Schools and Instruction Books

This is great stuff! I developed better-than-decent proficiency at both French and German, starting from ground zero, working with these books for only a week or so. I would prefer a few more rules frankly stated as such: I found that I had to infer rules from what at first seemed like irregularities or surprises in a sample text. I don't know how the author(s) managed, but the odd assortment of dialogues is evidently sufficiently ingeniously chosen that one builds a strong practical vocabulary--certainly to make oneself clearly understood and to have educated foreigners truthfully tell you that they're most impressed with the extent of your command of language X. Warning: German will prove somewhat more difficult than French, as the conjugations are more detailed, the genders are more numerous (three versus two), and the declensions of adjectives and nouns will definitely present an onerous burden that one never fully gets used to. (BTW, the older printings were preferable--I'd rather have an honest green overcoat with the German or French text than have a black-and-white overcoat with an arrow pointing to it that says in English, "Um, er, pretend that this thing here is colored green.")

I've bought this book recently and it suits me well,why?because I just wanted to learn french for fun,and not for some kind of exam of something,it helps u to get familiar with the language,and with hard work,be able to even speak it out!And...I might add it is very simple!

I'm very pleased with this book. I've been listening to audio tapes but those only help me speak French. As an English speaking person, it is difficult for me to associate the spoken word with how it is written in French.

With this book, it is easy to read and understand the words and easy to sound out how it should be spoken. As I'm reading, I find words that I've learned how to say and can start recognizing how it is written. Also,I discovered that I don't always hear the tapes as clearly as I thought and I have been saying the word incorrectly.

This is a very nice book for people who are completely new to the language and for people that do not have a good grasp of the pronunciation of the language. This book along with a good student English/French dictionary is a good place to start for a beginner.

I started with Berlitz Self-Teacher Spanish. Having completed the Spanish text, I have decided to expand my study to French.

Although there is no updated since 1949, this is still the good source of any language study. I like this series because French and Spanish texts share the same contents for many parts so I can compare words and phrases with both books. This is the good way not to forget (and not to be confused with) what I have already learnt.

It would be nice if we could get the CD version. Any update would be more appreciated. But this book definitely works for the purpose afterall.

Super book - well researched, well written, and very thorough. Haffner covers just about everything parents need to know, sharing her own teaching and mothering experiences in a most valuable way. By far, the best book on this topic I have read.

As a pastor and a parent, I found this book accessible, interesting, to the point and a rich resource! I would recommend it to any parent, teacher or religious leader.

I should have bought this book years ago!!!! It is filled with a wealth of information that ALL parents need to know. This book is a keeper and a book that I know I will continue to reference as my 6 and 8 year olds get older!!

Raising a sexually healthy child is a challenge in our world and Debra Haffner's book provides practical, realistic advice for parents with children of all ages. It's important to remember that being sexually healthy doesn't mean having sex! Among other things, it means understanding sexuality enough to decide when, why, how, and with whom to have sex...someday.

With all the negativity towards sexuality coming from so many religious voices these days, it is so wonderful to have a religious leader who is willing to speak articulately, passionately and intelligently about sexuality education and about the role that parents, schools and religious institutions play in supporting the development of sexually healthy adults by educating children in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner. This book is a terrific resource for parents -- I wish my parents had had access to it when I was growing up!

This is a very fun to use book, with detailed and specific explanations and easy to apply examples, so that, by the end of the reading, you can do some things on your own that look very real.

this book was to vague for me. I have read other books about perspective so i am fimiliar with perspective terms. I would not advise someone who is just beginning to learn about perspective purchase this book as a first one.

This is an essential starter book for anybody who wants to learn to draw in 3 dimensions.

Draw five circles in a ring
And add a little dot
Use a ruler to connect
the edges to the spot
Chop the ends with curvy lines
Erase what you don't need
It's so easy, anyone
Can follow and succeed

Write your name or draw a box
Then draw another two,
Or three and four, and before long
Your perspective comes through
Horizons, roads, vanishing points
Interiors and out
With practice you can draw this stuff
Without a single doubt

It gets much harder at the end
But once you've grasped the rules
You'll find it takes a little time
Applying all the tools
This makes it so much easier
It has a chatty style
I think that once you try this book
You'll find it quite worthwhile


Recommended for ages 9 to just before senility.



Amanda Richards, July 13, 2008

"DRAW 3-D" has given me a new eye for perspective drawing, how to size objects for distance. I love practicing technique. Great book!

This is one extraordinary book on perspective. Although directed at young people, it is wonderful for anyone who likes to draw. I got two copies, one for my niece. She loves it! It makes perspective fun and easy. This author is an amazing teacher. Makes it completely panic free.

This book will help beginner art teachers as well as give some interesting ideas and insight to seasoned art teachers. There are reproducable pages, black and white art examples and I will probably use this book heavily in my curriculum.

this book was a gift from my mentor teacher after college graduation, and now i continue to share it with my student teachers! a great resource to generate unique and creative art ideas-for any grade level!

Great book! Very helpful.Helen D. Hume Has saved my life on more than one occassion.

Having purchased the wonderful Survival Guide for the Elementary/Middle School Art Teacher I expected this to also be a spiral bound book filled with tons of great ideas and projects. It is a relatively thin book with a few good ideas and the rest projects that I've done before. Maybe my expectations were too high.

There are not many books out there which is specifically for secondary level. A very resourceful book to have especially when you are in a sole charge department and have to teach across the different art fields at secondary level. It is also handy for those days when your mind goes blank and you have to come up with some quick exercises. Once you have gained confidence, you can also adapt them.

I use Bears' books in a way the authors probably do not intend. I see many resumes in the course of my work. If a job candidate's resume contains a degree from a university mentioned in Bears' book I normally throw the resume straight into the trash - three points and a substantial saving of my business clients' time, money and aggravation.

Bears' book is an essential reference tool for all Human Resources personnel. This Bears' book serial - a new edition has to be printed every few years to keep up with the proliferation - is the industry standard listing of bogus schools. Professional recruiters need this book precisely because there are dishonest people out there who eagerly peruse Bears' guidebook to see which schools will grant them an impressive-sounding degree in return for cash and a minimum of effort. (Sadly, a few gullible boobs actually believe the degrees they get from these bogus schools are legitimate).

I'm always amazed at how easily even experienced recruiters are bamboozled by bogus degrees. Bears' guide lists almost every bogus school in the English speaking world and beyond. This Bears' book is the standard reference for Bears' book as being issued by outright degree mills. The Bears are thorough and honest about such "schools" - except where the school's owners have obviously threatened the two Bears with litigation, in which the Bears hide their opinions between the lines of the review.

2) Those "distance learning" - aka correspondence - "degrees" from marginal accredited institutions that more or less offer a degree for cash and a little work - often merely a perfunctory assessment of "life experience" and a short essay. John Bear suggests reading his book and getting pregnant are good for credit at some "non-traditional" universities... This is my main complaint about the Bears' enthusiasm for "non-traditional" degrees. It's my view that there is no substitute for spending four years (three years in some countries) immersed in an academic environment before a student can call himself "educated" in any real sense. No amount of correspondence study, exam challenges, or "real-life experience credit" will subsitute. The Bears do their readers a disservice by suggesting these "non-traditional" degrees are anywhere near as good as traditional degrees earned in residence. Anyone claiming a degree from one of Bear's suggested marginal "non-traditional schools" has a time bomb in their resume. Sooner or later they will be found out, laughed-at by their colleagues, and discredited. I note with amusement that John Bear himself carefully and repeatedly assures readers that his own PhD is from a legitimate traditional university. In his heart John Bear knows the difference...

3) The few legitimate "distance-learning" degrees offered by a realtively small number of reputable universities. These mostly involve novel tools such as lectures distributed by internet or private television broadcasts. These degrees are difficult to earn and the students is assessed and graded rigorously - as if he were an on-campus student. Often some on-campus courses and/or short residency are required before a degree is granted. Such legitimate degrees are not the focus of this Bears' book.

John Bear himself admits in his book to having being involved with several unaccredited "universities" that offered "non-traditional" degrees. He himself moved from California to that hotbed of academia - Hilo, Hawaii - to become President of the unaccredited "Greenwich University," - after California authorities moved to close down Calfornia's notorious degree mill industry. (Hawaii is one of the few remaining states that still has no effective regulation of unaccredited "degree granting" schools. The Bears acknowledge in their book that Hawaii has become the preferred destination of bogus schools kicked out of California). So, the Bears are uniquely qualified to write about bogus schools

First a bit of background - I have been involved in distance education for over 25 years and have been a university and community college faculty member for over 15 years. I have traditional bachelors and masters degrees (two of them in fact). My work in distance education includes the design, production, scheduling and delivery of "traditional" video telecourses as well as Web-based courses.

In my work with students over the past decade and a half, I have advised a significant number to explore completetion or advancement of their academic programs through non-traditional or distance programs.

In all that time, I have used Dr. Bear's books as my primary referrence about distance education. I believe I started with the second edition of his "Bear's Guide" and have acquired every update since. For a number of years, his was the only publication which presented a comprehensive collection of information about programs and schools.

I have always received positive feedback form my students who relied on the information Dr. Bear presented - their expereinces with specific schools most often mirrored the reviews in the "Guide".

Throughout the years and the progression of new additions I have noted a marked shift in the method of presentation, particularly regarding the level of Dr. Bear's crusaiding against those institutions that did not measure-up to his standards. The largest number of those outfits would be called degree mills, but he did assail a fair number of "real" schools for being non-responsive, pompus or disorganized.

I must confess I miss that level of "edge" in his last couple of editions. This is unfortuante, I beleive, given the growth of educaitonal coursework via the Internet and the fact that the majority of two and four-year schools in the U.S are offering some form of distance learing (with that number growing every day.

Nonetheless, I still find "Bear's Guide" to be the best single resource for distance and non-traditional post-secondary education.

I don't remember who, what, or how I got this book, and could care less, all I know is... I got it and it changed my life for good, yes! words cannot express the power of this book, it is a must have for all young people like me.

thank you very much Dr.Bear for helping to change my life.

I had to work to eat but I always wanted to go back to school. John Bear showed me it can be done (both eating and school I mean). I just graduated Magna Cum Laude with a communications degree. Now I'm off to get a Masters. If I can do it so can anyone.Thanks John.

In the 1970's I launched a private correspondence institution named Lincoln University (Arizona). Most students were from Nigeria. I had a lot of problems from "yellow journalism" - newspapers such as Britain's Daily Telegraph which never approached me denounced me falsely as a bogus degree salesman. I was very grateful to Dr John Bear for giving Lincoln a fair assessment in his Guide recognising my work as a genuine attempt to make quality tertiary education available at a cheap rate for Africa. I have gone on to be a professor in residential African and Asian universities whose standards certainly don't match those I set for "unaccredited" LIncoln.

I feel John Bear's research on real and imagined universities is very thorough, informative and fair.

Dr Bernard Leeman b_leeman@hotmail.com

This is a good book. It was my text for a self paced class with University of San Diego. Easy to follow. Good examples.

Very well done and easy to understand. Samples are good and support the ideas throughout.

This book gives so many examples of the qualities to look for and teach in writing instruction. I especially like the fact that this edition is more inclusive of secondary ideas and samples.

With this book as a guide, it is hard to miss what is important to the writing instructional process. The information is comprehensive and user friendly.

This book offers tons of practical approaches and practice scoring for the 6 Traits of Writing. It is written by a recognized master in the field and has been so helpful.

Spandel's book is an authentic, engaging, and encouraging read for those that teach writing, want help infusing writing, or want to enhance their own writing. It is written conversationally and is well supported with numerous examples. I found it visually appealing as a reader and insightful. (Another review didn't like the visuals because it isn't easy to lift examples "as is" for sharing in class. To that angle I agree, but as a reader the layout is very pleasing.) Highly recommended.

This book will help any child to learn to count. Be sure to have a bag of M&Ms on hand though to making the learning both fun and sweet and your child is sure to be able to count to 12 in no time. It also teaches grouping, colors, and shapes. It is very much for the hands on learner.

This book is a great counting book and it works well in the classroom.

I read this book to a 1st grade class and they absolutely loved it! The class was so excited to discover what the M&M book was about. They also enjoyed counting along. Very fun and educational.

This is such a fantastic book that encourages children that math really can be fun! I've read it to several different classes in the past few years (K and 1st grade) and they get such a kick out of using M&M's as math manipulatives. They are so eager to learn, count, sort, and eat with the M&M's.
I think it is wonderful that there are so many different skills taught within the book. Everything from counting to basic addition and subtraction. Sorting, shapes, and colors. Kids, parents and teachers can get it all in this book while learning within a fun environment!

The M & M's Brand Counting Book by Barbara Barbieri McGrath is a mathematical workbook that uses an easily identifiable object to children, M&M candies, as a math manipulative. The book uses text as well as drawings to illustrate the mathematical concepts being taught. Readers learn to count from 0-12, addition, subtraction, basic shapes (circle, square, triangle), grouping objects in sets, and the six basic colors of M&M's candies (brown, yellow, orange, red, blue, and green). I brought The M & M's Brand Counting Book to a kindergarten classroom to get children's opinions of the book. I also wanted to observe their reactions to the math lessons being put forth as well as their understanding of those lessons. Once the M&M's candies were passed out and the reading had commenced it certainly didn't feel or sound like a stereotypical math classroom. Laughs and giggles echoed off the walls as children enjoyed learning about math. David remarked, "Math is fun!"
As a whole the class truly enjoyed the book. Christopher said, "The M&M's Brand Counting Book -it helped me learn math." The one drawback I observed with the book was that several of the children had difficulty when it came to grouping the M&M's into sets. I would recommend skipping that section of the book when using it in a classroom with younger children, or allowing extra time and repetition when teaching this concept. Nicole expressed the majority of the classroom's sentiments when she exclaimed, "My favorite part of the book was eating the M&M's."
I would strongly recommend The M&M's Brand Counting Book for use in the classroom. It teaches basic math concepts in a fun and entertaining way. There is a review page and the end of book in order to reinforce the recently taught concepts. The review page is a good indicator to the teacher of what the students have learned and where they need further study and practice in order to master the concept. Christopher's mother called to let me know how much he had enjoyed the book. She said that on a recent visit to the bookstore he discovered the sequel More M&M's Brand Chocolate Candies Math and couldn't wait to purchase it. Barbara Barbieri McGrath, you couldn't ask for a better testimonial of your book. You should be proud of your work, you have accomplished a truly remarkable feat---children are enjoying math!

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.

Received in excellent condition. A very good book for someone like me who knows nothing about acrylics and wants to paint. Thanks.

This book was decent - not great. The examples, in my opinion, were boring and tend to be the abstract kind. There were VERY few step-by-step instructions on how to do those paintings, and the caption underneath a picture would talk about 2 steps while the picture shows only 1 of those steps. So, as you can see, I found this book to be a bit frustrating. I gave it another 1/2 star just because it showed me how to paint an ocean scene.

I received this and several other books for Christmas from a professional artist who wanted me to share her passion for acrylic painting. This book is by far the best for a beginner such as myself. Most of the books my friend sent me were almost entirely devoted to technique, but this book also went into great detail about brushes, paints, canvas, paper, colors, etc. The author dedicates two pages to each topic, all of which are very well laid out and well organized (the pages even have color coded boxes in the top corner to help you find exactly what you are looking for). There are countless pictures that illustrate the effects of various techniques using different colors and mediums, which allows the beginning artist to skip over much of the initial experimentation usually involved when starting a new craft. There is no doubt that this is a book for beginners, but I think it is an ideal place to start. Secondly, despite its novice approach, the author covers nearly all of the techniques discussed in books that are considered to be far more advanced. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about starting to paint with acrylics. Enjoy.

As a novice acrylic painter, I found this book to be the best beginners guidebook. After reviewing many, many books on acrylic painting, this is the only book that had it all. Chapter 3 provides the fundamentals on color basics. Understanding how to mix colors is a principle foundation that many other books failed to address. The rest of the book delves into various painting techniques that are simple to follow and understand. I would've given it 5 stars if the book came spiral bound, making it easier to use while painting. Wonderful book to have in my acrylics reference library.

I thought this book was very good, especially for the beginner. It went through palette, color mixing, grounds, additives, and content. For the more experienced painter, I thought it made a good reference and refresher. It also had several artists who contributed their examples. This book is well illustrated with reference photos and more.