Educators Books

This book is one that will continue to be my favorite. It is filled with wonderful imagery and a sense of being a part of the story. Personally, I have become closer to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ after reading Pastor Physa's book. I recommend this book to all non-believers and believers. This book is a wonderful depiction of God's sovereign mercy and grace. Thank you Pastor Physa for sharing your life. May God bless you with everlasting joy.

"No More Fear" offers a first-hand account of what happened early in Cambodia during Pol Pot's murderous regime. Physa's story is so gripping that I found it impossible to put the book down. The author does a good job of conveying the message of hope, faith and trust in God in this book.

This book was interesting, inspiring and at times horrifying! I was given a peek into the quiet almost bucolic lifestyle of a small village in Laos. Village customs, religious practices, childhood antics were all related in a simple and smooth style. Then the reader experiences the abrupt destruction of this life when the Khmer Forces forced them from their village and farms, separating children from their families, killing, putting people to hard labor. The brutality of this time is described without hype or sensationalism; instead allowing the power of those events to stand starkly in the reader's mind. But the last portion of the book brings yet another strand; the element of hope. As Physsa relates his struggles as a refugee, the reader cannot help but see the work of God in this young man's life. It is a remarkable story about a remarkable person. But mostly it is a story of hope and redemption.

This reference is extraordinarily helpful to any educator who develops multiple choice, or other types of evaluation approaches. I teach those who will be nurse educators, and also new faculty, and have found it to be a great resource for a novice test item writer, as well as helpful to those who are practiced teachers and test writers, but can use a reference for evaluating their tests.

This is another book recommended to me for preparation for the NLN CNE course. It, Systematic Assessment of Learning Outcomes: Developing Multiple-Choice Exams is an excellent souce on writing multiple choice questions that reflect critical thinking in nursing. It is helpful for the novice nurse educator through the experienced nurse educator. It has been very helpful in preparing me to take the CNE certification exam. I would recommend this book for exam preparation as well as to help the nurse educator write effective multiple choice questions for nursing exams.

Good examples. Usual tool for aiding new faculty and graduate students in learning theory and process related to assessing learning.

I am an international preschool teacher in Japan whose husband also happens to be Japanese (I am American) and I found this book to be very insightful and relevant to both my professional and personal lives. It is extremely well written, easy-to-follow, and above all interesting. The author explains the acquisition of a second language in very understandable terms. I enjoyed to book imencly.

This book is very good for an introduction to second language teaching. It offers practical classroom advise on areas you need to pay attention to.

The book arrived two days ago and I only finished a third of it, but I can't help writing this to share how much I liked it. I had searched on the web for information on what a young child (1-5yr), whose home language is not English, will go through when he/she first goes to a English-speaking preschool. I was frustrated for the past two months when my 3-year-old son started preschool. A child at this young age does not have enough social skills to compensate for his lack of competence in a different language, which is again needed to be socially accepted in the new environment. Such a child can become a loner, being ignored by other children, and unable to spell out his feelings. This book is the answer to my several sleepless nights. I am going to copy a few pages which describe the phase my son is going through and give them to my son's teacher so that she will understand what he feels and become more supportive. This is a great book, and I will request my local library to buy it, and I strongly recommend any parents who have the same concerns as I did to read it.

This is an excellent book for educators, whether classroom teachers or professors such as myself. I use it constantly as a reference and include it in online learning environments as well.

This book was not quite what I expected. Silly me, I had expected something about how protocols would lead directly to school or academic improvement. Instead, this is a book about how to run reflective teachers' meetings in schools. The book presents about four dozen "starting points" for teacher in-service trainers, and ways to "run" the conversation(s). It really was not bad, but I had a hard time seeing why the authors used the word "power" in the title.

I suppose this sort of thinking has some place in American education. I had a hard time seeing exactly how this would lead to "better practice," however, or why a teacher in-service educator would pick a particular protocol over another, because most of the protocols seemed roughly similar.

Using the protocols in this volume do lead to better practice.

Several years ago, I attended a series of training sessions conducted by the authors on using protocols in professional development situations and experienced the "power of protocols" first-hand. Since then, I have used them or variations in several ways that have lead to powerful insights for all involved. Most recently, in a graduate education course in technology use, my students (prospective or practicing teachers earning a Master's degree) used a modified version of the Tuning Protocol to give and receive feedback on their final projects. All the students commented on the contrast to typical final presentation sessions, and how this experience made them better listeners as presenters and audience members. We also used the Provocative Prompts protocol as a final class activity.

I've used these protocols in working with teachers and administrators in schools. These protocols give people structured opportunties to talk, and to listen -- especially useful in situations of inherently unequal power, such as in meetings with a principal or district-level administator and teachers.

This is an excellent addition to your library if you are a facilitator of any kind (principal, teacher educator, lead teacher, etc.) and is a good companion book to David Allen, Tina Blythe, and Barbara Schieffelin Powell's book "Looking Together At Student Work."

Ruth Koenig's book "The Red Blackboard" is a real first person account of what it is like for a Westerner to live in China. Many of us travel in China and live in their Western Hotels; we do not see the real China. Having worked for the Internatioal Execuitive Service Corps in several countries, I understand that only after living in China for nearly one year the Koenig's were able to get their students to fully relate their exeriences and feelings. After reading this book a traveler has a better understanding of the things they see in China.

The Red Blackboard provides an authentic view of modern China from the point of view of a visiting American teacher who struggles as she adjusts to a lower standard of living, a closed educational system, and a repressive political system. Ruth Koenig describes how she made all these adjustments while developing lasting respect for her Chinese students, all the time maintaing her sense of humor.

In the early 1990s, I left a small community college in Illinois, along with my husband, a retired industrial maintenance manager, and went to the interior of the People's Republic of China to teach conversational English. It was a sometimes difficult, frustrating, even maddening, but ultimately enjoyable and satisfying year.

In The Red Blackboard: An American Teacher in China, I tell about our year living, teaching, and traveling in China. It was an exciting teaching experience and and a fascinating look at a society and a culture that is unfamiliar to most Westerners. Dealing with the everyday events that presented themselves gave insight into the politics and values of China and left me with great affection and respect for its people. You will learn and even, I hope, laugh when you read about our experiences. It was the first time in my life I'd ever had to write on my syllabus, "Spitting in the classroom will not be tolerated;" the only time my husband was my hair colorist; and the greatest number of hours I'd spent without going to the bathroom.

Nevertheless, I hope that just as we came to a better appreciation of China, that the Chinese whom we came in contact with have a better understanding and an affection for Americans.

This book is a good resource for teaching phonics. It has good ideas on assessing and teaching phonemic assessment and other phonics skills. Of particular interest is chapter 5, where 45 phonics generalizations are given along with information on how many words fit the pattern and how many exceptions there are. For example, referring to the "When two vowels go walking the first does the talking and it's long" rule, 309 words, such as "bead," follow the rule. On the other hand, 377 words do not follow the rule, as in "chief." This rule has 45 percent utility. Based on this, I'm not going to teach that rule anymore. If you are strong in phonics, there are still good ideas on assessing, teaching, auditory discrimination, and other skills. The book contains information on vowel patterns, i.e., VCCV, and syllabication, affixes, and accenting.

Self-Paced Phonics is a superb text for new teachers and seasoned veterans alike. It provides detailed instruction in the rules of phonics, vowel and consonant sounds, and the vocabulary of phonics instruction. As I was always an excellent student in language arts, I had no idea that there was so much that I had forgotten. I have improved my teaching skills in the area of phonics tremendously as a result of using this workbook, and it shows in the amazing progress my students have made. This workbook should be an itegral part of any teacher training/education program.

Heck with the 'educators', lots of moms and dads who are helping their kids to learn to read can benefit from this book. Why is phone spelled with a ph but pronounced with an /f/? Did you know that there are 26 letters but 44 sounds or "phenomes" in the language? Did you know that there are 200 ways to spell those sounds? Remember those grammar rules - don't reteach them. Here is proof that they are not reliable. If you are trying to help someone learn this stuff and you want a QUICK review, this is an excellent resource.

This book was an eye-opening read to the world of learning disabilities. Since reading it several years ago, I have become acquainted with the author, who is an incredible person! The calendar she wrote about is available from her, and I have one in my first grade classroom. The children enjoy finding out what we're doing next by looking at the little Teddy-bear pictures. If you are the parent of young children or a teacher of pre-school through first grade, contact her for the calendar. This book is great!

Reading this book as part of a class on the lives of people with disabilities, I enjoyed the book. The only thing that I would take it out of the context of the "everyday" experience was the tremendous resources this mother had for her children, three of the four with learning disabilities. (Nearly all of them went to boarding schools, while she stayed at home with them before they went away to school.) Not too technical, but a honest mother's story.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that 15 percent of all people have learning disabiliies. I suspect that the number is actually closer to 40-50 percent, if you include difficulties in a specific area (just in reading, math, sequencing or spatial problems). My estimate is based on how many people have trouble performing in one or more areas, even after many years of schooling and effort. For example, about 35 percent of the people in our state read in English below the 8th grade level in proficiency.

Yet as a society, we tend to act as though everyone learns easily and effortlessly. That makes life tough on the parents and children who are having problems learning. They find that they do not always get the help and emotional support they need. Once discouraged, one can end up accepting performance below one's capability.

If you are not learning disabled or do not have anyone in your family who is, this book will be a real eye-opener. In one family, three of four children have serious difficulties. The fourth goes on to excel at Harvard. Yet with great determination, endless effort, enormous imagination, and unending commitment, a mother is able to make progress. Some will discount her progress because she obviously had lots of financial resources. This book should be a wake-up call to all of us that we need to do more to support such families, especially when they do not have these financial resources.

If you or someone in your family does have learning disabilities, this book will be poignant. You will feel the pain more directly. On the other hand, I hope you will grasp the book's encouraging message: Someone out there can help you or your child. But be prepared for many backward steps, side steps, and delays.

The book mostly focuses on Brian's problems, because he was the most severely affected. As a young child, he had trouble saying words in recognizeable form. With endless energy, he was a nonstop buzz saw. He was constantly hurting himself by running into things, and creating disasters. He was slow to learn almost all of the standard motor skills and to toilet train. Learning was almost impossible for him.

Eventually, Brian's mother comes to learn that he has no peripheral vision, has trouble conceptualizing except by touching things, needs physical sequencing to grasp order, and requires having things broken down into their simplest elements. She stays the course until these diagnoses are made, and Brian goes to the right school (after many somewhat right and many wrong ones).

In this book, you'll encounter the independence, tradition, wishful thinking, bureaucratic, communication, disbelief, and procrastination stalls. Nancy Lelewer proves to be a champion stallbuster, and the family goes on to prosper. After he children were older she learned to develop educational games, do learning research, and write this book, despite some learning diabilities of her own. Unfortunately, her marriage did not survive all of these difficulties the children experienced. I suspect that that is not uncommon.

The book ends with some sound prescriptions for making progress: Early diagnosis; understanding; appropriate remediation; concrete, practical tools; encouraging/reminding person to help; and possibly medication. You will also find a list of organizations that may be able to help.

I hope everyone will read this book. The awareness the book creates will help open our eyes to the need for more individualized diagnosis and instructional methods if we are to tap the full potential of everyone!

You asked me to do this survey so, I did it!

The Special Education Survival Guide is one of my top reference books, as I assist in developing my child's I.E.P. The book is up to date, and gives a lot of example's and "what-if's." I couldn't do a proper I.E.P. without this valuable resouce.

This book is excellent. It really defines the role and job of a special education teacher. In fact my principal was so impressed with it that he ordered it for all the special education teachers in my building. Another principal also ordered it for her special education teachers.

The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book by physical education instructor and sports coach Guy Bailey is a very highly recommended guide for homeschooling parents which is filled from cover to cover with games and activities designed to teach children fitness, sports skills, and the joy of exercise. From simplified versions of traditional favorites such as basketball, football, soccer, and softball, to variants of tag, rope jumping, and playground games such as kickball, The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book is an invaluable and "user friendly" resource which is dearly needed in a world overly saturated with television and other passive entertainments.

I am homeschooling my 14 yr old son and needed some structure for a Physical Education program. I was hoping this book would provide me with that structure. It's not exactly what I was hoping for (a fill in the blank type of map), but it has given our P.E. program some depth. What I think it does best is acknowledge that homeschool groups can be small. There are games and sports designed for as few as two players. With this one book, I will be able to keep my son (and me) active. I will have to add other resources (rules for regulation play on team sports), but this book is a good resource for the homeschooling family.

written for homeschooling families looking to supplement their PE programs with a wider range of activities that can be used to teach children fitness, movement and sports skills.

The author, Guy Bailey, wrote The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book after sensing such a need in homeschooling parents for activities. He has worked in Physical Education for over 22 years and desires to see children equipped "with a love of movement and the basic skills necessary to participate in an active lifestyle now and as adults."

Homeschooling parents are faced with a few specific problems when it comes to Physical Education. One is varying ages and levels of their children. Other problems facing homeschooling parents are small class sizes, a backyard vs gymnasium setting, and the lack of expensive equipment. Guy Bailey listened to homeschooling parents and came up with solutions.

The activities listed in the book need only 2-4 children and require inexpensive equipment, much of which is probably already in your home. All are easily played in your backyard and some are even suited perfectly for indoor play during winter months. Through this book he proved that quality PE games can be played with fewer children in smaller areas.

In the beginning of the book are tips for successfully using the games in a PE curriculum. The games are divided into 10 sections by the equipment used: Basketball, Football, Soccer, Softball, Raquet and Net, Recreational Sports, Playground Games, More PE Games with a Homeschool Twist, Fitness Building, Rope Jumping Activities. This allows the homeschooling parent to make use of equipment they already have on hand. Sections are followed by a glossary of terms familiar to that sport. Each game has quick listings for Purpose, Number of Players, Age Levels, Equipment, and Instructions. The games themselves are easily explained and illustrated by simple drawings. In the back of the book are Appendices that include tips for parents, National Standards in PE and where to find more information and resources.

I highly recommend the book for parents who want to get their children enthusiastic about fitness or need more excitement in their PE programs.

Anyone teaching today must read this book. It is an incisive, on point, and relevant body of work.

This book touches on all the key points in adolescent development and does so in a way that is thorough and accessible. It sheds some light on what might be going on "behind the scenes" of adolescent behavior, supporting all claims with a considerable number of psychological and developmental studies and reports.

Progressing through stages and phases of adolescent development, Nakkula and Toshalis all the while weave tales of "real-life" teens into the text, illustrating vividly how these stages and phases might manifest themselves in reality.

I have recently finished a college final paper on adolescent risk taking behavior and this book was one of my primary resources. The development from a teenager to an adult takes time, patience and lots of teaching. We forget all the lessons we had to learn along the way.
I think this book is a must read for educators at the middle and high school level. The suggestions for challenging youth are meaningful and could be very effective in classrooms. The examples make the points very easy to understand.