Professional Resources Books

This book provides a very surface level look at using digital portfolios as a professional development tool for teachers. The chapters covered the use of portfolios in professional development of educators (very broad and jargon-y), the need to have a digital portfolio (5 pages to say what you could in one paragraph), defining a personal vision (useful), specific steps in creating a portfolio (best part), covering the technology used to create portfolios (woefully lacking in detail), presenting your portfolio to the world (some good parts, especially on including material by children), evaluating the portfolio (lacking in detail), "sharing the knowledge" (not sure what the main idea was of this chapter), and the potential for development through portfolios (sketchy vision).

Another problem I had with the book is the references used to support it. Several appear to be non-peer reviewed reports posted on websites (typically on the author's website). Others only weakly support the point made in the text (in my opinion). There were many statements in the book that I hoped would be backed up in some way (by references or logical argument), but were not. Does all this mean the authors are wrong? No, but it means support for some claims they make is weak.

The paperback itself is workbook sized and fairly sturdy. The larger page size is a good call considering the frequent use of tables and figures. So, the physical book is good quality.

I can't really recommend it as I'm not sure who it would be useful to. It's not detailed enough for practitioners and I assume researchers would already know all this.

Experts in the field provide educators and libraries catering to both educational professionals and businesspeople with an excellent survey to creating a digital portfolio which accurate communicates professional goals and achievements. While the presentation is tailored for educators, all levels of business professional will learn from a survey of how such a portfolio is developed from scratch, from the basics of selecting and highlighting material to using digital technology to its best advantage.

Perhaps I am out of touch as it has been years since my last aptitude test but this book provides cursory explanation of solution approaches before dumping you into the exercises. The answer section is for the most part just the answers (like.... A) no explanation of how to get there.

I found this book very useful to prepare with and there was plenty of relevant practice questions.

Donald P. Ladew's book is exactly the sort of manual that all supervisors should have. While the ideas are not generally new, they are effective. The book concisely presents many tools for supervisors. You don't need to sort through jargon - just turn to the thorough, step-by-step lists and scan them for quick reference. The simple and easy-to-follow techniques provide all of a supervisor's essential tools. Experienced supervisors can use this book to refine their skills and improve any weak areas, while neophytes can use it to supplement their knowledge as they gain experience. We at getAbstract recommend this book to supervisors at all levels and to employees hoping to be promoted to supervisory roles. If you keep this straightforward guide in your top desk drawer and refer to it regularly, you can sound like an expert anytime.

The edition of this book that I read is part of the 'Sixty -Minute Training Series' published by the National Press Publications, a division of the Rockhurst College Continuing Education Center, Inc. It's the type of book that is handed out at two-day training seminars for new supervisors, i.e. heavy on bulleted lists and self-assessment quizzes, and somewhat light on content.

What does it mean to be a supervisor at a large to medium-size corporation, trapped as we are between the rock of upper management and the hard place inhabited by the people we are supposed to supervise? For one thing, it means we don't get much respect. Here is a direct quotation from the feedback section of my company's March newsletter:

"I see little contribution to our company's success when it comes to any employee in a supervisory/area leader role!"

Supervisors also don't get very much training (my company is a refreshing exception to this rule-although I'm not sure it helped in my case). Many of us come up through the technical ranks without a clue as to how to manage people instead of computers or warehouse stock or company finances. Therefore books like "How to Supervise People" can play an important role. This particular book, written by Donald P. Ladew, has valuable (although terse) guidelines in areas such as demonstrating leadership, handling people, team-building, and communication. At the beginning of each chapter, the author tells us what we're going to learn. Then the bullets and summaries come flying at us. We are given a brief pause to write up a plan, or reflect on the qualities of a supervisor we admire, or take a self-assessment quiz. The chapter then ends with yet another summary of what we should have learned. Biff. Bam. Boom. The End---an example of what the back cover calls an 'interactive format'.

I think books like "How to Supervise People" are particularly valuable for a quick review when I'm trying to solve a stressful, possibly long-term problem. It gives me a chance to organize my thoughts, come up with a plan to achieve a positive outcome (instead of giving in to my natural tendency to strangle the person who is causing the problem), and reflect on what I'm really trying to accomplish. Here is a list of the basic qualities that this book feels a supervisor should possess. I think it's a good one:

"1. Be an advocate for the people who report to you. 2. Be fair without playing favorites or being a 'pal.' 3. Create an environment where work can be accomplished. 4. Provide stability during times of change. 5. You must have courage."

Maybe I should post the above list on the wall of my cubicle, for those times when someone else claims that we supervisors make "little contribution"!

First off, this is a rather quaint book that seems more to apply to typewriters than computers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it doesn't kill the humor potential at all -- but it does kind of weaken the force of the joke. In particular, creating space oddities (read the book) simply isn't doable without built-in kerning capability on the word processor, a concept only someone educated in page layout even understands.

That said, this is one of the funniest looks at one of the difficulties involved in the modern world of human resources: how do you write a recommendation that will fail to sell the candidate, without the candidate figuring out that you think they suck? "Typos" like "There wasn't much, which he couldn't do" (note comma), weasel words like "He had a flair for writing" (it was a red one), and hints on telephone recommendations (the voice gap, used to split a complementary word into an uncomplementary phrase) make this, if not exactly an invaluable resource, an excellent manual of things you wish you could do to someone you wouldn't recommend as raw material for the Soylent Green plant. This edition also adds weasel advice for the prospective new hire, with hints on how to make your resume look less incriminating.

The problem is that it's not the book it could be. The current edition is still stuck in the typewriter age with nary a multipart form in sight, thus limiting any utility it might have. It's also censored in some places, particularly the hints on what to write for someone with, er, morality issues. It's still an incredibly funny book, highly recommended to anyone who's ever had to weasel their way out of an awkward on-the-job situation, HR-related or not.

Fun little book...I obtained a copy for $1, so I did get my money's worth

This book provides a great "big-picture" view of what a diversity initiative might involve. The authors address diversity with a perspective that a diversity initiative is more than an education program, and give explanation to some othe systems and processes that must be addressed in order to be successful at integrating diversity into an organization. A big positive is that the authros do not use the race/gender basis for diversity, but expand the definition to include many other characteristics that almost all people can realte to. I highly recommend the book.

Managing diversity is a subject that does not lend itself to simplistic, checklist solutions. Yet, that is exactly what the authors provide - a plethora of superficial recipes. Not particularly thoughtful and not at all practical for real-world use.

Real diversity management is far more complicated than this text would suggest!

Using case studies, current events, and surveys from ministers, the authors identify the questions, issues, joys, and dangers related to pastors' sexuality and their professional role. A very clearly written book that helps frame the questions and point us toward the answers. Key points include (1) the power differential between pastor and congregant, which makes consent usually impossible; and (2) the cultural background that supports sexism, relationship addictions, and heterosexism and makes this more than simply a question of the pastor's personal responsibility. An excellent and interesting read.

Don't be fooled by the title that includes the word "Parish." This book looks at sexual issues from a secular / liberal perspective. The writer uses no theological or biblical basis for her conclusions. If you are looking for a standard liberal book on sexual issues in the work place base (and the work place just happens to be the church), this is your book. If you are looking for a deeper theological perspective, this is not your book.

Most of the MFC classes were well addressed, but you can always find more useful info from the on-line search of Visual C++ for the same topic. Windows API functions were left out, so you won't fine any directions for such functions as SetDIBits(), GlobalAlloc(), etc.

As a progrmmer's reference, pages of introduction to C++/Visual C++ in the beginning of the book are superficial, while the introduction of each chapter to the class is too brief to be useful. Furthermore, unless you know the class a member function beloings to, it would be a tiring search process to get help from this book.

Talking about the accompanying CD. It's nothing more than an on-line version of the book. You won't find the real search capability, as mentioned by the author. Maybe because this book is kind of outdated, many links are broken.

If you need a reference but not a tutorial this is the book for you.

The first 64 pages talk about C++ and the Developer Studio. The next 1100 pages are MFC Classes, listed according to usage with a nice index to get you directly to any method of any class. The remainder of this book lists all of the flags and defined values in MFC, error codes, and word/term definitions.

This is a truly excellent replacement for the online MFC reference.

The full book is in HTML on the included CD-ROM.

I bought this book for use in my 2nd grade class. I found that the pages did not have much variety. I ended up using the book "Word Family Practice Pages (Write and Learn, Grades K-2)" instead. My students seemed to like it better, maybe it was the crossword puzzles. Overall, the book just didn't work for me.

The Word Family Activity Book provides students with opportunities for independent practice with word families. The Activity Mats are useful for independent class work or for home practice. The Concentration and other games provide a fun activity that will help students reinforce their reading skills.

This set of source books is a must have if you are running or planning on running any form of NT Network. "Don't leave home without it". The CD is worth it's weight in Gold ! tools and utilities are excellent.

Has technical details neccessary for fault tollerance/recovery, thick details about architecture, connectivity and lots of great tools on the cd-rom. Complement this with the NT Workstation RK and you'll have good source for studying for NT Admin-Enterprise-TCP/IP test for MCSE. Stuff in here that is not in courseware.

As a practicing certified systems engineer in a major corporation with a very large network of NT servers and workstations and a variety of other systems, the only tools I've found useful in the Resource Kits are those involving deployment. Ghost and Ghost Walker, however, have completely replaced them. QUE's MCSE TestPrep Core Exams and other volumes on Windows NT are better written, far more extensible, and better targeted for everyone from the beginning through the professional user.

Microsoft can't write an operating system - what makes them think they can write a book or two?

With this book I was able to have a step by step understanding of how Microsoft Windows NT works. There is a lot from this book that would save you a lot of time discovering the power of Windowds NT.

This is probably one of the best organized and satright forward aviation books I've come across. VEry well thought and the way the information is laid out makes it much easier to understand since it's progressive following a logical order of ideas, revisiting concepts from some questions to others that relate in order for the reader to fully apply all the knowledge in understanding more complex concepts

Good book I bought to catch up on some of the questions you always get, when you have oral exams, and want to explain something difficult in a simple way - this book does the trick.
But, lookout for the errors - not all of the information is totally correct - when you simplify things, often the knowledge gets so compressed, that errors are bound to occur.

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If you want to pass your interview in one of those big major airlines, this book is for you.
As a reference book to mantain you in shape it's Ok too.

All pilots must have such a book like this one. Although it's main purpose is to help in Job's interviews it's also a very good tool to review many topics we don't use to view since our private and comercial pilot's classes. I just would like to see more illustrations and it needs a few corrections too.