Schools and Instruction Books

I love this book and CD. You can take it anywhere and learn. If you want to learn the Spanish basic's get this book.

This product is so helpful in so many aspects. I am able to use it in many areas of my life. The cool thing about Everyday Spanish is that it comes with a CD that you follow along with and it helps you with pronounciation. I work and live in an environment with spanish speakers and this program definitely comes in handy for me.

This is an impressive collection of previously published articles concerning school librarianship. All thirty-nine papers originally appeared in the journal, Emergency Librarian; one third also appeared previously in The School Library Program in the Curriculum. Each article still merits reading (or rereading) and is as relevant today as it was when first published. However, the organization of this new collection makes this experience even more worthwhile.

The editor, Ken Haycock, has arranged the articles into seven parts: Foundations; School Context; Role Clarification; Information Literacy; Collaborative Planning and Teaching; Program Development; Accountability. Haycock is to be commended for conceptualizing the collection in this manner, and then for selecting such a fine assortment of articles for each of the various parts. The list of authors includes some of the most respected names in the field of school librarianship; their individual contributions to the professional literature are numerous and this resulting collective effort is very impressive.

Each part is introduced by a knowledgeable editor who manages to provide readers with succinct, yet thoughtful commentaries. These introductions are as highly recommended as the selected articles as they create the necessary unifying dimension for this large collection. The fourth part of the collection is a good example of this fine editing. Information Literacy includes eight chapters or articles beginning with Christina Doyle's "classic" paper, Information Literacy in an Information Society. In his introduction to this section, Haycock weaves a fine historical account of the evolution from "library skills" to "information skills and strategies" to our more recent understanding of information processes built on student information-seeking behaviors blended with subject area standards for problem-solving, decision-making and content. The contributors' articles that follow Doyle's paper examine issues such as the need for developing learners' information literacy in the electronic learning environment, and developing school-based learning strategies. The concluding article, by David Loertscher, is a perfect conclusion for this key part of the book. All That Glitters May Not Be Gold focuses the reader on the need to develop engaging, authentic assignments, and on the need for adequate time on task for learners to evaluate and use information effectively.
Although many of us have encountered most of these articles before, this new presentation is certainly recommended reading. It may not be the best title for novices in school librarianship (or for introductory level courses in the field) but it should provide essential reading for more experienced practitioners.

This work is a compilation of articles written for the popular professional journal Emergency Librarian (recently changed to Teacher Librarian). The thirty-nine articles included were written by experts in the field of school librarianship or education from Canada, the UK and the USA.

The focus of the work is to demonstrate how effective school library programs have positive impacts on student achievement, effective use of information, reading motivation, and quality of experiences. Discussion on learning theories, new technologies, partnerships, and thematic units.

Quality programs include: -a stated aim, -a clear definition of the role of the library professional, -collaboration/team teaching, -systematic teaching of the information process, flexible scheduling, -evaluation.

This collection is organized into seven sections: The Foundations, The School Context, Role Clarification, Information Literacy, Collaborative Planning and Teaching, Program Development: A Systematic Approach, and Accountability.

Each section has an introduction explaining the intent. The editor points out some of the important aspects of each section. Many articles are detailed with tables and figures. Although the table of contents lists articles only by title, each article includes the author's name and short bios can be found elsewhere in the work. The index is very comprehensive.

Article authors (all well known in the field of teacher librarianship) included are: Bev Anderson, Liz Austrom, Mark Beasley, Martha Blake, Paul Brandt, Kathy Brock, Jean Brown, Karen Buchanan, Susan Casey, Ray Doiron, Christina Doyle, Rita Dunn, Mary Tarasoff Egan, Mike Eisenberg, Sonya Emperingham, Doris Epler (Dorwart), Mary Ann Fitzgerald, Ken Haycock, Barbara Howlett, Doug Johnson, Ruth Law, David Loertscher, Josette Lyders, Michael Marland, Mary Megee, Antoinette Oberg, Dianne Oberg, Carol-Ann Page, Patti Hurren Plotell, Linda Rafuse, Bruce Sheppard, Debra Simmons, Sharon Straathof, Julie Tallman, Jean Donham van Deusen and Patricia Wilson.

This work is very well done. It can be added to the list of definitive works in the field of school librarianship. It would be of benefit to any professional in the field, whether attempting to build a quality program, enhance an existing program or refining a top-notch program. I would also recommend this work to teacher-librarian training programs.

Reviewed by Peter Genco, Library Media Specialist and Technology Team Leader at Fairview High School near Erie, PA, USA. email: pgenco@iu05trc.iu5.org

I love ordering my text books from Amazon. I have always recieved fast shipping and text books in good condition. I'm very happy with my purchases.

After Jo Ann Brewer's superb INTRODUCTION TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION textbook, I would get this resource to keep me up-to-date on the foundational knowledge that stands as essential for early childhood professionals. Even though it lacks a chapter exclusively devoted to the all-important role of play in early childhood education, the absence of such a discussion leaves the learner with a more neutral reference point from which to decide his position on whether or not to align with a play-based curricular philosophy

Morrison presents a starkly realistic and contemporary overview of the field with an outstandingly streamlined overview of Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development (where he keeps a keen and faithful eye on expressing the ideas from Piaget/Inhelder's THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CHILD).

After getting the Brewer text and Morrison, you should need no other book of this type. Please try Feeney, Christensen, & Moravcik's WHO AM I IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN if you need one more excellent text.

This book is excellent if you have run out of ideas to teach your music class. The games are wonderful (and also fun)! I love this book. I use it all the time!

This book is a wonderful reference to have in your music class...a wonderful and smart investment. This book is well-thought out and very well organized. There are many games that are organized by grade, difficulty and skills involved.

The author writes with enthusiam and knowledge. The depth of coverage is excellent. There are many wonderful features: art terms, teacher tips, addressing special needs, presenting artworks and dealing with safety issues. It clearly explains what to do and say when teaching art to toddlers through 8 year olds. It covers all art media in depth. Special attention is paid to integrating art using thematic teaching and the project approach. It is rich in appropriate theory and curriculum. This is a book for teachers just starting out and for those who want to up-date their teaching of art.

This art education book is wonderfully presented! After renewing it from the library for over a month, I knew that I needed to own a copy of this book. As an art teacher in a very new and growing facility, I found this book to be a wonderful form of continued education. It is helping me stay up-to-date on theories and practices in the early childhood art field and is helping me grow as an educator. The author offers practical advice as well as situational anecdotes in all categories of art education.

I highly recommend this book! I wish my professor had used it in college, I would have learned a lot more and been better prepared for what I am dealing with now!

Guilbaut offers an compelling account of the European-American situation during and immediately following WWII, when the center of Western culture was transferred from Paris to New York. It was not an easy shift; although Paris was in ruins, Europeans and the French especially did not want to see their centuries-long monopoly put in the hands of such a young and, in their view, naïve country. A major theme throughout this text is the shifting alliances of the left in regard to Marxism and socialism. While most liberals espoused Communism in the 30s, by the early 40s it had come to be seen as another form of fascism, and for artists this meant censorship. American artists were challenged to prove themselves unique from the Parisian avant-garde while at the same time not promoting a national style, which was seen as provincial (due to regionalism in the previous decade) and dangerous (since nationalism had just produced a world war). To make things even more interesting, Guilbaut also describes how contemporary audiences and the US government went from hating the new abstract art to valuing it, or at least creating a new American art market for it (the former) and using it as a form of propaganda during the Cold War (the latter, by touting it in Europe as a symbol of American freedom and individuality, in contrast to state-dictated art). Aside from having a bizarre ending, and overusing the word shibboleth, I love this book! It provides a much more solid and interesting foundation than other books on Ab Ex, such as those by Dore Ashton and Irving Sandler.

I am an Argentine art critic and curator. I knew of this book but had not read it. I ordered it because I found the title ingenious. I thought it would be entertaining as well as good. It goes further. It is an in-depth study of the social and political circumnstances that accompanied the intellectual and creative processes of American artists previous, during and after the Second World War. It is an articulate explanation of why artists who were thouroughly conscious of social shortcomings chose to create their own ivory towers through styles that bore, for the most part, no recognizable physical references. This road into a spiritual realm beyond recognizable styles, influenced, but not derivative of European Modern art, was a way out of political engagement in a world they could no longer abide. And, the interesting part is that they were promoted by the political powers that were, not through an appreciation for their creative qualities, but to show that the US was the new cultural center of the world: strong, energetic and competitive.

Another most important point for me. I had always wondered why so many of the Abstract Expressionists had committed suicide. Why this deeply neurotic vent? The answer, I think, is in this book. Their deep dissillusion with socialist ideals after Stalin, the failure of the US to create a truly democratic society in which idealistic notions of equality and freedom were respected, were fatal to their belief in a better world.

I'm 17 years old and I ordered this book in hopes of learning how to draw cartoons. Not only did I learn to do that, but I also learned to draw caricatures! Very good book, especially for kids!

I have a vast library of books on cartooning. I'm learning, myself and just love buying books. This particular book is by far and away THE book for kids who want to learn to cartoon. Its cheap, its aimed at kids and teaches them to draw using the very simple techniques. It can be used by a parent teaching their little Van Goghs and it can be used by your older kids wanting to learn on their own. And then it goes into the entire cartooning and comicbook business in enough depth for your average teenager to make a great start. I love it. Buy it!!

150 pages of the book are devoted to the works on display at the exhibition (I saw it at the Amon Carter). Since most of the works belong to private collectors, once the exhibition finishes at the National Gallery in Washington, this book will be the only place you will be able to look at the body of Gifford's work. The plates are excellent. If you like other Hudson River School painters, you will want this book.

One of the American masters of landscape painting in the nineteenth century was Sanford Robinson Gifford, and though he was highly celebrated in his lifetime, his name appears now only occasionally when the topic of the Hudson River School of art is discussed. This excellent monograph, which accompanied an exhibition of his work in 2003 - 2004, serves to restore the reputation of one of our less widely known artists who captured Americana on canvas and was an important leader of the Hudson River School of painting.

More than seventy reproductions of Gifford's paintings and drawings grace the pages of this book - scenes of the Adirondacks and Catskills, luminous river scenes filled with the transparency of fog and light. But the book also serves as an historical document with photographs and information about Gifford and his travels abroad with the obvious influence of JMW Turner. His perception and use of ambient light so distinct to the Hudson River Valley are both discussed and illustrated.

This is a fine monograph of an important artist: it is also a superb study in art history of one of the most eloquent schools of painting in American history. Recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

This book is an awesome resource for teachers of middle school mathematics. If you are someone who is always trying to get kids to learn and truly appreciate math by engaging them in stimulating lessons, but instead you find that standards and curriculum seem to get in the way, this book is a find. The book begins with an explanation of the different levels of activities based on the congnitive demands they place on the students, and it continues with indepth, thought-provoking case studies that are extremely realistic and easy to relate to. This text is useful and accessible.

Teachers College Press has just published a book from the QUASAR Project, intended to help people implement staff development. I've been reading it this week, and it's just about the most useful resource I can imagine in planning on-going staff development to help teachers implement mathematics programs designed around the NCTM standards. (At the high school level, this includes curricula like Core Plus and the Interactive Mathematics Project (IMP). At the Middle school level, this includes programs like Connected Mathematics. At the elementary school level, this includes programs like Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. Many of these curricula have been selected as "exemplary" by the Department of Education.)

The book is called "Implementing Standards-Based Mathematics Instruction: A Casebook for Professional Development". As the title indicates, it contains a number of "cases" for teachers to study and discuss, as they learn to implement high-level mathematics tasks successfully. The strength of the book is that it is organized around QUASAR's "Mathematical Tasks Framework". This framework trains teachers to analyze mathematics tasks as being at any of a number of levels: Doing Mathematics; Procedures With Connections; Procedures Without Connections; Unsystematic Exploration; Nonmathematical Activity.

QUASAR has found that tasks tend to degrade, i.e., they can be designed at a high level ("doing mathematics" or "procedures with connections") but migrate to a "lower" level either when the teacher initially sets up the lesson, or as the lesson procedes (the "implementation" phase). Their data (which I've seen in other studies, not this case-book) demonstrates that student achievement is enhanced when the task is designed, set up, and IMPLEMENTED at a high level. The case-book describes factors that cause a high-level task either to be implemented at a high level, or to degrade. Then, it provides cases (i.e., classroom teaching episodes described in great detail)in which one or the other happens, and helps teachers analyze why. Not only are the cases themselves very useful for learning: the process of analyzing the cases gives teachers the skills they need to analyze their OWN lessons.

This book provides a roadmap to help navigate through some tough decisions and sense-making about technology. The idea of knowledge-creation is finally brought to bear on schools. I learned a great deal.

This book provides a roadmap to help navigate through some tough decisions and sense-making about technology. The idea of knowledge-creation is finally brought to bear on schools. I learned a great deal.