Required Reading: Test Takers Manual

All too often the intelligence of the smartest and most creative kids doesn’t show up on standardized tests, like the SAT and ACT. With a combination of proven test-taking techniques and stress management, Ben Bernstein’s “Test Success!” can help any kid do his or her best. The 200-page book deals with everything from calming down and being confident to the differences among popular tests and special sections for parents and teachers. It costs $20.

 

 

 

Required Reading: Tech 101

There’re thousands (maybe millions) of technophobes in schools out there and we know who you are. There’s help, and all it takes is reading a book. Abby Stokes’s “Is This Thing On” is a simplistic and humorous look at basic computing. It’s more than enough to get a teacher started on the road to loving the digital classroom with chapters on buying hardware, securing your online identity and a primer on Twitter, Facebook and Instant Messaging. The book contains a page of essential keyboard shortcuts glossary and a great troubleshooting section. It’s available for about $10.

 

 

Required Reading: Educaching

You’ve heard of geocaching, where enthusiasts conceal trinkets in a hidden place, located only by a set of GPS instructions, Once found, the participants take the item and leave a different one. Apisphere has opened a new Web page that can help turn geocaching into educaching with help integrating it into a geography curriculum. In addition to the company’s expected handheld Geomate Jr receivers, the site has classroom starter kits and a book with lots of geocaching ideas. It’s called “Educaching,” has 20 lesson plans, classroom materials and even help getting grant money to pay for it all; it costs $32.  

 

Required Reading: A new Approach to Calculus

Throw those dusty calculus textbooks out because Cengage Learning’s “Brief Applied Calculus” rewrites how advanced math should be taught. Written by James Stewart and Daniel Clegg, there’s a 560-page textbook that emphasizes intuitive math and real world applications. There are also an enhanced ebook as well as online and video adjuncts to help teacher and student. You can read through Chapter 3, which goes over techniques of differentiation, for free.

Required Reading: A Helping Hand

Any solo teacher can tell you that it’s a lonely job. Having some help, well, helps, and “Educating America 101-- 101 Strategies for Adult Assistants in K-8 Classrooms,” by Padd Eger is a good place to start. The 170-page book makes a good case for parents, specialists and the community to participate in educating our children. It provides good advice for teachers and those contemplating lending a helping hand. The paperback book goes for $15.

 

 

 

Freebee Friday: Are You a Software Pirate?

You may not know it or be able to do much about it, but the chances are that your school has a slew of stolen or pirated software, according to a poll prepared by the Business Software Alliance. The eighth annual software survey, the report looked at 15,000 PCs last year in 32 countries and found that worldwide 42 percent of software was bogus or unlicensed. Here, in North America, that figure is a more reasonable 21 percent. Still, that’s one in five programs that are pirated or unpaid for.

 

 

Required Reading: Innovation in the Classroom

Does you classroom have the feel of the classroom you spent your early years? It may not be all bad, but a lot has happened to make teaching more efficient, easier and more rewarding for students and teachers. “Breakthrough Teaching and Learning” is an eye-opener that can help teachers and administrators to adapt personal learning techniques to their schools and drive innovation in the classroom. You can read chapters of the $129 book.

 

 

 

 

Required Reading: Classroom Magic

What is it that separates inspired teachers form those who are just going through the instructional motions? Marjan Glavac thinks he has the answer in “Teaching Is …… Moments That Inspire and Motivate Teachers to Make a Difference.” The 80-page book is the culmination of a long career in front of students and offers up his insights into the magic that happens in the classroom and how it can motivate students to achieve.

 

 

Friday Freebee: Speed Thrills, or Not

Why is it that the advertized broadband speed is always an illusion with your network only getting a fraction of what’s been promised? Actually things are getting a bit better, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s latest survey of the 13 top US Internet Service Providers. The best was Comcast at 1.4 times its advertized speeds, while Cablevision (my office’s provider) was only able to deliver a dismal half of the bandwidth it promised. The report makes for depressing reading.

 

 

Required Reading: Rich Student, Poor Student

Apparently, it doesn’t matter whether a student is rich or poor, black or white, according to M. Donnell Tenner, that is. His “240 Ways to Close the Achievement Gap” eBook attempts to be inspirational and practical at the same time. His manifesto for staying in school involves working from a student body’s cultural strengths to provide motivation, encouragement and support. The eBook costs $19 or a signed edition can be had for $3 more.