Twenty-ninth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Read as an accompaniment to Beyond the last blue mountain by R.M. Lala. The family history of the Tatas has been deeply entwined with the history of an industrial India ever since Jamsetji Tata started out as an entrepreneur. That means the history is of almost 130 years! It’s obviously quite difficult to cover almost 130 years of Industrial presence in just about as many pages. So, this isn’t a book that covers the history in great […]
Mission: College Access and Success
If you’ve ever wondered why the guidance department seems to be less than helpful in counseling during the college access process, there’s a reason. According to Mandy Savitz-Romer and Suzanne Bouffard in Ready, Willing, and Able: A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success (2014), that reason is the following: “…[S]chool counselors, who typically hold master’s degrees in counseling and licenses provided by state departments of education, rarely obtain training in college counseling…In fact, according to the National Association of College Admissions and Counseling, out of the […]
The Uphill Battle: Changing School Culture
Despite sweeping reforms in education in the 20th and 21st centuries, education in the United States has remained essentially unchanged. In Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division (2009), Dr. Anthony Muhammad explains that the fixed state of education in the U.S. is the result of reforms that focus on technical changes (structure, policies, teaching tools) rather than on cultural changes (mindsets and behaviors). Unless a school begins to focus on making cultural changes, no amount of technical changes will ever result in a healthy, productive, and […]
The Common Core Is Coming! The Common Core Is Coming!
Technically, the Common Core is already here, but in case one did not know, the saturation of “Common Core aligned” notices on various workbooks, vocabulary texts, and the deluge of Common Core-themed texts on the market would make that announcement clear enough. Anxious parents, and even more anxious and novice teachers, will soon scan these shelves to buy these Common Core-themed texts in the desperate hope that they will be enlightened. Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher’s Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts (2014) is […]
Wanted: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen
Malcolm Gladwell is a storyteller. What I find particularly admirable about his work is that he is able to convey what has been traditionally a spoken language skill into a written one–while reducing seemingly complex ideas into digestible bite-size chunks. It is not surprising, then, that The Tipping Point (2000) was a best seller and achieved “one of the best books of the decade” status on many lists. Pulling from a broad set of examples from different aspects of life and history, such as from Paul Revere’s […]
Put on a Happy Face!…You’ll Live Longer
A lot can be learned from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), one of which is why it is important to smile: Mr. Bingley, who puts on a more agreeable face, is received well by the people of Netherfield Park whereas Mr. Darcy, who doesn’t, is spurned. The science behind why Mr. Bingley experiences more social success than Mr. Darcy is explained in Marianne LaFrance’s Why Smile? The Science Behind Facial Expressions (2011). LaFrance draws on the work of latest research in biology, psychology, sociology […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 84
- 85
- 86