Educators Books

Milner has exceeded himself with this book. His compassionate record of the exploits and traumas of several of his friends as they hone their writing skills is superb. I refer you to page 222 for the most touching prose regarding one's journey up to and into the abyss of the dark night of one's soul. Billy Lee chose to go into the abyss and stay. Obviously Milner chose to take theever so rickety ladder out. His book is testimony to that choice.

I had a fun time reading this book by Jay Milner. It's a really great chronicle of the exploits of a renegade group of Texas writers, musicians, artists, and politicos, as well a chronicle of Milner's own life as a novelist, university professor, and journalist.

Much of the fun in this book takes place in the mid 60s through mid 70s Texas, when Milner's running buddies include folks such as writers Gary Cartwright, Billie Lee Brammer, Larry L. King, and Edwin Shrake, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Dallas Cowboy wide receiver turned novelist Peter Gent, and country music legends Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Kris Kristofferson.

Since this book is also autobiographical, it would be easy for Milner to embellish the high points of his life, and choose the frames from his internal "home movie" that would be in the book. Yet Milner does no such thing. He describes his life, and the activities surrounding it, with the objectivity of a trained "old school" journalist--either in the middle of a 60s or 70s scene involving sex, drugs, and country rock and roll--or in his honest and thoughtful analysis of what he considered his own inner demons.

Jay Milner's book is more than just a fun read. It is also a reliable history of a modern, creative period when artistic endeavors coming out of Texas began to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

"Confessions of a Maddog" is an important work in this regard. I predict that it will be required reading in any college course involving the literature of the southwest for years to come.

Lee Leatherwood Austin, TX 31 March 01

I enjoyed reading this book and am sure will re-read it later on as I grow older. I admire his resolve to overcome adversaries. The book followed his distinguished professional career well, but I do long more for the personal side of his life. I want to know whethter his sexuality influenced his research and career, what the life was like growing up in a 'male' German culture, etc. I do hope there will be a more complete biography of him in he future that covers all aspects of his life.

Bravo! Anyone who was ever a student or admirer of George Mosse will love this book. It is a wonderful, historical chronicle of Professor Mosse's family, his life and his career that is written as if he had spoken it.

For someone who lived such a long, interesting life, this autobiography is rather short. (200 pages or so.) What this means, is that the reader gets a great overview of all the different phases of Professor Mosse's life, without having to read through long, tedious chapters about things that aren't that compelling.

Furthermore, he treats the various angles of his life with equal merit. He writes about the Germany of his youth, his schooling, his family, exile, college, grad school and then life as a historian. With equal weight, he also writes about his status as an outsider, both as a Jew and a homosexual. His discussion of his homosexuality is probably groundbreaking in the sense that he is so adept at placing his feelings and actions in a historical context.

"Confronting History" brought Professor Mosse back to life for me. I could hear him talking, laughing, and pondering the various choices he made. He was someone who was refreshingly humble, and his lack of pomposity comes shining through in this great final gift he left for all of the many, many people who knew him and loved him.

I enjoyed this written journal by a schoolteacher who spent the winter isolated on the island of Isle Royale, because it is the history of my mother and her family. They were commercial fisherman and spent the winters on Isle Royale, with only a ham radio for communication. It gives a very true picture of the hardships they endured, the amusements they created to combat boredome, and the personalities of the Johnson family

An excellent book giving an insight of how one person experienced the isolated life of Isle Royale during one winter of 1932-33. This is a fast-reading book which is not easy to set down. Anyone who has visited the beautiful island of Isle Royale National Park should find this diary interesting and captivating. Book's epilogue and editorial notes by author's son add special insight.

If you are trying to implement RTI, this book and his other one "Response to Intervention" are clear guides for professionals.

Both general and special education teachers and college-level collections catering to them will find essential the second edition of Differentiating Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities. This offers standards-based teaching techniques that incorporate the latest brain research studies, and offer new information on universal design strategies for the classroom. From teaching tips to reflective teaching and exercises, DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION holds plenty of tested, tried applications suitable for both specialty teaching and the general classroom alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a "must read" for anyone interested in the U.S. Army in the Empire or "Gilded Age," specifically and the U.S. Army's history in general. Professor Brereton has written an important book on one of the U.S.Army's principal thinkers and strategic analyst: Colonel Arthur L. Wagner, USMA 1875. Colonel Wagner was the author of several books on military training and strategic policy in the 19th Century. This book is important and timely since this is the centennial period of the successful U.S. campaigns in the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, and the Philippine-American War.

The book is editorially well-written, and easy to read. The book was thoroughly researched utilizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The book contains photographs and is well-bound.

This is an important, and the first, book on an important figure in U.S. Army strategic thinking who was a guiding force in the evolution of the small, continental 1898-U.S. Army into an imperial power that grew into our present U.S. Army. This book complements Dr. Graham Cosmas' An Army for Empire, Dr. Brian M. Linn's The Philippine-American War and The U.S. Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Philippine-American War.

This is a "must read" for anyone interested in the U.S. Army in the Empire or "Gilded Age," specifically and the U.S. Army's history in general. Professor Brereton has written an important book on one of the U.S.Army's principal thinkers and strategic analyst: Colonel Arthur L. Wagner, USMA 1875. Colonel Wagner was the author of several books on military training and strategic policy in the 19th Century. This book is important and timely since this is the centennial period of the successful U.S. campaigns in the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, and the Philippine-American War.

The book is editorially well-written, and easy to read. The book was thoroughly researched utilizing a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The book contains photographs and is well-bound.

This is an important, and the first, book on an important figure in U.S. Army strategic thinking who was a guiding force in the evolution of the small, continental 1898-U.S. Army into an imperial power that grew into our present U.S. Army.

This book is really a must for any beginner, intermediate, and even for the experts. It is a good companion to have along at school, home, and even at your own business. Its got addresses and information and tips on how to navigate through the web and much more. Searching for a topic was never so easy. I can't wait for the sequel.

I am really glad that I decided to purchase this book. It really helped me find the subject area that I was researching in a hurry. I looked up the subject in the book and found several sites to visit. I even found other sites of interest by browsing through the book. I feel that anyone that needs a book to help get started or just to get some neat sites should try this book. Thanks for the neat sites and for the wonderful resource.

This is really good if you are starting a school news show from scratch. It has great project ideas!

This is a good book if you are looking to start a school TV program, or improve the program you've got. I am a school media specialist, and we do a lot these days - librarian, web-master, research teacher, TV producer. This book helped me improve my school TV program. It described a lot of equipment that was previously unfamiliar to me. It also told me what to look for in various equipment (audio mixer, video mixer, etc.) My next purchase is probably a video editor, and this book tells me what features to look for. My students have created several of the video projects enclosed, and students and teachers like them alot. Buy this book if you want to improve your school tv studio.

The Educator's Guide To Preventing And Solving Discipline Problems by former principles and teachers and current educational consultants Mark and Christine Boynton is a remarkable exploration of the many issues that educators are faced with in their everyday questioning of disciplinary action, and which steps may be more or less appropriate than others. Expertly written, The Educators Guide To Preventing And Solving Discipline Problems offers an excellent analysis of child psychology. The Educators Guide To Preventing And Solving Discipline Problems is very strongly recommended for all teachers or elementary level educators for its informative and easy-to-follow instructional content.

Concerning education, few informed persons would question that it is a field unfortunately offering vast amounts of fluffy junk under the guise of "professional development." Occasionally though, works will come along offering teachers news they can use. One of unique publications is The Educators Guide to Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems. This text abandons any utopian fantasies of how children and teachers interact and recommends wise, proactive approaches for handling students. It suggests that by changing the dynamics of relationships teachers can improve student performance. The book's details are its strongest aspect and are spelled out in numbered lists to better effect reader consumption. Actually, I copied out some of the suggestions verbatim and passed them along to dedicated staff members and more than a few were highly impressed. One of points I particularly liked is that classroom discipline drives building discipline. They outline some interesting student characteristics such as the idea of the "fence-rider" student who is "15" in their 80-15-5 breakdown of student behavior patterns. This describes the 80 percent who follow the rules, the 15 percent who may or may not follow the rules depending on circumstance, and the 5 percent who won't follow any injunctions at all. The four basic rules for acceptable classroom behavior listed on page 25 are ideal, and I can tell you that they are already in use in many of the nation's highest functioning classrooms. The only drawback I could find to these pages is that in a few places the authors are repetitive along with being a bit too touchy-feely. We must always remember that teachers are not social workers, their primary purpose is to educate the populace.

Marvin O'Connell's biography of Edward Sorin is an excellent work of scholarship as well as a superbly written story. Let me preface this review by saying that that as an undergraduate history major at Notre Dame I looked forward to Father O'Connell's classes because they were some of the best. He is a master storyteller and can make the mundane issues of history come to life.

In this book O'Connell tells us the story of a young religious order that has a missionary zeal expands into three foreign continents. As a student of Notre Dame history I found that Father O'Connell was able to give me new insight into the inner workings of the Indiana Provence. The chapter on the rebuilding of the main building after the fire is a remarkable tale. The fact that they were able to rebuild the building in less than five months is almost unbelievable. As a construction professional, I doubt that it could be done today.

I would recommend this book to anyone that would like to learn about early Notre Dame and Holy Cross history, however this book is more than the history of Notre Dame and Edward Sorin. This book gives a great snapshot of Catholic History in the United States.
This book along with Jay Dolan's The American Catholic Experience and Robert Burns' Being Catholic Being American will give you a great feeling for the formation of the American Catholic Church.

This is not a "beach book" but it reads almost like a novel and I found myself reading chapter after chapter late into the night.

Marvin O'Connell has done a wonderful and complete job of describing the life of Edward Sorin. The author begins in a small French village and brings the life of Sorin forward in clear and entertaining language. A story of faith, courage, and determination unfold in the 800 pages without wasting the readers time. The story of Edward Sorin who founded the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana reflects the American spirit. Overcoming difficulties, both human and physical elements, was commonplace for Sorin. The author has done an excellent job of capturing the life of Sorin, and allows his subject to serve as an example for all. This book is recommended as an excellent biography, inspirational writing, and American adventure.

This book is concise but at the same time very explanatory, clearly breaking down the process of community organizing into its essential elements, at least according to the author's perspective. The book was written a while ago, but the issues are still very relevant. I'm very new to reading about CO, but just reading the book got me very excited about the possibility for real change. I highly recommend it to other interested in entering the field.

Many churches and synagogues, when faced with a needy situation in their neighborhoods, are paralyzed or indecisive. Should they provide for the needy while ignoring the root cause of the distress? Should they urge their members to pursue political correctives through the ballot box? Should the institution involve itself in partisan politics?

None of these approaches is the best way, according to Gregory Pierce. If they are truly to have an impact on their social milieu, congegations must involve themselves in broadly-based community organizations large and powerful enough to confront underlying causes of need. This tried and proven method was developed forty years go by Saul Alinsky and is still employed successfully today.

In order to be effective in community organizations, however, congregations must be willing to work with other groups with different ideologies, and they must understand and be willing to utilize the levers of power. This book is a primer for lay leaders and clergy who want to move their congregations into the arena of activism. It tells them what to do -- and what not to do -- if they want to make a difference in their neighborhoods.