This book offers a highly revealing and troubling view of today's high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Denise Pope, veteran teacher and curriculum expert, follows five motivated and successful students through a school year, closely shadowing them and engaging them in lengthy reflections on their school experiences. What emerges is a double-sided picture of school success. On the one hand, these students work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honours, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values and manipulate the system by scheming, lying, and cheating. In short, they do school, that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community. The words and actions of these five students - two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds - underscore the frustrations of being caught in a grade trap that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today's schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the success that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?

Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Chita Rivera, Olympia Dukakis, Sam Waterston, and many more lend their voices to The School of Doing, a comprehensive guide to the craft and teachings of internationally renowned stage director and educator Gerald Freedman, including lessons on acting, directing, text analysis, comedy technique, camera technique, Shakespeare, musical theater, design, pedagogy, and the business itself. Foreword by Mandy Patinkin.

How do you define success for your children? How do you define success for yourself? Are you simply chasing money, fame, or power? What value are those things if you are unhappy, dissatisfied, unwise, or unkind? Happiness and Heroism is a two-book series consisting of two letters from a father to his children that impart lessons on loving life and walking a noble path. The first letter in the series, The School of Being, teaches the philosophy of the fundamental goodness of existence; mindfulness of true reality; humanity’s innate tendencies to feel stress, fear, anger, boredom, and depression—and the antidote. The second letter in the series, The School of Doing, teaches how and why to choose one’s actions with purpose, thoughtfulness, and based upon principles that can be continually refined as wisdom is amassed throughout one’s lifetime. Many years ago, the author wrote a letter to legendary writer Kurt Vonnegut on the very same subject matter, to which Mr. Vonnegut replied, “Dear Y.P.R., The toughest part of my job is dealing with people who write better and think more clearly that I do. You may already know that Nietzsche said that only people of deep faith can afford the luxury of skepticism. This could explain your aplomb and mine in the midst of moral chaos.”

Learning By Doing is a book of activities for use by parents and teachers of children. Trained as a special education teacher, Anne Rogovin has long held that children learn best by doing--a hands-on approach that reinforces their growing knowledge base--and that the principles of learning are the same although the rates of learning are different. "Learning by doing" has been used in recent years to describe the way adults learn best as well--enhanced by adults learning to use computers and other technologies. The book includes sections on science, health, language, reading, music, art, and much more.

Set in the American community of Rivercrest in a multi-racial junior school, this text provides a portrait of the beliefs and understandings held by students, teachers and administrators with respect to issues such as race, social class and gender.

Help students master test taking through preparation strategies that lead to academic success! As the stakes on high-profile student tests such as the SAT continue to rise, student preparedness is becoming increasingly important. As a result, helping students do well on tests and succeed in school has become a top priority for teachers. This indispensable guide responds to this need by providing resources to promote content learning and test-taking abilities in middle and secondary school students. This practical text provides charts, checklists, Internet resources, and sample exercises for teachers to use with students, plus a final test covering content from each chapter. Using research-based practices, educators will be able to help students develop • Strategies for dealing with test anxiety • Effective time management and organizational skills • Note-taking and study techniques applicable across content areas • Methods for taking essay and objective tests Tests are often a source of anxiety for students and teachers alike, but they don’t have to be! Use these proven tools and strategies to help your students develop the skills and confidence that lead to positive academic experiences.