Educational Books

I find this book very handy as a brief summary for the GRE, but you have to go through the whole course. There is not shortcuts. Remember, this examination does not test your knowledge but your testing abilities.

I have the 2nd ed of this book. I was worried about the math section, not because I'm bad at math, but that I haven't done math for 5 years. But luckily the math on the GRE is middle school math. The book says that there is no college-level math. If there were, only math majors would do well. I like the practice problems and solutions in the book, but the book could've shown the reader more than one way to solve a problem. I remembered how to about 50% of the problems. After reading the math section, I can now do about 75% with out any problems.

Brandon Simpson

Crash Course for the GRE is primarily about the test itself, not the skills the GRE ostensibly tests, so it's suitable for test takers of all levels. It doesn't try to teach you math, reading, or writing; instead, it arms you with strategies (and an irreverent attitude) for tackling the test itself. You'll learn how to find the correct answer to problems quickly, and how to make an educated guess when you can't find the answer. You'll also get advice about how to make the most of whatever time you do have to prepare for the test.

While a selection of practice problems is included, you'll almost certainly want more. If you can afford a copy of Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE with DVD, 2008 Edition, that's an excellent choice. But if $10 is all you have to spend, or if you don't have time for lots of practice, this book will make an excellent companion to the free test prep materials available from ETS itself.

Whether you're studying night and day to get a perfect score, or just looking for some quick advice to avoid embarrassment on test day, this is $10 well-spent.

Gose's book reaches the new and veteran teachers. He reminds us what teaching is all about- the students- and teaches us the best possible way to teach them. I love how he has a plan for every student! As a beginning teacher, I forget that I am teaching 30 or more different personalities. Dr. Gose gives teachers many workable ideas on how to teach each and every one of them. I constantly find myself referring to his book for new lessons or reminders on how to be a good teacher. My ABC book and his playbook sits on my desk in my classroom. It's my teacher's bible. Dr. Gose has written a "playbook" that works well for teachers. It can help you become a successful teacher and remind you why you became a teacher.

As a young teacher ready to begin my first year of teaching in just one day, I find myself pouring over my early edition of Gose's book and refreshing myself on all the practicalities of teaching that no one ever teaches you. This book attempts the impossible and succeeds - giving everyday, practical advice for classroom teachers. I know that on days when I might not be as well prepared, I can use an A, B, or C activity straight out of that book. Already, I have found the advice on the "Emergency Card" to be irreplaceable. Gose's book refocuses teachers back to the roots of teaching, gamesmanship, and gives us practical tools to get there. No teacher should be without this book. It is the most valuable resource I have as a teacher.

Teaching is not easy... Having just finished my first year as a middle-school teacher, I've recognized that teaching presents more challenges than one can imagine. And.... I've read too many books on too many teaching theories which all proved too impractical in the classroom. But... Gose's "Creating a Winning Game Plan" is like the bugle to the bugle-blower in the running Calvary. It offers the practical tone to practical answers. It hollars out the best tips to success at handling all classroom scenarios. And... You'll find more than enough inspiration to teach to your fullest, with vigor, humor and intelligence, after you read Gose's "Pep Talk" on pg. 17. Thanks and Good Luck to All Teachers in '99...And Have a Good Read! "Stand and Deliver. Be resourceful. Be a player. Speak softly and carry a big stick. Win one for the Gipper. Climb every mountain, forge every stream. Dare to be different. When the going gets tough the tough gets going. Do something important with your life-Teach!" -Gose

There is now a second edition of the book, available on Amazon.Com, ISBN 0205459404. It's a better book in a lot of ways, partly based on user feedback, and partly on changes in the technology. Check it out.

Check- subject matter expertise.
Check- use of the web for learning (whether academic, professional, self-directed, or corporate)
Check- understanding of the key issues.

Now you need a resource showing you how to make it all work effectively, and give you new ideas. This is where Curriculum Webs fits in- whether corporate HR intranet or K12 science projects, or anywhere in-between.

`Curriculum Webs' is clear, well-illustrated and thorough, with lots of examples giving you the confidence to move forward.

Chapters span:
- planning- context, process
- curriculum goals- learners, subject, pre-requisites, rationales
- learning activities- individualizing, grouping, activities
- gathering web resources- bookmarks, searching, evaluation (m, copyright issues
- designing effective websites- audience, information and materials, visual metaphors, navigation, chunking
- laying out web pages- design, white space, colo(u)r, styles, moving, frames/tables
- multimedia
- interactivity
- organizing ands assessing learning
- evaluating and maintaining curriculum webs
-teaching
- teaching teachers- training, standards, organizations
- appendix- servers, clients, browsers, bandwidth, names/URLs, html

Note: steers away from eLearning hype (although misses opportunity for entertaining eLearning anecdotal sidebars!).

Overall, a very worthwhile, vendor neutral, action-focused workbook on practical eLearning.

Harnessing the World Wild Web to enhance and expand curriculum and students access to knowledge and constructive information have become an important and viable vehicle to me as a school administrator. However, using this tool efficiently and educationally poses many challenges and requires new training for teachers and schools. I have found Cunningham An Billinsley's Curriculum Webs to be a rare, unique and excellent guide for educators and school administrators in preparing them to explore, utilize and maximize the benefits the web has to offer to education, as well as in creating their own units and webs for practically every subject matter and curricular area. The book takes you step by step through all the essential stages and components in the process of creating a traditional curriculum and applies them to the creation of a web based curricular unit. Its web companion provides and interactive hands-on way to easily implement the newly acquired skills, In addition to the ease and clarity it presents from a technical standpoint, it offers wonderful insights about instructional methods and strategies, based on the most current research in the field of learning and education. The book is delightful to read, uses relevant examples, is easily applicable, and is reflective and thought provoking. A must for teachers, teachers to be, and parents who wish to use the great possibilities of virtual learning to enhance their children's critical thinking skills, knowledge, individual growth, progress, and pursuit of personal interests.

Emerald City is very detailed. This is for adults or older children. All is beautifully printed & on heavy stock. Needs to be cut out & assembled. Fairly easy to put together. Theater can be a very creative outlet & setup can be simple or elaborate. This is an adult substitute for the dollhouse you never had as a child. Would love to have script or outline for the theater. Shipped promptly & packaged safely.

I've bought, cut and assembled the Emerald City twice in my life, once when I was 8 and once when I was 12. Each time, I enjoyed the time I speant with some of my favorite characters from my favorite series of books. I even wrote to Dick Martin to tell me how to get more characters to play with, and he was most congenial. The late Dick Martin was a wonderful illustrator with an astute eye for children's fantasy, and this book shows it. If you are a fan of Oz, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

When I was a little boy I got this set for Christmas one year...and I'm glad to see this amazing set is still available for fans of Oz to enough still!! It's very simple indeed--just cut and glue each character together.! Many famous Oz characters are included to inhabit this 3-D Emerald City...fans of the books will definately recognize each one! A definate treat!

I am so glad that we found this book! Five problems a night makes math FUN, rather than WORK for my child. So much so that he will do a few days worth of problems in one sitting.

The book has variety to keep him interested, and he's learning new skills from it also. I will definitely buy the grade 2 book for next year.

I'm a firm believer of practice early on math. It will build kid's interest and confidence for the long run. This book is invaluable. It breaks grade 1 math into small pieces and let your child do a little every day. My son learned a lot from this book. He often asks further questions and thinks a lot more. This book helped him do well in math. In the Beestar online math contest (...), he often wins honor mentions. Highly recommend.

I used this book for after-school review with my 6-year-old son. The format (5 problems per day, including 1 word problem) worked great. Used on a daily basis, it provides just enough repetition to do the trick.

You get a total of 180 sets of problems, broken down into 36 weeks. Each set takes up 1/2 of one side of a page. The book provides lots of variety in its problem sets. All in all, this book delivers what it promises, and then some.

Highly recommended.

When women care enough to share their own journey into womanhood, this is the book that will help them plan a retreat for mothers and daughters. Activities and resources are very helpful in planning a retreat that will inspire each participant's heart to speak it's own truth. Don't miss the chance to share the experience with your daughter. Who gets the most out of this presenters, mothers, or daughters? EVERYBODY gets something beyond what they expect. Our cooperative effort of three churches was the begining of something we hope to be an annual event.

This valuable resource served as an amazing blessing during the preparation of our junior high young women's empowerment retreat. Not only did it fill in the missing pieces with creativity and ease, but it offered an enormous supply of new, engaging program activities-far more than I could ever fit into one weekend!
From self-expression introductory games to liturgies, stories, discussion suggestions, and dramatic presentations, Daughters Arise! vastly contributed to the success of our young women's event. The book is nicely divided into two sections: the first focuses on the preparation of retreat leaders, whereas the second clearly outlines event activities, schedules, and promotion. One of the many sections I'm deeply impressed by is "Tipi Time." "Tipi Time" involves a beautiful series of self-appreciation discussions, addressing the challenging transitions girls encounter upon entering womanhood. With noteworthy background knowledge and poise, the authors transform this presumably negative experience into one of joyous celebration and blessings!
Due to pressing retreat deadlines at the time this resource was generously placed into my hands, I was only able to implement a few of the many outstanding Daughters Arise! activities during our first young women's empowerment event. However, I excitedly look forward to incorporating many more program ideas into future retreats, and I highly recommend this book for anyone working with junior or senior high young women!

When I was a young teenager, there was a woman in our community who expressed interest in my thoughts and feelings. She took my inner world seriously, and felt more accessible than my own mother. I was sure she had experiences I wanted to know about, like ambivalent boyfriends, sex (I was still betting on three virgin births for my mom) and other mysteries I could barely imagine. With respect, compassion, and good humor, she took my floundering, insecure self under her wing, and let me know I was strong, competent, and capable of trusting my own wisdom and making my own choices. She gave me "Free to Be You and Me" - the lively recording of music and story put out by Marlo Thomas & Friends to help children and young adults celebrate their uniqueness and expand beyond gender stereotypes. It was 1973, and although I hadn't heard of the term, she was my first mentor.

Daughters Arise! A Christian Retreat Resource for Girls Approaching Womanhood takes this wonderful concept - women mentoring young girls on the threshold of adolescence - and offers a highly practical guide for creating a retreat with a group of young women and their mentors - mothers, grandmothers, aunts and other adult women. But just as important as the practical advice, interwoven throughout is the story of how the authors - three women highly committed to bringing the voices of women into all aspects of their faith - set about creating an experience that would grant meaning and dignity to each girls' individual experience of herself, God, and the world around her. Exploring concepts of leadership, decision-making, and the sacred container of the Circle, the heart and soul of Daughters Arise! lies in teaching each young woman to trust the spirit and wisdom that lives within her.

Drawing on Biblical stories, ancient folk tales such as Vasalisa the Wise (Cinderella's much more interesting predecessor) and the work of anthropologist Angeles Arrien, the book is clearly written, well organized, and a tremendous resource for music, stories, crafts, poems and prayers. It made me recall, in the beautiful words of the authors, the women whose shoulders I am standing upon, brought new meaning to old tales, and might even inspire me to unearth my art supplies and dust the cobwebs off my journal.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

As a homeschool parent responsible for the education of my child, I skimmed the first six chapters--interesting with unstated implications for other subjects. The next two chapters are invaluable. You and your child's math teacher should know the contents well, even if your child is just performing at grade level. I like to hike the mountains with a guide who has been to the summit, even if I think at first that I am not going to the top. The hike will be more exciting even lower down on the mountain. I will probably explore more exotic areas and even yearn to ascend the heights, when I never would have considered it without that guide. This book expands horizons, for the authors have mounted the math summit many times and teach teachers to lead their students there.

This is by far the best book I have read on the subject of giftedness in math. This goes through the myths of teaching math to gifted. It will hit home- as these myths are WIDELY believed by the schools in the USA. There is a plethora of very practical advice for parents. Many talented youth are underachieving in math in the USA because of they way the schools go about teaching. This book goes through how to work with the schools step by step. It is indispensible for parents of a traditionally schooled child- for homeschoolers still helpful- but maybe not as much as in the traditional schools.

This dictionary stands out because the translations are not literal, but adapted from the culture of each of the two languages: English and Spanish. Eg.: "Tomar el rabano por las hojas - To put the cart before the horse".

I found this dictionary to be the first of its kind. A truly bilingual work which is "the" aid for translators and interpreters of the English and Spanish language who are interested in sayings and proverbs and the wisdom behind each of them adapted to the Anglosaxon or Hispanic cultures.

This book goes beyond merely listing linguistic equivalents of sayings and proverbs. It offers interpretations and insights into the nature and origin of the proverbs that reach across a language spectrum that includes Latin and French. This is excellent for the student of the languages, but translators should not expect a comprehensive collection of sayings and idioms since there are only about 2500 sayings listed here.

As its title suggests, this scrupulously researched tome portrays Emerson as perhaps the most stable and secure (and kindly) among a group of eccentric, sometimes borderline crazy writers and thinkers. A must for any interested in the transcendental movement, or in perhaps its most distinguished man of letters.

In the Epilogue, Carlos Baker writes, "Biography is the study of the whole man in the context of time." Strange, then, that Baker's biography of Emerson begins when Emerson was already in his late twenties. One wonders what happened to Emerson during his first three decades. Nevertheless, Emerson Among the Eccentrics is well worth your time.

In Chapter 31, Baker describes the decision, by Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and W. H. Channing to write a biography of the late Margaret Fuller, "America's first feminist," who drowned at sea on a return tour of Europe. Emerson, writes Baker, "was certain that whoever undertook the task must pay the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded Margaret. 'Leave them out,' said he, 'and you leave our Margaret.'"

Emerson's perceptive insight about writing Margaret Fuller's biography is taken to heart by Carlos Baker. His thesis is that one cannot know Ralph Waldo Emerson without paying the closest attention to the personalities who had surrounded him. Therefore, Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait is a biography not only of Emerson, but also of numerous others with whom he associated, such as Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Ellery Channing, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Bronson Alcott, Jones Very, Theodore Parker, and Herman Melville.

The most famous of the New England "Transcendentalists," Emerson resigned his position as a clergyman when his first wife died. He believed that ethics, not theology, metaphysics, or religious doctrine, was the heart of Christianity, and he argued throughout his long life (1803-1882) for self-reliance, nonconformity to superannuated dogmas and liturgies, and for the "priesthood" of the lone individual who needs no mediator between himself and the "World-Soul." He proclaimed that "God" was immanently accessible both in nature and in man's soul.

Emerson's writings are brilliantly provocative, but one often is puzzled by the obscurity of his metaphysics. What exactly IS the "World-Soul"? Although Emerson spoke often of "God," one gets the feeling that his concept of deity was more radically "protestant" than often believed. Was it pantheism, or perhaps even atheism in clever disguise? He certainly rejected traditional forms of faith and praxis.

Indeed, one might ask, To what extent was Emerson truly a "Transcendentalist"? Was this a brand of philosophical idealism, a la the "two-worlds" dichotomy of Platonism? Or was it more like Paul Tillich's "God above the god of theism"? ... a humanistic seeking for wisdom, truth, love, and justice that was more anthropocentric than theocentric? Different readers of Emerson will doubtless come to quite different conclusions.

Carlos Baker, who is perhaps best known for his biography and criticism of Ernest Hemingway, died in 1987. Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrant is his swan song, and a beautiful volume it is, a fitting tribute to one of the greatest thinkers, moralists, and philosophers that America has produced.

I read this book after final exams for some reason Emerson and the whole American Renassiance mystic was calling to me...I finished the novel packed my bags and drove straight to Concord, Mass...The tour guides at the various sites I visited where perplexed by my numerous inquires...This book drove such a desire in me to learn and love literature from that period...Well worth the time and the read...and make every effort to visit Concord when your done it adds to the experience...

I have bought over a 100 copies of this book for my ESL adult students so that they can understand English grammar. It especially useful in explaining the use of modal verbs, idiomatic verb-preposition combinations, and verb tenses -- like the present perfect. The verb chapters could be a little clearer but this is still the best out there. It is basically "Master the Basics: English" with a parallel Spanish text. Use it backwards or forwards. Just ordered 15 more.

This book is great. I read it with ease. I can speak english easily now thanks to this book I am 100% capable to speak this language easily because guess what I only know english because I live in the United States. I did believe that it covered the basics for grammer. You might find it hard but stick with it. The english language will come to you.

Domine lo basico - Inglés empieza con un examen diagnostico. El alumno puede seguir adelante estudiando los elementos que más necesita. El libro sierve también como referencia para instructores de ESL. Domine lo básico - Inglés es útil y vale mucho más que su precio. Se lo recomendo.