Schools and Instruction Books

It is a valuable resource for all the reasons others have stated, but I think it should be updated. Is there a new edition coming out or currently out, or is the 10-year-old edition it at this point?

Very informative book. It contains the Standards and goals that SLMS should try to reach. A good book for those that do not understand the various hats that media specialists wear. Great tool to use when preparing for the GACE.

I have used this book in 2 classes for library school. It is a must have!

According to many in my grad program, this ALA book is a must read for passing the PRAXIS for Library Science. Pay particular attention to the Appendixes.

This book is a must-have for anyone interested in becoming a library media specialist. It is an excellent source of information and practically required by the ALA, since that is who co-wrote it. It is also absolutely necessary if you're taking the Library Media Specialist Praxis test. A lot of the questions come from this book.

I found this book to be just what I needed to get started with acrylics. It is concise, yet has all that a beginner needs to know what to buy and how to get started. I found the simple exercises very helpful and look forward to trying the more complex techniques as I gain confidence.

When I decided that I wanted to start painting, I bought five "How To" books. This one is my favorite, hands down. The book is well organized, well written, and contains a lot of beautifully detailed photographs. The author has kept the text to a minimum, letting the photographs do much of the talking, which works far better for me than other books that have more emphasis on written instruction.

In only 72 pages, every topic is covered, and no question is left unanswered. It begins with a brief history of the medium, then moves on to cover color, paint types, brushes, painting surfaces, tools, and techniques, as well as galleries of different painting styles. There's even a section on experimental approaches, such as stenciling and inventive scraping. Rather than presenting a series of exercises (as many books do), this author encourages experimentation and discovering your own personal style, an approach that really inspired me to pick up a brush and get started.

Also worth mentioning is that every photograph and illustration is in color . . . really GOOD color. This may sound like a no-brainer, but a few of the other books I purchased contained a lot of black-and-white photos. Hey, you can't learn to paint in black and white!

Experienced artists may find the material here a bit too rudimentary, but for the true novice, like myself, this book is a winner. If you're looking for that ONE book to get you started, this is it!

Pretty picture as in all DK books but gives an entire overview of all acrylic paining in 72 pages. A lot of simple paragraph definitions of techniques but nothing of any direction or use for a begining painter. A great picture book for a child.

I bought this book based on all the other reviews and now I too love it. Loads of beautiful color pictures and examples and written clearly. If you're beginning acrylics - get this !

Considering that I have yet to find a complete compedium of Acrylic techniques, this is probably one of the better books out there, especially for beginners. This book will give you the short and skinny on your tools, paint and mediums, and canvases/surfaces. After that, the book starts giving examples on how to tranfer your image onto the canvas with pencil prior to painting, using opaque methods to painting, transparent(watercolor style) methods, drybrushing, scumbling, and more. Then at the end of the book, it contains a series of gallry examples in acrylic to inspire. This book is a good foundation book, and gives many approaches to using acrylic.

This book is very informative and it tries to explain so that there is not much confusion after looking it over.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to better themselves in the region of art history knowledge and the ability to evaluate art's content as well. It was well worth buying and compliments any classes orientated towards the subject...maybe would even overshadow the required text.

Loved this book for my Art class. I didn't think I would like the class, fell in love with art, and even kept the book afterwards instead of selling it.

I am extremely disappointed in amazon and this book. You guys delivered it over a month late.I'm not paying for amazon prime so I can receive much needed books over a month late. I had to go to my College bookstore and pay $120. You wanna know the worst part? They don't accept devolutions. So I'm extremely disappointed.

I purchased this book for my Art History class. Very interesting pictures along with non-boring texts. I really like the accompanied CD as it has all pictures from this text as well as other version of Gardner's art history books. Pictures are crystal clear. Although I finished that class long ago in 2002 and sold the book for school's book store with attractive price, I still have a copy of that CD and often reviewed whenever I saw some interesting stories of art history (such as female goddess from Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code). All pictures are under flash cards section. Besides a good text book, it should be kept as a reference.

This is my 2nd favorite book from a massive library of pastel books. LOL It's one you can learn from and still go back to again and again!

Perfunctorily scanned and look forward to prepping self with this and other pastel tomes/volumes bought for the purpose. Now to find the time to get back to it. It's been nearly 35 years.

The book's subtitle below "Pastel School" starts off with "A practical guide..." and this is so true! I am impressed at the book's clarity in how it is sectioned and titled for each skill/technique discussed. Information from getting the type of pastels you may want to use to recommendations on caring for the finished artwork is all covered. Some may say that the information in a few sections is a bit sketchy/limited, but if you want to learn more (e.g. doing portraits), there are additional books available that can provide a pastel artist to advance and learn more. This book gives you the basics, but also allows for growth in the sections on types of art styles that one may produce (e.g. still life, landscapes, flowers, portraits). This book, plus another one I am using, are enabling me to learn pastel art in a way that that will ensure long-term enjoyment with this art medium. I can't wait to get back to my new package of pastel papers to begin a new piece, particularly with a few of the skills I've expanded upon from the information I've learned from this book!

This book is full of beautiful photos of pastel drawings in different styles and using a variety of techniques. There is plenty of information on selecting pastels, properties of different hardnesses of pastels on different textured papers, blending techniques, storage and care of materials. Techniques are illustrated step by step with plenty of photos to clarify the instructions. Overall a good book for the pastel novice.

This book is incredibly helpful with demonstrations, suggestions for colors, layering options, and beautiful illustrations with various styles shown. The only thing that would have been even more helpful to this book was a little more information about paper and pastel suppliers and the difference in quality between them. I'm still giving it 5 stars though!

Well-illustrated and organized. I use it as a reference ALL the time. The only downside is that, like most textbooks, it denigrates (i.e. ignores) the validity of other traditions than Western/Euro-American.

Fleming does an excellent job encompassing thousands of years of art in this consummate book. He does, however, make a less than valorous attempt at including the contributions of women in the realm. This is the 1990s, not the 1890s -- it's time for a revision, Bill!

I used this book as a Music Major and now am using it for a Humanities course that I am teaching. It's great to see that the book is still as popular as it was in the eighties!

For anyone who wants to delve into the world of art history and the fine arts, this book is a beautiful introduction. Very extensive, and even rivalling other fine arts books specializing in specific areas of the arts. I've had the good pleasure of being taught by William Fleming in college, and it was truly a life enrichening experience. This book will offer the same. I particularly enjoyed the use of psychological/sociological aspects of the arts through history to show common themes of the human psyche, however common, rare and mundane. All the art reproduced is rich with extemely good DPI, color quality, being printed on high quality paper. This book is well worth its expensive price.

Arts & Ideas was recommended reading when I studied History of Art. I never owned the book myself (having borrowed it from a friend at the time), but in the past ten years, I have constantly wished that I did. Fleming gives one a taste of the Zeitgeist of various eras, showing how the various arts (visual, music, literary) expressed the philosophy of each age. I can REALLY recommend the chapter on Romanticism. It is wonderfully amusing.

This book is full of outstanding examples of calligraphic artwork, some of them unusual. It's extremely complete regarding pens, such as how to sharpen them. And it even gives you an excellent overview of how to watercolor. I own many calligraphy books and thought I knew a great deal, but I learned much from this book. Worth buying.

Quite a good reference guide for beginners. Plenty of examples and step by step guide. Projects are excellent ways for anyone to put their skills to practice. Get your money's worth.

"Calligraphy School" is everything I was hoping it would be when I ordered it. Beautifully written, informative, gorgeous lay-out, very inspiring. I brought it to my calligraphy class to show the instructor and the other students, and they were as impressed as I. The book takes the student from Roman Serifs to the Lindesfarne Gospels and carolingian minuscules through to the Renaissance and some of the modern italic hands-- very comprehensive. Besides just the letterforms of virtually all the important alphabets throughout history, the authors also address the basics (and beyond) of applying a watercolor wash, interpreting text though color and design, even working with metallic leaf and illuminated letterforms! Pages and pages featuring the work of the most talented calligraphers. An absolutely beautiful book and very inspiring, as I said before, but it bears repeating.

A very detailed introduction to calligraphy aimed at people who have NO prior experience. Pens, paper, ink are all covered in an unintimidating fashion. In tutorial fashion, the authors move from basic letter forms all the way to illuminating with gold leaf. Thorougly illustrated.

I just sent out 200 elegant wedding invitations all done in Calligraphy that i learned from "Calligraphy School" in the last two months. i had never picked up a calligraphy pen and could not find any local classes so i bought this book to give it a try but was certain i would probably be hiring someone to do the calligraphy on my wedding invitations.

The book is interesting, easy to follow, has great instructions, modern colored pages, and a great font selection but not too overwhelming. i have the worst handwriting in the world and this book was able to teach me the basics in calligraphy. Worth every Penny and more.

suggestion to beginners - start with the thicker felt tip calligraphy pens till you master the letter flows and than change to the calligraphy cartridge pens (Scheaffer has been the best).

(This was a gift to our daughter from us. I am reporting on this based upon our daughter's comments.) Our daughter is a college senior and a music major, with the goal of teaching instrumental music to junior high students (!!). I have not read this book, but she has been reading it since the moment she received it. She reports that it has not only the things that the author did correctly in the classroom, but also things that she did wrong and what she did and learned as a result. Our daughter loves the book and cannot wait for the author's next book to come out.

I think it was a great idea for the author to open up the world of her first year of teaching to the public. We all know there aren't enough useful publications for us music teachers.

I was a little disappointed after reading this book. Though Bell does touch on lots of topics like maintaining a personal life, dealing with parents and fundraisers, I expected to take more away from it. It was a quick read, mostly because of its journal style--separated by months. I wanted more advice as I'm approaching my first year of teaching. I've found many other of the books in this category had more information to take away from them. This one had potential, but never really took off.

I credit Bell for sharing her thoughts and feelings, and would like to see a sequel with more information to be taken from it.

Until then, I would recommend this as a quick read, but be prepared that there aren't any fireworks or epiphanies.

Catherine Bell gives the reader an honest and complete view of what it means to be a music educator. As a former music teacher myself, I know that there are many aspects of the profession that are not taught - or even touch upon - during our formal education in college. Catherine does an excellent job of depicting the joys as well as obstacles that a new teacher can expect to encounter. I recommend this VERY HIGHLY for all future music educators and for anyone who has a child taking instrumental music in school! Well done!!

I do not have an educator's background, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found Catherine Robertson's book to be both informative and entertaining as well. I frankly never realized what a complex juggling act a teacher has to deal with each school day and throughout the school year; her students, all with different interests and abilities, their parents demands and expectations, the pressures of the school administrators, each pulling her in different directions.

Ms Robertson was able to bring these teaching challenges to life by use of her actual daily journal entries. And her retrospective follow up comments on each entry gave an added fresh perspective with the additional benefit of both time and her gained experience.

Her tenacity in the handling of the daily ups and downs of teaching, all while maintaining a positive attitude, is certainly impressive. She always seemed to be able to see the brighter side and humor in otherwise stressful situations. She obviously enjoys teaching music and looks forward to the challenges it bring each day.

Her book is both easy and fun to read. I would encourage any new teacher or person interested in going into teaching, to read, enjoy, and learn from Ms Robertson's experiences.

This book is an excellent resource, especially for those educators who are new to the "real world" or are just about there. Kate Robertson does a superb job of integrating her reflective journal from her first year teaching (which has very minimal editing -- what you see is the original journal) with reflections. One feels as if the tasks that are involved with being a music teacher are made easier just by knowing that music educators everywhere face the same challenges.

This book also sets a good example to be a reflective practicioner. Keeping a journal is probably the best, and easiest, way to reflect on daily teaching activities and improve as a teacher.

Having just met Ms Robertson, I know that she is very sincere in her teaching and the publication of this book. I urge all music educators to read this book -- even mature teachers will be able to gain knowledge from it.

Included in the back is a resource guide that has some forms, etc., that can be modeled after for use in your own classroom.

My one complaint, and it doesn't deserve any less stars because it deals not with the content, is that GIA typically tends to release books without catching every typo. Mistakes do happen, but all of the books I've gotten from GIA have had some sort of glaring grammatical error. Like I said, though, this does not detract from what Kate wrote in this book.

Designing Effective Mathematics Instruction offers brilliant solutions to most of the problems that your students might be having. It includes all the most important mathematics topics from kindergarten through fractions and "pre-algebra." The chapters discuss various mathematics topics in some depth, providing a broad-based conceptual understanding as well as specific, practical suggestions for teaching procedures. Specific skills are referenced to "formats," which are wonderfully clear scripts for teaching the specific procedure, concept, or principle. Scripts range in degree of structure from totally structured, with each step taught and guided, to less structured. The less structured scripts (and accompanying worksheets) would be given to students *after* they had mastered the structured formats.

I have given chapters from this book to my teachers, who universally report success in teaching the most difficult topics. I daresay that this book will solve at least 95% of your students' mathematics problems. Even if you are already highly successful teaching math, the book will help broaden your understanding of some of the relations between different tasks and how to explain them in clear, student-friendly language. For example, the discussion of story problems has a fascinating analysis of the different kinds of problems and how to approach them in a way that students can understand.

Our students surge ahead with the help of this book. Buy it!

This book has been a Godsend for me and many other teachers who are more interested in "teaching" than in following the latest fad. Let us hope that more teachers read it.

In an age of fads--fuzzy math, constructivism, whole language--that waste our children's time to learn (and make the faddist authors rich)--this book is both fresh air and hope. It will teach NEW teachers what their ed professors refused to teach (or don't know how to teach). And it will show parents what real math instruction is.

Whatever (ill-informed) reviewer wrote, "...today we are on the cusp of an age where thinking, and not the rote memorization of isolated rules and procedures," obviously has not read this book--which is ALL about higher-order thinking! The same reviewer writes,"...this book could set us back 75 years." Right! Back when math was taught by people like Einstein.

Stein, Silbert & Carnine deserve medals for bravery--fighting against the nonsense that "math educators" dish up.

My children were attending a charter school that was using Direct Instruction Math so I bought this book to see if was similar. It was the exact same math. This type of math is very unconventional and very repetitive. The children in the charter school after three years of using this math did worse than the public schools in the same town. I taught at the school for one year and found the Direct Instruction Math designed by S. Engleman and I had to pull my kids from the school because I could see that this type of mathematics was going to cause them to be way behind other children when it came to standardized testing, it sure enough the kids at the school did not do well this past year.

As an elementary Special Day Class teacher and Resource Specialist I used thetext "Designing Effective Mathematics Instruction" countless times. I was constantly facedwith gaps in student math skills, confused algorithms, and lack of functionalskills such as telling time and using money.Using and adapting the materials in this book allowed me to focus myinstruction and maximize student progress. In special education, "individualized" is the main principle. Using this book,one can be equipped to assess and design math instruction which is finelydetailed and suited to individual needs. Yes, I can think of a chapter or two that ought to be written and enhance itsutility, but they only support and further its basic intent.66 dollars? Yes, a hefty price on a teacher's salary. But few books on your desk willbecome so dog-eared.

I needed this book for a master's class I am taking. It came and was everything I expected. It came quickly and in good condition. I was a little perterbed by the cost of this book in relation to it's size. A little book at a big price.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All by educators and education specialists Gayle H. Gregory and Carolyn Chapman is an informative, "user friendly" guide specially written for classroom teachers, in order to introduce them to the method of differentiated instruction that involves carefully adapting curriculum and instructional approaches to the specific and individual learning needs of each student in the diverse classroom of a plural society. Individual chapters address the importance of creating a climate conducive to learning, effective curriculum approaches, assessing one's students and much more. A practical, persuasive, and useful guide, Differentiated Instructional Strategies is highly recommended reading for classroom educators and a seminal contribution to Teacher Education supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

this book had a lot of information, but nothing that required an entire book to cover. there were a lot of "methods" and ideas to incorporate in the classroom, but the organization of the book made it cumbersome to follow the examples. If you are the type of learner who appreciates a ton of examples this would be a great reference.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All by Gayle Gregory, and Carolyn Chapman is great tool to compliment any teacher's personal resource library. As a novice to teaching and classroom instruction, I found this book to be very enlightening. The discussion of standards based classrooms, student expectations, multicultural & student diversity, cognitive variation, as well as societal and technological change is threaded though this book. This book defines a simple educational philosophy that success for any teacher is through assessment, effective planning, and effective strategical implementation to measure student performance. Today's classroom demands ongoing cirriculum development and adaptation to classroom instuction through best practices. The techniques in this book outlines a learner's needs, creating a receptive climate for learning, assessment, as well as various innovative strategies for cirriculum success.

Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All by Gayle Gregory, and Carolyn Chapman is great tool to compliment any teacher's personal resource library. As a novice to teaching and classroom instruction, I found this book to be very enlightening. The discussion of standards based classrooms, student expectations, multicultural & student diversity, cognitive variation, as well as societal and technological change is threaded though this book. This book defines a simple educational philosophy that success for any teacher is through assessment, effective planning, and effective strategical implementation to measure student performance. Today's classroom demands ongoing cirriculum development and adaptation to classroom instuction through best practices. The techniques in this book outlines a learner's needs, creating a receptive climate for learning, assessment, as well as various innovative strategies for cirriculum success.

This book is very helpful for the K-6 PLT exam. Sample questions and study tips included.

This was useful in my preparation for the test. I passed the first time.

Great fast service, I didn't have to wait long to recieve my order, which is good since I must prove I am a highly qualified teacher due to No Child Left Behind.
Thanks

I used this as a guide to prepare for the Praxis Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment test. It has a chapter called "Study Topics" which outlines what will be on the test. I went through the chapter and researched and studied each item thoroughly. I also read the other chapters which give advise on test taking. It has a practice test which was also helpful. Studying and preparing for the test took a long time and lots of work but it was worth it. I felt very prepared for the test and passed it on the first try.

I believe this book is necessary for anyone preparing for the Praxis, but it isn't overly helpful. Minimal explanations for the answers are given, but it does give an idea of the format of the test and the type of questions included.