And every year, colleges are becoming more competitive. Throw the weakened economy into the mix, and it creates a perfect storm for Up Your Score: a book of invaluable test-taking wisdom, the only book written by "been-there-done-that" kids, the only guide that kids will enjoy using. It’s proven to work—the students who created Up Your Score all nailed the SAT and went on to the colleges of their choice, including this year's 2,400-scoring guest editor.A guerrilla guide that's a perfect complement (and reality check) for the student who has already tried Princeton Review or Kaplan, Up Your Score injects real-life humor and attitude into the dry business of test prep. Its vocabulary is rich and lively with examples that kids will relate to, and with proven tricks to make definitions memorable. It covers the eight main issues of math, with test-wise, problem-solving techniques. To help students ace the writing section, it addresses the 13 most important grammar rules to know. And it shows how to "psych out" the test: How to think like the SAT. How to prepare the essay in advance. The best ways to fill in answer circles and other strategies to save precious minutes. Plus, tips for maintaining concentration, why it's always better to guess than to leave a question unanswered, and a recipe for energy-boosting Sweet & Tasty 800 Bars (and how to smuggle them into the testing hall).FREE: An iPod download to help users learn the 600 key vocabulary words.

    The Language of Composition is the first textbook built from the ground up to help students succeed in the new AP English Language course. Written by a team of experts with experience in both high school and college, this text focuses on teaching students the skills they need to read, write, and think at the college level. With practical advice on reading and writing and an extensive selection of readings — including essays, poetry, fiction, and visual texts that are both interesting and appropriate for a high school audience — The Language of Composition helps students develop the key skills they must master to pass the course, to succeed on the AP Exam, and to prepare for a successful college career. Need help with the audit?  Click here to download an AP correlation.

    This data-from neurologists, child development specialists, anthropologists, educators, historians and business innovators-turns many current assumptions about school-based education upside down.The books factual approach is balanced by quotes and stories from over 100 homeschoolers from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, India and Singapore. These parents and kids are the true authorities on alternative learning. Free Range Learning demonstrates:that children and teens can best be nurtured outside of restrictive educational systems that we can restore what is heart-centered and meaningful back to a central place in education how networking with others enriches the learning experience for our kids how homeschooling has become a force of positive social change-making the community a better place for everyone.The simple choice to homeschool is much more significant than a homespun method of education. Laura Weldon asks us to consider this choice as participation in a cultural shift toward redefining success and as a form of collective intelligence with major implications for the future of education. Laura Grace Weldon writes for national publications about learning, sustainability and spirituality. She is a long-time columnist with Home Education Magazine, and an award-winning poet. Laura lives on a small farm with her husband and their four homeschooled children. Her background includes teaching conflict resolution and developing community enrichment workshops.

    This text for advanced grammar courses is a comprehensive description of sentence structure that encourages students to recognise and use their innate language expertise as they study the systematic nature of sentence grammar.

    A short, illustrated guide to the use of the Montessori classroom materials, it shows how to set up a “children’s house”—an environment for learning where children can be their own masters, free to learn at their own pace. Frames for lacing and buttoning, geometrical wooden inserts, sound cylinders, sandpapers letters, colored numerical rods: these are familiar features of any Montesorri classroom, whether in the pioneering days or today. Dr. Montesorri explains how to use these materials with preschool children to stimulate their powers of observation, recognition, judgment, and classification. These self-correcting learning tools are the original “teaching machines” for young children. Inherently logical and aesthetically pleasing, they were designed to hone the child’s visual, auditory, and tactile perceptions. Dr. Montesorri stresses that each child approaches the apparatus differently. The role of the adult, whether teacher or parent, is to let the child experiment, perceive his own mistakes, and run his own risks in learning. (With black-and white illustrations throughout.)

    Written shortly after World War I by Calvert School's first Head Master, Virgil Hillyer, this history storybook combines charm with facts to stimulate young minds and leave them yearning for more information. This volume of A Child's History of the World contains 79 stories that start at the beginning of time and reach to the present. With many illustrations by Carle Michel Book and M.S. Wright.

    Understanding why these characteristics are so helpful makes it easier for parents to choose to respond in ways that support unschooling, rather than undermine it.Learning freely, living joyfully.

    Yet he grew up to become the greatest English-speaking playwright in the world. Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare is both his story and that of a great art rediscovered in the modern world.Drama had been forgotten since the days of ancient Greece, but it reemerged in Elizabethan London with the building of the first modern theater. Its impact can still be imagined today. There were the theaters, open to the weather and featuring neither sets nor curtains, but equipped with dramatic special effects. There were the companies of actors--the leading men, the comedians, the boys who played women's roles--and the playwrights who gave them all lines to say.Best of all, there was William Shakespeare, who rubbed shoulders with noblemen and royalty as well as with the rowdy crowds at the foot of the stage. He was suspected of involvement in a treasonous rebellion, and his last play literally brought down the house when cannon effects set fire to the famous Globe theater and it burned to the ground.Award-winning collaborators Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema have once again created a feast of words and pictures to celebrate the life of a remarkable person from the pages of history: William Shakespeare, a man for all time."

    Kindergarten is becoming more like the rest of school. In Lifelong Kindergarten, learning expert Mitchel Resnick argues for exactly the opposite: the rest of school (even the rest of life) should be more like kindergarten. To thrive in today's fast-changing world, people of all ages must learn to think and act creatively--and the best way to do that is by focusing more on imagining, creating, playing, sharing, and reflecting, just as children do in traditional kindergartens.Drawing on experiences from more than thirty years at MIT's Media Lab, Resnick discusses new technologies and strategies for engaging young people in creative learning experiences. He tells stories of how children are programming their own games, stories, and inventions (for example, a diary security system, created by a twelve-year-old girl), and collaborating through remixing, crowdsourcing, and large-scale group projects (such as a Halloween-themed game called Night at Dreary Castle, produced by more than twenty kids scattered around the world). By providing young people with opportunities to work on projects, based on their passions, in collaboration with peers, in a playful spirit, we can help them prepare for a world where creative thinking is more important than ever before.

    It teaches all the 0's -9's times tables and has sold over 100,000 copies. Originally published in 1992, Times Tables the Fun Way has been a popular choice for schools and parents. To teach 6x6, for example, the story tells of twin sixes who go off to visit cousins across the desert. They get low on water and become very thirsty sixes, which sounds like 36, the answer to 6x6. Students love learning with the colorful pictures and accompanying songs.

    "Basics of Web Design: HTML5 and CSS3, 2e "covers the basic concepts that web designers need to develop their skills: Introductory Internet and Web concepts Creating web pages with HTML5 Configuring text, color, and page layout with Cascading Style Sheets Configuring images and multimedia on web pages Web design best practices Accessibility, usability, and search engine optimization considerations Obtaining a domain name and web host Publishing to the Web

    The core content of the major GCSE specifications in this subject is covered through explanation and carefully-selected course material. The most popular options or depth studies from each specification are covered in detail. There are questions, activities and focus tasks throughout to: deepen understanding of the content; develop evaluative and investigative skills; help students become more independent learners; and support examination preparation.

    Great literature increases knowledge of and desire for the good life by showing readers what virtue looks like and where vice leads. It is not just what one reads but how one reads that cultivates virtue. Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader's own character.Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life. In reintroducing ancient virtues that are as relevant and essential today as ever, Prior draws on the best classical and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. Covering authors from Henry Fielding to Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen to George Saunders, and Flannery O'Connor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Prior explores some of the most compelling universal themes found in the pages of classic books, helping readers learn to love life, literature, and God through their encounter with great writing.In examining works by these authors and more, Prior shows why virtues such as prudence, temperance, humility, and patience are still necessary for human flourishing and civil society. The book includes end-of-chapter reflection questions geared toward book club discussions, features original artwork throughout, and includes a foreword from Leland Ryken.

    A high school English teacher, Guterson and his wife educate their own children at home. “A literate primer for anyone who wants to know more about alternatives to the schools” (Kirkus Reviews). Index.

    Instead, Scott shows you step by step the exact techniques used by today's cutting-edge digital photographers, and best of all, he shows you flat-out exactly which settings to use, when to use them, and why. That's why the previous editions of this book are widely used as the official study guides in photography courses at colleges and universities around the world.LEARN HOW THE PROS DO ITEach year, Scott trains thousands of professional photographers on how to use Photoshop, and almost without exception they have the same questions, the same problems, and the same challenges - and that's exactly what he covers in this book. You'll learn: The sharpening techniques the pros really use. The pros' tricks for fixing the most common digital photo problems fast! The step-by-step setup for getting what comes out of your printer to match exactly what you see onscreen. How to process HDR (High Dynamic Range) images using CS6's Merge to HDR Pro. How to master CS6's Content-Aware features. How to use Photoshop CS6's new video editing features to make movies from your DSLR videos. How to process RAW images like a pro (plus how to take advantage of all the new Camera Raw features in CS6!). The latest Photoshop special effects for photographers (there's a whole chapter just on these!). A host of shortcuts, workarounds, and slick "insider" tricks to send your productivity through the roof! Plus, Scott includes a special bonus chapter with his own CS6 workflow, from start to finish, and each chapter ends with a Photoshop Killer Tips section, packed with timesaving, job-saving tips that make all the difference. If you're a digital photographer, and if you're ready to learn all the "tricks of the trade" - the same ones that today's leading pros use to correct, edit, sharpen, retouch, and present their work--then you're holding the book that will do just that. Note from the publisher: August 9, 2012: All binding issues mentioned in our July 31, 2012 note below have been resolved. Thank you.July 31, 2012: We have encountered issues with the binding in our initial print run of this book. If you have purchased a copy of the book you are not happy with, please return it to the store where you made your purchase to request a replacement copy right away. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.