Frustrated with the state of education, a high school teacher challenges you to explore whats actually happening in schools across America. Why are our students failing? Its a combination of many factors. Teachers are supposed to be classroom instructors, counselors, parents, and disciplinarians. Administrators are often more concerned with upward mobility than the education of students. Unions are protective of everyone, including incompetent teachers. Politicians enact new legislation fo...

Ever wonder what your neighbors are really like? What they may be hiding?The Neighbors features twenty aspiring writers wishing to entertain you with their short stories inspired by these very questions. From humorous conflicts with the home owners association to a seedier malevolence, suspicious behavior to a welcomed change, there is something for everyone.The next time your neighbors invite you to dinner, you may wish to think twice!

In a contemporary novel "full of hope and heart," a midwife in need of reinvention escapes to a remote island—and takes on a new identity ( Booklist).West Virginia midwife Clara Perry is accustomed to comforting her patients. But when her life takes a nosedive, she realizes she hasn't been tending to her own needs. She decides to take drastic action, running away to a place where no one knows her or the mess she's left behind.On Canada's remote Sea G...

We all want to experience pleasure and avoid pain. But there are really two kinds of pleasure and pain that motivate everything we do. If you are promotion-focused, you want to advance and avoid missed opportunities. If you are prevention-focused, you want to minimize losses and keep things working. And as Tory Higgins has found in his groundbreaking research, if you understand how people focus, you have the power to motivate yourself and everyone around you.Showing how promotion/p...

Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. Instead, Tim will face a terrifying decision: Help or run. For the jittery stranger sitting beside him at the bar has mistaken Tim for someone else—and passes him a manila envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. “Ten thousand. The rest when she’s gone.”Now everything Tim thinks he knows—even about himself—will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is the one man ...

One man’s gifted daughter may be the cure to a mysterious illness causing hallucinations and death in this horror novel by the author of Little Girls.First the birds disappeared.Then the insects took over.And the madness began . . .They call it Wanderer’s Folly—a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out humanity.After two years of creeping decay, David Arl...

Are you a K–8 principal ready to implement the PLC at Work™ process? Two experienced practitioners show you how to explore the critical components needed to lay the foundation of a PLC, including how to develop a structure that supports collaborative teams, how to focus on effective monitoring strategies, how to reflect on your communication effectiveness, and more.

Jen Lancaster's cultural inferiority complex had to come from somewhere...and now fans can find out where in this hilarious New York Times bestselling memoir from the author of Bitter is the New Black.Before she was bitter, before she was lazy, Jen Lancaster was a badge-hungry Junior Girl Scout with a knack for extortion, an aspiring sorority girl who didn't know her Coach from her Louis Vuitton, and a budding executive who found herself bewildere...

Are you overwhelmed by unruly students, difficult parents, and never-ending classroom distractions? Are you tired of scavenging and pleading for basic school supplies? Do you wonder if anyone notices or cares how much effort you put into teaching every day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you.When Teaching Gets Tough offers practical strategies you can use to make things better right away. Veteran educator Allen Mendler organizes the di...

'Saunders is an astoundingly tuned voice - graceful, dark, authentic and funny - telling just the kind of stories we need to get us through these times' Thomas PynchonIn PASTORALIA elements of contemporary life are twisted, merged and amplified into a slightly skewed version of modern America. A couple live and work in a caveman theme-park, where speaking is an instantly punishable offence. A born loser attends a self-help seminar where he is encouraged to rid himself of all the pe...

One day, third-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz asked her students to fill-in-the-blank in this sentence: "I wish my teacherknew _____." The results astounded her. Some answers were humorous, others were heartbreaking-all were profoundly moving and enlightening. The results opened her eyes to the need for educators to understand the unique realities their students face in order to create an open, safe and supportive place in the classroom. When Schwartz shared her experience online, #IWi...

In The Science of Leadership, Julian Barling takes an evidenced-based approach, relying primarily on the knowledge generated from research on organizational leadership conducted around the world and personal reflections based on two decades of involvement in leadership research and leadership development with executives. While leadership has been studied within all the major social sciences, Barling mainly focuses on findings from psychological research. The first part of the book...