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SEE ME AFTER CLASS: ADVICE for TEACHERS by TEACHERS by Roxanna Elden

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     The Fundamentals. Published in 2009 by Kaplan Publishing Although I am going into my 25th year of teaching, I enjoyed the advice that was intended for new teachers offered in See Me After Class . It is always good to go back to the basics and make sure that you remind yourself of the fundamentals. The strength of the book is just that - it deals in fundamentals. Tricks to get you through the first day with its ever-changing class lists, reminders that we do indeed learn from our mistakes, warning of the danger of falling behind in grading papers (including giving yourself enough time to grade big things before the report card grades are due), the danger of sending too many kids out of class, remembering that all kids do not respond to incentives or consequences the same way, advice to get those project assignments turned in, and a part that I particularly liked: an overview of some basic  different types of students you are going to run into ("Low Performing Kids&qu

NOOSE (short story) by Ernie Lindsey

Published in 2013 as an e-book. Estimated length - about 14 pages. Finalist for the 2005 Sherwood Anderson Short Story contest. Ernie Lindsey's short story Noose is a coming-of-age story set in the American south in September of 1916. It features a 17 year-old named Roy who works as a farm hand for a northerner who moved down south for a simpler life. Roy has a strong love for animals which makes him an excellent farm hand. Besides working on the farm Roy also dates Emily, the boss of his daughter. Roy and Emily are much more intimate than anyone suspects and Roy is quite sure that he and Emily are completely in love.  The farm community receives word that a circus elephant named Mary is going to be killed for killing one of her handlers during a parade in a nearby town. The elephant will be executed by hanging from a railroad crane. This part of the short story is based on a true story (click here for more information). This hanging does more than kill an elephant - it

HAVOC (Philip Mercer #7) by Jack Du Brul

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Published in 2006 by Brilliance Audio, Inc. Read by J. Charles. Duration: 12 hours, 43 minutes. Unabridged audio edition. Jack Du Brul's Havoc is a techno-thriller that races from the Hindenburg disaster to Africa to Washington, D.C to Atlantic City to Niagara Falls to Russia and back to Africa with hardly any time to take a breath.  The book features Philip Mercer, a geologist by training that often troubleshoots for the White House. This is the seventh book featuring Mercer, a fact that was not on the audiobook label. However, Du Brul does a great job of catching the reader up on what has been going on - I assumed it was the first book in the series as I was listening to it.  The Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937. The action starts with a traveler on the infamous Hindenburg as it flies to its fate with destiny in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. A crazed man is hiding a secret in a safe in his room and he is afraid that the Nazis know he has it and are plotting to

THE EXECUTION (Jeremy Fisk #2) by Dick Wolf

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  No Sophomore Slump Here! This series revolves around Jeremy Fisk, a detective with NYPD's counter-terrorism squad. New York City has an extensive counter-terrorism unit because New York City has been such a frequent target of terrorism. Fisk is fluent in 5 languages, including Arabic and Spanish. He is frequently a contact person between NYPD and the FBI or CIA. The Execution  takes up where the first book in the series, The Intercept , leaves off. (See my review of The Intercept here ) Wolf makes a great attempt to catch up the reader but I think that if you have not read The Intercept you will be a little lost. The main plot of the story involves Mexican drug lords and an incorruptible member of the Mexican federal police, Detective Cecilia Garza. Garza leads a handpicked task force that is trying to stop the drug smugglers while the bodies of innocent bystanders literally pile up in Mexico. The worst of the worst is a drug lord known as The Hummingbird. The Unite

BOY MERCURY - AN ANTEBELLUM ADVENTURE: EPISODE ONE: THE WELDING (kindle) by David Macinnis Gill

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This kindle short story is part of a multi-volume series about Amboy "Boy" Babbage, a young man with an unusual skill with machines. He is an engineering genius. Also, he is able to "weld" human tissue and machine together using mercury tears. This skill is the crux of the story. It begins on May 6, 1863 near the Chancellorsville battlefield. In the real world, Stonewall Jackson, the famed Confederate General lost his left arm due to a "friendly fire" episode and was starting to slip away to his eventual death on May 10 due to pneumonia. When he passed, his superior, Robert E. Lee, said, "Jackson has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right". Jackson was sorely missed a mere two months later at the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the major turning points (if not the major turning point) of the war. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson In Boy Mercury Amboy Babbage and his father are brought to Stonewall Jackson's bedside and A

GAME PLAN: HOW to PROTECT YOURSELF from the COMING CYBER-ECONOMIC ATTACK by Kevin D. Freeman

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Published in January of 2014 by Regnery Publishing In 2012 Kevin D. Freeman published Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again . In that book, Freeman detailed how America's financial markets are vulnerable to manipulation by foreign powers by creating bubbles (like in the oil markets). Individual companies could also be targeted, individual sectors or the markets as a whole. The first part of Game Plan is a brief review of the vulnerabilities he described in Secret Weapon . To be honest, if you have not read S ecret Weapon , you can read Game Plan and get the general idea. He also includes updates, including letting his readers know that he has briefed the Pentagon on these vulnerabilities.  The New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Urban. The rest of the book is devoted to telling the reader about the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of investments, such as stocks, bonds, gold, etc. in a period of fina