Books about Unprecedented from Amazon.com

According to author Mike Schmoker, there is a yawning gap between the most well-known essential practices and the reality of most classrooms This gap persists despite the hard, often heroic work done by many teachers and administrators. Schmoker believes that teachers and administrators may know what the best practices are, but they aren't using them or reinforcing them consistently. He asserts that our schools are protected by a buffer—a protective barrier that prevents scrutiny of instruction by outsiders. The buffer exists within the school as well. Teachers often know only what is going on in their classrooms—and they may be completely in the dark about what other teachers in the school are doing. Even principals, says Schmoker, don't have a clear view of the daily practices of teaching and learning in their schools.

Schmoker suggests that we need to get beyond this buffer to confront the truth about what is happening in classrooms, and to allow teachers to learn from each other and to be supervised properly. He outlines a plan that focuses on the importance of consistent curriculum, authentic literacy education, and professional learning communities for teachers.

What will students get out of this new approach? Learning for life. Schmoker argues passionately that students become learners for life when they have more opportunities to engage in strategic reading, writing with explicit guidance, and argument and discussion.

Through strong teamwork, true leadership, and authentic learning, schools and their students can reach new heights. Results Now is a rally cry for educators to focus on what counts. If they do, Schmoker promises, the entire school community can count on unprecedented achievements..
Price: $14.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $13.57 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Asking the old questions, according to authors Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli, means getting the same old answers And that can be deadly for any group or company that wants to move ahead. Instead, they offer 75 outrageous, thought-provoking questions that clean out the corporate cobwebs and get workers’ minds working in new and productive directions. Drawing from their own experiences as top international business consultants, Whitney and Giovagnoli provide field-tested "cage-rattlers" that can help improve leadership, resolve on-the-job conflicts, stimulate innovation, facilitate better communication, and much more. Additionally, the guide benefits individuals as much as it does teams, small groups, small businesses, and larger corporations..
Price: $8.23 [Notify me when price goes down.]

One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. It was one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history. 125 people were killed instantly, more than 1,000 were injured, and over 4,000 were suddenly homeless. Instead of accepting the small settlements offered by the coal company's insurance offices, a few hundred of the survivors banded together to sue. This is the story of their triumph over incredible odds and corporate irresponsibility, as told by Gerald M. Stern, who as a young lawyer and took on the case and won..
Price: $1.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In Who They Were, Dr. Robert C. Shaler, the man who directed the largest and most groundbreaking forensic DNA investigation in U.S. history, tells with poignant clarity and refreshing honesty the story behind the relentless effort to identify the 2,749 victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center. No part of the investigation into the 9/11 attacks has taken as long or been less discussed than the daunting task of identifying the victims -- and the hijackers -- from the remains in the rubble of Ground Zero. In Who They Were, Dr. Robert C. Shaler, former director of the Forensic Biology Department at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, tells the inside story of the relentless process of DNA identification and depicts the victories and frustrations that he and his team of scientists experienced during more than three years of grueling work. On September 11, 2001, New York City was unprepared for the mass-fatality event that occurred at the World Trade Center. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had to completely reconfigure itself to process and identify the nearly 20,000 remains that would eventually come through its doors. Facing an astonishing array of obstacles -- from political infighting and an overwhelming bureaucracy to the nearly insurmountable task of corralling personnel and supplies to handle the work -- Shaler and his team quickly established an unprecedented network of cooperation among public agencies and private labs doing cutting-edge research. More than a story of innovative science at the frontiers of human knowledge, Who They Were also tells the very human story of how Dr. Shaler and his staff forged important and lasting bonds with the families of those who were lost. He shares the agony of mistakes made in the chaos and unintended misidentifications resulting in the excruciating difficulty of having to retrieve remains from families of the lost. Finally, Dr. Shaler shares how he and the dedicated team of scientists who gave up more than three years of their lives when the rest of the world had moved on had to face the limits of science in dealing with the appalling level of destruction at Ground Zero and concede that no more victims would be sent home to their families. As of April 2005, when the process was suspended, only 1,592 out of the 2,749 who died on that fateful day had been identified. With compelling prose and insight, Who They Were reveals the previously untold stories of the scientists determined to bring closure to devastated families in the wake of America's largest disaster..
Price: $9.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For almost two decades the work of Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti has remained at the forefront of theoretical production. Their rigorously?detailed and exquisitely drawn projects characterize an attitude of?aesthetic realism towards materials, construction, function, and the?cultural role of architecture. Yet the conditions they address, and the?effects they produce, are unprecedented. Their projects synthesize?seemingly incompatible images, uses, and typologies.?

?Unprecedented Realism is not an illustration of theory. Rather,?what emerges is a constructive theory of architecture that understands the process of design itself as a distinct mode of knowledge --?as theoretical research that is still irreducibly architectural.?

?Unprecedented Realism presents both buildings and urban?infrastructures: Steps of Providence, RI; Entrance for Cranbrook,?Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Carnegie-Mellon University Center, Pittsburgh;?Pershing Square, Los Angeles; and Times Square, New York City.?

?Along with the analytic text of K. Michael Hays, the volume includes?critical essays by Alan Colquhoun, George Baird, Farès el-Dahdah,?and Rodolphe el-Khoury (please see the Table of Contents)..
Price: $26.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]