|
Settling In
Hello dear teachers.
Thank you all for being on our list of favorite teachers. I have met some new folks from your passing this along so thank you for that too!
I'm settling into the format for this newsletter and I hope to have three parts to it each issue.
New Books - titles that seem to be good for educators to know about whether professionally or for kids
Author Profiles - two or three local authors or illustrators who do school visits so you know how rich the area is for talent. They are well worth the investment in having them come to your school. The kids never forget it! And we can help with books and announcements.
Events - when we have appropriate events we'll list them here.
If there's anything else you'd like us to do, let me know.
Luan |
New Books
(I'm in a philosophical mood this time.)
|
|
 Talk With Your Kids: 109 Conversations About Ethics and Other Things That Really Matter by Michael Parker, M.ED. $14.99
Offers conversation starters for parents and others to help children develop non-cognitive skills and understand such concepts as lying, bullying, torture, fate, vegetarianism, looting after disasters, and speed limits.
Many families and almost all schools spend a great deal of time developing children academically, but studies show that scholastic achievement is not the only key to future success. Developing non-cognitive skills, which children often learn from their parents, is equally relevant. At the very least it's a good book to recommend to parents.
|
 Study is Hard Work by William H Armstrong $12.95 (If that name sounds familiar, it's because he wrote Sounder.) This is a great book on just what it takes to study effectively and keep those skills throughout one's academic career and beyond. Written for 8th grade through high school students, it packs a great deal into less than 150 pages from Learning to Listen to Tests and Examinations. We have it on hand at the beginning of each school year and it's been a hit with those who have used it.
|
 The Trolley Problem or Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off the Bridge? A Philosophical Conundrum by Thomas Cathcart $14.95 A trolley is careering out of control. Up ahead are five workers; on a spur to the right stands a lone individual. You, a bystander, happen to be standing next to a switch that could divert the trolley, which would save the five, but sacrifice the one-do you pull it? Or say you're watching from an overpass. The only way to save the workers is to drop a heavy object in the trolley's path. And you're standing next to a really fat man.... This ethical conundrum-based on British philosopher Philippa Foot's 1967 thought experiment-has inspired decades of lively argument around the world.
Read with an open mind, this provocative book will challenge your deepest held notions of right and wrong. Would you divert the trolley? Kill one to save five? Would you throw the fat man off the bridge? Wouldn't that make a great class discussion?
|
Author Profiles
 Sue Fliess is the Bay Area author of 12 children's books--5 are out now including Tons of Trucks, Robots, Robots Everywhere! and A Gluten-Free Birthday for Me!--and she has 7 more coming out in the next few years. She is an experienced presenter, speaker, copywriter for eBay and freelance writer. Her essays and articles have appeared in Huffington Post, Writer's Digest, Education.com and more. She is booking Bay Area school visits for the 2013-2014 school year--and wants to visit your students! She has multiple presentations, including a fun, interactive true or false quiz, and loves to talk to kids about the writing process, how to research and revise, using their senses while writing and how to get ideas. She's very flexible and will work within your budgets to mix and match to give your school a visit they'll remember. You can see her author visit info here: http://www.suefliess.com/disc.htm
  
 Deborah Underwood's books include The Quiet Book, A Balloon for Isabel, Part-time Princess, and the forthcoming Bad Bye, Good Bye, as well as more than twenty-five nonfiction titles. Her elementary school assembly presentations vary by grade level, but may include:
- why she became a writer (and a peek at the book she wrote when she was in elementary school)
- cool nonfiction facts she's learned while researching her books
- an interactive game where she and the kids write a story together
- research tips and why you can't believe everything you read online
- manuscript drafts so kids discover that even professional writers write and rewrite and rewrite
- book reading
She also offers writing workshops for small groups of upper-elementary students. To learn more, and for contact info, please visit her website: DeborahUnderwoodBooks.com.
  
 How about an illustrator? Get artistic!
Sara Kahn is an award-winning illustrator currently living in San Francisco with her husband and three cats. Her fascination by visual delights started from an early age. She is mesmerized by the color of light going through a prism or the way colors run together when one puts them on the paper; a beautiful brocade pattern; a marvelous dream; the gestures of a kitten. She paints in an attempt to take visual notes of what she finds intriguing.
Sara loves illustrating books for children. After getting her degree in Fine arts, she studied Educational Psychology for her Masters degree and Art Therapy for her Post-Masters degree, in order to learn more about how children view the world, and to make her illustration better and more suitable for them.
Her website is at www.sarakahn.com.
Best contact info: sarakahnart@yahoo.com
 
|
|
Events On September 18 we will be celebrating the work of Tillie Olsen.
Mills College Campus, Mills Hall Living Room, 7pm.
Some high schools still use her work and I would encourage students to come and hear some of her family members talk about her, her work, and her impact on writing. From Tell Me a Riddle to her short fiction about life in the 1930s, Olsen was an important writer. Tell Me a Riddle, Requa 1, and Other Works has been released this year. She passed away in 2007. A daughter and two granddaughters will be on hand to present her works. For more information, please click here. This would make a great extra curricular event for your writing-minded students.
|
|
|
