Kathy Nimmer is an award-winning teacher, author, and motivational speaker from Indiana. In 2006, she won first place in the Helen Keller International Memoir Competition and published a book of poetry called Minutes in the Dark, Eternity in the Light. She received the Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, is a two-time recipient of the Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship, earned National Board Certification in 2003, and was presented with the Golden Apple in 1998. In 2009, she was named a Lilly Distinguished Fellow, giving her the opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream, the fulfillment of which is Two Plus Four Equals One. Blind due to a rare retinal disease, Nimmer looks to her faith, family, and friends as cornerstones in her life. She enjoys working out at the gym, reading mysteries, following sports, adding to her perfume collection, and going for long walks with her third guide dog Elias. True, vibrant, honest, and emotional, eliciting compassion, joy, sorrow, and love, promoting understanding, acceptance, awareness, and hope. Here are over 100 stories and poems written by or about men, women, and children, all either with disabilities or connected to people who have disabilities. Joining them are Labradors, German Shepherds, Poodles, Papillons, Goldens, Shelties, Chihuahuas, and many other breeds, all trained to assist their disabled handlers. From blindness to deafness, from mobility issues to psychiatric needs, from diabetes to autism, the array of disabilities showcased in this unforgettable book is as vast as the tasks performed by the canine partners. Your eyes will be opened to the strength, competence, and potential of both the human and canine participants in an alliance where neither partner is perfect but both together add up to an equation where two hands/feet/eyes/ears plus four paws equals one magical union.

Beyond the Wall is the first book, in either English or German, to tell the whole story of the extraordinary revolution that demolished the Berlin Wall, ended the Cold war, and tore apart the Soviet regime. Elizabeth Pond, former Moscow and European correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, was an eyewitness to the dramatic events of 1989-92 and to the fifteen years of relations between Germany and Eastern Europe leading up to them. Pond weaves together in riveting prose the strands of events that are usually recounted separately. Rather than looking just at the East German revolt or the process of unification that created a new nation, she traces the interaction of these events and their diplomatic consequences for Europe. Pond shows the political, economic, and social forces at work--leading up to the unification, during the transition process, and in the aftermath. Looking at the European framework, she explains how significantly the European Community and its move toward integration both affected and were affected by German unification. The book contains a wealth of new information form hundreds of interviews with top German and American policymakers, East German Politburo members and average German citizens. It also incorporates up-to-date research on such topics as the Stasi secret police and the midlife crisis of the German left. Pond concludes with an assessment of the roles of the United States and a unified Germany in the new Europe. Calling for a continued partnership between the United States and Germany, who "have come through a common baptism of fire since the fall of the Berlin Wall," Pond casts an optimistic eye toward the future.

This book offers an introduction to the analysis of meaning. Our outstanding ability to communicate is a distinguishing feature of our species. To communicate is to convey meaning, but what is meaning? How do words combine to give us the meanings of sentences? And what makes a statement ambiguous or nonsensical? These questions and many others are addressed in Paul Elbourne's fascinating guide. He opens by asking what kinds of things the meanings of words and sentences could be: are they, for example, abstract objects or psychological entities? He then looks at how we understand a sequence of words we have never heard before; he considers to what extent the meaning of a sentence can be derived from the words it contains and how to account for the meanings that can't be; and he examines the roles played by time, place, and the shared and unshared assumptions of speakers and hearers. He looks at how language interacts with thought and the intriguing question of whether what language we speak affects the way we see the world. Meaning, as might be expected, is far from simple. Paul Elbourne explores its complex issues in crystal clear language. He draws on approaches developed in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology - assuming a knowledge of none of them -in a manner that will appeal to everyone interested in this essential element of human psychology and culture.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - History, grade: Merit (Gut), King s College London (Department of War Studies), 15 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Until not long before the events of 1989, political union between the two German states appeared far off. In fact, in early 1989, articles appeared in the International Herald Tribune proposing the German politicians give up the idea of German reunification1. Yet within little more than a year, Germany had acceded to full political union and sovereignty, without allies or neighbours objecting. We will ask ourselves how this seeming contradiction came to happen and what role diplomacy played in making it possible. To do this, we will separate the course of events in two sections, the first one -less formalised- focusing more on the question if reunification would happen, followed by the second -more formalised- focusing on the terms of reunification. In the third part we will face the question what role the shape of consultations, notably the 2+4 (two German states plus four allied powers), played in the successful outcome of German moves towards reunification.

This Behemoth of a textbook has more than 340 pages of: Lesson Plans, Activities, and Leveled Readers all for the struggling learner.

These lessons show how to maximize instruction that prepares students for formal algebra. Through a series of investigations, students build their proficiency with key algebraic concepts. Connections between arithmetic and algebra are made through the use of drawings, tables, graphs, words, and symbols. Lessons include a technology component with suggestions for teaching with graphing calculators.