There Are No Shortcuts

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Must read!

motivating?

Teacher Helps

Big on image, low on facts

Get Ron Clark's Essential 55 instead.

There Are No Shortcuts
Rafe Esquith
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1400030838
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Book Description

Year after year, Rafe Esquith’s fifth-grade students excel. They read passionately, far above their grade level; tackle algebra; and stage Shakespeare so professionally that they often wow the great Shakespearen actor himself, Sir Ian McKellen. Yet Esquith teaches at an L.A. innercity school known as the Jungle, where few of his students speak English at home, and many are from poor or troubled families. What’s his winning recipe? A diet of intensive learning mixed with a lot of kindness and fun. His kids attend class from 6:30 A.M. until well after 4:00 P.M., right through most of their vacations. They take field trips to Europe and Yosemite. They play rock and roll. Mediocrity has no place in their classroom. And the results follow them for life, as they go on to colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.
Possessed by a fierce idealism, Esquith works even harder than his students. As an outspoken maverick of public education (his heroes include Huck Finn and Atticus Finch), he admits to significant mistakes and heated fights with administrators and colleagues. We all—teachers, parents, citizens—have much to learn from his candor and uncompromising vision.

Customer Reviews:

Must read!.......2007-08-27

Anyone who has children, cares about how we educate them, proposes to teach, MUST meet Rafe Esquith. Achieving his level of dedication may be impossible for most, hut he can inspire us all to greater performance. His imaginative insights to helping fifth graders to new levels of self-esteem and real accomplishment is astonishing. Unafraid of bureaucracy, indeed scornful of it, he has managed to do things most classroom teachers only dream of. In addition to breaking old molds, he offers considerable hope, as he clearly tells us that the fault is not in the children, but in ourselves.

motivating?.......2007-08-15

I wasn't as motivated as I thought I would be after reading this book. This book left me empty and feeling sorry for Rafe's wife and family.

Teacher Helps.......2007-08-13

This is a must read for any classroom teacher. Mr. Esquith has many insights and ideas that help the classroom teacher. Some of it you may have heard before but it is a good reminder of what great teachers do or can do for their students.

Big on image, low on facts.......2007-08-03

Yes, this man is a dedicated teacher. No, his methods are not the wave of the future for educational reform or methods that would often work elsewhere. The writer skews the perspective of this book (which is very self-serving and slanted towards his own ego) by describing his inner-city school as "The Jungle" (ooh, scary) and his students as underprivileged inner city kids. Actually they are mostly Asian and Latino immigrant students. As a successful teacher of underprivileged children myself, I can tell you that it is relatively easy to teach students from immigrant families, even those just barely learning English, because their families came to this country for more opportunity and are usually highly motivated to succeed. The true underprivileged and most challenging students are those whose impoverished families have lived in American housing projects for generations, have little faith left in the system and are often unmotivated as students and parents. Families from this demographic are conspicuously absent from this model teacher's class. This is an important distinction to make, because when when the author touts himself as a "hero" and portrays himself as an expert on inner-city education, all too often people with less knowledge about the educational system will be awestruck and believe everything he says. There are many dedicated teachers in this country who use more sustainable methods of instruction and who are valiantly struggling with much more challenging students than the ones in this book.

Get Ron Clark's Essential 55 instead........2007-07-08

I felt that from the moment i started reading this book, it should have been named "All About Rafe". He makes mention at the beginning of this book how he wanted to be known as the best teacher whenever he walks down the street. His wife-to-be lets him know eventually that it's really moronic to think that way. Although he says this changed him, from the cover to the end of the book, it's obvious that his original mission never really changed.

As a new teacher, that disgusts me. In the 3 years I have taught, I have cultivated very successful readers and outstanding citizens in my own "jungle"(Newark, NJ). I have had my share of losses as well, that's life. However, whenever teachers/administrators compliment me on my classroom management or test scores, I give all the credit to my kids(they WANT to do well, and behave well, I just steer them the proper way by giving a consistent, caring adult to believe in.) All I've ever asked of them in return is to focus on becoming the best they can be.

All teachers should be selfless. We are cultivating the next generation of this Earth, not attempting to break into Hollywood. I'm disappointed that a teacher the caliber of Mr. Esquith is such a narcissist.

There Are No Shortcuts: Enjoying the Balance of Faith, Family and Career

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There Are No Shortcuts: Enjoying the Balance of Faith, Family and Career
Ernie Bono
Manufacturer: Saint Catherine of Siena Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0976228432

Education: there are no shortcuts.: An article from: Childhood Education

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Education: there are no shortcuts.: An article from: Childhood Education
Nancy S. Maldonado , and Mariann Pezzella Winick
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Childhood Education, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1787 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Education: there are no shortcuts.
Author: Nancy S. Maldonado
Publication: Childhood Education (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 82 Issue: 5 Page: 316(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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There Are No Shortcuts
Rafe Esquith
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X6YN0E

There are no shortcuts to ending the war;: A reply to Dave Dellinger

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There are no shortcuts to ending the war;: A reply to Dave Dellinger
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Manufacturer: The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (Queensland Branch)
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Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

Leon Moussinac, surveying the Soviet cinema scene in 1928, proclaimed Pudovkin, Eisenstein, and Vertov as its leading triumvirate. Yet there has been too little published on Pudovkin's significant work in Soviet cinema. Amy Sargeant's welcome book on Pudovkin assesses his career and his films, including the well-known features The Mother and The End of St. Petersburg, exploring their style and the circumstances surrounding their production. She also looks at the production and reception of his writings on film technique and performance, both inside the Soviet Union and in the West.

Vsevolod Pudovkin: Classic Films of the Soviet Avant-Gard.(Book Review): An article from: The Modern Language Review

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Vsevolod Pudovkin: Classic Films of the Soviet Avant-Gard.(Book Review): An article from: The Modern Language Review
Jeremy Hicks
Manufacturer: Modern Humanities Research Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Modern Language Review, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 699 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Vsevolod Pudovkin: Classic Films of the Soviet Avant-Gard.(Book Review)
Author: Jeremy Hicks
Publication: The Modern Language Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Volume: 98 Issue: 4 Page: 1070-1071

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

`Alan Bryman has expanded on his internationally well-known work on Disney theme parks and Disneyization to create a fascinating and highly readable book. It should prove of interest to beginning students in a number of different courses and fields, as well as to scholars interested in culture and consumption. There is no question that the model created by Disney, and emulated in whole or in part by many organizations and in many settings, will continue to influence social structure and culture well into the future. This is an important book about a significant social process. And, it manages to be a fun read, as well!' - George Ritzer, author of McDonaldization and Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland

`Bryman's analysis of contemporay consumption is full of detail and provides a host of examples ranging from restaurants and hotels, to theme parks, zoos and sports stadia. Without doubt students will find it an accessible text, one that should allow them to think about consumption, familiar consumer products, settings and activities, sociologically' - Barry Smart, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth

`Bryman's dissection of Disneyization is a timely and significant contribution to the growing literature on Disney. In fact, his excellent analysis of the extension of Disneyization throughout society explains why we should care about the Disney phenomenon at all. This is not only an important book for Disney scholars, but for any one interested in the future of modern society' - Janet Wasko Professor of Communication Studies, University of Oregon

This is an agenda-setting new work in the sociology of culture and modern society. It argues that the contemporary world is increasingly converging towards the characteristics of the Disney theme parks. This process of convergence is revealed in: the growing influence of themed environments in settings like restaurants, shops, hotels, tourism and zoos; the growing trend towards social environments that are driven by combinations of forms of consumption: shopping, eating out, gambling, visiting the cinema, watching sports; the growth in cachet awarded to brands based on licensed merchandise; and the increased prominence of work that is a performance in which the employees have to display certain emotions and generally convey impressions as though working in a theatrical event. This insightful book demonstrates the importance of control and surveillance in consumer culture.

Of interest to a wide variety of students studying in business, sociology, cultural studies, media studies and leisure studies courses this will also be of interest to anybody interested in understanding the intricacies of modern society.

Average customer rating:
Disneyization of Society
Alan Bryman
Manufacturer: Sage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K7DLFY

Customer Reviews:

Very enjoyable read.......2002-03-04

Well this isn't a "how to" book it's more a collection of a decade or so of writing by Arnold Snyder. As such you won't learn any particular counting system or style. Snyder writes in a clear, witty style with piercing insights into the nature of gambling.

Some gems from the book include Social Irrelevance class where you will come to grips with the "existential essence of being a replaceable cog in a machine that produces nothing" and how card counters are essentially parasites "siphoning money from a meaningless cash flow system". Humour abounds, for example in reviewing one of the blackjack systems, Snyder remarks "My heart goes out to the tree that died for this".

All in all a very worthwhile text covering a whole range of different blackjack topics. Occasionally digresses from the main theme but this is more an observation than a complaint it does not detract from the book whatsoever.

The book's final conclusion? You won't win. Why? Statistical fluctuations mean that on a bell curve some will end up all the way on the right and some will end up all the way on the left. Sure with card counting you have an expectation that is slightly positive, however there's still a big margin for statistical variation that could plonk you pretty much anywhere in terms of winnings. In which case you may as well take your bankroll and plonk the thing on the damn roulette wheel.

A nice addition to your Blackjack library!.......2000-06-16

I love this book! Its an excellent book to read on the trip down to the casino. Filled with great text instead of dozens of tables. Definately worth it.

Kabbalah cards: Using the ageless wisdom for guidance, insight and greater self-awareness

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Kabbalah cards: Using the ageless wisdom for guidance, insight and greater self-awareness
Paul Roland
Manufacturer: U.S. Games Systems
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Cards

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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Essential Blackjack Wisdom
Avery Cardoza
Manufacturer: Cardoza
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1580420605

Average customer rating:

Essential Blackjack Wisdom
Avery Cardoza
Manufacturer: CARDOZA PUBLISHING U
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Face it: Poorly designed, static Web sites just don't cut it anymore. The Web (not to mention the technology surrounding it) has been around long enough, and people are used to seeing and expect a little razzle-dazzle when they go online. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how to deliver it! Whether your boss wants you to jazz up the company's Web site or you're burning the midnight oil trying to pull together some Web animations for a class project, this tightly focused, project-based guide shows you how to start creating Flash animations in an instant! Using big, bold full- pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with the latest version of Flash: using the Flash 8 authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more!

Customer Reviews:

Not recommended.......2007-08-11

All words are written in large, childlike print, to give an impression that this book is easy to read and thus also easy to execute. But the execution instructions are not very well described. Some steps have missing photos. The book is also way too short for the kind of book it is supposed to be: visual introduction to flash for beginners. It also has no troubleshooting nor any FAQ. This edition is identical to the newer one for Flash MX 2004(ISBN: 0-321-32125-1).I do not recommend starting learning flash from this book, it is for more advanced learners.

Would have been great but ..........2007-06-03

It seems like the other people who gave this book a low rating did so because it lacked detailed info as to why some of the steps were done. Well guys, maybe you should have read the front and back cover of the book before you bought it. This book was designed to walk you step by step through the process of creating a website in Flash 8. That's what it does... sort of. The problem is (and this is the only reason I'm not rating it 5 stars) that it is RIDDLED with errors. Some of the steps just don't work and you really have to spend a lot of time figuring out where the author has screwed up.

That said, it's still a nice little primer and worth the nominal cost for beginners.

Informative, but arduous.......2007-05-17

This is a good primer or refresher for Flash 8.

This book serves two purposes: (1) Acquaints the reader with fundamental Flash principles and (2) demonstrates what you can do with Flash.

The author could have made the book a lot better by writing a paragraph at the outset of each mini-lesson giving an overview of the point of the lesson and the steps.

Retention with this book is difficult because it drones from one lesson to the next in linear fashion. If the book were broken down with reference points and summary overviews, it would even be a great little reference book.

Another reviewer noted that some of the steps do not function. He is correct. It appears that there are a few instances where the author is either unclear about the steps or loses track of whether the reader is to work within a symbol or the main stage. I just hacked my way through it.

Also, Flash is such a dynamic program that the learning curve is lengthy. To learn Flash, you MUST dedicate time and effort. It gets easier once you make up your mind to make the effort.

The Flash Book We Have Been Waiting For.......2007-05-02

I am very pleased by this book, because it is the only one that I have ever found that I can use to teach Flash to someone else. The books doesn't get bogged down in the technical details of the program, it just shows you how to put Flash to work for you or your client.
The book is VERY well illustrated, and the website you make is nice enough to show to other people. This compares to other Flash books that teach you all about how and why you do something in designing a website, but never demonstrate how to put it together into a worthwhile product. So you end up with a "properly" designed website that either doesn't work right or is too ugly to show to anyone else.
This book changes that. Using it, I can sit down and walk someone through the creation of a pretty AND functional website. If they want to know why something is done a certain way, I would refer them to another book, but most people really don't seem to care once they have the project completed...

Good... if you just want to follow instructions.......2007-02-11

I was looking to design my first Flash-based website. This book may have helped me do it... but I learned nothing in the process. It did not answer any of my "whys" or "hows" - just merely gave me step by step instruction. Furthermore, several of the steps, when followed exactly (trust me...sometimes I'd redo them 3 and 4 times to make sure) would not produce the results the book said they would. If you're looking for a more comprehensive, teach-a-man-to-fish type of book, this is not what you're looking for.

Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide

Average customer rating:

Do not recommend it
good introduction to Flash
Quite Worthless
Can't recommend it
Good intro to wet your apetite

Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide
David Morris
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0321321251

Book Description

Face it: Poorly designed, static Web sites just don't cut it anymore. The Web (not to mention the technology surrounding it) has been around long enough, and people have grown accustomed enough to dealing with it, that folks want (and expect) a little razzle-dazzle when they go online. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how to deliver it! Whether your boss wants you to jazz up the company's Web site or you're burning the midnight oil trying to pull together some Web animations for a class project, this tightly focused, project-based guide shows you how to start creating Flash animations in an instant! Using big, bold full-color pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with Flash: using the Flash authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more.

Customer Reviews:

Do not recommend it.......2007-08-11

All words are written in large, childlike print, to give an impression that this book is easy to read and thus also easy to execute. But the execution instructions are not very well described. Some steps have missing photos. The book is also way too short for the kind of book it is supposed to be: visual introduction to flash for beginners. It also has no troubleshooting. I do not recommend starting learning flash from this book, it is for more advanced learners.

good introduction to Flash.......2007-05-11

This book is only meant to be a brief introduction to Flash. Not really for the novice. A CD with source code should NOT be included for this price. If you want more than a brief into to Flash, buy a more advanced book. I think you people who give negative reviews are just a bunch of whiners.

Quite Worthless.......2006-03-22

I got this book under the guise that I would be able to create a website in Flash. I didn't need a fancy website, only something to house my online portfolio and CV for work-related purposes. This book does not tell you anywhere in the text, but you need at least Flash MX 2004. Flash 5--which I already had--wouldn't open the source files (not included, but available from the publisher's website--another flaw; CDs are VERY inexpensive to manufacture and one containing source files SHOULD have been included with the book), and neither would Flash MX. Of course, how are you supposed to know if the author doesn't tell you? The author completely operated under the assumption that EVERYONE would have the lastest version of Flash installed. This was a BIG mistake, and it renders the book worthless to many people.

Can't recommend it.......2006-02-23

I wanted to explore Flash from a site-building perspective, and since I've done some animation in the past -- meaning I'm already familiar with concepts like "key frames" and "tweening" -- I figured that this book would be a great way to explore the technology. I'm a great fan of the Visual Quickstart Guide series, and since "Creating a Web Site with Flash" is from a related imprint, it seemed likely that I'd be able to follow closely what they did in the book and then apply those techniques to a project I had in mind.

Fat chance. I'd read some of the earlier reviews and although several of them were negative, I imagined that being reasonably intelligent and technically savvy, I wouldn't get stuck the way the book's other readers had. Nor did I: I got stuck in entirely different but equally frustrating ways. Often I'd find myself instructed by the authors to perform a particular action, but have no way of completing it because that menu choice wasn't available. (Often it would be visible but greyed out, meaning I'd have to do something else first -- but what?)

I will admit I don't like the user interfaces that Macromedia comes up with (for Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) but that's precisely why I wanted a step-by-step guide like this one. I figured all the full-color illustrations would make it fool-proof. Unfortunately, at least least twice in the first few chapters, this fool got to the point where he just couldn't make Flash do what the authors said it should be doing. I finally stopped about half-way through in frustration, without either the demo website or any understanding of what I did wrong.

The publisher does provide chapter-by-chapter "snapshot" versions of the files you're supposed to be constructing (on its website), but I don't consider that a useful substitute for clear instruction. Sure, handholding someone through a complex application like Flash isn't an easy task, but I'm wondering whether Peachpit Press actually road-tested the book with a true novice, or just had people already familiar with Flash simply spot-check it for any obvious errors.

Good intro to wet your apetite.......2005-11-23

It got me started on using Flash in less than 3 days. I have a couple of Visual QuickProject books & they had been helpful. Yes, they lack in-depth details but that's what they are - quick intros...& very good at that. Part of learning a program is to find out yourself thru trial & error anyway. I had to refer to Flash' built-in help tool to understand some stuff further (like what's the difference btwn graphic, movie clip & button behaviours in Symbols).

I have not encounter any errors in this book tt obstruct my learning. I like that it uses one single project (just like other books in this series). The project covers a lot - drawing, animation, buttons, effects, navigation etc. You can see how things connect by using a single project. Enough to get you interested to find out what else Flash is capable of.

Creating a Web Site with Flash CS3 Professional: Visual QuickProject Guide

Average customer rating:

Great supplement to more advanced books.
Poorly written - confusing

Creating a Web Site with Flash CS3 Professional: Visual QuickProject Guide
David Morris
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0321503007

Book Description

With 75% of U.S. households having Internet connections, more people than ever are going online for information, shopping, or just to surf. The need for interactive and well-designed sites has never been higher, and more people are looking to learn—or improve—their Web skills. For the busy professionals whose boss wants them to jazz up their Web site, or the student burning the midnight oil to put together some Web animations for a class, Creating a Web Site with Adobe Flash CS3 Professional: Visual QuickProject Guide is just the book they need to start creating Flash sites in an instant. Pared down to just the essentials, this book shows readers who are short on time just what they need to know to accomplish their first project in Flash. Topics covered include using the Flash authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, loading dynamic data, adding sound and video, plus coverage of new Flash CS3 features: Primitive Object drawing tools, Adobe Illustrator import, Active content detection, and more. It’s everything readers need to know to develop their Web site using Adobe Flash! The book’s companion Web site offers project files and updates.

Customer Reviews:

Great supplement to more advanced books........2007-09-12

This book is a great book to supplement more technical books. To say it is hard to follow is ridiculous. It is written in such an easy manner that anyone can follow it. My advice is to spend the day building the website example in the book and then try your own website. Chances are you can create something fairly decent for a beginner.

Poorly written - confusing.......2007-09-08

One of the most poorly written guides I have come across. The author's style is hard to follow,steps are taken without any explanation of why you are doing it, and worst off all there is no "flow" to the material. There must be something better out there to introduce you to Flash - which is very complex.

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