't wait to be finished with it. Long winded diatribes, strange presumptions, crazy metaphors, when there was a point to make it took half a chapter to do it, other wise it kind of ambled along begging for somewhere to go. I'm not trying to be unkind, but I still have no clue what this book was about. I had to select 1 star, but I really mean zero stars.

This book is written for people who are not specialists in theology. It introduces readers to up to date knowledge on the gospels. It is well written - not at all "heavy". He talks of two paradigms - two very different ways of seeing Jesus. One is the traditional way of taking the gospel accounts as historically authentic narratives: the other sees Jesus in the light of modern knowledge of biblical literary and historical criticism, of the natural and human sciences, and differentiates between the metaphorical elements in the gospels, and the remembered history.

He gives a brief but very helpful account of the development in biblical scholarship over the past 300 hundred years, the different sources for our knowledge of Jesus, and demonstrates that the gospels were written as part of a developing tradition. He distinguishes between the pre-Easter Jesus, and the post-Easter Jesus - the Jewish teacher of a revolutionary gospel, and the Christ of faith.

His descriptions of how he and other scholars make judgments on what is probably history, and what is more likely to be metaphor, are illuminating for a modern understanding of some of the otherwise perplexing elements of the gospels.

It is helpful to read his account of the social and religious conditions of Galilee and Jerusalem in the life-time of Jesus, with its domination system which oppressed the peasants. Jesus brought to them a challenging message of hope and good news.

Borg explores the ministry of Jesus in rural Galilee, the journey from there to Jerusalem, and finally the confrontation with the Jewish and Roman authorities that led to his crucifixion.

Jesus' message is grounded in the here and now. The kingdom of God that Jesus taught, was, according to Borg, not something focused in the hereafter, but in building a better world in this one. His God is a God of compassion, with a passion for justice, which he illustrated in a variety of ways.

Jesus' methods included his parables, and his one-line memorable sayings. He used metaphor a lot, a vivid poetic way of communicating that challenges, inspires, and changes people.

He was a revolutionary who advocated non-violent resistance in a variety of ways. With dramatic prophetic actions he rode into Jerusalem, and overturned the tables in the Temple, as part of affirming that the kingdom of God challenged the domination system of the empire and its taxation stranglehold on peasant life.

Borg gives his account of why and how he believes the infancy and the resurrection narratives came to be written. As he makes the point more than once, "believe what you like happened at these time, but recognize the powerful truths that metaphors convey". As a historian he treats the most spectacular stories as metaphorical narratives and not as remembered history, but he is sensitive to those who feel insecure with this line of thinking.

This is an important book for those who wish to look afresh at the roots of the Christian way in the gospels, our relationship with Jesus of Nazareth, and the Christ of faith. It is also important to bring readers to an awareness of much modern knowledge of Jesus and his time. Whether you think this reflects or distorts truth, it is important to realize the breadth of modern thinking on this subject.

If you have never read any of Mr. Borg's works, please do yourself a favor and pick up this book. While he has written other books on Jesus, specifically "Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time", this one dives much deeper and provides a rich and detailed study of who Jesus was and what he stands for. Mr. Borg does a great job of explaining his positions and providing definitions for the "big words". The material might be scary for Christians who are founded on literal understandings but can be quite a revelation, as it was for me. The message from Mr. Borg is that while much of Jesus' story might not be literally true, it has a more-than-literal truth that forms a comprehensive (and new for me)basis for an increased level of Christianity and a transformational relationship with God.

Marcus Borg has done it again. He has painted Jesus in the kitschy clothes of a communist radical. There are many interpretations of what Jesus was up to in first century Palestine and Borg, like most of the Jesus Seminarians, seems to think Jesus was trying to start a new movement of radical inclusiveness and self-acceptance instead of being the fulcrum of history which I believe he is.

There is an author named N.T. Wright that Borg coauthored a book with called "The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions." When I read the book I was firmly rooted in Borg's brand of Christianity. I glanced at Wright's work and remember that it was very dense.

Fast forward to this year, I've been reading a lot of Wright and he puts more flesh onto Jesus bones than Borg does.

Borg paints with broad strokes a five point sketch that he's written of in other works. It is interesting but he also considers Jesus an illiterate Jewish peasant when the bible actually speaks of Jesus reading a scroll from the Hebrew Bible.

This current book makes Jesus into a preacher of the social gospel. Which is all well and good but it doesn't address the calling Jesus felt or what he really believed.

I recommend N.T. Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus" for a good counterpoint to this work.

I recommend that customers take caution when ordering from this seller. I tried to contact the seller concerning the shipment of my book and never received a response, ultimately I asked for a refund from amazon.

This book was delivered in perfect condition and in the time specified. I am using this book now. Thanks for such wonderful customer service.

This book is fairly complete and has guidelines and all a teacher needs to know.
Most useful to student-teachers.
I wish the INFO could be presented in a more reader-friendly way.

Being a 2nd year early childhood education student at Miami University (in Ohio!) this book is very helpful in many ways. My first time reading it bored me to tears because it all seemed like common sense but reading the DAP section for 3-5 year olds was very interesting. I had done 2 weeks field expereince at a preschool and could compare what was developmentally approraite in the classroom I was in. Plus it was an excellent tool when going to do my assignments!
My professor claims that this is an excellent tool in helping us prepare to be teachers and I agree...we can relate what is in the book to our classrooms in the future. Plus for anyone out there wanting to be a mom it is a great resource as well!

Helped me set developmental goals and appropriate practices to get my NAYCE in-home Accreditation

This professional guide is so complete covers all the issues you might get to face as a new teacher!!! Great ideas to handle all types of exams!!! The images, charts, clues and advices are great!

BH
This is a BIG book. It has many (probably ALL) the rules you need to know to succeed but has very few examples and "real life stories". For me, examples, illustrations (of decorated classroom walls, for example) and stories are essential.

Because it is written by a teacher who seems to have such a wonderful, loving attitude towards teaching and students, I wanted -- truly wanted -- to offer only a positive review on this book. The truth is, however, that -- as a 20 year veteran of teaching -- I recognize that there is so much advice given in this book that goes against educational research, that I simply cannot recommend it to any teacher. Some of the comments related to grading, setting up the classroom, curriculum design, etc. go against what we know about how kids learn. A better resource related to how to set up an effective classroom might be Harry Wong's First Days of School -- or for someone trying to better understand the research, I'd recommend Stiggins, Marzano, Wiggins, McTigh, Tomlinson, or Jensen.

This is an excellent book for teachers - old and new! Great ideas on class organization. It has wonderful tools, activities, strategies and everything else you can think of to help you through the school year. It has everything from dealing with parents, administration, students, and co-workers to making your classroom organized and fun! It encompasses all grade levels, K-12. It has over 400 pages of ideas. This will be an invaluable tool for me! I can't wait to use some of the ideas in this book!

This book has so much useful and insightful information that I will be referring to it for my whole teaching career. I wish it had been a required text for education classes. Many questions could have been answered and many unpleasant situations could have been avoided during substitute and student teaching.

It is right up there with Harry Wong productions!

Anatomy is not the easiest subject for me to memorize. Each page was clearly marked and assisted me to learn more than I ever imagined I could.

The knowledge of this volume is better for Yoga practice than an anatomy book for medical professionals because the focus is on asanas. So the profit for your own practice and supervision is excellent.
When I do my daily Yoga the books I and II are just at my side to make sure which muscles are especially concerned and I keep on exploring...

As a Yoga instructor as well as having a background in fitness including time as a certified personal trainer, I appreciate and seek out credible specific information about what I'm teaching. In this case, Yoga involves every aspect of the human body. This book details specific poses and their associated specific muscle groups. I find that valuable and important for presenting information that matters. this reference is illustrated very well and adds credibility to your knowledge as a representative of what's possible in physical/emotional health. Namaste

What a wonderfull work, thank you for the people who put their effort and knowledge, it helps a lot.

I highly recommend a visit to www.bandhayoga.com
for a preview of the 650 amazing full color illustrations and sample chapters in this book. Author Ray Long MD, FRCSC, is a board certified orthopedic surgeon who has studied yoga for over twenty years, training extensively with B.K.S. Iyengar and other leading yoga masters. While I have several other highly recommended and complimentary books on yoga and anatomy, this colorful, dramatic guide to the major muscles stretched and strengthened in yoga postures, brings it all-together!

--Suza Francina, author, The New Yoga for Healthy Aging and other books.

I never took chemistry. This book was way over my head even though I just skimmed in. The cartoons are easy to look at (no dark, foreboding shading) - but I understood 'squat' from this book. I hope my giftee sees it differently with his B.S. in Chem. I WAS impressed with the last few chapters where future implications were addressed. Once I give this book-gift, I'll report back with "my expert's" opinion on this book. In the meantime, I'll stick with mixing together fruit juices.

This book is required summer reading for AP Chemistry. Looks like a fun way to get an overview of the subject.

I have all of Gonick s great cartoon books and was really expecting more from this one... I am teaching chemistry and was disappointed. Just compare it with Genetics in cartoons...Chemistry is not as boring as shown here, Larry!

I am a high school chemistry teacher. I was totally disapointed with the book to the point of returning. It is factually correct, but lame. The only thing I gleaned from this book was the origin of the word alchemist. I would not by this book. William "Douey" Doucette

It is so basic in concepts and the presentation (materials and graphics)is not as good as I thought. It would be useful to show some pages of the book to the customers.