Showing titles in Educators

As my children have grown, I realize that a family’s “story” is its legacy for future generations. This book retells family stories so that others may share a laugh, gain some insight, and discover that each of us, and our experiences, should be celebrated. We all have a story. We live it in bits and pieces each day. If we keep it to ourselves, it dies with us. Life’s lessons are too important to let that happen. If these stories remind you of yours, please share them with those you love.

This book is about the personal odyssey of becoming a dancer, teacher, and educator. With a few biographical elements, it represents a lifelong reflection of transformations from the innate gift to the fulfillment as an artist with the focus on self-education. As an artist, I take on a cosmopolitan approach to art by dissolving stigmas, national identities, borders, and walls from my experiences of the Soviet Union in the Cold War Era, through Canadian immigration, Danish society, and finally the American emergence, all through the eyes of a ballet teacher and artist.

The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers focuses on Mr. Rogers' spiritual legacy, but it is much more than that. It shows us a man who, to paraphrase the words of St. Francis of Assisi, "preached the gospel at all times; when necessary he used words".

Dr. Ed Panosian has dedicated his life to the study and teaching of world history. Yet, his own astounding story is relatively unknown. Panosian's grandparents, aunts, and uncles were among the 1,500,000 people killed by Islamic Turks during the Armenian genocide (1915-1918). His own parents narrowly - and providentially - escaped martyrdom, immigrating to the United States, living out the American Dream, and raising a son who became an iconic professor to nearly 30,000 students.

Adults often find it difficult to communicate with autistic students and try to “fix” them. But what if we found a way to help these kids use their natural gifts to convey their thoughts and feelings? What if the traditional structure of language prevents them from communicating the full depth of their experiences? What if the most effective and most immediate way for people on the spectrum to express themselves is through verse, which mirrors their sensory-rich experiences and patterned thoughts?

August, 1755. Newcastle, on the north bank of the Tyne. In the fields, men and women are getting the harvest in. Sunlight or rain. Scudding clouds and backbreaking labour. Three hundred feet underground, young Charles Hutton is at the coalface. Cramped, dust choked, wielding a five-pound pick by candlelight. Eighteen years old, he’s been down the pits on and off for more than a decade, and now it looks like a life sentence. No unusual story, although Charles is a clever lad - gifted at maths and languages - and for a time he hoped for a different life. Many hoped.

In this book I express my feelings I had during my teenage years as a teen with autism. Watching other kids go through puberty and begin interacting with the opposite sex in different ways than I knew or understood was very frustrating. It is my goal that this book helps you prepare other children for the teenagers years and puberty. Puberty is tough to deal with for anyone. Throwing Autism into the mix only made things more confusing. I needed more clarity on what was going on with my body. I sought out answers on my own because no one talked to me about it in ways I understood.

From best-selling author and teacher Mary Maccracken comes the engaging and inspiring story of five troubled children she fought to bring back from the brink. Joey is the class clown but alone proves to be an intensely dark seven-year old who still can't read. Eric is a kindergartener left withdrawn and speechless by the horrors he's witnessed at home. Alice appears to be the model fifth-year child but secretly scores zero on every maths test.

The English Governess at the Siamese Court, written in 1870, vividly recounts the experiences of one Anna Harriette Leonowens as governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam, and translator and scribe for the King himself. Bright, young, and energetic, Leonowens was well-suited to her role and her writings convey a heartfelt interest in the lives, legends, and languages of Siam's rich and poor.

From the autumn harvest festival to the summer sports day, the academic year is a non-stop frenzy of planning, preparation and potential chaos, whichever side of the school gates you find yourself. But now Britain’s best-loved teachers and podcast hosts Lee and Adam Parkinson are here to make it all that little bit easier as they share the hilarious trials, tribulations and tomfoolery going on inside our primary schools.

Why would the multimillionaire producer of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon take his limo from Manhattan to the struggling former steel town of Levittown, Pennsylvania, to see a high school production of Les Misérables? To see the show performed by the astoundingly successful theater company at Harry S Truman High School, run by its legendary director, Lou Volpe. Broadway turns to Truman High when trying out controversial shows such as Rent and Spring Awakening before they move on to high school theater programs across the nation. Volpe’s students from this blue-collar town go on to become Emmy-winning producers, entertainment executives, newscasters, and community-theater founders.

David Jackson is proof positive that hard work, persistence, and belief in yourself can help you fulfill your most desired goals and dreams no matter what obstacles are thrown in your way. If ever there was a testament to perseverance and hard work, *Landing at the Top* is it.

Growing up in Ferguson, Missouri, Stanley Andrisse began making poor decisions at a very young age. He started selling dope and was arrested for the first time at 14 years old. By his early 20s, hewas in front of a judge facing 20 years to life on drug-trafficking charges. In prison, while challenged with a strong desire for self-renewal, he faced an environment that was not conducive for transformative change. From poor institutional structure and policies to individual institutionalized thinking and behaviors, he battled on a daily basis to retain and maintain his humanity.

A young teacher buys a one-way ticket to Shishmaref, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, she finds herself dealing with unexpected, rustic accommodations, and the culture shock of living in a remote Iñuit community. She relies on her courage, resilience, and wit while enduring freezing temperatures, power outages, loneliness, and first-year teacher anxieties and missteps, but eventually realizes that those challenges pale in comparison to the life lessons she learns about the heart of teaching.

In childhood, Amy Hallberg receives a dollhouse that—while given with love—carries steep expectations. Forty years later, Amy walks away from her teaching career to forge a new life as a writer. The dollhouse reemerges as a mirror on Minnesota Nice, that familiar culture Amy’s been afraid to examine too closely.

Starting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school's headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man "at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who...created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities."

Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life.

Before Jeffrey Boakye was a Black teacher, he was a Black student. Which means he has spent a lifetime navigating places of learning that are white by default. Since training to teach, he has often been the only Black teacher at school. At times seen as a role model, at others a source of curiosity, Boakye’s is a journey of exploration—from the outside looking in. In the groundbreaking I Heard What You Said, he recounts how it feels to be on the margins of the British education system.

A former carer, primary school teacher and education researcher, Matt Lloyd-Rose became a volunteer police officer to try to understand the challenges facing young people in Brixton, the place he lived and taught. He got more than he bargained for. Each Friday evening, he put on the uniform and policed South London: racing through it on blue lights, patrolling its streets, entering a parallel version of a place he thought he knew.

In March 2005, Dr. Steven Berk was kidnapped in Amarillo, Texas, by a dangerous and enigmatic criminal who entered his home, armed with a shotgun, through an open garage door. Dr. Berk's experiences and training as a physician, especially his understanding of Sir William Osler's treatise on aequanimitas, enabled him to keep his family safe, establish rapport with his kidnapper, and bring his captor to justice.