Educational Books

Primary Art (for elementary aged kids) has it all for many abilities in one group. Using the same directions and materials, three versions of the same project are offered from very easy to moderately experienced to highly challenging. What fun! Middle schoolers and pre-k's all working together with the same materials, but with different focus and results. It's possible! These projects are very unusual and have great results that impress the kids. Having an art fair? This book will be your main source of inspiration.

Thank you to all the people who have so kindly and carefully reviewed Primary Art with such positive comments. As a former elementary school teacher, I particularly love this book because it gives a three possible activities presentation for each project, which means, it gives the basic project in its easiest form, then an intermediate step up project, and then a very challenging project, all with the same materials as the basic. You can do the same project at least three times and progress upward in skill. And of course we all know kids love to repeat things and learn from them each time they do. I hope you will enjoy this book as much as the kids I worked with when I wrote it. Thank you again, MaryAnn Kohl
w w w . brightring . com

Really good book, but I am sorry that the inside is not in color, since it is a art book.

Childhood is a time for exploration, discovery, experimentation....thus, the process of art has always outweighed the final product in its value and focus. But it's also true that elementary aged kids are taking a new interest in the results of their explorations. That is, they enjoy the outcomes of their work in art. The art works in Primary Art will be valued as "unique results", not as pre-planned crafts or adult-designed artworks. Kids value aesthetically pleasing art, which can take many avenues as they explore...they use words like fancy, amazing, awesome, interesting, special, and "mine". To say they expect resuls is to reinforce the philosophy of exploring and experimenting with art as they apply their developing skills and abilities to control their own chosen results. So art is still a process for elementary kids, and the product is their own design and making. Art is an exciting experiment that encourages individuals to explore and discover their abilities and expressions, with artistic results that range from astonished to delighted, spectacular to breath-taking, lovely to reserved, and charming to rare. And as the adults who help it all happen, we are allowed the gift of seeing it before our very eyes. Primary Art offers art in three steps...introductory, exploratory, and challenging, all related and building on each other. I love this book!!!

I have both paper doll books (Princess Diana and Prince Charles Fashion Paper Dolls in Full Color; and Diana, Princess of Wales, Paper Doll: The Charity Auction Dresses [Paper Doll Series]) by Tom Tierney. I love his artistry and his attention to detail. I got the Charity Auction paper doll book as a gift and searched for more finding the first paper doll book that also included Prince Charles. I added both books to my scrapbook on Diana - I still love looking at these pages. They are both excellent as are all the paper doll books he produces. I also have books by Tom Tierney on Pope John Paul II, Jackie Kennedy Onasis, and one with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. I would encourage anyone interested in collecting, using the books for school reports, or finding your favorite subject in paper dolls, to look for this artist. He does excellent work.

This is a wonderful paper doll book. Book gives a bit of history regarding the dresses in the book. Illustrations are excellent.

This is one of the most beautiful sets of paper dolls I have, well drawn with great attention to detail and short historical notes on each dress inside the back cover. There are a lot of costumes in this book, about thirty, and two beautiful dolls. It covers fashion from 1890 to 1919, with dresses from great designers like Worth and Paquin. Tom Tierney's paper dolls are wonderful, and this is one of his best.

Anyone who loves fashion history will enjoy this book. The illustrations are evocative of the lives of fashionable women 100 years ago.
I especially liked the dolls themselves, clad in faithful depictions of the underwear of the era.
The selection of costumes is superb. It is clear to see the development of women's dress from 1899 until 1919, from heavily corseted hourglass figures laden with ruffles, lace and embroidery, to the fantasies of the early teens and finally the simplification of dress leading up to the 1920-s.

User friendly read with many tips and ideas for using your time efficiently and establishing the climate you want.

I "had "to buy this book for a class in my masters program and after using it in class and reading through it, I decided that I was NOT going to sell it back. This is a great resource and help for principals or administrators. This will be a well read and heavily highlighted book that will remain a part of my library.

When I was a new assistant principal, I bought this book for a resource for my job. I am glad that I did. Not only did it help me throughout my assistant's career, but it assisted me while I worked on my master's.
It is a hands-on resource book that can help with many situations or prepare you for new situations. In our jobs, every day is a surprise, so the more effective resources that we have on our shelf, the more relaxed we are when it comes our way.
I believe that this is a book that should be in the curriculum of every college campus preparing dynamic, future principals.
Cathy Blair

I am two thirds through this book, but there is so much advice and consciousness-raising information that is thoughtfully presented and very much need that it's not necessary to wait until I finish the book to write a glowing recommendation. There are ideas I will need this year to boost collegiality and morale. Some of the problem-sharing ideas are quick and easy to implement, too. I would like to have read more about interviewing and hiring teachers, but other than that I am quite pleased. I'll pick up this book often as a refresher.

I was lucky enough to have Dr. Melucci as my psychology professor at Santa Monica College a couple years ago. She's very knowledgeable and breaks everything down into understandable terms. I honestly enjoyed coming to her class because she always made it interesting. I would definitely recommend Psychology: The Easy Way to anyone taking an introductory psychology course.

This book is great! I used it in addition to "Barron's how to prepare for ap psychology"

[...]

and I got a 4 on the AP exam.

I love the reading and the examples, so simple yet very detailed. I highly recommend it. Also the ink is in blue, and I dont know if you know this or not, but blue supposedly helps you concentrate better than black ink. So this should be good for those who have bad study habits, this books gets the details in a concise manner and is a good read.

I recommend it!

The book helped me understand introduction to psychology more in a brief way. I would recommend it to anyone taking the Introduction to Psychology course, whether you're a high schooler or a college undergraduate. I would use it as a study guide. The glossary terms they have in the back of the book were easy to understand. The practice questions at the end of each chapter is helpful for test prep.

Psychology the Easy Way is a MUST for anyone taking an advanced placement test, SAT subject test or the GRE. It is a perfect gift book for anyone wanting to understand 'real' psychology as opposed to psychobabble. The author's writing style is flowing, readability is high, the content is concise yet correct, the author uses the highly effective refutational text format for dispelling many of the popular myths and misconceptions about psychological findings. I have taught introductory psychology at the college level for over 15 years and would recommend this book in to anyone who wants to understand the basic principles of human behavior as derived from scientific studies. It is also a perfect college text for the instructor who wants to provide students with a core of solid information, with the flexibility to build on that information in any direction, and without having classroom lectures driven by a more comprehensive text. Having a quality core text has allowed me to be more creative in the classroom.

Education is more than just a seasonal political football for aspiring politicians. It is the foundation for a prosperous, free and democratic nation. A new education system for obtaining the best education at the lowest possible cost - "QGE = A: Quality Generic Education is the Answer" is a proposition for a revolutionary new way to educate our children. Author Win Straube has quite the mind for new solutions as an inventor, scientist, and engineer, to connect everyone to the best educators for any given subject in the world. "QGE = A: Quality Generic Education is the Answer" is something that all educators should read and consider and carries our highest recommendations to community library education shelves.

Education, according to Win Straube, is the "largest industry in the world," yet has proven time and time again to be woefully inadequate. A projected one in three students in the graduating class of 2006 will fail to graduate with their class this year. Even with this alarming statistic we still are finding that many young people who do graduate are "virtually illiterate." The prospects for the future of our young people, and conversely for our country, are bleak indeed.

In the 21st century the face and pace of education are ever evolving. Many have dubbed the current educational era the "Knowledge-Age." A flurry of discussion and debate on the topic has emanated from those who prefer the home based school to those ensconced in the elite ivied halls of academia. There is one man, however, who appears to have been for some time on the cutting edge of these deliberations. This man, Win Straube, author, entrepreneur and educator in his own right, shares with us his philosophical and practical considerations on education in his new book, QGE=A Quality Generic Education is the Answer to the Question: How is the best education offered at the lowest possible cost. In his easy conversational style Straube tells us how it is, how it was and ponders his hopes and vision for the education of future generations . . . the dream of an equal, affordable, quality and globally accessible education for all.

In QGE the author, an educational "user" himself, explores and explains:


* Distance education and the "Electronic Learning Revolution"

* How every qualified individual can have his or her chance for a quality generic education at little or no cost

* How any student can receive an education at any time or in any place

* How accreditation and global standards can be achieved to insure a level playing field for all

* How you too can also join in the new educational evolution and revolution in your own personal quest for enlightenment in Knowledge-Age of today

I enjoyed this book without becoming enmeshed and bogged down by polysyllabic words I sometimes run up against in many educational tomes and easily understood the message the author wished to convey to his readership. The message of a quality generic education is not intrinsically a light topic, but with the author's town meeting approach one can easily ponder and grasp the enormity and complex issues he wishes to convey as easily as one can pick up the phone and dial up for pizza. Instead of picking up the phone, you might want to pick up this book today and invest in your future.

I have been an advocate for my children's education and I will continue to be, despite being labeled by some teachers as "the problem parent" of the classroom. If that is what it takes to be involved, then so be it. Win Straube encourages parents and educators alike, as well as every citizen, to become more involved in our nation's children's education, in our own education, and subsequently, in our nation's future. In his book "QGE=A, Quality Generic Education is the Answer" readers will be inspired to find ways in which the best education can be offered at the lowest possible cost.

Is this book relevant to every United States citizen, regardless of their being a parent, teacher or student? Absolutely. We are all parts of the main cog system and we all have the power to make positive change. So what is Quality Generic Education? It is identical quality to "brand name" education that is universally applicable, available to all, and not ideologically directed. In short, it means that an education garnered from a state university would be of equal value to one from Harvard. I can hear the gasps of disbelief at such a notion, but I am all for such a concept to become a reality. How can it? Straube knows about education, and he explains it all very nicely.

The author discusses a motivation to learn that he hopes all citizens are capable of, the roles of parents and teachers, the purpose of public schools, and what we should all be doing to encourage learning. His explanation of generic education includes the examination of lessons taught without bias or religious influence on student's opinions and focuses on what we need to do in order to make our nation's education systems more efficient, and more readily accepted by other educational systems. Looking at our higher education possibilities, and what is now available through long-distance learning, and the internet and the costs of those things, Straube is explaining the future of our children's and grandchildren's education. He speaks of what distracts us as students, what is lacking in our learning, and even explains how a college education is not enough to ensure success. What is the cost for education? Is it simply funds? Is it the promise of student loans, or is it also the price of our personal beliefs when the school we attend is telling us what to believe? There is much to examine, and Win Straube certainly opens the eyes of his readers.

"QGE=A" is a greatly researched and fact backed book, offering a lengthy and valuable appendix. The style is straightforward and convincing of the need for change, yet Straube's voice is not demanding in an overpowering way. He knows what needs to be done and offers his guidance, wisdom, and plans to every reader. I encourage everyone with the slightest interest in our schools and colleges, students and teachers, and our nation's competitive future, to read this book and take a step toward creating a better learning environment for all.

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (11/06)

Win Straube addresses the issue of delivering a quality generic education. Quality education is one of the most important issues facing United States and the whole world. Learning should not stop when we reach a certain degree, age or point in our lives. Learning should be a lifetime goal. "Life can be, and ought to be, an ongoing learning process with more and more enriched knowledge as we progress." Unfortunately, some people believe there is no need to continue learning.

"Win clearly sees that certain established educational systems, while quite effective within certain domains, are deficient and inappropriate responses to the larger educational crisis we are facing. Win sees that technology has advanced to the point where it might become the great equalizer by providing the opportunity to access quality education from anywhere, at any time, for any purposes."

A good education is expensive, for many it is beyond what they can afford. But everyone should have an opportunity to go to school. This can be possible through electronic learning.

Win believes that "If the pupil didn't' learn, the teacher didn't teach." The pupil has to also be capable of receiving learnable information. A student is not receptive "if he is spaced out on drugs and lives in an imaginary world." "Schools and colleges often seem to be rather crude and rude information-dispensers. Education facilities are fixtures designed to dispense as much knowledge as possible in the least possible amount of time to the largest possible audience." You can send your kids to school but you can't make them learn. People have different learning styles. If the information isn't presented in a way the student's brain can process it, the student won't learn. Before a lesson is taught the student must be enticed to want to learn. The lesson must be introduced in such a way that the student wants to learn what is about to be presented.

Much of learning must start early and start at home. Children need projects and responsibilities. "Reflecting back, I realize these "jobs" taught me things, including taking initiative and being thrifty." An additional benefit of tackling tasks, regardless of how mundane, is that it produces personal satisfaction and builds pride in accomplishment. It is not the role of a school to raise children. It is the parents but, according to Straube, too many parents are shunning their responsibility.

Win advocates Distance Learning. A lecture takes place on a campus. A student in a classroom somewhere else "can easily listen to a lecture and a TV monitor allows the lecturer to display diagrams or charts."

"There are three branches of education needed to be dealt with under the ultimate purpose:

Learning how to learn
Learning the facts
Learning to think or how to arrive at conclusions and if appropriate, act on them."
This is a book that should not only be read but also acted on. Straube states what I have long believed. Long Distance Education will offer a good quality education without costing a fortune. It will make an education available to the masses. This book is well written and documented. Straube obviously has spent much time thinking through his ideas concerning education. I applaud his efforts. Well-done Mr. Straube! It is with great honor that I highly recommend this book to all parents, educators, students and politicians. I hope many read this book and reform our education system.

Even practicing physicists will find much here (in fact, more than a small number would benefit from a little refresher!).

In the interest of self-disclosure I should note that I am a co-author of one of the ranking tasks in this book.

That having been said, I have found this collection of assessment tools to be a valuable addition to the various pencil and paper activities I use in my physics classes.

The idea of the ranking task is to have a student compare a umber of physically similar systems that are allowed to vary in only one or two ways. The student must rank the systems (usually from greatest to least) on the basis of one of the system's physical variables (i.e.-velocity, acceleration, electric field strength, currect, etc.). The variables that are allowed to change may or may not affect the ranking of the systems. As an example, the mass of a falling object may be allowed to vary over rocks allowed to fall under the influence of gravity only. The ranking task may ask the student to rank the systems ont he basis of which one took the longest time to fall. In this case, the mass, while different in each situation, is irrelevant to the fall time and thus would not be used to determine the ranking.

The real power of these assessment tools is that they can quickly and clearly get at a student's mis/alternative conceptions as to which physical variables might change a system's behavior. The items can be used as quiz and test questions as well as during class time as a "self-check" on "in-class check" by the educator to assist students in working through a Karplus learnign cycle of ellicit-confront-resolve and apply for a concent or concept cluster in a subject area.

In addition to ranking tasks for most of the areas found in standard first year physics curriculum that book also discusses the pedagogical theory behind the assessment tool and has an answer key. As a physics educator, I have found this resource to be extraordinarily helpful both as a source of material for my classes and as an inspiration in creating my own material. I would rcommend this for any physics educator teaching high school or college physics at the introductory level.

New approach to old thinking. Great learning tool. Made sense on difficult concepts.

Students's preconcetions (misconceptions, alternative/naive/intuitive conceptions) are generally main obstacles of conceptual learning. This book merely aims to overcome that problem by providing a task of ranking for a set of physical situations. Topics are; Kinematics, Forces, 2-D motion, Work-energy, Impulse-momentum, Rotational motion, Properties of matter, Thermodynamics, Waves, Electrostatics, DC and resistive circuits, Magnetism and EM. An effective way in your teaching of physics.

This is a very important book for anyone interested in literacy and learning. Bureaucrats (and others) who follow dictates blindly need to know the weaknesses of the NRP and the realities of the research involved.

This is an amazing book that all educators and parents should read who are concerned about the travesty being forced on schools in the name of science and leaving no children behind. Coles carefully, objectively, yet with a passion for children underlying all, reviews the research findings that supposedly underlie the push for rigid, sequential, skills without meaning instruction being demanded of schools that serve low income children. Coles makes it clear that, while the present regime uses the public relations language of 'scientifically-based research', the fact is that such claims are more fiction, more the product of advertizing than truth. He further makes it clear that the real truth, real science has been both ignored and suppressed to further the ideological aims of those in present power. Michael Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Wayne State University, Detroit.

A central theme of this book is the insight that the claims of superiority of intensive phonics instruction and phonemic awareness instruction rest on studies in which one group does heavy phonics or phonemic awareness instruction and the comparison group does either nothing at all, or an activity that has nothing to do with reading. Coles points out that it should be no surprise that the phonics or phonemic awareness group will read better after such a comparison. But Coles concludes that even this is not true: When the trained group is better, they are typically only clearly better on low level tests, eg tests of phonemic awareness and phonics. There is hardly any evidence that they actually read better. Coles has taught us that we always need to ask this question when somebody says a reading method is better: Better than what?

Coles provides extensive documentation of this point. This book, along with Garan's Resisting Reading Mandates, pulls the rug out from under the National Reading Panel's claim that heavy skills training is called for in teaching children to read.

When the National Reading Panel was being convened and the names of the people to be on it were announced, I couldn't believe there were no primary classroom teachers. I thought, what's up with that? How can they have a national panel on how children learn to read and not represent the teachers who are in the trenches every day? They are the real experts! But the report made us out to be victims. Their selections seemed to point to the fact that teachers are no more than ignorant pawns who really "don't know what they don't know."

Gerry Coles in his book, Reading, the Naked Truth; Literacy, Legislation and Lies asks the same question. Where are the teachers? He once again shows his support for the knowledge of the classroom teacher as he questions the theoretical underpinnings of the findings in the National Reading Panel Report. All teachers base their teaching on theory. Our theory is based on what we see working and not working with the students in our classrooms. Apparently the members of the panel, even though many openly admit they are failures at teaching children to read, don't trust teachers' knowledge and abilities. Gerry does. Carefully analyzing the findings of the report and spelling out its serious flaws, in a book that is easy to fit into a teacher's busy life, he shows us that what we always believed to be true about teaching children to read, is still true.

Not since Jonathan Kozol's "Death At An Early Age" (1967) have I read such a gripping account of the daily struggle present in an urban school mired in poverty. Written by a teacher, this first person account illustrates the sense of futility felt by faculty, staff, parents, and most importantly, students. Add to this mix the impact of decisions made by a high-priced business turnaround team, none of whom had any experience in the field of education, which resulted in decreased test scores, huge loss of accreditation points, and lack of basic services. Anyone who cares about the entrenched culture of generational poverty must read this book.

This book addresses the educational situation in the St. Louis Public School system during the 2003-04 school year. The picture painted represents the reality of real issues face in an inner city school and does not attempt to gloss over the numerous problems encountered by today's teachers throughout the country.

The author recounts her experience working in the St. Louis Public Schools during a watershed year in which the school board hired a business turnaround team to improve the school system. The outcome was catastrophic and a bad situation became far worse as test scores dropped, schools were closed, and many employees lost their jobs. Interestingly enough, the turnaround team has been hired by both the New Orleans and New York Public Schools to consult within the past 2 years. Couple this with the problems found in urban schools throughout the country, which are articulated here as well, and you truly have a recipe for failure.

For those of us asking the question, "What is happening to our city schools?" this book has the answers. Marilyn takes her reader along as she embarks on a journey she never expected or imagined. The combination of her careful research and teaching experience at a city middle school makes this a "jaw-dropper" of a book. Read it if you truly want answers; it will challenge, enrage, and inspire you!

The author's inside perspective should cause the educated reader to consider the immense harm that a school board can cause children in the district when the board succumbs to organizational thinking and outsources the discharge of its fiduciary duty. Definitely a well written eye-opener. Reliving the author's experiences as an educator in the St. Louis schools was somewhat like watching a train wreck, only in written form.

Dr. King's handbook, 'Reclaiming Our Schools,' is a must-read for EVERY parent - and, in fact, for every taxpayer. It's a basic human philosophy to do something "the way we've always done it." But parents, it's time we assume our responsibility for our children's education and self-esteem. Education must change for today's children to be properly prepared to lead our country and our world.

Who can't recall the person at the low-end of a school's achievement system? Maybe it was you, or maybe it's your child. What makes someone an "average" student? "Just being average is not success in anyone's view," Dr. King reminds his readers.

Even the nation's top students are not learning all they need to know. Dr. King points out that "as long as students are ranked against each other, the achievement of the group can drift lower and ... it gives parents a false sense of pride."

Dr. King's book offers an honest inspection of why any student would be classified according to others' achievements and suggests practical answers to helping your children achieve their personal best. Whether your child is taught in a public or private school system or at home, it will take each parent's contribution to be certain that your child is receiving the teaching they deserve and the instruction they need to lay a firm foundation for life.

Written in an easy-to-read manner, Reclaiming Our Schools examines the myths that lock our children into an unsatisfactory education and offers solutions to these myths. This book is a positive step toward ensuring a successful, appropriate education for each of America's children.

How refreshing that an educator has the courage to speak out about the appalling state of our education system in the United States! We hold every other highly skilled professional accountable for the results they produce: doctors, dentists, attorneys,etc. Why don't we demand any kind of accountability for our "educators?" It's time parents took back control and began to demand results! This book would be a very important guide to do just that! A highly recommended read!

This is the book I've been waiting for. It gave me, a parent, the tools I needed to work with my school to get the education my kids needed.

This book is the book the NEA and the educational establishment doesn't want you to read!

The problem is clear--parents have lost touch with their schools, and children are not learning.

As current as today's headlines, Reclaiming Our Schools offers the cure. Written by an educator in everyday language, Reclaiming Our Schools is a guide to parents both dismayed by a public school system producing students scoring among the lowest of all industrialized nations and unsure of what to do about it.

For the concerned parent intimidated by the task of challenging an entrenched educatonal establishment, this book will serve as guide. Included are non-frontational questions for school administrators, both research and common sense challenging current educational practices, and a detailed examination of the myths driving them.

Schools following the steps described in this book soon have 90% of their students scoring as high as the top ten percent in schools who do not--results neither parents, nor schools can affod to ignore.

With this book as guide, parents can work closely with their school toward the common goal of helping children learn. It can be done! This book shows the way.

Rich has given us the gift of his wonderful thinking on deep issues of faith and practice. Each day I look forward to reading those thoughts so that I can carry them with me and apply them to my daily events. If you value the ability to think, question and reason then you must read this book.

The thing I have discovered abvout Rich Mayfield's writings is that they are a gentle, but astute and pointed criticism written from within the heirarchy of the church. Nor is this criticism from someone who is estranged from the institution and has become bitter. Like Martin Luther five centuries before, Mayfield quite obviously loves the Church and simply wants it to be as it was intended. He writes as a prophet who speaks the truth, but it is done with obvious love.

Even so, I have to give this work only 4.5 stars rather than a full five. As a daily reader of Mayfield's book of days, Confessions of a Christian Agnostic (christianagnostic dot com), I find Reconstructing Christianity is much less relevant to my life and much less provocative for my own thinking. There is a distinct difference between the original teachings of Jesus, which come from the four Gospels, and the church which his disciples founded, based largely on the writings of Paul of Tarsus. The one is a radical way of life that brings peace and strength to those who practice it. The other is an institution which bears heavy responsibility for many of the evils we experience in the world of today. Even so, Reconstructing Christianity is an excellent resource for those committed to the institution which calls itself the holy, universal Church.

If you plan to purchase one book that encompasses Christian truths in today's social context, this is the one. The writer's form of short, pithy thoughts is read each day, an exercise in spiritual growth. The book transfers the emphasis from "correctness" of belief and opens lives to the unrestricted love of God. Every clergyperson needs to have this in their library for personal reading and sermon thoughts.

Reconstructing Christianity does just that....reconstructs a way to think about Jesus without having to be saved from fire and brimstone. Pastor Mayfield adds a touch of humor to his essays which are filled with progressive Christian thought. I loved the simple format of daily meditations and highly reccomend it to anyone looking to enrich their lives.