Schooled

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.

"You're making how much an hour" "Two hundred dollars." "Do you ride in on a pony" All she wants to do is teach. For Anna Taggert, an earnest Ivy League graduate, pursuing her passion as a teacher means engaging young hearts and minds. She longs to be in a place where she can be her best self, and give that best to her students. Turns out it isn't that easy. Landing a job at an elite private school in Manhattan, Anna finds her dreams of chalk boards and lesson plans replaced with board families, learning specialists, and benefit-planning mothers. Not to mention the grim realities of her small paycheck. And then comes the realization that the papers she grades are not the work of her students, but of their high-priced, college-educated tutors. After uncovering this underground economy where a teacher can make the same hourly rate as a Manhattan attorney, Anna herself is seduced by lucrative offers -- one after another. Teacher by day, tutor by night, she starts to sample the good life her students enjoy: binges at Barneys, dinners at the Waverly Inn, and a new address on Madison Avenue. Until, that is, the truth sets in.

"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"--

Head of the class... Garrett Daniels has this whole life thing figured out. The cocky, charismatic former high school star quarterback is an idolized football coach and "cool" teacher in the hometown where he's not just a golden boy — he's platinum. He has good friends, a great house on the lake, and the best damn sidekick a man could ask for: Snoopy, the albino beagle. Then...Callie Carpenter comes home. And knocks him right on his tight end zone. Back to school... Callie has a pretty sweet life herself...on the other side of the country. But circumstances — that she'd prefer to never speak of again — have brought her back home, helping out her parents and substitute teaching at her old high school. Now she's facing bickering, raging hormones, constant gossip, awkward weirdness, and drama galore...and that's just the teachers. Just like old times... When Garrett offers to show his former high school sweetheart the secrets of his winning teacher ways, Callie jumps at the chance - and then has to stop herself from jumping him. Good friends are all they can ever be. Or...these teachers just might end up getting schooled — by love.

With low grades and bad advice from friends and family, Lionel Shepard has a hard time achieving his dream of playing basketball for Bluford High.

Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as schools rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what’s really going on in schools: teachers who are often powerless to curb distractions from electronic devices; zoned-out kids who act helpless and are unfocused, unprepared, and unsocial; administrators who are influenced by questionable science sponsored by corporate technology purveyors. Clement and Miles suggest steps parents can take to demand change and they make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning. ‘Clement and Miles succinctly lay out the compelling evidence against filling our classrooms with weapons of mass distraction and then tell us how to fix the damage already inflicted. This book is mandatory reading for teachers and parents alike.’ —David Gillespie, bestselling author of Sweet Poison and Free Schools ‘An urgent wake-up call for anyone interested in how screen use in schools is damaging kids and education.’ —Susan Greenfield, author of Mind Change

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Being an effective public-school teacher in the twenty-first century requires more than a mastery of subject matter, a welcoming smile, or a pretty classroom. Teachers today are held to unique criteria to which no other career can compare. In Schooled, author Tiandra Moore shares the story of her journey into the education field, a journey that exemplifies the balance of emotional, political, and personal agendas within the academic profession. Through a realistic upbringing and an even truer college experience and perspective, Schooled provides a teachers fortunate, and sometimes unfortunate, journey to the classroom. In this memoir, Moore tells how site politics can cripple the most motivated, the most compassionate, and the most eager to educate students today.Through determination to herself and keeping promises with family members, Moore delivers an honest response to the process of becoming and sustaining a career in education. In Schooled, Moore tells how she loved the philosophy, the methodology, and the practice of teaching, but learned lessons the hard way. She shares how her faith helped her keep focus during a challenging time.