Three Five Star Reviews for Teaching Vol. I at Amazon

I published this book one year ago, a time when I was approaching the last days of my career in teaching. A mellow mood colored those days of transition; thirty years of teaching behind me, and an unknown number of years ahead.

A  great deal of time that month was spent in sorting my collection of teaching paraphernalia into those three familiar piles: Keep, Discard, and Share. I'd done a lot of moving around in those thirty years, and the four years that I spent in this last classroom were the easiest to close out, materially speaking. In that setting, I taught only 8th grade US History. The teacher who would be in that room after me would bring his own collections with him, but might appreciate much of what I'd added to the room. And if not, he could sort them into his own Keep, Discard, and Share piles.

Publishing this collection of columns written for Phi Kappa Phi's Forum provided the closure I sought.  I am happy to share here with you the three reviews that were posted at Amazon:

*****

Dave, a fellow middle school teacher who eased my transition to 8th grade, wrote:

This collection of essays presents key issues in education to both parents and educators in an approachable, easy going manner. Ms. Palardy's writing is grounded in her long career as an educator and a parent and this book is appropriate for both. She uses common experiences and dialogue to delve into topics ranging from education reform to the usefulness of homework and the rank book. The development of each child intellectually, socially and emotionally is a common thread. As an educator, I am familiar with the topics she takes on, but her writing led me to look more carefully at my own practice and approach. Though the pieces were written a few years ago, the ideas continue to be very relevant today.

*****

Floyd, the principal of our middle school and co-author of "Questions Worth Asking", wrote:

As a parent, teacher and administrator, I found "Teaching" to be a thoughtful and insightful reflection of issues that transcend teaching and learning. Each article speaks to the social, emotional, and academic concerns facing students, parents, and teachers. The author, Terry Palardy, is obviously an experienced educator. Her understanding of young adult learners is to be applauded.

 *****

Jeff, a teacher and author whom I met on Facebook, wrote:

     In Teaching: Education and Academics at the turn of the century, Terry Crawford Palardy writes with compassion, care and love for her profession and her students. They must have been lucky to have her as a teacher.
      In a series of essays, Palardy explores timeless educational issues from her experienced perspective. She asks pertinent questions from varying perspectives. In Pendulum, we get a subtle, yet painfully accurate warning that the educational trends swing to extremes. (The current top-down business model of education may have been avoided if those who create education policy were forced to teach elementary school for one year.) Her intelligent writing explores various methods, addresses the intricacies involved in grading and grade inflation, and ends with a discussion with the principal demonstrating educators concerns for more than just academics. I was reading Diane Ravitch's The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education concurrent with Teaching: Education and Academics at the turn of the century, alternating between the two and on a couple occasions, I forgot which I was reading. That puts Palardy in very good company. Palardy is now retired and she is reflecting on her career in education. Let's hope she continues to shed light on an often misunderstood profession.
      I am always a bit apprehensive when a fellow writer has favorably reviewed my fiction and then later I review their own work. The task was made easier because Teaching: Education and Academics at the turn of the century is nonfiction, and I write mostly fiction. Still, in this case, it's even more satisfying to enthusiastically give five stars.

~Jeffrey Penn May, author of No Teacher Left Standing

***** 

Please don't forget that this book in paperback format is available THIS WEEK at CreateSpace.com with a 40% discount (see the discount code in the upper right margin of this blog page). The Kindle is also priced lower, and the Nook will be on sale today through  Saturday midnight at Smashwords. the discount code for the Smashwords is EJ83S

 I like it when things come in threes, don't you?

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• Education for Uncertain Times (evenfromhere.org)

The Final Two Chapters of Teaching Vol I

Today I'll  add on to the blog's focus on Teaching: Education and Academics at the Turn of the Century. If you're just starting here, you may want to go back to the beginning of the week by clicking here and then reading forward.

Summarizing these chapters here in the blog this week  has caused me to further appreciate how far we have come since the writings ... when I began these articles for Phi Kappa Phi, I was composing on a desktop computer, sitting in a wooden kitchen chair upstairs in my bedroom. The computer was tucked into an armoire / entertainment center that was designed for bulky desktop components: the tower of power was horizontal and worked as a base for the computer monitor. Three and a half inch (not so) floppy discs fit into the tower in numbered 'disc drives' and had only a fraction of memory capability compared to today's tiny little flash drives / memory sticks. The keyboard sat on a sliding shelf beneath the tower. The printer was on the lowest shelf, next to reams of paper and an astonishing bulk of cables and electrical cord., all  nicely hidden with the armoire doors closed. I wrote often at night, or in the early morning, before heading off to my classroom.  The writing began in a spiral notebook, written while sitting out on the porch during warm weather, or in the back entry room next to the wood stove during winter. Such different settings than today's; now I have the mobility of a wireless laptop, and yet rarely roam from the comfortable couch in the living room.

But, let's look at these final two chapters in Teaching: Education and Academics at the Turn of the Century. The one titled An American Issue was written during a contentious fiscal battle over the rising costs of running a school district. During that difficult time, we were also hearing for the first time about the Mrsa Virus ... an infection that could be easily passed from one to another by tactile contact ... doorknobs, water bubblers and hand rails on a stair case were suddenly viewed as venues for contamination. I had recently changed my teaching assignment from elementary classrooms to the middle school, and from the west side of town to the north-east corner. In medical terms, I had entered a new germ pool, which explains my emphasis on cleanliness in this chapter. I open this chapter with a reference to the American Revolution and the resulting 'bad taste' left in our mouths for increasing taxation.   I encourage both teachers and parents to recognize the need for a consolidated, cohesive joint effort in establishing reliable funding for our ever-increasing enrollment and expenses.

The final chapter of commentary is titled Questions Worth Asking, and it is written again as a dialogue between two individuals, a teacher and her principal.  Our principal at the middle school was known for his forward thinking in terms of school reform. He had carefully built a staff with mutual respect, and I wanted to give him an opportunity to publish his own thoughts. As this would be the last writing of my three year term as a columnist, I invited him to co-write it with me, and worked very carefully to maintain both his style and my own. In this conversation, the teacher and principal discuss the affective, social side of students. We exchanged drafts on one of those floppy discs, back and forth, reading and reviewing what each of us had written, and finally came up with the article that closes this little book.

Remember, you can purchase a print copy of this book from CreateSpace by clicking on the link in the upper right margin of this blog, and entering the discount code at the checkout to receive a 40% discount this week.

Next week, I'll showcase my first volume of Poetry to Share.  But before I close today's blog, I want to share two more reviews of Multiple Sclerosis an Enigma:  One came to me via 'snail mail' from Canada, and the other is in a comment at the Facebook page I maintain, named for the book. Here's what each fan had to say:

Joanne wrote:
"... to give you a terrific review of your book. I and my whole family read your book. We are giving it five stars out of 5. Your book is excellent. My sister-in-law really loves your book. She could not say enough about it. We all love it."

And Paige left a comment at the Facebook page:
" I loved the book. Made me feel not so alone."


And I love their reviews.  I'll come back to the blog in the next day or so to share reviews that are written about Teaching: Education and Academics at the Turn of the Century. Be well!

Teaching Vol. I: Chapters 1, 2, 3

Hi everyone! Are any of you looking for good summer reading for yourself, or for someone who turns to you for book recommendations?

This week I'm featuring my first self-published book, Teaching: Education and Academics at the Turn of the Century. I'll give a brief discussion of the first three chapters.

"Classroom Shadows" was the first published column that I wrote for Phi Kappa Phi's National Forum. In this article, I try to encourage teachers returning to their classroom after a summer vacation to be 'present' in the space, and to be aware of all the others who will be present with their students. I give a brief description of many issues that students and their families may be experiencing: elder care that disrupts sleep and causes worry, friendships that require mutual support, undiagnosed learning differences that affect the emotional investment students can make in their education, and several other scenarios that will distract students from the task being presented. I refer to these distractions as 'shadows' and encourage teachers and parents together to shed some light on the shadows, and dispel some of the distractions.

"Morning Meeting, Part One: The People" introduces the reader to three significant people in a student's life. Three people must come to the table with the student's best interest in mind, and in hand. The teacher, the guidance counselor, and the parent all come to the table with their own histories, and their own perspectives. Before the age of fourteen, students are not considered equal partners in an educational team meeting. Nevertheless, the student is the one who will be most impacted by the decisions of this team. 

"Morning Meeting, Part Two: The Time" is the description of how time and "the times" play into an educational meeting. Looking back to the middle of the twentieth century similarities and differences are easy to spot. Homework then and homework now ... book bags then and now ... grading and accountability then and now ... each of these and more are considered within this chapter of Teaching: Education and Academics at the Turn of the Century. 

I'll give brief summaries of more from this book in the blog later this week. But if what I've shared so far nudges you to buy the book, you'll want to go the CreateSpace and be ready to enter the discount code 6W3N3BW2 to receive a 40% discount of the book. And if you have a kindle and want instead to download the e-book, you'll find that the kindle edition is also at a reduced price at Amazon.com

Thanks for reading here ... think about people you know who are teachers ... or who are recent graduates considering teaching as a career ... or people who are retiring from this career ... and give them a copy of this book. They will find it valuable, affirming, and very, very real.