Category Archives: Education

Water Stewardship and Aboriginal Communities

Laine Cunningham’s reflections on what Australian Aboriginal folktales can tell modern readers, entitled Seven Sisters, was quoted in Pernille Ingildsen’s Water Stewardship.
Ingildsen’s work addresses true sustainability for our planet’s water resources, and takes a holistic approach to generate lasting change.
The work is out now from The International Water Association. The print edition is available from IWP for £60, or from Barnes & Noble for $90.
An open-access ebook can be found here.
Interested in reading Cunningham’s book? Available in a full-color illustrated gift edition, black and white enhanced edition or, of course, as an ebook.

Opportunity for Young Authors & Artists

Sunspot Literary Journal is now open for a special edition showcasing younger authors and artists. Anyone under eighteen should submit using this form.
Accepting fiction and nonfiction including essays, memoir, and travel; microfiction, flash, short stories, poetry, lyrics, teleplays, film and stage scripts; photography and art.
Maximum length is 3,500 words; individual poems and lyrics should be two pages or less. One piece per submission, please.
Share this post with your local schools!

Barbara’s Bits and Pieces

One of my clients and fellow authors sends me this delightful email newsletter now and again. I asked if I could share it here so that others can enjoy the fun and useful tips she provides.

Click on the link to see her October 2018 newsletter as a PDF. Then you can connect with her and receive a free subscription, too!

Barbaras Bits & Pieces October 2018 (5)

The Art of Appraisal Wins Gold

Art of Appraisal

I’ve written on this blog before about Dr. Barbara Culp, an experienced educator who has written an exceptional series for anyone involved in education. Her books target teachers, parents, students, administrators, and superintendents. Dr. Culp is unstoppable in her dedication!

Now one of her books, The Art of Appraisal from leading educational publisher Rowman & Littlefield, has received a gold award. The award comes from the Nonfiction Authors Association, and is provided for excellence in nonfiction works. Here’s the description from R&L’s website:

The Art of Appraisal saves time and boosts performance with effective tools and a streamlined process.
With a few detailed comments, an appraisal can correct weak habits, boost midlevel professionals, and launch excellent teachers into greatness. The Art of Appraisal allows administrators to reap the greatest benefits by creating clarity and efficiency in the process.
First, a binary feedback structure ruled by four performance tiers is described. Then, ten key areas of teacher responsibility are defined. Each task is further parsed into four subcategories. Evaluations become faster and easier, and the feedback becomes exponentially more profound.
Nonfiction-Award-04.2.3-Gold-150Rich with real-world examples and comments about different performance ratings, The Art of Appraisal clarifies and distills the evaluation process. Supplemental chapters are packed with practical comments that can be pasted into evaluations. This structured, step-by-step system was developed by Dr. Culp, an educational professional with over forty years of experience.
An invaluable tool for administrators and the teachers they evaluate, The Art of Appraisal allows a school’s most effective tool to be used in the most efficient manner.

 

Read more about Dr. Culp’s motivation here, and about her first six titles here. Hear directly from this sterling professional in the author interview here.

Have you read any of these books, or given them as gifts to your school or a special educator you respect? Let me know about your experiences!

Latest from Children’s Author Wendy Gilhula

PBHaBQCoverLast November, I interviewed children’s author Wendy Gilhula about her work. Here’s a link to the interview to refresh your memory. At the time, she was celebrating the release of her first picture book, Pika Bunny and the Thunderstorm. 

I blogged about that, too, here, calling it the Cutest Dual-language Picture Book! The work was published as separate editions in English and Spanish, with another edition in English and Spanish.

Now her second book is out. Pika Bunny Has a Big Question is available just in time for Wendy to be featured by her publisher at Book Expo of America (BEA). That’s big news for any author. It’s even better for Wendy’s fans, because she’ll be at her publisher’s booth signing copies.

The second book is already available in English. The dual-language edition is in the works and will be available soon. Meanwhile, worksheets based on Pika’s adventures are available for free at Wendy’s website. They are really, really cute! And they are also available in English and Spanish.

When I wished Wendy good luck, I told her I hoped she sold a ton of books at BEA. Then I asked, “How many Pika Bunnies are in a ton?”

Her answer: “There are about 5,333 Pika Bunnies in a ton.”

Let’s help her sell a ton of Pika Bunnies, and encourage literacy and multilingual abilities in kids!

Dr. Culp, Author and Educator, in the News

Culp ParentsHere’s another update on a client who has published seven titles through a leading educational publishing house.

You’ve seen a few of Dr. Barbara Culp’s educational titles on this blog before. Now she is receiving coverage from other sources, including this article in Voyage ATL. 

The interview touches on her motivation for writing all of the books. As an educator with over forty years of experience, she found that retirement didn’t suit her very well. There was still too much to be done to help parents, teachers, principals, and students. Culp Teachers

So she started writing books targeting all the different groups involved with K-12 education. She even wrote a book for school superintendents. The “words of wisdom” style series has tips and truly heartfelt advice that can empower while turning up the heat on passion.

Vintage Knowledge for Principals has all 5-star reviews on Amazon. Students who reviewed Choice Knowledge for Students called the book “awesome!” What more could an author…or a reader…want?

Check out all Dr. Culp’s titles at Rowman & Littlefield, on Amazon, or ask your indie bookseller for a copy today! The best thing about Dr. Culp’s work is that she is also working to bring students to their maximum academic potential through the tutorial service she founded. You can visit Amyra, the tutorial company, at their website.

Keep up the great work, Dr. Culp! And I’ll keep readers informed of new books from this talented, warm, and caring author as they are released.

Culp Students

Perfect Gift for a Special Teacher

Essential Knowledge for Teachers: Truths to Energize, Excite, and Engage Today’s Teachers by Barbara D. Culp
Rowman & Littlefield
978-1-4758-3132-0

Culp TeachersThrough Writer’s Resource, I helped this author bring this idea into the world. So I know firsthand that this is a perfect gift idea for that special teacher!

Educators build the future of our world by nurturing one mind at a time. If you want to say thanks in a really thoughtful way, give a copy of Essential Knowledge for Teachers by Barbara Culp to the teachers in your school.

This book was selected as a finalist in the Education/Academic category of the 2017 Best Books Awards by the American Book Fest. Something like 2,000 entries were received, so this book rose to the top percentile in order to be classified as a finalist.

It’s such a great gift, you might buy more than one for each of your children’s teachers, or for more than one teacher you want to thank. So, try Jet.com because when you buy two, you get a dollar off the price of each!

Here’s a link to the book on the publisher’s website.

If you have Amazon prime, it’s available for free shipping here.

And for folks who don’t have a local indie bookstore to order it from, here it is at Target.