Junior Books

This is my mother's cookbook, and I'm a little embarassed to admit that I've been sitting with it, happily reading the recipes for hours. This book is a delightful celebration of Colorado, with recipes popular in the state, gorgeous landscape photography, and even quotes on some of the pages from history books relating certain turning points in the state's foundation. The recipes are organized according to the seasons and my mouth salivates just looking at them! The dishes recommended are delicious, sometimes unique, and wonderfully seasonal. I highly recommend this book; it is a treat!

Celebrating the Fourth has been a wonderful tool to use in my teaching this year. I continue to apply many of the ideas to build community in my classroom, guide my students in self-assessment, and teach with real life in mind. The examples given help me use the strategies with my own students. I found the book recommendations and sample forms to be helpful resources. Celebrating the Fourth is an easy read as well as a must read. You will be recharged and inspired. Keep this book accessible all year long!

A terrific help as I try to meet the differing needs of my students. Practical projects, well thought out, help me help my students become more self directed.

Tonight we're having "James Island Shrimp Pie" P.60 for dinner, the reciept(sic) is C.1860. I skipped the next one "Popham Shrimp Pie", due to the use of "1/2 Pound Lard" as the second ingredient. I don't want myself or any of my family to die at an early age of obesity or heart attack. But if you have a brain. most if not all of these recipes are adaptable, and they do bring a mirror of the past to the present, many of which are no longer recoverable. If you're an accomplished cook who understands how to adapt these recipes or afficionado of Early American Arcadian/Creole cooking (Time frame: French & Indian Wars - Civil War) this is a "must have". I highly recommend it ! (Do you know what a "Cooter" is ? I do !)

Charter Schools may just be the secret to better public education. In a free market economy, what works better than competition? Charter schools are forcing our public schools to work, because they are showing the public that it can be done, well, with the money that we already have out there. Read this book-- and start wondering, where does your tax money really go?

In 1989, Chicago began an experiment with radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened to Chicago's elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in this reform is the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational change within schools, which in turn would foster improved teaching and learning. Using this theory as a framework, the authors marshal massive quantitative and qualitative data to examine how the reform actually unfolded at the school level.With longitudinal case study data on 22 schools, survey responses from principals and teachers in 269 schools, and supplementary system-wide administrative data, the authors identify four types of school politics: strong democracy, consolidated principal power, maintenance, and adversarial. In addition, they classify school change efforts as either systemic or unfocused. Bringing these strands together, the authors determine that, in about a third of the schools, expanded local democratic participation served as a strong lever for introducing systemic change focused on improved instruction. Finally, case studies of six actively restructuring schools illustrate how under decentralization the principal's role is recast, social support for change can grow, and ideas and information from external sources are brought to bear on school change initiatives. Few studies intertwine so completely extensive narratives and rigorous quantitative analyses. The result is a complex picture of the Chicago reform that joins the politics of local control to school change.This volume is intended for scholars in the fields of urban education, public policy, sociology of education, anthropology of education, and politics of education. Comprehensive and descriptive, it is an engaging text for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Local, state, and federal policymakers who are concerned with urban education will find new and insightful material. The book should be on reading lists and in professional development seminars for school principals who want to garner community support for change and for school community leaders who want more responsive local institutions. Finally, educators, administrators, and activists in Chicago will appreciate this detailed analysis of the early years of reform.

Carr has spent 13 years in elementary schools, the latest one being a school physically designed for 450 but which served 1075 students. She had only 163 student teaching-days per year, and 73% of her children were at the poverty level. Class sizes ranged from 29 to 32. In this context, Carr gives a clear and ample description of what she does, how she does it, the level of detailed thinking and organization, and her methods for handling slips and pulls within the child's growing repertoire of reading, writing, and spelling. Fully two-thirds of her day is devoted to Language Arts, and she also uses projects and families to support her devoted attention in this area.

This is a great book for beginning teachers, and persons who are interested in classroom "management" of time, materials, students, and physical locations. Her "reflective teaching" is extraordinary: she finds a place where her children can belong, and shine forth.

I found it interesting because Carr's devotion shines through: she provides over 800 books in her first- and second-grade classrooms. This is a dedicated person and educator.

Being a mental health professional myself, I found this book to be excellent for teachers, student-teachers, and school mental health staff. It is accurate in its presentation of children, their needs, and their problems. I highly recommend it, not only to school personnel, but to anyone who is interested in furthering their understanding of children.

I found this book to be excellant. It follows the early childhood experience of a number of children with different special needs. It covers interviews from parents, educators, and family members. I felt the book really emphasizes the idea that these are, first and foremost, children. They need the same experiences as many "typical" developing children. It also hits hard on the subject of the parental involvement and how important it is in the "BIG PICTURE". I would recommend this book for anyone working with children, preschool teachers, elementary teachers, and childcare providers alike. It is an "Easy Read" full of great and useful information>

Judy Bradbury has created another winner with this second book in her Children's Book Corner series. The heartwarming and sometimes humorous manner in which the stories are summarized in this book have inspired me to look more closely at some of the more unfamiliar titles. The take-home pages for parents, as well as the many other useful references, techniques and follow-up links, make this book a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to make reading aloud to children a rewarding experience.