"The best introduction to playing and coaching the game now in print. SOCCER FOR JUNIORS delivers nonstop advice and instruction in an easy-to-read style. Everything the novice coach and player needs to get started, all in one book." Joe Provey, editor SOCCER Jr.magazine

Once again, I was hoodwinked by reviewers at Amazon.com who have no ability to discern good from average. This book provides a bunch of no-brain chapters -- (i.e. classifying is good) -- it's really a huge waste of money. The absolute best book I've read and I recommend to all discerning intellectual teachers is Grant Wiggins's Understanding By Design. This book was a waste of my good time and precious money. Never again will I so blindly trust all the 5 star givers on this site. Too many stooges, I think.

I'll keep this short and sweet, and not summarize the contents of the book. Such can be found in other reviews, as well as the editorial synopsis. Instead, let me just suggest that "Classroom Instruction that Works” is a long overdue work that can be used in a three-fold manner.

First, it should be required reading for every new teacher. It clearly details for them what is effective in the classroom, regardless of grade level. There is little philosophy here. This is ‘meat and potatoes’ practicality.

Secondly, the research in this book should become an integral part of every teacher-evaluation process. It provides a model paradigm of excellence in teaching above and beyond the subjectivity extant in most evaluations today.

Finally, this book should be a personal read of every experienced teacher. I cannot express my feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment when I realized--I already do many of these things! While I know I can improve in many areas because of reading this work, much of my teaching was validated by sound research, and that felt good!

It is my hope that this material will be presented at many of the national education conferences I attend each year--in fact, I plan on using much of this in my own presentations.

The book is nicely organized, backed by solid research, and utilizes illustrative scenarios which make complex methodology very understandable. And isn't this the goal of every classroom teacher?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Dr. J.L. Parks
Georgetown Middle School
Georgetown, KY

Teachers, this book spells out in plain language what works. It explains each strategy in detail, gives examples, and summarizes the research on how effectively that strategy works. The strategies are in order of effectiveness. It doesn't matter what subject you teach; it does matter HOW your teach it.

The book is beautifully written, just 178 pages, and POWER PACKED! A crucial read for educators.

I found this manual type publication to be very well researched based on current educational sound practices and research findings. It will prove to be a valuable tool for the new teacher to enable them to implement theory into sound practice. It is fill with activities and strategies for establishing a well grounded classroom environment and culture to maximize teacher effectiveness in most general terms rather than content specific terms. It can be used at all levels of instruction and across the content areas. I especially liked the ways that educational theory is placed into sound activity.

This is a good guide to the world religions. All the topics seem to be covered, and it's a good introduction. It concentrates on all the major religions, and also delves into the smaller know religions and different sects of the major religion. I can honestly say I know more after reading this book

One thing I found annoying was the lack of consistency with the reporting of each religion. It would have been helpful if Pollack told the same information for each religion. He should start of with history, then the amount of worshipers, then where are they located, then what type of gods do they believe in, and so on. He tends to leave out a lot of information, whether due to his lack of information, or do to oversight. There are numerous examples, such as he explains that Buddhism overlaps with Hinduism. But how, where, and why? He doesn't explain, or his explanation was unclear. He writes a chapter about Jainism, but I never figured out if the Jains had a God or not. He doesn't give an approximation to the number of religious devotees to many religions, so I don't how major the religion is or not.

Despite these flaws, it's still a very good book for the curious.

Loophole is a good book, but the reading level it's geared for couldn't be greater than that of a young teenager. It's not a children's book - in fact, the story is quite grown up. Don't be confused about this book. It doesn't reveal methods of robbing banks (except for one, which the criminals use to successfully rob a British bank); it's not a "How To" book of any kind. It's a story - a very easy read. And it's a true story, too (but outdated. If you're a potential bank robber, don't bother trying to use the method of robbing banks these guys used - it simply won't *work* today). I was disappointed in the lack of detail in the book. I would have loved to have seen further character development and a longer ending. It seems that, once the robbers succeeded in their heist, the book was over with and had little more to say.

You'll probably enjoy this book because the storyline is exciting and attractive. Incidentally, it doesn't live up to its potential. Robbing a bank of great magnitude is exciting and dangerous - give it a few moments of thought. Loophole fails to capture that excitement as well as it could have, and for that, I cannot give it a full 5-star rating.

Thanks for reading this review.

This purports to be a factual novelization of the James Dunham murders, but besides being full of typos and bad grammar, the book goes wildly wrong on details such as who adopted the baby boy, etc.