I Got Schooled

"Famed director M. Night Shyamalan tells how his passion for education reform led him to the five indispensable keys to educational success in America's high-performing schools in impoverished neighborhoods"--

This exuberant celebration of the first day of school illustrated by award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison will have every kid cheering for school to begin! Summer is over, and this little girl has got the school spirit! She hears the school spirit in the bus driving up the street--VROOM, VROOM!--and in the bell sounding in the halls--RING-A-DING! She sings the school spirit in class with her friends--ABC, 123! The school spirit helps us all strive and grow. What will you learn today? Don't miss these other exuberant titles: I Got the Rhythm I Got the Christmas Spirit

Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television. He's never tasted a pizza. Never heard of a wedgie. Since he was little, his only experience has been living on a farm commune and being home-schooled by his hippie grandmother, Rain. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and has to stay in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and her cranky teen daughter and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dying and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school. Right from the beginning, Cap's weirdness makes him a moving target at Claverage Middle School (dubbed C-Average by the students). He has long, ungroomed hair; wears hemp clothes; and practises tai chi on the lawn. Once Zack Powers, big man on campus, spots Cap, he can't wait to introduce him to the age-old tradition at C-Average: the biggest nerd is nominated for class president—and wins.

The top ten bestselling series comes to London! As school trips go, this one is pretty awesome... When I was told we were going to London to study Living History, I thought they were joking. But here I am! Rafe Khatchadorian – global jetsetter! Now all I need to do is find a way of avoiding the school bully, getting Jeanne Galletta to talk to me, and try not to get lost in London. But things are never that simple. So fasten your seatbelts and hold on tight, because this could be a very bumpy flight...

We Got Skooled! is a guide for real life based off my life experiences. This is my "learn now what I wish I learned then" memoir. Is this book everything you need to know for real life? Absolutely not! I simply want people to be able to apply the lessons I've learned to their own lives to be more prepared for similar situations. Why is my life story so special? It's not! Everyone is going to have their own story, and their path will greatly differ from mine, but there are several real-life experiences we all will share, and certain life lessons we all should be learning. Whether positive or negative, we need to embrace every experience life offers, because every second is unique in the fact that it will never come again. A negative experience can be a positive lesson, if you learn something throughout the process. It is my goal to bring awareness to those experiences to come. If we can knowingly face these challenges, we can be more prepared and be more likely to succeed sooner. Because we aren't learning real relevant lessons in school, I hope this book can answer some of the questions I know you have.

This book offers a highly revealing and troubling view of today's high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Denise Pope, veteran teacher and curriculum expert, follows five motivated and successful students through a school year, closely shadowing them and engaging them in lengthy reflections on their school experiences. What emerges is a double-sided picture of school success. On the one hand, these students work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honours, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values and manipulate the system by scheming, lying, and cheating. In short, they do school, that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community. The words and actions of these five students - two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds - underscore the frustrations of being caught in a grade trap that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today's schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the success that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?

A New York Times Editors' Choice "Keizer writes eloquently and perceptively . . . More than just thoughtful, reasonable, carefully observed, elegantly written, and deeply humane, this book is also that rare thing, a work of genuine wisdom."-Chicago Tribune Perhaps no profession is so constantly discussed, regulated, and maligned by non-practitioners as teaching. The voices of the teachers themselves, however, are conspicuously missing. Defying the trend, teacher and writer Garret Keizer takes us to school in this arresting chronicle of his return to the same rural Vermont high school where he taught fourteen years ago. Much has changed since then-a former student is his principal, standardized testing is the reigning god, and smoking in the boys' room has been supplanted by texting in the boys' room. More familiar are the effects of poverty, the exuberance of youth, and the staggering workload that technology has done as much to increase as to lighten. At once fiercely critical and deeply contemplative, Getting Schooled exposes the obstacles that teachers face daily-and along the way takes aim at some cherished cant: that public education is doomed, that the heroic teacher is the cure for all that ails education, that educational reform can serve as a cheap substitute for societal reform.

David's teacher has her hands full. From running in the halls to chewing gum in class, David's high-energy antics fill each schoolday with trouble-and are sure to bring a smile to even the best-behaved reader.