Educators Books

Painting Chinese: A Lifelong Teacher Gains the Wisdom of YouthI loved reading the poems Kohl interspersed with the narrative of his experiences and feelings as a beginning student of oriental painting. Well and simply written.

This book was beautifully written description of opening the heart to receive wisdom offered by life. It describes a transformation from a fearful state of mind to one of acceptance during the transition from employment to retirement.

This is a quiet little book, it's not about raging, "...against the dying of the light," nor does he take the tone that "aging is not for sissies." He accepts that life has a beginning and an end and that he is closer to the end. He cherishes the irony in being in a class with small children who will be guides for him as he learns to paint in the Chinese style. Along with learning how to paint he opens his eyes to a way of teaching that had been inimical to him in his life as an educator. He finds joy in learning and his book is a joy to read.

This wonderful book details the author's struggle with loss, both the closure of a program he had created and his own mortality. He wanders into the Joseph Fine Art School, hoping to learn how to paint. It turns out to be a school of Chinese painting, and Herb Kohl finds himself in the beginner's class with 6 year olds as his fellow students. He details his struggles to paint a monkey, accept his role as student rather than teacher, and learn about the culture behind the paintings he is doing. Comfort comes from these activities, loss recedes with time, and joy blossoms. This lovely story is essential reading for anyone who is having or has had loss or fears mortality.

This is a thoroughly detailed book - very useful to educators doing qualitative and quantitative research.

This product was delivered in a timely fashion in wonderful condition. Thank you!

What can I say...is there any statistics book out there that's really exciting? NO. But, this book does give excellent common sense and useful examples to explain each statistics term given.

If you've taken a stat course and need a refresher or if you're taking your first course this book is a must. Easy to read, clear instructions on how to use statistical formulas and what all the symbols mean. I wish I had gotten this book earlier. In my opinion this is the best book you can purchase as a reference or in addtion to a text. If you are totally lost about stats, buy this book.

I find it laughable that people are charging over $30 for a used, older version of the book, when it is available new from the publisher (SRI) for $20.00. Smells like profiteering to me.

I am writing this review after finding my previously misplaced copy of 'Recipe for Reading'. This book is the missing piece in the phonics instruction puzzle. Although information abounds regarding the sequence of phonics instruction this book is truly complete. It offers a solid multisensory approach and continued reinforcement (both crucial for struggling readers).

I have a deeper knowledge of the book because we went through the entire book for my Orton-Gillingham training but I can say that it, and my training manual, are the backbone of my reading program. The sound instructional methods and clear systematic, sequential approach to phonics instruction are simply excellent. This book is truly a sequential phonics program (some of you may be familiar with the disappointment that the plethora of 'phonics' books elicit from unsuspecting, yet good intentioned, buyers). The sequence chart alone is fantastic. From the basic alphabet to multisyllabic words with blends this book will cover the entire reading sequence in a truly systematic fashion. You do not have to piece it together and it makes complete sense. Having the words for spelling and sentence dictation and reading means that much of the work is done for you. The alliterative sentences are also an excellent addition to this book.

If you want to teach children to read utilizing a systematic, sequential, multisensory approach this book will prove invaluable. I am so happy my copy is no longer misplaced!

As a special education instructor, I have found this book to be a useful tool to form a succinct pattern for teaching reading to the reluctant student. Nina Traub's book starts out with the teaching of consonants and proceeds to short vowel sounds, etc. Each section requires the student to recall prior learning, therefore ensuring mastery of material. This is a great tool for not only the reluctant reader but also children with learning disabilities.

I learned about this book through a special education teacher. I have used it for the last five years, and the truth is, it's a great way to get to those kids who just can't '"get it". It is very flexible and adaptable to each student's needs.

What happens when you have everything, and it doesn't make you happy? Tom Bloch had a wonderful family, health,
wealth and was the CEO of his families tax preparation business.

But he decided that he could do more by being an inner city math teacher. So that is what
he became, and helped start a charter public school in Kansas City.

Whether you are an educator, parent, business person or someone thinking about your future, this is a GREAT book.
Bloch is tough on himself, recognizing that he had a strong support system.
He knows it was easier for him to walk away that it could be for others.

Bloch writes a strong defense of terrific teachers (some of whom he
describes, who he thinks should be paid a lot more money). He is explaining why the charter public school movement makes sense.

And he gently urges us to follow our heart, and to live the kind of life
that will most serve others, and make us happy. Wealth did NOT give Bloch what he wanted.

Walking away from a top corporate life, and walking into an inner city school to teach math, where he continues to
teach math, that's what added up for him. An upbeat and very encouraging book.

Joe In Minnesota

This book is both compelling and insightful. The narrative is engaging -- how many young CEO's quit million dollar a year jobs with giant family businesses (H&R Block) to teach in the inner city?! There is a lot more to this book than boy goes to work for his Dad and leaves to teach. Tom explores the hardest and deepest decisions we all have to make, and on his road to self discovery, presents quite a road map for us to follow. In doing so, he also gives the reader a view into the world of inner-city education and charter schools. Bravo - a great read!

Bloch's story is very uplifting. How many people in his position would leave it all behind to try to make a difference in the world? He readily admits he could afford to do so, but he has truly walked the walk, rather than just talking about it. This book puts it all out there--his internal struggles, the path he took and what he learned along the way. He underscores the importance of the teaching profession and makes a plea for society to give it more respect. This book will appeal to people considering a career change who aren't sure they have the courage to do it, teachers who question their significance, and just anyone who wants to be inspired.

This is a good read. Tom Bloch's personal story is riveting and he is brave enough to share some very private emotions. But this book is more than a collection of anecdotes from the classroom where backpacks leak pickle juice and children regularly lose family members to shootings. Bloch has taken a thoughtful look at the herculean challenges before America's urban teachers and the universal human challenge to find purpose and meaning in our lives. He is also brave enough to offer some suggestions for institutional improvements. Worthwhile reading for anyone worried about America's schools and its students. Knowing that the book profits will go back into teacher training makes it easy to pay the hardback price.

I wish all educators would read this book. I have already bought 2 more copies, to give to some teacher friends. The truth about testing from a former educator's point of view. Too bad the state departments of education don't follow his advice.

If education is in trouble -- here is the Savior. Popham has finally addressed, spelled out and suggested the cures for the present ill-advised and unrealistic push for standardized testing which leaves students,teachers and schools imprisoned by impossible and educationally unsound and biased testing. Popham says it all when he tells us that test developers must think instructionally, realistically and honestly. Popham makes the reader understand the tragic consequences of allowing non-involved, classroom illiterate test-makers to control the educational consequences of millions of students, teachers and public school administrators. Hasn't the mess in medicine taught us the sad lesson of allowing the uninformed to take over the decisions and the physical health of our people, which has led to less yet more expensive healing? Popham makes clear why the lists of hundreds and hundreds of "standards" are impossible to test accurately and how they keep true education from occurring since teachers can't even teach all the standards let alone anything that makes each student realize his/her own uniqueness. Every state legislator that EVER gave his vote or support to standardized testing as it is formatted today, should read Popham's book and somehow find a way and the time to join the effort to return teaching to the classroom instead of leaving it in a test-making corporation's board room. Our students have become the victims of people who can't teach but think they know how. Read this book and pass it on!

Educator and author James Popham's The Truth About Testing takes a critical look at the standardized achievement tests used in America's schools today. The qualities that these tests really measure are not necessarily what the people who tout them claim, and their exaggerated importance in rating the school systems could have severe and destructive consequences on the future of the children who are learning how to do well on certain tests - and not necessarily how to perform the mathematical, scientific, and critical thinking skills they will need when they graduate. educator and author Popham also presents a common sense and practical alternatives to how test data should be used in the classroom, and evidence-gathering strategies that teachers and administrators can use to create a thriving, accountability-driven educational institution. Articulate, instructive, and well-thought-out, The Truth About Testing is a "must" for any educator who needs to effectively evaluate just how well his or her students are really doing.

If education is in trouble -- here is the Savior. Popham has finally addressed, spelled out and suggested the cures for the present ill-advised and unrealistic push for standardized testing which leaves students,teachers and schools imprisoned by impossible and educationally unsound and biased testing. Popham says it all when he tells us that test developers must think instructionally, realistically and honestly. Popham makes the reader understand the tragic consequences of allowing non-involved, classroom illiterate test-makers to control the educational consequences of millions of students, teachers and public school administrators. Hasn't the mess in medicine taught us the sad lesson of allowing the uninformed to take over the decisions and the physical health of our people, which has led to less yet more expensive healing? Popham makes clear why the lists of hundreds and hundreds of "standards" are impossible to test accurately and how they keep true education from occurring since teachers can't even teach all the standards let alone anything that makes each student realize his/her own uniqueness. Every state legislator that EVER gave his vote or support to standardized testing as it is formatted today, should read Popham's book and somehow find a way and the time to join the effort to return teaching to the classroom instead of leaving it in a test-making corporation's board room. Our students have become the victims of people who can't teach but think they know how. Read this book and pass it on!

Great book, We have all noticed a big improvement. The TV is off less and he reading without being asked to.

This is a good book. Many interesting examples and short articles. Some questions for short articles are fairly challenging for a 3rd grader. I think this is a better book than the "week-by-week homework for building comprehension and fluency", which is much easier.
I bought a wordly wise 3000 book B last summer and it had a crossword for each lesson. It was more interesting. But this book has more lessons for almost the same price. I can not complain.

I bought this workbook for my precocious 9-year old, and she jumped right into the first chapter and enjoyed it immensely. Each chapter begins with a list of about 20 vocabulary words, which are defined. Several forms of the word are offered as well as different meanings.

Then the student is asked to perform various multiple choice and sentence completion activities using the words in context. Finally a passage using the words is introduced, after which the student is asked to answer questions that require an understanding of the vocabulary words and the passage.

This book is just the right level for my fourh-grader, but is probably intended for use in grades 5-6.

My only criticism is that not all definitions are given for a vocabulary word. For example, the word "pedestrian" is defined as a noun, but the meaning of the adjective is not provided. Perhaps the author felt this was too advanced for the level, but I disagree.

All-in-all, this is an effective tool for building your child's vocabulary. It's certainly enjoyable for those children who love to learn new words.

In my school Book 2 is fifth grade material. We do the exercises for one reason, to learn. Wordly Wise Book 2, is a book based on vocabulary. it is divided into chapters, which are divided into exactly 30 lessons. Exersice A would be multiple choice, ex: to intercept a letter (a)plan to write(b)write in code(c)deliver(d)seize on its way Exersice B would be multiple choice as to which sentence states or uses the word wrongly. Exercise C is a sentence that synonoms to replace the word, and you would write the word that on the list would replaceit. Exersise D is a crossword puzzel. At the end of this workbook, there is a glossary, which has all vocabulary words in all of the lessons. I recomend this book because I believe it has really helped me this year, I have thrived as a student and as a person.

I found this book easy to use and the child
found it fun. I didn't have to "get after them"
to finish the lesson. Just the kind of book for me!!

Great book. An amazing way to expand your child's vocabulary.

I'm not sure what the big difference is between this and other vocabulary acquisition methods. I just know that this one works!! As other reviews have stated, I've never had to force my children to complete these assignments. They enjoy doing the small amount of work necessary to accomplish big results. Their vocabulary retention has improved dramatically. Each lesson presents 15 words and their definitions written in dictionary form. Then, five activities allow the student to use the word in Finding Meanings (choosing two phrases to form a sentence that correctly uses the word), Just the Right Word (improving sentences by replacing an italicized phrase with the correct vocabulary word), Applying Meanings (choosing one or all four choices in which a word's meaning is correctly applied), Word Relationships (circling antonyms/synonyms...), and Narrative (reading a narrative and then answering questions using the vocabulary words.)

I believe this book has the ability to change a child's perspective on learning vocabulary words. Not only is Wordly Wise fun, but it's a great challenge. It's a helpful tool and I would pass this book on to anyone who needs it. I am 17 years old and to this very day, I still remember the words I learned from Wordly Wise when I was 9 years old.

This is a well written book that will be of interest to any prospective college student and their parents. Read this book and learn what really goes on in a successful university, one that will provide you a useful education. There are important decisions to be made by the administration of any university and this book tells a success story. Not every one will attend Princeton or Harvard and this book will help the rest make a wise choice.
Anyone in a decision making position can learn from Dr. Bruce's thoughtful rendition of his experience and success!

I found Dr. Bruce's book to be a fascinating description of how a strong president can build a University through pursuasive and bold leadership while also allowing for concensus and collegiality. He provides a captivating model for others to follow. His personal stories, honesty and wit; the inclusion of various administrators, and his wife; and the obvious difficulty in retelling certain situations and events, bring the strategic planning and initiatives to life. His chapter on college athletics is compelling reading for anyone in higher education today.

I think this book is critically important reading for college presidents and those aspiring to become presidents . It should also be on every college trustee's 'must read' list.

I enjoyed it immensley.

Acting on Promise provides an important message for anyone pursuing a career as a college/university administrator. Without beating his own drum, Bob Bruce provides a seven step outline for effective senior leadership.

1. Hire good people
2. Define their roles
3. Encourage dialogue and open expression of ideas
4. Build a consensus
5. Make sure everyone is on the same page
6. Allow them to run their own divisions
7. Hold people accountable

His book also makes a convincing argument for the value of "strategic thinking" as a dynamic alternative to an institutional "strategic plan". Acting on Promise should be required reading for Doctoral programs in Higher Education.

--Michael L. Mahoney, D.Ed.

Acting on Promise was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Having been a junior staff member during the last eight years of Bob Bruce's administration it was interesting to see how Widener evolved into the dynamic institution it became under his leadership. The book is a valuable resource tool for all levels of administrators as Bob's leadership style revealed in the book serves as a blueprint on how to encourage, mentor and inspire. Acting on Promise reinforces and illustrates the `how-to' of successful leadership page by page, and I am proof of how a career has been positively shaped as a result of working for a most dynamic president who was vested in every person at Widener.

--Susan Fumagalli

Ever wonder what an adjunct professor does when he's not teaching? If so--and c'mon, you know you do--look no further than Mickey Hess's memoir "Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory." Reading about Hess moonlighting as an ice cream man, carnival ride operator, haunted house participant, and many others, is great fun, but poignant too, insofar as his side jobs lead him to question his life, occupation, relationships, and the motivations behind each. Overall, this one's a winner for sure.

Technically a memoir, but also a look at jobs, decisions, dreams, influences and how to find meaning. The period this book covers is approximately 2000-2002, where Mickey finds himself in his post-college days with part-time teaching jobs, but also random gigs as an ice cream truck driver, stand-up comedian, and arcade attendant. He pokes fun at the colleges he works at, just as he does the "ridiculous" jobs. He is caught between a job he almost seems afraid to care about and those that amuse him. For our generation, and I am going to assume Mickey and I are almost exactly the same age, work has a different place in our lives. We know that bad things happen to good employees and that most people change jobs (and careers) repeatedly these days. We've watched jobs shipped overseas, fear layoffs, and seen how corporations have kept the minimum wage ridiculously low. We are a generation of cynics, but what happens when cynics find jobs with meaning? What happens when you find that you can't keep up the façade of youth and irresponsibility forever? The book is insightful, but also funny as hell. The scene where they are housesitting and a friend breaks the toilet tank in the middle of the night made me laugh out loud. Mickey has great comedic timing with a deadpan delivery. Highly recommended.

This book is a wishlist. This book is all about the secret dreams we have. This book is anathema to books like "nickel and dimed". This is a book where you can screw over your desperate lower middle class bosses, who cream to browbeat you.

very well written. Favorite passages include the following.

It is the unchanging school ballet - order and authority aligned against limit testing and restlessness. 18

(on his in-class "library") Every year, a certain percentage of the collection walks out from under my porous record-keeping system, but I console myself with visions of these books on bedside tables or sharing valuable shelf space with Al Green and Boys II Men. 20

For three years, I watched some wonderful word magicians ignite children's interest in language, instill in them the realization that words can be pleasurable, not the leaded mallets with which they had been bludgeoned into muteness in the previous classrooms. 42

There was a second group of parents and kids who desperately needed the school and were determined to make it work. These were the misfits, kids unsuited for what passed for the normal teenage world. For them, the goal was not so much achievement as sheer survival, negotiating the treacherous straits of early adolescence en route to a less judgmental, more tolerant adulthood. 67

The work of teachers arouses as little curiosity from the general public as that of garbagemen and mechanics. Perhaps the fact that all of us have spent at least twelve years in the thrall of one teacher or another is sufficient to convince us that we already know all we ever care to know about teaching. 81

(the classic school desks) Is there an official name for those cursed objects with the fixed arm on which to rest your test paper or your binder? Strapped into this contraption, every man is alone, pitting his triumphs against those of his adversaries, never to reach out and join forces with them. 83

Where does the teacher's desk go, and what does that tell us about the guy who operates in this space? Does he hold court from behind or does he just use it as a place to unload his papers? 83

the whole thing on selecting books for the class year, pages 84-92

As my lists of possibilities proliferates, I get excited over the prospect of introducing some of the books I love to an audience innocent of them. 84

I'm partial to books that open out onto other vistas - literary, political, psychological. 85

In general, I don't believe in textbooks for English students at any level. There are real books students can and should be reading regardless of age or ability. Textbooks will never produce literate adult readers. 85

...when it's clear that even at the early grade levels, the way to promote reading is by exposing kids to the plethora of good books capable of exciting them about reading. 86

Students need to inhale great quantities of literature in their school years in order to get a reasonable sampling of the universe of inspired and inspiring writing they can choose from as independent adult readers. 86

Providing a good education means attuning students to the fact that there are a richness and diversity of cultures, experiences, and styles that await... 88

... white students need to know of Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison as much as black students should experience Dickens and Edith Wharton... we have an obligation to stretch and extend students beyond the level on which they come to us. 89

(on a downside of "young adult fiction") Once students are fed on the bouncing first-person colloquial... whose voices mesh seamlessly with those of their readers, they have little tolerance for an unfamiliar voice, an embellished vocabulary, an alien style. Students are all too often irritated by language different in any way from what washes around them every day. 89

Although fantasy literature at its best can be imaginative and entertaining, it is short of characterization and detail and long on action. 89

The net effect of the proliferation of juvenile and young adult fiction is to reduce students' tolerance for reading cloaked in unfamiliar styles, spun out in denser detail, or following unfamiliar characters. Children are the world's true conservatives. The want exactly what they've already had. Dickens and Shakespeare are weird. the Sound and the Fury and Death of a Salesman, although they're more contemporary, are also weird because of their nonlinear structure. ...but students are generally programmed to expect lockstep chronological writing. 90

Good teaching is an odd mix of artistry, vulnerability, and technical prowess. We reach down into our own interests and experience to sketch our plans... 95

(on helping one student edit her work) ...I tried to explain that all this melodrama wasn't necessary to make a good story. Smaller, more subtle things could happen. Characters could change in more interesting ways... 97

I was awestruck. Kristen had made a literary discovery on her own that was beyond the reach of a lot of adult writers: the significance of voice and point of view in fiction and the ways in which the final product is shaped by the choice of who tells the story. 98-9

(on standardized achievement tests) ... but one with potentially disastrous implications for education. First it defines the goals of teaching and education in an unacceptable narrow way (the content of the test is what should be taught). 100

The important thing is that the kids got to see me in a role and context different from the one in which they encounter me every day. I think it's enormously important for everyone to be able to see the people in their lives acting in many different roles. One of the prime virtues of small-town life ...106

Let's not forget that it's a two-way street, too. ... so often we see our kids only in their role as student and forget what a small part of their lives that is and how many other dimensions to their behavior we're not seeing. 107

Fortunately, teaching is more similar to baseball than it is to the Olympics. When you have a bad day in baseball, you're right back in the ballpark the next day with a chance to make adjustments. An Olympic flop may be forever. 121

Why do we read except to live symbolically all the lives we will never live, to feel compassion for characters who, although they are not us, share with us a common humanity? The empathy reflected in these student journals and in the class discussions that sprang from them confirms the need to put aside our timidity and risk introducing unheard voices to our classes. 134

(upon being challenged by a parent that all the books were dark and gloomy) After playing back the reading lists... With very few exceptions, the books both young adult and adult, that appeared on my reading lists have been a dark lot - tales of mental illness, suicide, racial hatred, religious prejudice, sexual abuse, divorce, and death. But in spite of the depressing subject matter, the books are often uplifting testimonials to the power of the human spirit to survive adversity and even be ennobled by it. An encounter with social and religious prejudices leaves a character not crushed but strong, and clearer about who he or she is; a family wrestling with the suicide of a child is drawn closer by the bond of their common tragedy; a sexually abused child blossoms into a renowned writer. 141

We have to keep in mind Tolstoy's famous dictum that happy families are all alike; the stuff of serious literature has always been tragic... Most vital fiction draws on the underside of human relationships and human emotions. The lives of the students who inhabit our classrooms are suffused with the same dark material that is the stuff of literature. 141

(when a call home to a student's grandmother had a deeper effect than expected) During a year of journal writing and truncated conversations, the story of Arthur's amazement that I had cared enough to call home, that I was upset by his departure, emerged. This simple gesture was enough to draw him back to school. 205

(in discussion with a student who liked popular novels, such as those by Grisham) It's taken some effort of both our parts for Monica to arrive at this formulation of the difference between escape reading and literature.... you'll see how hard it is to communicate what sets enduring art apart from airport books. 216

Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. When you read Marvin Hoffman's beautifully written book, however, you realize that it is a noble profession and one where a dedicated, insightful teacher truly has a profound impact of the lives of young people. This book is inpirational. The depth of Mr. Hoffman's humanity comes through the vignettes. I work in a school and whenever I need a reminder of why I entered education, I pick up "Chasing Hellhounds..." It is outstanding!

Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. When you read Marvin Hoffman's beautifully written book, however, you realize that it is a noble profession and one where a dedicated, insightful teacher truly has a profound impact of the lives of young people. This book is inpirational. The depth of Mr. Hoffman's humanity comes through the vignettes. I work in a school and whenever I need a reminder of why I entered education, I pick up "Chasing Hellhounds..." It is outstanding!