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Drawing on his own experience teaching diverse grades and subjects, Kevin Kumashiro examines aspects of teaching and learning toward social justice, and suggests concrete implications for K-12 teachers and teacher educators.
Drawing on his own experience teaching diverse grades and subjects, Kevin Kumashiro examines aspects of teaching and learning toward social justice, and suggests concrete implications for K-12 teachers and teacher educators.
Glenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset, revisits Thomas Paine's Common Sense. In any era, great Americans inspire us to reach our full potential. They know with conviction what they believe within themselves. They understand that all actions have consequences. And they find commonsense solutions to the nation’s problems. One such American, Thomas Paine, was an ordinary man who changed the course of history by penning Common Sense, the concise 1776 masterpiece in which, through extraordinarily straightforward and indisputable arguments, he encouraged his fellow citizens to take control of America’s future—and, ultimately, her freedom. Nearly two and a half centuries later, those very freedoms once again hang in the balance. And now, Glenn Beck revisits Paine’s powerful treatise with one purpose: to galvanize Americans to see past government’s easy solutions, two-party monopoly, and illogical methods and take back our great country.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “We need a new idea of how to govern. The current system is broken. Law is supposed to be a framework for humans to make choices, not the replacement for free choice.” So notes Philip K. Howard in the new Afterword to his explosive manifesto The Death of Common Sense. Here Howard offers nothing less than a fresh, lucid, practical operating system for modern democracy. America is drowning—in law, lawsuits, and nearly endless red tape. Before acting or making a decision, we often abandon our best instincts. We pause, we worry, we equivocate, and then we divert our energy into trying to protect ourselves. Filled with one too many examples of bureaucratic overreach, The Death of Common Sense demonstrates how we—and our country—can at last get back on track.
About Management in the Active Classroom A well-managed classroom almost runs itself. Students are focused and respectful, whether they are silent at their desks or active throughout the classroom-collaborating, experimenting, discovering, and creating. This book is a guide for teachers who want their classrooms to run well in all settings, where students are self-directed and self-disciplined learners. It is a book of proven, practical strategies harvested from successful schools across the United States. Strategies are described in concrete language, illustrated through classroom examples, and illuminated by companion videos. This guide will equip teachers, whether veterans or brand-new, to join inspired, collaborative learning with a calm and thoughtful classroom culture.
Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine’s vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense—the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate—remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush’s aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama’s down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England’s Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld’s accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.
An easy-to-understand adaptation of Paine’s revolutionary pamphlet, plus insights on colonial history, life, and culture. The Declaration of Independence may have severed political bonds with England, but it was Thomas Paine’s dynamic pamphlet, “Common Sense,” that conceptualized the idea of unity and freedom months before Thomas Jefferson put pen to parchment. Paine’s publication energized colonists to embark on a long and bloody war that imperiled their livelihoods and dismantled their cultural identity—all in the hope of creating a new nation constructed upon the concepts of liberty and independence. Although many know of Tom Paine and his famous “Common Sense,” the historic pamphlet has not been readily accessible or widely read. But it needs to be, because it is one of our nation’s most important founding documents. Now, fifth-grade history teacher Mark Wilensky rectifies this oversight with The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine: An Interactive Adaptation for All Ages. This remarkable interactive version is adapted for young and old alike and makes Paine's words and the concepts he espoused widely available to everyone. This book offers a rich array of colonial history sprinkled with audio, video, and text graphics linked to a dynamic online website. This adaptation includes the original “Common Sense,” a new adapted version in plain language everyone can understand today, an extensive chronology of important pre-revolutionary events leading up to the publication of Paine’s pamphlet, and adapted versions of the Olive Branch Petition, A Proclamation For Suppressing Rebellion And Sedition, and the Boston Port Act. Wilensky also includes a wide variety of insights on colonial coins and mercantilism, and many humorous illustrations designed to convey the important concepts of independence and liberty. Instructors and parents will especially appreciate Wilensky's decision to include supplementary materials such as teaching plans for classroom and home-schooling use. These include a wide variety of activities to engage students, all based on National Curriculum Standards. Colonial America was a continent with multiple cultures and customs spanning vast geographic distances. Tom Paine's amazing persuasive essay “Common Sense” unified these seemingly conflicting characteristics into the most remarkable nation ever founded in the history of mankind. The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine will reignite the ardor of our Founding Fathers for a new generation.
"The author argues that the rise of behavioural sciences has caused a sea change in the relationship between science and common sense. He shows how - as recently as the 1960s - common sense and science were allies in the battle against ignorance, but that since then populism and chauvinism have claimed common sense as their own. Bransen argues that common sense is a collection of interrelated skills that draw on both an automatic pilot and an investigative attitude where we ask ourselves the right questions. It is the very attitude of open-minded inquiry and questioning that Bransen believes we are at risk of losing in the face of an army of experts."--Provided by publisher.
"a stopcommoncore must-read." Michelle Malkin ". . . I could hardly put this book down until I finished reading it. . . . [T]his is not a dry read. It is a shocking read." Joy Pullmann, Heartland Institute "It wasn't until I started reading Dr. Moore's writings that I fully comprehended the significance of just what America was about to lose." Heather Crossin, Hoosiers Against Common Core What is the Common Core? How will the Common Core English Standards affect the teaching of great stories in our schools? Will there be any great stories left in the minds of our children when the Common Core has controlled the curriculum and testing of both public and private schools for a few years? What are the real purposes behind the educational coup that has taken place with very little public debate and even less understanding? In this book, school reformer and professor Dr. Terrence Moore carefully examines both the claims made by the architects of the Common Core and the hidden agenda behind the so-called reforms that have been adopted by over forty states in the nation, with very few people understanding what is really going on. Moore not only challenges the illiberal aims of this educational regime, but actually analyzes lessons recommended in the Common Core English Standards and in the new textbooks bearing the Common Core logo. Such a thorough review exposes the absurdity, superficiality, and political bias that can only serve to dumb down the nation's schools. Worse, the means that the Common Core uses is a deliberate undermining of the great stories of our tradition, the stories that in former times trained the minds and ennobled the souls of young people. Those stories are now under attack, and the minds and souls of the nation's children are in peril.
