Books about Connecting from Amazon.com

Teachers struggle every day to bring quality instruction to their students Beset by lists of content standards and accompanying "high-stakes" accountability tests, many educators sense that both teaching and learning have been redirected in ways that are potentially impoverishing for those who teach and those who learn. Educators need a model that acknowledges the centrality of standards but also ensures that students truly understand content and can apply it in meaningful ways. For many educators, Understanding by Design addresses that need.

Simultaneously, teachers find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of the learners who populate their classrooms. Few teachers find their work effective or satisfying when they simply "serve up" a curriculum--even an elegant one--to students with no regard for their varied learning needs. For many educators, Differentiated Instruction offers a framework for addressing learner variance as a critical component of instructional planning.

In this book the two models converge, providing readers fresh perspectives on two of the greatest contemporary challenges for educators: crafting powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensuring academic success for the full spectrum of learners. Each model strengthens the other. Understanding by Design is predominantly a curriculum design model that focuses on what we teach. Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe show you how to use the principles of backward design and differentiation together to craft lesson plans that will teach essential knowledge and skills for the full spectrum of learners.

Connecting content and kids in meaningful ways is what teachers strive to do every day. In tandem, UbD and DI help educators meet that goal by providing structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction that bring to students the best of what we know about effective teaching and learning..
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Got a new MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro? Want the scoop on Mac laptop basics, using Mac OS X Leopard, networking a laptop, or connecting your laptop to wireless devices? There’s no better place to find what you need than MacBook For Dummies, 2^nd Edition!

With your Mac laptop, you can take your movies, music, documents, e-mail, and Internet wherever the action is. MacBook For Dummies, 2^nd Edition provides the lowdown on maintaining and upgrading your MacBook, customizing the Dock and desktop, traveling with a laptop, turning iPhoto into your portable darkroom, and much more. Learn to:

• Locate the battery compartment, iSight camera, ports, and “on” button
• Move your existing files from an older computer
• Use all the cool new features of Mac OS X Leopard
• Work with iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and GarageBand, all packaged with your MacBook
• Identify the signs of a well-functioning laptop and check for trouble
• Set up your Mac for multiple users
• Explore the cool options available with a .Mac account and iDisk storage that lets you retrieve your files anywhere
• Manage your digital music, photos, and movies
• Use Bluetooth and get all your wireless devices communicating with each other

And if you’ve been considering switching from a PC to a Mac, MacBook For Dummies, 2^nd Edition guides you through the process and even shows you how to run Windows on your Mac laptop. If there’s a MacBook in your future — or present — this is the book for you!.
Price: $13.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For some, a job is just a way to pay the bills. For others -- those whose careers fit their passions and personalities -- it is a source of great satisfaction and success Career Match is designed to help people discover their ideal work. Using the author's revealing ten-minute self-assessment, the book helps readers determine their personality style, then walks them through the range of career choices best for them. This indispensable guide will enable anyone to:

* identify the type of work that will inspire and exhilarate them
* recognize the type of boss and work environment they need to thrive
* confirm the rightness of the path they are on -- or help them find a better one
* speed up their job search

The book includes in-depth chapters for each personality type, detailed explanations of career options, and inspiring real-life stories of people who have found fulfillment in work that suits their personality. This invaluable resource will help anyone in need of direction match who they are with what they should do -- for a lifetime of gratifying work and greater success..
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Bruce Goldstein's COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY connects the study of cognition to your everyday life. This accessible book introduces you to landmark studies as well as the cutting-edge research that defines this fascinating field. To help you further experiment with and understand the concepts in the text, you can use COGLAB 2.0: THE ONLINE COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY. Available at www.academic.cengage.com, COGLAB contains dozens of classic experiments designed to help you learn about cognitive concepts and how the mind works..
Price: $121.56 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when devices that you've built start to talk to each other, things really start to get interesting Through a series of simple projects, you'll learn how to get your creations to communicate with one another by forming networks of smart devices that carry on conversations with you and your environment. Whether you need to plug some sensors in your home to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, Making Things Talk explains exactly what you need.

This book is perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest. Maybe you're a science teacher who wants to show students how to monitor weather conditions at several locations at once, or a sculptor who wants to stage a room of choreographed mechanical sculptures. Making Things Talk demonstrates that once you figure out how objects communicate -- whether they're microcontroller-powered devices, email programs, or networked databases -- you can get them to interact.

Each chapter in contains instructions on how to build working projects that help you do just that. You will:

• Make your pet's bed send you email
• Make your own seesaw game controller that communicates over the Internet
• Learn how to use ZigBee and Bluetooth radios to transmit sensor data wirelessly
• Set up communication between microcontrollers, personal computers, and web servers using three easy-to-program, open source environments: Arduino/Wiring, Processing, and PHP.
• Write programs to send data across the Internet based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard
• And much more

With a little electronics know-how, basic (not necessarily in BASIC) programming skills, a couple of inexpensive microcontroller kits and some network modules to make them communicate using Ethernet, ZigBee, and Bluetooth, you can get started on these projects right away. With Making Things Talk, the possibilities are practically endless..
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Maximize the sexual and emotional potential in your marriage! With down-to-earth wisdom based on the experiences of the thousands of women she’s counseled, Shannon Ethridge–author of the million-plus-selling Every Woman’s Battle series–shows women how to create the healthy, exhilarating sex lives they (and their husbands) desire.

Every woman deserves to enjoy great sex with her husband, without inhibition or shame. But many wives live with the burden of self-doubt or feel mystified about what men really want in bed. Others wrestle with memories of sexual abuse or neglect, guilt over past intimate relationships, or negative feelings about their own bodies. Maybe you’ve been thinking you were alone in your struggle to discover sexual fulfillment. Think again:

only 8 percent of married women consider their sex life “very hot”
21 percent call their sex life “routine and boring”
Another 21 percent ask, “What sex life?”

These sorry statistics don’t have to be your case, as Shannon Ethridge readily explains with arresting warmth and honesty. Brimming with confidence-boosting techniques and inspiring personal stories of rejuvenated relationships, The Sexually Confident Wife opens a new world of passion for every couple, helping women to connect with their men on every level–physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual–enabling them to fully enjoy the ultimate, enduring union that marriage can be.

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Whether you’re thinking of switching to a Macintosh computer, are looking into the latest Apple products, or have a Mac and want to learn about Mac OS X Leopard, then Macs For Dummies, 10th Edition will get you going. Here you’ll learn all about how to compare the different desktop and laptop models to choose your perfect match, make Mac OS X Leopard work your way, use the new iLife 2008 digital lifestyle applications, get online and connect to a wired or wireless network, and run Windows on your Mac so you can keep the Microsoft programs you need. You’ll also discover how to:

• Navigate your way around the Mac interface and work with icons and folders
• Best utilize OS X, work with the new Photo Booth, and manage clutter with Exposé and Spaces
• Get connected, start a Web-browsing Safari, use e-mail and iChat, and shop online
• Join .Mac and take advantage of iDisk backups, IMAP mail, and Web Gallery
• Explore all that iTunes offers, process digital photos with iPhoto, make iMovies, and have fun with GarageBand
• Use Windows on your Mac and transfer Windows files

It’s a perfect time to join the Mac generation, especially if you’re a Windows user who’s been thinking of defecting. Macs For Dummies, 10th Edition will get you there, helping you pick peripherals, download freebie programs, set up user accounts, implement security secrets, troubleshoot your Mac, and experience the iLife..
Price: $15.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Laptops For Dummies, 3rd Edition shows you how to use your laptop to its fullest potential, from how to purchase a laptop and what to do when you first open the box to how to keep your laptop safe and running smoothly.

You will discover how to choose and purchase the right laptop for you, how to set up and maintain your laptop, customize user accounts, adding your laptop to networks, printing, and connecting to the Internet. In this updated and revised edition, find information about synchronizing with the desktop, coordinating email pickup between two machines, remote access to the desktop, networking, power management, storage, and especially laptop security. You’ll find out how to:

• Navigate all your laptop’s components
• Use keyboard shortcuts and a mouse
• Organize and manage files and accounts
• Print files and add your laptop to a network
• Properly equip your laptop carrying case with tools and resources
• Manage the power supply
• Add software tools to synchronize and update files between a laptop, a PDA, and a desktop or office server

In addition to the basics, find lists of ten battery tips and tricks, ten handy laptop accessories, and ten things you should keep in your laptop carrying case in Laptops for Dummies, 3^rd Edition, a convenient and handy guide!.
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