Why Didn't I Learn This in College?

Book Description

Because participants in our workshop series, Instruction for All Students, often ask, "Why didn't we learn this in college?" that question provided the inspiration for the title of this new book for teachers new to the classroom. This title is in no way meant to condemn those who direct our collegiate experiences. The realities are that we may well have studied these topics and earned a good grade on a test over the theoretical aspects of this information but had no classroom teaching experiences on which to hook the information, that we took an alternative approach to entering the profession, that our focus was elsewhere at the time or perhaps, in fact, it was not taught. Whatever the case may be, teachers new to the classroom clearly need support and a repertoire of effective teaching strategies during their first years of classroom work.

Why Didn't I Learn This in College? is based on the constructs that:

+ the best management program is a good instructional program,

+ if the end we have in mind is student learning, we do not want to concentrate on control and compliance but rather on building learning centered environments, and

+ we need efficient and effective organizational systems for ourselves, our students, and our classroom.

Customer Reviews:

Very Basic .......2007-05-15

This book did not meet my expectations. The information is extremely basic and is a review of college education courses. Although this book would be helpful, it could very easily be replaced with college texts.

Hidden Gem!.......2006-01-13

I happened to find this book while browsing the teaching section. It has truly been a great resource that every (new) teacher should have. Unlike most of our teacher ed. programs, this book gives practical information about how to run a classroom. You won't regret buying this book, it is a wonderful resource!

A great resource for any teacher!.......2004-09-30

My school district gave every new teacher a copy of this book. The new teacher that I am mentoring shared it with me. After reading through it I was excited to find a book that focuses on instruction instead of some silver-bullet discipline plan. The instructional strategies are written clearly and consisely. Both of us bring our copies of Why Didn't I Learn This in College? and use them as we plan our units and lessons every Monday for the following week. I highly recommend this book to any teacher.

An ESSENTIAL for All Educators!.......2002-09-15

Practical, positive, and pure Paula! WHY DIDN'T I LEARN THIS IS COLLEGE? is an ESSENTIAL professional resource for educators at all levels of experience! Paula Rutherford applies her 30 years of teaching and educational leadership to create this book of research-based teaching tips and user-friendly tools that will help increase student achievement in our classrooms. She offers a logical framework for creating learning-centered environments, planning "with the 'end' in mind", and organizing learners and professional tasks for positive results for students, parents, and teachers.

As a veteran teacher and coach for novice teachers, I use this resource as my NUMBER ONE traveling companion and "virtual" collaborator. Paula's pro-active and positive voice resonates through its pages as my teachers and I use this information to bring all students quality instructional programs and opportunities for maximum learning. Thank you, Paula, for being my constant "ride-along" learning buddy!

THE Best new teacher book ever!.......2002-08-28

As a long time mentor for new teachers, I have read many books for teachers new to the classroom. There are a lot of books out there that focus on everything but teaching. This book is all about helping teachers with great teaching strategies that they can use throughout their entire career. New teachers can try a new strategy every day. I am now buying this book for all of my new teachers!

The First Days Of School: How To Be An Effective Teacher

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Great Resource for New Teachers!!
first day of school
Wong and Wong: Inspirational and Helpful
best teaching book I've ever read
EVERYTHING you NEED to know about teaching!!!

The First Days Of School: How To Be An Effective Teacher
Harry K. Wong , and Rosemary T. Wong
Manufacturer: Harry K. Wong Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Reluctant Disciplinarian: Advice on Classroom Management From a Softy who Became (Eventually) a Successful Teacher

ASIN: 0962936065

Product Description

With nearly 1.4 million copies sold, you'll learn practical techniques on discipline, procedures and routines, teaching for mastery, cooperative learning, and positive expectations. You'll find it difficult to put this book down as you become an even more effective teacher.

Customer Reviews:

Great Resource for New Teachers!!.......2007-10-11

I am an Elementary Education major, and my college required me to read this book before beginning my Student Teaching experience. It was recommended to me before that, though, by an acquaintance I met in Kentucky while I was on a trip. She highly promoted it as a must-have, and after reading it I heartily agree with her. There is tons of practical information in this book, and it's convenient as well as easy to use. This is a book that is sure to greatly help new teachers get started!!! Enjoy!! =)

first day of school.......2007-10-06

This book was highly recommended by my education professors. I am a new secondary math teacher. This book may be more valuable for lower grades, but does not translate well for upper level math students.

Wong and Wong: Inspirational and Helpful.......2007-10-05

Wong and Wong's First Days Of School is a must for any teacher seasoned or new. This will mostly serve the new teacher in inspiring and preparing them for the first days of school. There is advice and technique that will save time and frustration making class fun for the students and for the new teacher.

best teaching book I've ever read.......2007-09-30

I've never read a more useful book. This is by far the most helpful and practical book I've ever used in my teaching career. This is a must for new teachers and a great book for seasoned teachers. This helped me get ALL my ducks in a row for the first week of school. Thank you!!!

EVERYTHING you NEED to know about teaching!!!.......2007-09-21

EVERYTHING you need to know about teaching and NOTHING you don't need to know is in this book! It's like the Bible for ALL levels of teaching! It should be a requirement for all educators to read this book. It is full of PROVEN methods to help manage your classroom. It is also very easy and enjoyable to read. The text is full tips for everyday classroom activity... DEFINITELY the best investment I've ever made in a book. I will carry this with me until I retire from teaching.

Average customer rating:

A fun legal thriller
Daddy's Girl
Sliding Through This One
Fun and substance!
Flying thru the pages at the edge of my seat.

Daddy's Girl
Lisa Scottoline
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Simple Genius

ASIN: 0060833149
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Natalie Greco loves being a law professor, even though she can't keep her students from cruising sex.com during class and secretly feels like Faculty Comic Relief. She loves her family, too, but as a bookworm, doesn't quite fit into the cult of Greco football, headed by her father, the team captain. The one person she feels most connected to is her colleague, Angus Holt, a guy with a brilliant mind, a great sense of humor, a gorgeous facade, and a penchant for helping those less fortunate. When he talks Nat into teaching a class at a local prison, her comfortably imperfect world turns upside down.

A violent prison riot breaks out during the class, and in the chaos, Nat rushes to help a grievously injured prison guard. Before he dies, he asks her to deliver a cryptic message with his last words: "Tell my wife it's under the floor."

The dying declaration plunges Nat into a nightmare. Suddenly, the girl who has always followed the letter of the law finds herself suspected of a brutal murder and encounters threats to her life around every curve. Now not only are the cops after her, but ruthless killers are desperate to keep her from exposing their secret. In the meantime, she gets dangerously close to Angus, whose warmth, strength, and ponytail shake her dedication to her safe boyfriend.

With her love life in jeopardy, her career in the balance, and her life on the line, Nat must rely on her resources, her intelligence, and her courage. Forced into hiding to stay alive, she sets out to save herself by deciphering the puzzle behind the dead guard's last words . . . and learns the secret to the greatest puzzle of all—herself.

Filled with the ingenious twists, pulse-pounding narrative drive, and dynamic, flesh-and-blood characters that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers, Daddy's Girl is another wild, entertaining ride about love, family, and justice from the addictively readable Lisa Scottoline.

Customer Reviews:

A fun legal thriller.......2007-10-19

I have a soft spot for Lisa Scottoline. Many years ago I was working in a used book store when I ran across her first book, 'Everywhwere that Mary Went' and I loved it. We had two copies of that book and we must have re-sold them a dozen times after I started recommending them to people who asked for someone new to read. Pretty soon, Lisa Scottoline was one of our hottest items - we even special-ordered in some new copies! I like to think that I had a very, very small part in her success, even though the used book store is now defunct.

"Daddy's Girl" is a fun read as are most of Scottoline's books. This time she strays away from her old standby, Bennie Rosato & company. Even though she introduces a new character, young law professor Natalie Greco, the territory is still familiar - Philadelphia.

While not the deepest book in the world, it is fun, full of lots of action and it keeps you reading.

Daddy's Girl.......2007-10-13

WOW this was a terrific murder mystery. I could not stop listening to it.

Sliding Through This One.......2007-10-06

Lisa Scottoline has a long line of fast-moving thrillers filled with gutsy female protagonists and clever one-liners. This one has what turns out to a female law professor who becomes brave, and a number of somewhat half-clever lines, like the very first one: "Nat Greco felt like an A cup in a double-D bra." Dare I say that falls flat?

But for me the most serious problem was that the book didn't seem to move; it dragged along. Quickly yes. But nonetheless, it dragged. This may be because of no solid base. Was anything near believable? Again, maybe halfway. And I think one has to go right over the top into never-never land or stay rooted. This one hedges, and thus left me unsatisfied at the end. I have to say that not wanting to give away endings, I will only add that it bothers me that there was really no good guy anywhere here. That may be life sometimes but, hey, this wasn't reality to begin with! She's done much better!

Fun and substance!.......2007-09-20

I only discovered Scottoline this year, and I am really enjoying her works. My life is busy, stressful, and hectic, and these stories about brave (and nosy) female protagonists are fun, quick reads. This one was my favorite so far because of Nat Greco's fun, interesting family dynamics and her passion for teaching and justice.

The thing that I am liking most about Scottoline's work is that she writes an exciting novel that is easy to follow and to read -- so much so that I don't want to put it down -- but there is always something positive and substantive about the "lessons" that the character is learning. In DADDY'S GIRL, the distinction between what is "just" or justice and what is "legal" turns up over and over again, in the law school, in the police procedures and investigations, in the discussions of legal history and legally related literature, and in the discussions of the the Underground Railroad. This repeated theme give the novel a passion and a purpose that lets me forget that I am reading a murder mystery.

Overall: A fun, easy weekend or vacation read and a real page turner.

Flying thru the pages at the edge of my seat........2007-09-10

This is the first Scottoline novel I have read and it certainly won't be my last. This was an action packed, suspenseful, romantic novel that was very hard to put down. Natalie Greco is a law professor who accompanies a colleague to a prison for a class he gives as part of a program affiliated with the law school. While they are there, a riot breaks out and Nat finds herself fighting for her life. She receives a dying wish from a CO who is fatally wounded. The wish is a message to give to his wife. "Tell my wife It's under the floor". This sets off a wild and action packed tale with twists and turns that will have you at the edge of your seat. Mix that with a very protective family and boyfriend. Add a little bit of lust for the colleague and you have yourself a great thriller.

Average customer rating:

Innocent In Death is worth the wait!
A teacher's dead...
Spoiler, Bad Seed with a Happy Ending
Innocent in Death
short but sweet

Innocent in Death
J.D. Robb
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0399154019

Book Description

The phenomenal series set in a future New York City returns as NYPSD Lt. Eve Dallas hunts for the killer of a seemingly ordinary history teacher-and uncovers some extraordinary surprises. Craig Foster's death devastated his young wife, who'd sent him to work that day with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the private school, too, and as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom in a pool of bodily fluids-they may have been traumatized for life.

Eve soon determines that Foster's homemade lunch was tainted with deadly ricin, and that Mr. Foster's colleagues have some startling secrets of their own. It's Eve's job to sort it out- and discover why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant . . . so innocent.

Now Magdalena Percell . . . there's someone Eve can picture as a murder victim. Possibly at Eve's own hands. The slinky blonde-an old flame of her billionaire husband, Roarke-has arrived in New York, and she's anything but innocent. Roarke seems blind to Magdalena's manipulation, and he insists that the occasional lunch or business meeting with her is nothing to worry about . . . and none of Eve's business. Eve's so unnerved by the situation that she finds it hard to focus on her case. Still, she'll have to put aside her feelings, for a while at least-because another man has just turned up dead.

Eve knows all too well that innocence can be a faade. Keeping that in mind may help her solve this case at last. But it may also tear apart her marriage.

Customer Reviews:

Innocent In Death is worth the wait!.......2007-10-21

I love Nora Roberts work and as always i was not disappointed the only thing about it that brought me down was knowing that i was going to come to the end of the book. It had everything i look for in a book romance characters you fall in love with and lots and lots of mystery. the world she created in these books is one i wish existed. I fully and completely recommend this book for anyone who wants to be swept away by a good story.

A teacher's dead..........2007-10-19

and it's hard to imagine anyone having enough of a beef with him to murder him. From all accounts he was simply an ordinary guy, going about with his ordinary, happy life. Eve Dallas is left to discover who's keeping secrets...and her discovery shocks even this street-hardened cop. A fantastic new chapter in the Eve Dallas mythology.

Spoiler, Bad Seed with a Happy Ending.......2007-10-15

This was my first Eve Dallas mystery and I was slightly disappointed. While reading the book, I kept getting back to the similarities between the crimes in the book and the movie the "Bad Seed", right down to trying to incinerate the evidence, shoes vs. diary. The story was good but I would borrow the book from my local library and not buy it. The only interesting part is you got inside the killer's head when she committed the crime, since in the movie your hearing about the crimes days or weeks after the fact. The ending of the book was different from the movie since the killer was caught in her crimes, whereas the movie has nature dispensing out justice to the killer.

Innocent in Death.......2007-10-07

Lt. Eve Dallas and her partner Detective Delia Peabody are called on-scene to investigate the death of a teacher at one of NYC's top private schools. Craig Foster was a popular history teacher who died from drinking poisoned cocoa. Since Foster brought the cocoa from home, Dallas and Peabody initially suspect his wife or a family member. But there are no red flags there, so they move on to the parents of Foster's students or one of his colleagues. They hone in on another teacher, one known for his sexual promiscuousness and who Foster had had words with over his harassment of a school employee. Before they can investigate this man further, his body is discovered in the school's pool. Dallas and Peabody are baffled but convinced more than ever that someone connected with the school is behind the murders.

For the first time, Eve is having a hard time concentrating on an investigation. A woman from Roarke's past has entered the picture, and it isn't long before there's tension between Eve and Roarke and harsh words spoken. Stoic Eve is startled to find herself so emotionally overwrought by this woman and her efforts to create conflict between Eve and Roarke. But she forces her mind on the investigation and what she discovers shocks even the jaded Lt. Dallas.

Robb's popular series remains a constant bestseller and it isn't hard to figure out why, with likeable characters and suspenseful plots. The relationship between Dallas and Roarke is a bonus and is explored in-depth in this book. Robb displays talent for drawing the reader into her characters' angst and despair at the disruption in their marriage. Eve's and Roarke's mutual fright over babies is humorous and adds a light note to an otherwise dark mystery.

short but sweet.......2007-09-28

As always, J.D. Robb has created a fast paced mystery featuring our favorite murder cop, Eve Dallas and her deliciously sexy, wealthy husband, the inimitable Roark. Although Robb's focus on the single storyline omits the antics of some of this series's more colorful characters whom we have come to love, she retains the flavor of the "In Death" novels through the personalities of her main characters. "Interlude" is a must have to complete your "In Death" collection.

Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional (2nd Edition)

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Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional (2nd Edition)
Donald P. Kauchak , and Paul D. Eggen
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0131137719

How to Handle Difficult Parents: A Teacher's Survival Guide

Average customer rating:

I want this author as my supervisor
Very helpful
Parent-Teacher Association as it really is
This is a great book for new teachers.....
Illuminating for both new teachers and veterans, alike

How to Handle Difficult Parents: A Teacher's Survival Guide
Suzanne Capek Tingley
Manufacturer: Cottonwood Press, Inc.
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1877673722

Book Description

Be it "Pinocchio's Mom," who thinks her child never lies, the "Caped Crusader," who will stop at nothing to have a book eliminated from the curriculum, or the "Helicopter Mom," who hovers and swoops in to protect her child from disappointment, this humorous handbook helps educators deal with impossible parents. Each chapter features a hilarious caricature that illuminates common parent anxieties followed by specific, practical methods for addressing the problem. Easily implemented advice on face-to-face confrontations helps teachers approach each conflict with the confidence to get their point across and the composure to keep their professional principles intact.

Customer Reviews:

I want this author as my supervisor.......2007-09-08

This delightful book has such useful analysis and ideas in it. It is easy reading, and the author's suggestions are easy to take.

Tingley is an educator who became an administrator, and she knows her problem parents. She first gives vignettes with the teacher saying what we would REALLY like to say. Then she rewinds the interaction, showing us much more effective things to say.

I appreciate Tingley's compassion for both us teachers and the parents. School has just started again this fall, and I am off to a MUCH better start with a girl in my home room whose "hovering" mom was ready to slug me last year.

Very helpful.......2007-09-03

I found this book to be a really humorous way to help guide interactions with parents on a daily basis. I will absolutely be using advice from this book to help me with conferences this school year.

Parent-Teacher Association as it really is.......2007-07-10

Tingley gives an excellent overview of how educational objectives have evolved from instilling self-esteem to achieving high scores on standardized tests and what a problem that has created in dealing with today's parents. She acknowledges the frustrations teachers feel and frequently complain about, then skillfully uses humor along with sound advice to get beyond the griping and deal with the problems unreasonable parents can present. The book would be very helpful as a basis for role playing sessions for teachers-in-training in order to master the skills of being in control, getting parents on their side and most importantly, handling themselves as professionals. Even veteran teachers could benefit from reflecting on the amusing, yet accurate parent stereotypes Tingley has captured through her years of experience.

This is a great book for new teachers............2007-06-01

I bought this book for my daughter who is in her first year of teaching. When it arrived, I took a peek at the text, and probably read 1/2 the book before I even gave it too her! It is very easy, informative, reading. The former teacher who authored the book, has succinctly catergorized "parent types" and how each can be handled by the teacher when necessary. This survival guide's advice is excellent, and the points it makes are easily remembered by the reader. I think this will save my daughter lots of trial and error in her new career....(she really could have used it this year, with 29 students, and 58 parents to contend with!)

Illuminating for both new teachers and veterans, alike.......2007-06-01

As a veteran teacher-librarian, I can say that I have probably met most of the types of parents that Suzanne Tingley highlights in her book. As a parent, I can say that I may have had tendencies toward a few of the actions described. What is remarkable about this book is the down to earth advice for teachers, young and old, in how to diffuse and handle situations that will most definitely occur in the school setting at one time or another. The different scenarios illustrated by the presence of Caped Crusaders, Helicopter Moms, or Uncivil Libertarians are ones in which we have all had a part. Mrs. Tingley has clearly thought about how differently those scenarios could be played out so that a teacher can maintain his or her principles while allowing the parent to retain his or her dignity as the problem is resolved. She does this with humor, but also with a great deal of insight and intelligence. In order for schools to be effective in educating students, teachers and parents must communicate reasonably and civily with each other. This book opens the door to such communication. I am glad the book was recommended to me and I recommend it to all teachers who seek well-reasoned advice or reinforcement in validating responses to difficult situations and parents.

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

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Living till the Very End
Tuesdays With Morrie
A great read
A story to open your heart
The Hobo Philosopher

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
Mitch Albom
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0307275639
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Amazon.com

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. --Gail Hudson

Book Description

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.  Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder.  Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance.  He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life.  Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.  Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

Customer Reviews:

Living till the Very End.......2007-10-20

The special thing about this book was that this was the first book my teenager niece ever read. And it made her cry again and again. This got me curious and I borrowed the book and read it slowly over a week or so. As my father had also passed on recently after an illness, the story had a personal relevance for me.

The book is written in extremely simple language, and there is very little complex philosophy here. The story (apparently real) is about an aged sociology professor who is told that he is about to die due to a terminal illness. This sets him thinking - and he decides to approach his death with dignity, openness and as an essential part of living. He also decides to continue living till the very end, continuing with his profession - teaching. His last months end up as a special lesson in real life for one of his favourite students.

The book is well-written and appeals to one at an emotional level. The progress of Prof. Morrie's passing on maintains one's interest in the story - there is no other complex plot. Death is a much more frightening prospect in West, than it is in the East. It is therefore easy to see the greatness of the teaching in this book. However, some of the extra lessons (embedded in the story) are laced with a kind of rejection of modern life - some people may find this annoying.

Reading the book has a slightly negative effect, as it focuses on death and describes many of the last moments in great, personal detail. However, this also had an interesting consequence.

It led me to pick up Deepak Chopra's 'Life After Death: The Burden of Proof' recently. I found this book to be much more healing and positive about death than 'Tuesdays with Morrie'. Where Morrie merely accepts his impending death, and tries to continue living till the end, Deepak Chopra shows an alternate approach - how to see death as a mere continuation of one's journey, may be with some extra benefits even. This is perhaps what Lord Jesus meant when he asked Judas to free him from the body that he found himself trapped in (The Gospel of Judas).

All in all, a good book.

Tuesdays With Morrie.......2007-10-10

This was an excellent book that I enjoyed reading. It really makes you think about life and everything you've ever done. It teaches you to love without consequence and to be who you've always wanted to be. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

A great read.......2007-09-24

This book was quick to read and has a powerful message. Should be on everyone's 'must read' list!

A story to open your heart.......2007-09-11

This is easily one of the most touching books I've read. Morrie's thoughts are those that I think all should read. The book is concise and is not overpowering in it's enlightenment. If you buy one book this year - buy this one. It will cause you to smile and laugh and cry and might just change your world.

The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-10

Obviously this book doesn't need another review, but, for what it is worth, I liked it. It is a nice sentimental story, with some good advise and some believable people. Morrie was obviously a likable old man. I don't really agree with his philosophy entirely but my turn on that ride hasn't arrived yet. Maybe I'll change my tune when I get there. You really can't miss with this one.

The Ethical Teacher (Professionallearning)

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The Ethical Teacher (Professionallearning)
Elizabeth Campbell
Manufacturer: Open University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Work of Teachers in America: A Social History Through Stories
Becoming a Reflective Educator: How to Build a Culture of Inquiry in the Schools
Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study, With a new Preface
American Education
American Education

ASIN: 0335212182

Book Description

This book presents the concept of ethical knowledge as it is revealed, as it is challenged, and as it may be used in schools. The book combines empirical expressions of teachers' beliefs and practices with a discussion of the connections between the moral dimensions of schooling and applied professional ethics in teaching:

Ethical knowledge relies on the teacher's awareness, understanding, and acceptance of the demands of moral agency.
Ethical knowledge is compromised by moral dilemmas and complexities that routinely challenge teachers.
Moral tensions may be eased by three avenues of renewal based on heightened attention to ethical knowledge: a renewed sense of teacher professionalism, renewed school cultures, and renewed teacher education and professional learning.

The Ethical Teacher is for teachers and teacher educators and for those who conduct research about their worlds.

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Average customer rating:

Get to Know the Other Side
Review of Freedom Writers Diary
I wonder what it was actually like...
An inspiring story.
Got my daughter to read

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
Freedom Writers , and Zlata Filipovic
Manufacturer: Main Street Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition)
The Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime SarajevoRevised Edition

ASIN: 038549422X
Release Date: 1999-10-12

Book Description

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.

As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

Customer Reviews:

Get to Know the Other Side.......2007-10-22

This is a book which can open the eyes of some of us who were not raised in, essentially, dangerous circumstances. The inspiring accomplishments that one woman's generous heart and LISTENING provided for her students, and their own expressive outlet in writing, is an educator's marvel. Would that all teachers could pull for their student's lives in the way the author did.

Review of Freedom Writers Diary.......2007-10-10

The book is a great read. I would definitely recommend to teachers, especially those that teach or will teach a widely diversified class. Not just teachers should read it. You really get an idea how crazy being racist and prejudiced is and how many people can be hurt by it. Nothing was edited so you get the full feelings of what those teenagers lived through.

I wonder what it was actually like..........2007-09-12

There were lots of positives and negatives that stuck out to me when I read this book which really bothered me.

Let's start with the teacher. We get occasional reflections from Erin Gruwell throughout the book, and in the beginning, they provide a way for us to get to know the teacher and to experience some of the adversity and the troubles that she was experiencing with running her classroom in the unorthodox style she managed. As the book progresses, the majority of these insights begin to fade into a simple account of what she did, the awards they won, and the plans that she had. For instance, she briefly mentions that she had to struggle to teach these kids for their senior year, and then she breezes over how she got that done and launches into an explanation of the binding of their book and the two awards ceremonies that she's attending. This robs the teachers out there of a great potential resource for them to use and understand, and glosses over the reality of politics in education.

The other issue I had was with the journal entries of the students. While I'd love to believe what I'm seeing, I have a difficult time believing that these entries the children wrote were not blown a little out of proportion during the editing or completely contrived from the get-go. Before you jump all over me for having a lack of faith in these kids, look at what we're presented with: the first few journal entries, which these kids supposedly wrote on the first few days of class are every bit as long and as detailed as their later entries in their senior year...and this is supposedly when they were well below the rest of their grade and their expected reading level, and when they had no faith in their teacher whatsoever. What we are left with, then, is a look only at where they were during their junior and senior years, with no gauge of progress or results to compare.

Because of the way the book was put together (entries are numbered rather than being entered chronologically, and no students are named), there is a lack of continuity between chapters, and no characters. Thus, all we are left with are two styles of entries: 1) the entries about struggles and hardships, and 2) the hopeful entries. You are completely unable to identify the students and connect who wrote which entries unless the stories are about a single club or experience. I would much rather have seen the students be given fake names to keep their anonymity protected, because then we not only benefit from a more personal connection to the students, but we also get to see how they've grown from their struggles, and we could break up some of the monotony between struggle stories and hope stories.

Then you get the obligatory "Anne Frank [or insert speaker here] is my hero" entries that read almost exactly like essays that I used to write for the sole purpose of appeasing a teacher who clearly has a tremendous interest in the speaker or book. While the experiences these students had were much more impressive than a simple book or movie, the similarity is astonishing, and I can't help but believe that these kids felt a lot of pressure and wrote what they felt the teacher wanted to hear rather than what they actually felt.

The entries that we are presented with in this book are also extremely toned down versions of the original, which in some sense steals from the power that they can convey. As a couple of students pointed out, the editing process was a big part of putting this book together, and I'm not sure whether it was the authors themselves or the publisher, but the snippets that we are given in the diaries are about the editing process are much more honest and graphic accounts of what happened to the students than the full diaries that we are given in the pages of the book. Some were certainly removed to protect anonymity, and probably also because of their graphic nature, but I believe that readers could have benefited from a slightly more realistic tone. The PG13 edit that the majority of these accounts are given strips the events of their power.

On the whole, though, that doesn't take away from the fact that Gruwell is clearly a very gifted teacher, and that she did take these children much farther than anyone ever expected of her. The lessons in the book are timeless, in that classroom management is all about building relationships, not only amongst students, but also between the teacher and the students. It's inspirational, and impressive, but clearly a bit contrived and heavily, heavily edited. This book is a pretty good read, but I think you have to take it with a grain of salt.

An inspiring story........2007-08-27

I loved reading the stories from the voices of the various students and hearing how they discovered love and hope despite their difficult home lives.

Got my daughter to read.......2007-08-23

This is an excellent book for a non reader, especially if they have seen the movie. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the book and she is not really a reader. it has now encouraged her to move on to a Diary of Anne Frank. Thank you

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Average customer rating:

Fascinating Book
An Unquiet Mind
superficial account of author's pretty nice life - not an in depth account
clarification
great book

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Kay Redfield Jamison
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know
Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
Loving Someone With Bipolar Disorder

ASIN: 0679763309
Release Date: 1997-01-14

Amazon.com

In Touched with Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatrist, turned a mirror on the creativity so often associated with mental illness. In this book she turns that mirror on herself. With breathtaking honesty she tells of her own manic depression, the bitter costs of her illness, and its paradoxical benefits: "There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness and terror involved in this kind of madness.... It will never end, for madness carves its own reality." This is one of the best scientific autobiographies ever written, a combination of clarity, truth, and insight into human character. "We are all, as Byron put it, differently organized," Jamison writes. "We each move within the restraints of our temperament and live up only partially to its possibilities." Jamison's ability to live fully within her limitations is an inspiration to her fellow mortals, whatever our particular burdens may be. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

As a founder of UCLA's Affective Disorder Clinic and a co-author of a standard medical text, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison may be the foremost authority on manic-depressive illness. She is also one of its survivors. And it is this dual perspective -- as healer and healed -- that makes Jamison's memoir so lucid, learned, and profoundly affecting.

Even as she was pursuing her psychiatric training, Jamison found herself succumbing to the exhilarating highs and paralyzing lows that afflicted many of her patients. Though the disorder brought her seemingly boundless energy and mercurial creativity, it also propelled her into spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempt at suicide.

Powerfully candid, exceptionally wise, An Unquiet Mind is one of those rare books that has the power to transform lives -- and even save them.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating Book.......2007-10-21

I really got sucked into this book. I have depression and OCD. Although I'm not Manic Depressive, I could still relate to some of what this woman went through. In a strange way it makes me feel comforted that Im not alone. She goes into great detail and uses simple language to describe what her bouts with mania were like. So Im sure it will make the reader more able to imagine what it was like in her shoes.

An Unquiet Mind.......2007-10-07

Jamison describes with utter passion and depth the horror of her disease to the point that you suffer for her and want to cry and reach out and give her support. However as the book continues it becomes less personal life instances, and more of a list of her life accomplishments and increasingly hard to comprehend where she had the time for the massive amounts of activities she is apparently involved with when seemingly absorbed by this overpowering mood disorder simultaneously.
Also it is difficult to feel at all sympathetic when she so stubbornly supports her inability to feel objectified by this disease. She writes as if she is begging for sympathy and compassion for manic-depressives but yet determinately supports its benefits and her overall gratitude to it in her life. She describes the disorder as if living with satan himself while she is tripping on acid and then states the phenomenal accomplishments she has accumulated while under his suicidal influence. It's hard to feel bad, and hard to believe. Not well written, she misses details as to her relationships and time periods when detailing her list of projects which makes it hard to gauge and follow not only periodically but developmentally. The feeling of reading a list of achievements one might include on a college application is the overall emotion I relate to this memoir.

superficial account of author's pretty nice life - not an in depth account.......2007-10-04

Ok, Kay Redfield Jamison has manic-depression. This is a horrible disease. However, she underscores time and time again its association with creative genius. The accounts of her highs and lows are superficial - it is mostly a memoir of her, her academic career, and her various boyfriends (and husbands)- all tall, or handsome, or wonderful dancers or artists. Dr Jamison appears smug, and not a little full of herself. The disease which she has is glamorized and sanitized, and minimized. The basic story is unremarkable. I am sorry I bought this book.

clarification.......2007-09-29

This is an informative, empathetic book.

I just wanted to clarify something in response to the review by "not to be mean but...talkinsmack":

While some psychiatric drugs should not be mixed with alcohol (for example, MAOI inhibitors cannot be mixed with fermented drinks, like wine and beer), this is not true of all or even most psychiatric drugs. Unless the patient taking them is an alcoholic or has other health issues, there is usually no reason why he or she cannot drink in moderation. Of course, individual patients' circumstances may differ.

To say that Kay Redfield Jamison belongs "inpatient" is ignorant and incorrect. If that's meant to be a joke, it isn't funny.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but incorrect and sweeping generalizations like talkinsmack's about psychiatric drugs and the people who take them undermine the author's (excellent) work.

great book.......2007-09-10

I am bipolor and really appreciated this book. I will share it with my family.

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