As a young student, my goal was to be invisible. I was the child who hid between the time-honored cracks in the floorboards of the antiquated school where – decades earlier – my mother also attended. I resided between the cracks (BTC); the not-so-fancy term for those students who faintly prick the adult senses that something is amiss. How ironic as I fast-forward to my initial career decision, I actually chose to become a teacher, a daily life path in the very environment I once despised. Yet, former BTC membership caused me to seek out those silent, self-marginalized students to bring them out of the floorboards and into the daylight.
I wrote
A Work of Heart: Connecting with Kids in a Chaotic World
Sometimes the timing of a book’s addition to our personal reading list can make the difference in how willing we are to permit a particular message to infiltrate our lives.
For me, The Glass Castle was such a book. I was in the midst of reading the emotionally charged text that was fraught with familial dysfunction when I interacted with one of my fourth-grade students. Sitting beside him, I immediately noticed the stench of cat piss on his clothing. Rather than hold my breath at the gag-worthy smell, I inhaled, as I wanted to see past the invisible fog of his environment.
Now a major motion picture starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.
This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' but alcoholic parents.
At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane,…
The title of this wildly popular book cleverly uses a single word – educated – and constructs a read that is less about formalized education and more about perseverance.
Shocking circumstances detail a family that is entwined with abuse, denial, mental health challenges, and overly religious zeal. Curiously, some family members are able to wade through layers of dysfunction to ultimately escape the broken environment, whereas others remain ensnared.
As an educator, this read is important for all – not only for teachers but also for the general public – and thus, acknowledge that some children originate from a place of horror. Yet, my one reservation with Educated: A Memoir is that in my humble opinion, I believe it was written too soon, as the author – in her early thirties – seems far too young to have fully reflected on her life before moving forward.
Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE
'One of the best books I have ever read . . . unbelievably moving' Elizabeth Day 'An extraordinary story, beautifully told' Louise O'Neill 'A memoir to stand alongside the classics . . . compelling and joyous' Sunday Times
Tara Westover grew up preparing for the end of the world. She was never put in school, never taken to the doctor. She did not even have a birth certificate…
Members of the hand-wringing public who lament about a lack of discipline in today’s schools need to read Frank McCourt’s reflections of serving as a teacher – nearly twenty years ago – to adolescents in the New York City public school system.
Before he began his illustrious writing career, the author accumulated thirty years of experience as an English and creative writing educator. Teacher Man: A Memoir details early foibles that eventually led to McCourt’s unconventional and imaginative approach to the art of teaching.
Nearly a decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of sixty-six, he burst onto the literary scene with Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize -- winning memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis, his glorious account of his early years in New York.
Now, here at last, is McCourt's long-awaited book about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises…
After more than thirty years of teaching college students, Dr. “Tony” Fredericks put pen to paper to create a practical and solution-based guide for adjunct professors.
First, the reader is guided to establish best teaching practices for this specialized group of students. The author also provides countless tools as he details how to select a textbook and design a syllabus, define first-day teaching expectations, pose effective questions to propel stimulating discussions, and teach diverse populations of students.
Meticulously constructed, the author composes the text in a well-organized and easy-to-read format. As an aside, Dr. Tony Fredericks currently is the author of over one-hundred-seventy books, comprised as adult non-fiction books, children’s books, pre-service teacher books, and teacher resource books. Not too shabby.
The Ancillary Army. Freeway Flyers. Roads Scholars. Turnpike Teachers. These are some of the nicknames given to part-time college teachers. They may teach one or two courses at a single institution, or, in some cases, they may teach multiple courses at multiple institutions. Often their office consists of the front seat of their car, and their desk is a cardboard box. Their lunch is whatever they can grab at McDonalds while zipping through traffic to their next scheduled class.
For many, the thought of teaching one or two courses in their area of specialty is most appealing. Not only does…
After nearly four decades of serving as a United States Navy Seal, Four-Star Admiral McRaven chronicles the lives of everyday heroes, such as the courage of Dr. Kenneth Cooper, astronaut; or the tenacity of Dr. Jim Allison, cancer researcher.
Chapters are organized as short stories, devoted to promoting the lives of heroes who espouse honorable qualities that range from sacrifice to forgiveness. Simply stated, Admiral McRaven details character-building stories that promote the best in humanity.
From the acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed—a short, inspirational book about the qualities of true, everyday heroes.
THE HERO CODE is Admiral McRaven's ringing tribute to the real, everyday heroes he's met over the years, from battlefields to hospitals to college campuses, who are doing their part to save the world.
When Bill McRaven was a young boy growing up in Texas, he dreamed of being a superhero. He longed to put on a cape and use his superpowers to save the earth from destruction. But as he…
A Work of Heart: Connecting with Kids in a Chaotic World is an emotional - and necessary - book for adults who guide our most valuable resource: our children. This narrative journey intricately unfolds mentor/mentee relationship-building stories, such as a child’s passageway from homelessness and aggression to honor roll student, or the journey of a nonverbal child with autism from explosive outbursts to peaceful interactions. Each chapter of this page-turner builds with momentum to motivate parents, teachers, coaches, scout leaders, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, and anyone who interacts with youth to model the book’s concept of real-time mentorship.
Simply stated, real-time mentoring is the immediate gift of guidance and support for those in need of a positive and trusted role model.
My favorite fantasy novels tend to be rather complex. Winding plotlines, mysteriously interconnected characters, whimsical settings, and intricate, thoughtful worldbuilding combine to create immersive stories that stick in the mind like overworn folklore. Time travel or interworld travel lend additional layers of intrigue and mystery, forcing the inescapable contemplation of a more thrilling, alternate reality. And if it’s all packaged in artful, breathtaking prose that breeds full-color images, audible noises, indelible flavors, nose-crumpling odors, and tangible textures, I will happily lose myself in the pages, truly forgetting about the strictures of everyday life… at least until I get hungry and remember I need to consume more than books to survive.
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to Ride, but her destiny will pit her against her uncle and king, who have scorned her since before her birth.
In the Exchange, the waystation between realms, Emmelyn fights the G’Ambit, a gambling ring with members more intent on lining their pockets than protecting the realms—or their own lives.
Realm-devouring parasites threaten all existence. The Exchange is desperate to destroy them. But could their radical plans endanger the realms, too?
Soul-sucking parasites are overwhelming the realms.
Rhoswen of Stanburh is of age to train as a Realm Rider—a defender of the realms. Riders and their dragons work together to burn away infiltrating Narxon as they swarm in through tears in a realm’s fabric. But it’s not an easy battle: the mere touch of the smoky, dragon-like adversaries can reduce the lively winged beasts—and their Riders—to ash.
Becoming a Realm Rider is Rhoswen’s dream, but she carries far more responsibility…
