Stop, Drop and Roll

Stop, Drop and Roll was written by Margery Cuyler and illustrated by Arthur Howard. This Scholastic book was published in 2001.

Stop, Drop and Roll is a precious story about a young elementary age girl who worried about everything. Her name was Jessica. Jessica worried about homework, spelling tests, and her new steps in ballet class. Fire Prevention month is the month of October. We journey with her as she learns about fire prevention and what to do when faced with a fire. Her teacher asks Jessica to model how to "Stop, Drop and Roll" if your clothes catch on fire. Although she worried herself silly about, little miss Jessica was able to model the correct actions in front of the whole school.

MY TWO CENTS:
I really enjoyed this book for two simple reasons. First of all it takes us through the mind and actions of an elementary school child. As an adult, a fire drill or even a disaster drill is nothing more than practice. As a adults we have experienced many of these type of drills as well as an occasional "real" thing. However, fire drills and/or disaster drills are new and unfamiliar situations for elementary school students. This book written by Margery Cuyler exposes young students to these common drills and lets them know they done for their safety. Lastly, I enjoyed this book because it outlines the actions that should be taken by all in the event of a fire. Our character, Jessica, takes this new information and begins to apply it to her life at home. She begins to ask her father questions regarding fire safety and she takes her little brother along to inspect the house for fire hazards. Jessica models for our young students what they should do both at school and at home.

This is a book I would recommend as a quick read-a-loud followed up with a conversation and/or a lesson on fire prevention. It is an easy, quick, fun, and action provoking read.

NO AR: :(

Why Grace Changes Everything

Why Grace Changes Everything written by Chuck Smith. This book was published 1994 by Harvest House Publishers.



In a nutshell, this book is about God's grace. It has fourteen life changing chapters that talk about God's grace and how it will transform your live into "something rich and beautiful."


The message of grace is simple, yet man has made every effort to make it difficult, complex, and unattainable. Through these fourteen chapters, Pastor Chuck Smith has taken this convoluted concept of grace and explains it in a clear and forthright manner. Utilizing scripture from the new and old testaments, Chuck Smith explains that through God's grace we are forgiven through the simple act of believing in what Jesus said and did. He takes the time to share with the reader that one's salvation is not based on works but rests on the acts of Jesus Christ and God's grace toward man. Jesus completed the required tasks and fulfilled all of God's requirements. Man can not nor will he ever be able to complete or fulfill all of God's requirements through his own efforts. Works will not open the door to heaven, only God's grace toward men/women who by faith trust in Christ. In the last chapter of his book, Chuck Smith states it best, "The message of the New Testament is simple, direct, and unmistakable. We are saved by God's grace through faith alone, not on the basis of any good works we have done. The sole responsibility of a Christian is to believe in the love and grace which God freely offers."

TWO CENTS WORTH:

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of grace as well as its relationship with God, Jesus, and the believer. All of my life I have believed that work was the key to get through those pearly gates. I had to work and tip the scales in my favor so that all of my sins would be over looked when compared to my good deeds. The bible reveals to the reader that our works can not and will not get us into heaven. Yet, through the simple act of believing in Jesus we given the keys to heaven and forgiven of all we've done in the past. Jesus has done all the work required of me in order to be in God's presence. Now all I have to do is believe and accept the grace God freely offers.

This is an excellent book on the subject of God's grace. Why Grace Changes Everything is a book that will meet the needs of the serious scholar as well as the novist (sp). It was an easy read. Chuck Smith used scripture throughout the text as well as real-life experiences. The text was easy to understand, confirm with scripture, and apply to one's personal walk. This is a book I recommend to read.

10 Best Teaching Practices

10 Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and STandards Define Teaching Competencies is written by Donna Walker Tileston. She has written this book for the teacher who has been seeking out teaching methods that have a proven track record and have been supported by research. Donna Walker Tileston has skillfully incorporated brain research and learning styles information into a book for quick reference. The ten best practices covered in this book are not new. We have all seen them, heard about them, read about them, and even practiced them in our own classroom.

Donna Walker Tileston has provided her readers with the latest in brain research, learning styles, and standards based instruction. She builds a solid case on why educators (i.e. teachers, principals, and district administrators) need to put into action these 10 teaching practices.

This book has been divided up into eleven chapters. The first ten chapters cover the ten best practices Donna Walker Tileston champions and the last chapter discusses how to put it all together.

The importance of creating an emotionally supportive and enriching environment was covered in chapter 1. Chapter 2 supports the notion that a wide repertoire of teaching techniques must be utilized throughout the lesson. Connecting new concepts or new learning across disciplines with concepts and learning that has taken place previously was discussed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 takes some time to review the research that supports teaching for long-term memory. As educators, it has been our responsibility to integrate higher-level thinking skills into the daily learning of our students. This practice was covered in some detail in chapter 5. Chapter 6 reviews the research on positive impact collaboration has both inside the classroom with the students as well as outside of the classroom with the teachers. Collaboration can and will improve how students learn, what students learn, how teachers work together, how teachers teach, and what teachers teach. Bridging the gender gap, the race gap, and the socioeconomic status gap is covered in chapter 7. This chapter discusses the importance and ever growing need to ensure that "all learners" have an opportunity to be academically successful in our educational system. Chapter 8 addresses authentic assessment and the need to move away from using assessment to test our student's short-term memory but to use authentic assessment for assessing their long-term memory. Chapter 9 identifies the importance of relevance as it applies to learning in the classroom. Technology and its place in today's society has been explored in chapter 10. The last chapter is two pages (my kind of chapter) and sums up what was said.

MY TWO CENTS:

If you are familiar with the latest research of "best practices" then this book is nothing more than a review or a synopsis of the teaching practices that make a difference. I would recommend this book for new teachers as well as principals. Why? This book is an easy read and in a short period of time, the reader will be exposed to the top ten teaching practices that are research supported as well as have enough information to begin a deeper study in one or more of the practices. I'll admit some of those books on brain research are thick with tier 3 words and dwell in the clouds. When reading books like that, I tend to trudge through them (three steps forward and two steps back) and get lost in their language. Donna Walker Tileston has successfully taken years of research and experience and placed it in an easy to read, yet highly informative book.

Hey Jason, thank you for recommending this book. It brought me up to speed and has provided me with some of the research needed to support and/or correct the actions taking place in the classroom.

Math Fables

Math Fables was written by Reg Tang. In an effort to inspire the young to view math as fun and interesting, Reg Tang has written a number of books around the topic of math. Math Fables is a fable with animals and insects as characters. As in many math books for younger students, as you read the pages you discover that you and your child are counting to ten. This book is unique in the sense as you are counting to ten through the pages, the author provides the readers with multiple combinations of the numbers. For example, when the author writes about the 5 raccoons, he also writes about the 2 raccoons who "quickly grabbed" the trash can while "the other 3 all cried." Reg Tang infuses these types number combinations throughout this math book.

MY TWO CENTS:

Charming math book for young children. It is a quick read and provides a fun atmosphere reading about numbers. I particularly liked how Reg Tang incorporated different combinations of numbers to highlight the actual number he was focusing on. This opens the door to addition as well as how several different combinations of numbers can equal the same number (i.e. 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 4+1=5, 1+4=5).

AR QUIZ: 100%