A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned

Customer Reviews:

Well-intentioned but not sufficiently informed.......2005-12-19

Jane Tompkins had an epiphany about teaching late in her academic career: teaching involves relationships, and teachers should think about how students are making sense of the material. At elite colleges, this insight is depressingly rare, and when Tompkins first articulated it in an article called "Me and My Shadow," it made significant waves in the academy. "A Life in School" represents Tompkins review of her own schooling and her early teaching in light of this new understanding. Part of this book may surprise people who haven't yet figured out that schools should not be structured primarily by competition and shame; it's unusual to see such a prominent scholar arguing that classrooms should treat students humanely. But what were discoveries for Tompkins in the 90s have been standard practice for many teachers since the 1960s (and for some in the 1930s). I'd recommend Nancie Atwell's "In the Middle" or Vivian Gussey Paley's "The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter" to those interested in teaching narratives that push beneath the surface. Although "Women's Ways of Knowing" focuses on girls' education, it also articulates in universally helpful ways many of the principles Tompkins is trying to develop. Jane Tompkins' publicity for good teaching has been immensely helpful, but there's a whole library of books published by Heinemann that can teach you more about building effective, caring classrooms.

Awakenings.......1997-11-03

As a new member of the profession, Tompkins book enlightened me as to the reason we have paralysis in higher education - its not that the paralysis is required, but its a feature of those of who are a part of it. As I read about Tompkins discoveries, something as simple as recognizing that a teacher needs to 'read the room' and tailor learning to the mood, convinced me that I am doing something right. But the disturbing part to discover is that while Tompkins has awakened herself to new approaches to teaching, her colleagues are still largely unaware. her presentation of her childhood - and the final connection to how this affects her teaching was dead-on.

A must-read about Tompkins' journey through life & academe.......1997-01-19

I enjoy reading books by women about women as they perceive their journey through academe. This is an especially good piece of work. Tompkins is an English professor at Duke. The book is autobiographical and profoundly evocative. It is an intense interpretation of the innertwinings of her personal and professional life. Tompkins discusses her life--from elementary school, through her doctoral program at Yale, through her life as a nontenured and then tenured faculty member--and, in the process, discusses issues that are important to so many of us in the Academy. She writes wonderfully about teaching, learning, and working at a research university. This is a book that will make you laugh, cry, and shake your head because of the way that she is so thoroughly introspective and incisive. Here's just a sample: "Peacable kingdoms aren't born; they are made. And that is why it seems to me that the university, like other places of employment, needs to become aware of itself as a social organism. This would mean that the leadership would become self-conscious about the nature of human interaction on the campus, finding a way to involve everybody--undergraduates, secretaries, janitorial staff, administrators, professors at all ranks, part-time faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars. It would mean devoting time and effort to building good relationships. Right now, the culture of the research university militates agains the quality of life because such concerns are regarded as peripheral to the university's main business. They're perceived as unintellectual, more or less on the level of housekeeping.... But if research universities like the one I work at are going to become places where people like to come to work in the morning, where the employees have a stake and feel they belong, then they will have to model something besides the ideal of individual excellence--the Olympic polevaulter making it over the bar. By modeling the way that they do business, they'll need to model our dependence on one another, our need for mutual respect and support, acceptance, and encouragement. If the places that young people go to be educated don't embody the ideals of community, cooperation, and harmony, then what young people will learn will be the behavior these institutions do exemplify: competition, hierarchy, busyness, and isolation." Her observations about undergraduate education and teaching, as well as the description of her personal jouney as a teacher, are first-rate. The chapters entitled, "Ash Wednesday" and "The Cloister and the Heart," are among the best--if not the best--in the book. For example, in the "Cloister" chapter, she writes: "The university has come to resemble an assembly line, a mode of production that it professes to disdain. Each professor gets to turn one little screw--his specialty--and the student comes to him to get that screw turned. Then on to the next. The integrating function is left entirely to the student.... It would be more helpful to students if, as a starting point, universities conceived education less as training for a career than as the introduction to a life." This is a must-read for faculty and administrators. Enjoy! Frank Fear, Michigan State University

A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned.

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A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned.
Jane. Tompkins
Manufacturer: Perseus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOJX3C

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The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine (Theater: Theory/Text/Performance)
Marvin Carlson
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
History & Criticism | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception

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Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey, from the Greeks to the Present

ASIN: 0472089374

Book Description

Throughout theatrical history, almost every element in stage production has been recycled. Indeed any regular theatergoer is familiar with the experience of a performance that conjures the ghosts of previous productions. The Haunted Stage explores this theatrical déjà vu, and examines how it stimulates the spectator's memory. Relating the dynamics of reception to the interaction between theater and memory, The Haunted Stage uncovers the ways in which the memory of the spectator informs the process of theatrical reception.

Marvin Carlson is Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the City University of New York.

Book Description

Whist was a wildly popular card game in the late 19th century--so popular that it was almost one's social duty to become an accomplished Whist player. Among the most reliable authorities and instructors was R.F. Foster, who developed a complete hands-on system for learning the game and becoming a first-class player. Those who follow his system can become expert in leading, playing the second hand, developing strategies, seeing signals, and using trumps. Also included are the Laws of Whist as adopted at the Third American Whist Congress in 1893, the Laws of Duplicate Whist, and the Etiquette of Whist. "No book has won more popularity among the Whist-loving community than Foster's Whist Manual." -- Boston Herald, April 1894 "[Foster's] method of teaching the beginner is simple, lucid, and progressive, and his rules concise, yet clear. Not only beginners, but also advanced players might profitably enter upon his studies." - The Milwaukee Whist Club

Book Description

With start-up templates for projects ranging from Windows applications to web services, and extensive help and on-line documentation, Visual Studio .NET might be mistaken for a tool for unsophisticated users. It's true that most developers soon discover that the basic operation of Visual Studio is fairly self-explanatory; less obvious are some of the suite's more advanced built-in features. Visual Studio .Net includes a wealth of little-used capabilities, is very customizable, has a complete automation model, and much more. On top of its regular feature set, there are hosts of free add-ins, macros, and power toys that can further enhance the functionality of Visual Studio. This book is all about exploring these things, and in doing so, becoming a better and more efficient developer. Developers will learn how to:

Get the most out of projects and solutions, including getting down and dirty with the undocumented format of project and solution files
Use these editor features to the fullest, and add additional functionality to the editor through the use of third-party add-ins
Learn smarter ways to navigate the application and your own source code
Customize shortcut keys, toolbars, menus, the toolbox, and much more
Use the debugger successfully not only on your source code, but with T-SQL and scripting languages as well
Automatically generate code
Learn how the server can be used to interface with databases, services, and performance counters, as well as WMI
Use and create Visual Studio add-ins to extend its functionality

Offering valuable tips, tools, and tricks, Visual Studio Hacks takes you far beyond the suite's usual capabilities. You can read this book from cover to cover or, because each hack stands its own, you can feel free to browse and jump to the different sections that interest you most. If there's a prerequisite you need to know about, a cross-reference will guide you to the right hack. If you want to experience the full spectrum of Visual Studio's functionality and flexibility, you'll find the perfect guide for exploration in Visual Studio Hacks. Once the final page is turned, you can confidently say that you've been exposed to everything that Visual Studio .NET is capable of doing.

Customer Reviews:

Good quick reference.......2006-07-13

A lot of the tips in this book were either painfully obvious or were more "product reviews" of third-party tools than tips. But the format was easily accessible and enjoyable to read. There were enough real, productivity enhancing tips to make it worth the read.

The book was published with 2005 was in beta and so most of the tips are 2003-centric. I would like to see this book updated to be more of a "power-tips" book for 2005.

Overall--good read. It will help you use the dev environment more productively.

A must have for any VS 2005 developer.......2006-02-11

If you want to remain a Junior Programmer forever, then don't get this book. But if you want to really excel as a VS 2005 programmer, then you need to get this book. There is no fluff in this book at all. It is densly packed with a ton of useful details on the VS 2005 IDE. Not only do you learn the ins and outs of the IDE but it also guides you through several very useful 3rd party add-ins to VS.

This book is a terrific read and a great reference. I can't say that about too many books.

Full of gems.......2006-01-07

I would say this book is must-have for any die-hard .Net coder. Visual Studio.Net is a powerful IDE, and it is an expensive piece of software. This book helps you to squeeze every dollar out of your investment.

Among 100 hacks in the book, #64 about Reflector is my favorite. It sent me deep below the skin of .Net framework and get me an intimate look at .Net.

I would give this book a solid five stars if all the hacks download work as book said, but some(although very few) of hacks have bugs that need some help. For example, hack #97 Classify add-in, when I downloaded it from the book's site and installed it, I got a cryptic keybinding invalid warning. But it got fixed when I emailed the author about the problem. Thank you, James for your responsiveness.
Ying

Great collection of tips, tricks, and info to improve your VS experience.......2005-11-21

I've been using Visual Studio .NET for a couple of years now, and while I've always managed to get the things done that I needed, it was not always done in the most efficient way. However, it was not until I read this book that I realized that.

The book is well organized, divided into 13 logical chapters, each focusing on a particular area. My favorite was "Customizing Visual Studio" which shows you many ways to setup VS to work best for you and your particular needs. The book also has tons of screenshots and very clear instructions, which I have found that many computer books lack these days, especially some of the other O'Reilly books. In addition, there are lots of code samples, where applicable.

Another great thing that book included was info about a bunch of VS add-ins. There are literally hundreds of them out there, so it was nice to have someone else spend all the time sorting through them and letting the reader know which ones are worth their time.

Overall, it's a great book for anybody who uses Visual Studio .NET

good but not for a vs starter.......2005-10-05

I'm looking a visual studio book which really explain what is going on with Visual Studio from how to use it to what is really happening behind the scenes. This books DOES NOT do this.

Book Description

The individuals and events of the Elizabethan era continue to be popular topics for contemporary literature and film, and Elizabethan drama, poetry, and music are studied and enjoyed everywhere by students, scholars, and the general public. The Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World provides its users with clear definitions and descriptions of people, events, institutions, ideas, and terminology relating in some significant way to the Elizabethan period. The first dictionary of history to focus exclusively on the reign of Elizabeth I, this volume is also the first to take abroad trans-Atlantic approach to the period by including relevant individuals and terms from Irish, Scottish, Welsh, American, and Western European history.

Customer Reviews:

Lovely reference book.......2002-08-30

This book is fun to read, or to just pull off the shelf when something requires looking up. The scope of the topics is quite helpful. There are entries on Queen Elizabeth herself, subjects like her portraiture, various players at court, important families like the Howards, Dudleys and Seymours, as well as entries on political, cultural and religious issues. Where else can you look up why transubstantion was so important to the religious squabbles of the time, and learn about the sisters of William Cecil's wife. (The three women were the most educated in England.) The book also conveys a great deal of information visually with particulary explanatory maps of Elizabethan England (find out how far it is from Sussex to Warwick to Northumberland, for example,) and Elizabethan London (find out how far it was from Whitehall to the Globe Theater,) impressive pictures of characters like Essex, Nicholas Bacon and Throckmorton, and tables which show who held which post in privy council when (as well as explanations of what those posts meant.) The genealogical charts, of the Tudors, Stuarts, Greys, Howards, Valois and Hapsburg cannot fail to interest. (One error I caught though: the French King Henry IV's first wife, Margaux, was not the mother of Louis XIII, but that's not so relevant for the Elizabethan period.) There are also entries and illustrations of royal castles and properties of the time, as well as appendixes of Tudor related fiction, films and websites. There's also a heck of a bibliography. All in all a handy dandy reference book, visually appealing and informative, and entertaining taboot.

An impressive, comprehensive work of sound scholarship........2000-06-04

John Wagner's Historical Dictionary Of The Elizabethan World: Britain, Ireland, Europe, And America is an impressive work of comprehensive scholarship and an essential, core title for any personal, academic, or public library Elizabethan studies reference collection. This exceptional, highly recommended encyclopedic dictionary is enhanced for students and scholars with a bibliography, index, and appendices devoted to genealogies; Elizabethan Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Roman Catholic Popes; European Monarchs in the Sixteenth Century; Selected Historical Fiction with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected motion Pictures with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected Sound Recordings of Tudor and Elizabethan Music; and Selected Web Sites for Tudor and Elizabethan Topics.

A useful reference work on the Elizabethan Age.......1999-09-09

Hundreds of brief, clearly written essays provide fascinating inside information on the Age of Elizabeth. The dictionary includes extensive information on the leading political, literary and religious figures and families of Great Britain. The author wisely recognizes that Britain did not exist in a vacuum, and so he has been careful to include European leaders and their complex interrelationships with Britain. Readers who have mistakenly assumed that the ill-fated invasion by the Spanish Armada was a single spectacular disaster, will learn that it actually involved a long series of ocean battles between the British fleet and the Spanish forces led by the reluctant Duke of Medina. Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Bacon, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester are presented in the context of their families and the social matrix of the period. Less well known figures discussed include the unfortunate Amy Dudley, and Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Many illustrations enliven the text. Battles, plots and rebellions, religious controversies, finance, treaties, art, architecture, literature and drama all are covered in this surprisingly comprehensive work. Readers who are not quite sure what function the Star Chamber served will find enlightenment here. Useful tables such as the dating of Shakespeare's works and charts for the genealogies of the Houses of Lancaster, York, and Stuart, as well as the Habsburgs and the Bourbons are extremely welcome. Appendices list historical fiction of the period, motion pictures, and sound recordings of Elizabethan music, providing a multidimensional approach to those seeking a balanced picture of the age. Appendix 7 provides a list of web sites devoted to Elizabethan and Tudor culture. These include sites that provide primary source materials, images of ships, persons, and fashions. Readers will be made aware of major internet resources: The English Heritage Web Site, the Folger Shakespeare Library Web Site, and even a site devoted to the Wars of the Roses. An extensive bibliography lists recent works on the Elizabethans and all aspects of their lives and culture. The book is indexed and articles are cross-referenced. A series of maps and a chronology will be most welcome to students of the period. John A. Wagner and the editors at Oryx have prepared a fine one-volume reference work that is sure to be a welcome addition to schools, and to public and academic libraries.

A useful reference work on the Elizabethan Age.......1999-09-08

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Another great buy

Musings of one of the premiere philosophers of science

The 20th century 'Renaisance Man.'

A Whole College Education in One Book

The shaper of minds : Mr. Bronowski

The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series)
Jacob Bronowski
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Identity of Man (Great Minds Series)

Science and Human Values

The Ascent of Man

A Sense of the Future: Essays in Natural Philosophy

The Common Sense of Science (Harvard Paperbacks)

ASIN: 0300024096

Customer Reviews:

Another great buy.......2007-09-25

It is easy today to get depressed about mankind. Bronowski demonstrates that there is hope for us yet. He also demonstrates that we, perhaps know more and are capable of more than we thought. I wish I had had the chance to meet him.

Musings of one of the premiere philosophers of science.......2007-05-07

Jacob Bronowski was one of the best philosophers of science ever to walk the Earth. His perspectives on the role of science in our world are some of the most profound and meaningful statements on how humans view themselves, each other and the universe in general. This book is a reprint of six lectures he gave as part of the Silliman Foundation lecture series.
The titles of the lectures are:

*) The mind as an instrument for understanding
*) The evolution and power of symbolic language
*) Knowledge as algorithm and metaphor
*) The laws of nature and the nature of laws
*) Error, progress and the concept of time
*) Law and individual responsibility

and they sum up the essence of Bronowski better than anything I could coin.
If you have an interest in the philosophy of science, then you must read Bronowski. His thoughts are profound, human and very descriptive of how we humans continue to expand the body of knowledge and make the appropriate corrections when necessary.

The 20th century 'Renaisance Man.'.......2007-01-15

I wrote the majority of this when e-mailing a youtube guy who recommended reading 'Science and Human Values' and obviously decided to replicate it here!

glad to know Jacob Bronowski, the best 20th century philosopher where Philosophy/Philosopher means to unify and see connections amongst everything and how that relates to our human condition. Jacob Bronowski was in a unique position to do it; he was not that great a mathematician, but he tried and profited spiritually/intellectually from it; he did science, art, engineering, and mathematics and looked for connections between it all and the human condition because why do it if your not going to do it meaningfully? Jacob Bronowski started buy gave incomplete proofs for what are called 'Godel's theorems.' He lived in a time when Newton's 'world view' was shaken to the core, and he gave the best interpretation of those events which are still influencing people in all walks of life today, but they never read Jacob Bronowski.

Jacob Bronowski has strangly disappeared from the human consciousness; i remember seeing 'Ascent of Man' in book stores; book stores were small back then; or at least, the science shelves were usually one or two shelves in the nature section comprising one stack. I myself never picked the book up thinking it was just another science/historian book. This phenomenon happens because there is a new generation born every fifteen to twenty years and there is only so much knowledge to go around, but Jacob Bronowski's knowledge is so universal and of a more constructive character that humanity has missed the boat.

My first Jacob Bronowski read was "The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination." This is his definitive work not 'Ascent of Man.' 'Ascent of Man' reminds me of the intro chapter to Kip Thornes 'Black holes and Time warps.' As Mr Thorpe says, "read it after you've read the book to enjoy the details; Ascent of Man is something you read after you've read enough of his other small slender volumes. Basically, 'Science and Human Values', and 'Origins of Knowledge and Imagination' are good for getting the basics down; all of his books say the same thing but from different historical periods and historical details. In a lot of ways, Jacob Bronowski was able to rewrite the history of humanity and give the real scientific humanistic religion by writing all these books(he basically started the whole 'two cultures' debate popularized by Snow). Origins goes back millions of years before Australopithecus(so does Ascent of Man); i must say I need to re-read 'Science and Human Values' to see where it fits in historically; 'Science, Magic, and Civilization' covers the dark ages, and 'Westurn Civilization' covers the renaissance up to the industrial revolution(Ascent of Man also covers the industrial revolution). And in a way, Origins finishes in the 20th century with his explanations of 20th century science/mathematics.

He also has some pretty good compilations of articles he wrote in 'Visionary Eye' and 'Sense of the Future.' They have important historical details. Other books are good if your interested in Poetry or other details. Identity of Man has a couple of good last chapters I find stimulating when thinking about artificial intelligence, but I find the above books his better.

A Whole College Education in One Book.......2007-01-14

This one book is so thoughtful and broad in perspective that it can't fail to nourish your intellect.

The shaper of minds : Mr. Bronowski.......2003-05-19

Bronowski at his glittering brilliance in this book, is the memory I carry at the end of reading it, filled with a warmth of understanding and a calmness of knowledge.

It is not easy to find someone as wonderfully coherent and structured and yet intelligent and powerful in ideology, and yet so simple and easy to understand by the lay reader. Bronowski's series of lecture presentations here attempts as he himself says, to complete what Kant set out to do... to create a philosophy of mankind that is based on man's perceptual tools of biology. In this task, Bronowski succeeds brilliantly.

Starting with vision, through hearing, through language itself... Bronowski builds up a picture of human thought and action like never before and the essays read like a thriller through our own minds and its origins. If Ascent of Man was groundbreaking, this book is breathtaking in its scope and parallel simplicity.

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The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination
Jacob Bronowski
Manufacturer: Yale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NUO6D4

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The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination
Jacob Bronowski
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORRU48

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The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination
Jacob Bronowski
Manufacturer: New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXMT08

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The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (The Silliman Memorial Lectures)
Silliman
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OS0G9S

Book Description

Fifth in the ISG series on applied theology, this book makes available a wide range of thinking on this crucial subject, covering biblical teaching, a theology of creation, and an examination of eco-feminism, as well as a history of environmental thought. Central to the author's approach is the notion that theory must lead to action.

God's World: Biblical Theology of the Environment (International Study Guides)

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God's World: Biblical Theology of the Environment (International Study Guides)
Ken Gnanakan
Manufacturer: Society for promoting Christian knowledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORQDP0

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