Schools and Instruction Books

I am on my way to receiving my elementary ed. certification, and I have always dreamed of filling my classroom with art. This book has taught me how I can get my kids excited about making AND thinking about art. Herberholz and Hanson give many ideas about how to implement a quality arts program in your classroom: art production, aesthetic perception, art criticism, and art history. This book has really informed and improved my ability to create quality art expriences for my students.

It doesn't get much better than this in an early childhood mathematics book for teachers, both young and old.

Susan Smith does it again with her in-depth and unsugary look into how to instill logico-mathematical concepts in preschoolers, kindergarteners, and primary children. The research is there, but it doesn't burden you down and drawn out the methodological take on teaching.

I doubt that you will need another if you get this one. Its worth every penny of of the money.

Jodi Peine's THE EDUCATOR'S PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PLAN: A PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING STAFF AND IMPROVING INSTRUCTION, 2ND EDITION provides teachers with methods for building professional collaborations to benefit students. Administrators and staff developers receive step-by-step instruction of designing such a growth plan.

I found this to be a great help for new teachers. It has lots of real-life working ideas for planning classroom lessons and for helping children who struggle with reading.
I grade it - A +!

This is a book for those who question literature teaching the way it has been done so far, and wish it was different. Langer's "envisionment-building" approach considers text interpretations as constant and never-ending processes, always collectively created and in transformation. The literature classroom is therefore an opportunity to share and re-build our interpretive procedures, to review and recreate our sense-making processes. The literary is seen as a way to produce meanings that is present in the everyday process of understanding, and not only when in contact with literary texts. She suggests classroom procedures and gives examples from her own teaching experience to illustrate her views; her writing-style is clear and straightforward, filled with passion for teaching and literature alike. I strongly recommend this book as one of the very few to describe teaching/learning approaches to literature from a theoretical basis without theoretical boredom.

This is a fine book for the more advanced guitarist with a good intoduction and history along with an interesting page about Eric's equipment. It's all here for those of you willing to pick it out. The tabs are good, but I bet they would work wonders with the recordings. Oh yea, check out Eric's "The Fine Art of Guitar" video!

I took this book with me while visiting my sister and her family in Paris this Fall. It was so "essential" that the French kids (and adults) over there used it to learn English! They got a real kick out of it because it contains common phrases that everyone uses during the day! It focuses on everyday things to say and not the grammar etc. The pronunciations of words was VERY helpful as well! I highly recommend this if you are traveling to France and not so comfortable with your French! Now I need to find the "Essential English" from the French point of view for all of them!

For America to survive and thrive in a constantly evolving global market place it's grade school and high school students must be well grounded in a basic science curriculum. Over the past several decades, science curriculums at the secondary level have been founded upon textbooks, lectures, rote memorization, and lab demonstrations. A direct result of the diminishing global stature of America with respect to science and technology that the demand (as exemplified by the onset of NCLB-mandated science testing) grew for improved educational tools and student performance scores in the sciences. One result is that secondary school science teachers are confronted with an array of challenges that must be met and mastered if recent trends of the downward trend of student and graduate science scores is to be reversed. That is the rationale behind "The Essentials Of Science, Grades 7-12: Effective Curriculum, Instruction, And Assessment" by Rick Allen. Part of the ASCD 'Priorities in Practice' series, "The Essentials of Science, Grades 7-12" instructs the instructors how they can make use of research within the cognitive sciences to foster critical thinking skills and provide students with a deeper understanding and appreciation of scientific concepts and their applications; using 'backward design' to create greater coherence in their curriculums; initiate innovative ideas for implementing scientific inquiry within the classroom environment; apply holistic strategies when addressing complex problems with respect to the problems related to such issues as an achievement gap, equity, and resources of the science classroom; as well as create and implement strategies for dealing with day-to-day as well as NCLB assessments. Of special note is how professional learning communities and mentoring can help teachers in reexamining and improving their curriculum development skills and classroom instruction practices. "The Essentials of Science, Grades 7-12" should be considered essential reading for student teachers considering a position teaching science at the secondary-level, as well as an indispensable, core addition to academic library and teacher education reference collections.

I have been teaching a course on Exceptional Development for a university for about 5 years now, and have used this textbook all the way through. This book is FANTASTIC. It is easy to read, easy to follow, and set up in a logical manner. It gives a nice broad overview of exceptional development, and I recommend my students keep this book to refer to in the futre as well. Highly recommended!

Very readable. Very Practical. It is filled with examples showing teachers so many exciting ways for involving students in the exhibition process. I highly recommend this book to all teachers and student teachers! A must read!