These tips have also directly impacted her teaching to make it a much more effective process. Now her family is able to spend more time focusing on their passions.In Simplify Your Homeschool Day, you will learn:*Practical tips that can save you hours of teaching, planning, and grading each week;*Effective communication techniques that can eliminate frustration and dramatically impact your child's learning;*When you should enlist help;*Creative learning strategies that can be applied on the go; and*How to pursue your own passions.These time-saving tips will increase your child's enjoyment of learning by reducing the time it takes him to complete school work without decreased learning. Put some extra time back into your day right away!

    Beal believes that children must first of all be comfortable with their materials. She focuses on six basic media: collage, drawing, painting, clay, printmaking, and construction. She gives practical consideration to all facets of a teacher's responsibility: how each material should be introduced; what supplies are best; how a classroom may be set up to support children's explorations; and how teachers may ask open-ed questions to stimulate personal and meaningful expression. Beal also discusses how to integrate art into social studies and how to make museum visits productive and fun. Each chapter includes a section specifically for parents on helping their children create art at home.Beal has taught art to children for twenty-five years and is able to draw on a wealth of examples from her classroom. The Art of Teaching Art to Children is extensively illustrated with her students' art, visual proof of her gifts as an educator and art enthusiast.

    The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes.

    Phonics programs are too often complicated, overpriced, gimmicky, and filled with obscure educationalese. The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading cuts through the confusion, giving parents a simple, direct, scripted guide to teaching reading—from short vowels through supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. This one book supplies parents with all the tools they need.Over the years of her teaching career, Jessie Wise has seen good reading instruction fall prey to trendy philosophies and political infighting. Now she has teamed with dynamic coauthor Sara Buffington to supply parents with a clear, direct phonics program—a program that gives them the know-how and confidence to take matters into their own hands.

    "This text skillfully balances current demands for outcomes and accountability with what we know about the vital role of play in children's learning."

    Marshall proposes a broader framework for supervision and evaluation that enlists teachers in improving the performance of all students. Emphasizing trust-building and teamwork, Marshall's innovative, four-part framework shifts the focus from periodically evaluating teaching to continuously analyzing learning. This book offers school principals a guide for implementing Marshall's framework and shows how to make frequent, informal classroom visits followed by candid feedback to each teacher; work with teacher teams to plan thoughtful curriculum units rather than focusing on individual lessons; get teachers as teams involved in low-stakes analysis of interim assessment results to fine-tune their teaching and help struggling students; and use compact rubrics for summative teacher evaluation.This vital resource also includes extensive tools and advice for managing time as well as ideas for using supervision and evaluation practices to foster teacher professional development.

    Now in its fourth edition, Honey for a Child’s Heart discusses everything from the ways reading affects both children’s view of the world and their imagination to how to choose good books. Illustrated with drawings from dozens of favorites, it includes an indexed and updated list of the best new books on the market and the classics that you want your children to enjoy. Author Gladys Hunt’s tastes are broad, her advice is rooted in experience, and her suggestions will enrich the cultural and spiritual life of any home.

    It looks at the music through the lives of the great composers and their environment, from the churches and cathedrals that produced the familiar sound of Gregorian chant, to Johann Sebastian Bach, the family man composing for the glory of God, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy, genius and prankster who wrote some of the finest music ever yet was buried in a pauper's grave. The story will be taken to the composers of the 21st century. This unusual and special production by the two most important brand names in classical music includes more than 100 musical examples taken from the extensive Naxos catalog.

    This student-centered, problem-based approach to learning is a central theme of this book. Learning how best to help children believe that mathematics makes sense and that they themselves can make sense of mathematics is an exciting endeavor and a lifelong process. It requires the knowledge gained from research, the wisdom shared by professional colleagues, and the insightful ideas that come from your own daily experiences with students. I hope that this book will assist you on this fantastic journey. Praise for Elementary and Middle School Mathematics This is absolutely the best book on the market. No other book comes close.–Sandra L. McCune, Stephen F. Austin University I particularly like the emphasis on doing math more than one way (invented math) and the emphasis on problem solving. There is a wealth of resources and children’s books for students to use in their development of concepts.–Carol Geller, Radford University This text is not only a valuable tool in making sense of and encouraging the use of mathematics by preservice teachers, but also for those educators already in the field. –Marilyn Nash, Indiana University South Bend About the AuthorJohn A. Van de Walle is Professor Emeritus, Virginia Commonwealth University. As a mathematics education consultant, he regularly works with K—8 teachers and in elementaryschool classrooms and has taught mathematics to children at all levels, K—8. He is also a coauthor of the Scott Foresman, Addison Wesley Mathematics K,6 series. Jennifer M. Bay-Williams has written a Field Experience Guide to accompany the text. Organized to cover all NCATE and NCTM standards and correlated to all chapters of the text, the Field Experience Guide is packed with field-based assignments and reproducible forms to record your experiences. The guide also includes additional activities for students, full-size versions of the Blackline Masters in the text, and 16 extended lesson plans written by John Van de Walle. For more information or to purchase a copy, visit www.ablongman.com and search for the ISBN (0-205-49314-9.

    The book is divided into three parts: Out of the Gate contains easy ideas to help you get started, More Reasons to Write shows you how to teach across genre, both fiction and nonfiction writing, and Refining Writing addresses everything you need to know about revision, grammar, punctuation, and assessment. In every chapter you'll find two running features: 1) “Try This”, ready-to-use lessons for you and your students; and 2) “Yeah But” where Barry answers the real questions and concerns he's collected from teachers around the country.

    But, Alex Bellos says, "math can be inspiring and brilliantly creative. Mathematical thought is one of the great achievements of the human race, and arguably the foundation of all human progress. The world of mathematics is a remarkable place."Bellos has traveled all around the globe and has plunged into history to uncover fascinating stories of mathematical achievement, from the breakthroughs of Euclid, the greatest mathematician of all time, to the creations of the Zen master of origami, one of the hottest areas of mathematical work today. Taking us into the wilds of the Amazon, he tells the story of a tribe there who can count only to five and reports on the latest findings about the math instinct--including the revelation that ants can actually count how many steps they've taken. Journeying to the Bay of Bengal, he interviews a Hindu sage about the brilliant mathematical insights of the Buddha, while in Japan he visits the godfather of Sudoku and introduces the brainteasing delights of mathematical games.Exploring the mysteries of randomness, he explains why it is impossible for our iPods to truly randomly select songs. In probing the many intrigues of that most beloved of numbers, pi, he visits with two brothers so obsessed with the elusive number that they built a supercomputer in their Manhattan apartment to study it. Throughout, the journey is enhanced with a wealth of intriguing illustrations, such as of the clever puzzles known as tangrams and the crochet creation of an American math professor who suddenly realized one day that she could knit a representation of higher dimensional space that no one had been able to visualize. Whether writing about how algebra solved Swedish traffic problems, visiting the Mental Calculation World Cup to disclose the secrets of lightning calculation, or exploring the links between pineapples and beautiful teeth, Bellos is a wonderfully engaging guide who never fails to delight even as he edifies. "Here's Looking at Euclid "is a rare gem that brings the beauty of math to life.

    Yet recent research indicates that experiences in nature are essential for healthy growth. Regular exposure to nature can help relieve stress, depression, and attention deficits. It can reduce bullying, combat illness, and boost academic scores. Most critical of all, abundant time in nature seems to yield long-term benefits in kids’ cognitive, emotional, and social development. Yet teachers, parents, and other caregivers lack a basic understanding of how to engender a meaningful, lasting connection between children and the natural world. How to Raise a Wild Child offers a timely and engaging antidote, showing how kids’ connection to nature changes as they mature. Distilling the latest research in multiple disciplines, Sampson reveals how adults can help kids fall in love with nature—enlisting technology as an ally, taking advantage of urban nature, and instilling a sense of place along the way.

    This is why both teachers with struggling students and those with AP students have embraced the book through 15 printings. Each chapter is divided into two sections: concepts that show how professional writers develop their art and lesson strategies to implement these concepts in the classroom. New and expanded concepts in the second edition include:an introduction to grammatical chunksexpanded discussion of the five basic brush strokes and examination of advanced brush strokes presentation on the nonfiction modelexplanation of the character wheel-a visual aid that helps students to write both a nonfiction and fiction character sketch. Plus, the updated and expanded CD includes customizable files of the 60+ strategies; reproducible handouts; images and quotes for projection in the classroom; and dozens of weblinks.

    Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too.Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures.Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.

    But what does quality mean? What does it look like in real classrooms? It looks like the teaching in this book. -Steven Zemelman, Harvey Smokey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde Best Practice is back, and with it Steve Zemelman, Smokey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde invite you to greet today's most important educational challenges with proven, state-of-the-art teaching. Linguistic diversity, technology, Common Core, high-stakes testing-no matter the hurdle, Best Practice teaching supports powerful learning across our profession. Best Practice , Fourth Edition, is the ultimate guide to teaching excellence. Its framework of seven Best Practice Structures and cutting-edge implementation strategies are proven across the grades and subject areas. BP4 creates common ground for teachers, leaders, and principals by recommending practices drawn from the latest scientific research, professional consensus, and the innovative classrooms of exemplary teachers.BP4 puts top-quality teaching at the fingertips of individual practitioners by sharing real-life instructional scenes that define classroom excellence, increase learning, and improve students' life opportunities. It's also more valuable than ever to PLCs and school reform initiatives thanks to:plans and strategies for exceeding state and Common Core Standards cohesive principles and common language that strengthen professional collaboration classroom vignettes that show teachers and kids at work chapters on reading, writing, math, science, and social studies that support unified instructional goals special attention to technology in the classroom, special education, ELLs, struggling readers, and the arts. This new educational era demands highly-effective, high-quality instruction that makes a difference for students. Fortunately with Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde's help every educator can be a world-class, life-changing teacher-a Best Practice teacher.