Product Description
This bestselling book has been thoroughly updated to take account of the recent changes in the teaching profession. Many of the enormous changes that have occurred through technological advances are included in this lively compendium of sound and practical ideas. This fully revised edition now includes a major new section on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and their use in the classroom.500 Tips for Teachers is essential reading for all teachers, providing easy access to essential tried and tested ideas in its unique user-friendly way. This book aims to save you time and to help promote student centered and active learning. The topics and advice covered include: B7 Techniques for effective teaching and classroom managementB7 Planning and assessmentB7 Using teaching and learning resources wellB7 Supporting pupilsb learningB7 Providing personal and pastoral careB7 Being an effective colleagueB7 Using ICT in the classroomThis active book will make stimulating reading for both new and experienced practitioners in primary, further and higher education, teacher trainees and all those for whom teaching forms a part of their job. ... Read more

Product Description
The developments and changes in education over recent years have taken place at an unprecedented pace. Teachers are under much-increased pressure with greater workloads and more complex assessment duties. They therefore need a practical book which provides ideas that can be tried out at once and give immediate payoff in the context of their everyday life. This book covers all aspects from coping with heavier workloads to working with support staff. ... Read more

Product Description
This text offers researchers practical hints and advice as well as support/guidance in planning, carrying out, writing up and publishing research findings. Topics covered include: information handling; time and self-management; writing; dealing with others; and publishing and profile. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Quick Tips at Your Fingertip
I came across this book, by accident in my university library. I thought this book would be like any other tips book... well it is.
But the thing is, it is the most compact research tips book I could ever found until now.

All the tips here come in dotted style. So, if you are in a hurry, which every research student usually is, would really appreciate book like this. But, it's not all about list of dogmatic things to do. Every tips are accompanied with brief explanation, which is suffieciently given in my opinion.

This book comprise of 52 small chapters. The chapters are classified based on things to do. For example, 'Giving your first conference paper', Getting started in publishing', 'Submitting your thesis', etc. So, if you are in a hurry, you could just go to specific chapter and read what things to do there. I use those lists, for kind of keeping track of myself.

Enjoyable approach towards a boring field!!
a very good book for researchers embarking for a higher degree (masters or Ph.D.). interesting format with useful tips on many aspects of the research experience. draws attention to aspects that go mostly unnoticed by many ofus (many tips deal with common sense matters though). deals with practicalissues,unlike many works in this field that tend to concentrate on the'emotional & stressful" sidesof research' !good chapters on:GETTING STARTED, FINDING YOUR FEET AND KEEPINGTHEM, READING WRITINGFINISHING ... etc. a useful book. I recommend it strongly. ... Read more

Product Description
A guide to one of Europe's most intense and dramatic countries - Spain. It features in-depth coverage of all the great historic cities and monuments and provides information on the best hotels, restaurants, beaches and nightlife. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

not the best
this does read more like an encyclopedia than a real travel companion.it doesn't really have alot of pictures of the places it talks about....it is a little on the borring side.

Not bad, but a little dry.
In the past I've been all about the Lonely Planet guides but tried out the Rough Guide for a recent trip through Spain.Though it's a great guide, it lacks personality and reads more like an encyclopedia than a real travel companion.The small print and color scheme is also hard to follow.If you want lots of details and don't mind lugging this massive volume around with you, this is a good choice, but if you want a more concise and cheeky review of a place, this book probably isn't for you.

Lots of info, but...
Having been to Spain 14 times, I can say that this is a useful book, although some of the information and pictures are not essential.Given its size (1152 pages) and weight, this is a book to be read before your trip; be sure to have good lighting and good eyesight as the somewhat faint and small type will prove challenging to some.

Indispensable!
If you are looking for a small book to fit in your back pocket, The Rough Guide to Spain is not for you.If you are looking for a guide that lovingly describes even the smallest Spanish town in careful detail and clear format, then this IS the guide book you should be looking for.

The Rough Guide to Spain does an excellent job in several areas where many guide books fail.For example, smaller attractions are often overlooked in favor of the larger cities, such as Barcelona or Sevilla.Rough Guide ensures that for those who want to go provincial, they won't be going in blind.

Another merit of the guide is in it's clear, concise format.Not overburdened with irrelevant maps/illustartions (a pet peeve of mine), Rough Guide has clean, simple directions and mapping.This is a vast imporvements over Guides like Lonely Planet, where I often feel the editors publish more with an eye towards their own self-satisfaction than towards the serious traveler.

The resturaunt/hotel features are adequate, frequently include useful maps, and will not tax anyone's checkbook too harshly.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this guide is the seeming conviction of the editors to tell you that which you NEED to know for that trip to Spain.Michelin might the cultural ask-all, DK may have lots of lovely photographs, but Rough Guide is for when you're ready to get serious about your trip to Spain.

Well-written, informative, with a clear and honest style that should impress both casual and budget traveler alike, The Rough Guide to Spain should be your FIRST PICK in guide books. ... Read more

Product Description
General Patrick McLanahan’s new Aerospace Battle Force has grown into a full-fledged task force based on the Armstrong Space Station. Providing almost instant access to space and every corner of the globe using the Black Stallion spaceplanes, the ABF’s powerful network of satellites and unmanned aircraft controlled from space can not only attack any target anywhere on the planet within hours but can even invade any computer network as easily as making a phone call.

But the program has its critics and doomsayers, including Russia, the United Nations, and the American press. Wealthy, Western-educated, and sophisticated Russian president Leonid Zevitin uses a combination of top-secret anti-spacecraft weaponry, fearmongering, and new U.S. president Joseph Gardner’s own egotism in an effective plan to eliminate all support for the space program. Gardner and his allies in Congress and the Pentagon will stop at nothing – even destroying one of their own – to get what they want.

Yet McLanahan and his forces refuse to allow the Russian aggression to stand. McLanahan ignores directives from the White House and Pentagon to stand down and orders the ABF to attack secret Russian bases in Iran.

President Gardner orders McLanahan’s immediate arrest. But before authorities can throw him in jail, they have to figure out how to retrieve him from the space base orbiting the earth. Currently in control of the Aerospace Battle Force from Armstrong Space Station, McLanahan closely watches Russia’s movement of weaponry while defending himself against the President’s attempts to discredit him. In a race against time, McLanahan must outmaneuver his own countrymen, defeat the Russians, and expose the truth…or die trying. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Bought at the $.99 rack
An I want my money back! What a total waste of my time- Good General disobeys Evil President. World is saved, general gets props.

This is awful.
I don't think I have ever read any other books by this author, and I'll make sure not to do so in the future. I have slogged through the first 120 pages of this "novel", mostly because I kept hoping that it couldn't possibly stay *this* bad. And then it has gotten worse.

The characters are horrible, the dialog is stilted, the info dump is horribly managed. Out of the 120 pages mentioned above, perhaps 15 contain actual story. The rest is a list of names of people and tech with detailed capability explanations that would probably work better in a manual, and made my mind go blank every time I had to deal with one.

The whole situation with Boomer and Frenchy made me roll my eyes and stare at the pages with disbelief.

Do yourself a favor, and stay far far away.

Technowar Turner Diary
I am not sure what Dale Brown is trying to accomplish here. This novel is pure trash. Brown turns his previously honorable characters into murderous traitors because they think the NCA is wimpy.Brown glorifies what any sane person would recognize as a nightmare scenario.

To paraphrase Elliott Ness in The Untouchables, his heroes have forsworn themselves; have broken every law they have sworn to uphold; have become what they beheld; and are content that they have done right.

Bad Military Fiction
In Shadow Command, Dale Brown successfully mixes two genres: bad military fiction and bad science fiction.

A Keeper
My husband loved it. We are currently packing up some of our books to make more room and this one is one that is staying out. That is very very high praise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

2 Good Setting Books In 1
This is a compilation of two early Mage supplements. The Book of Chantries is about the guild houses of the Awakened and the Digital Web is about the virtual reality realm of the Virtual Adepts and the Technocrats. Overall, this is a good bundle for players and storytellers interested in exploring and creating settings for their games.

The Book of Chantries was about a handful of Tradition, Technocracy, Nephandi, and miscellaneous strongholds. This was a very old book that still painted the Technocracy as a repressive and antagonistic group. Over looking this, the chantries detailed were very interesting for all of the factions. The section on how to create your own chantry should be especially useful for players and storytellers. The sample story was not bad but didn't really show how life in a guild house was like. The Book of Chantries may be old and outdated, but it's rules can be easily updated for Mage 2nd Edition and Revised.

The Digital Web (1.0) was another setting book like the Book of Chantries but it was about virtual reality. Considering the fact that this book was released in the early/mid-1990s, it's still quite good for modern games. It introduced an entirely new playing field for technomancers and traditionalists alike. There were rules on formatting sectors and how to use magick in virtual reality. The overall feel of the realm was similar to those described by William Gibson in his cyberpunk novels. Instead of the Internet, cable modems, high-speed network connections, the book talked about BBSs and modem dial-ups. This was understandable considering those were the cutting-edge fascinations of computer users at the time. The information on the Spy's Demise and the two sample stories were interesting. Overall, the Digital Web was a fun read with many neat ideas. It must have been revolutionary for Mage the Ascension back in early days of the game. This book has since been revised and released as the Digital Web 2.0.

Good, but only for collectors
This book compiles both "The Book of Chantries" and "Digital Web", older books for Mage: the Ascension, into a single volume. At the time it was released, this book was an excellent deal. Now, it's more for the collector. Digital Web has been revised, and Book of Chantries is good as source material, though you will have to adapt it to the new Revised Edtition ruleset. It's a good book, but you'll have to do some work to make use of it. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is intended to be a resource for self-appraisal by teachers in higher education, and and may be used for formal appraisal of teaching effectiveness and the measurement of "teaching quality." It contains over 100 checklist grids of performance indicators on a wide range of teaching elements. ... Read more

Product Description
The bass player for the greatest improvisational band in American history tells the full, true story of his life, Jerry Garcia, and the Dead.Amazon.com Review
Right in time for the Grateful Dead's 40th anniversary, eccentric bass player extraordinaire Phil Lesh has delivered fans a most welcome gift: his autobiography. There are many books out there about the Dead told from the perspective of roadies, journalists, third party observers, and fans.However, with the exceptions of Jerry Garcia's ramblings in Garcia: A Signpost to New Space and Conversations With the Dead, Lesh's Searching for the Sound is the first time a founding member of America's favorite band tells their own story of what it was like inside the Grateful Dead. And what a wonderful, strange tale it is.

Phil Lesh, considered the most academic of the group due to his avant-garde classical composition training, literate mind, and passion for the arts, decided to write his story himself. Written without the crutch of a ghostwriter, Searching for the Sound might be considered disjointed in places, but overall it comes across as conversational, intimate, informative, and candid (particularly regarding topics of drug use and death). If you are familiar with the band and their extended family, their history, the sixties' musical milestones and influences and all the band's famous tales (the Garcia/ Lesh "silent" confrontation, being busted on Bourbon Street, the Wall of Sound), you may be a little disgruntled there is not much new here in the way of content. However, what is "new" and totally satisfying is Phil's warm, optimistic perspective on the many events that helped shape his life. As described by Lesh, his life's journey, much like the Dead's music, is "a [series] of recurring themes, transpositions, repetitions, unexpected developments, all converging to define form that is not necessarily apparent until it's ending has come and gone." For the many fans who enjoyed the fruits of his life pursuit of sonic explorations,Searching for the Sound isa welcome addition to their Dead library. --Rob Bracco ... Read more

Customer Reviews (64)

Love Phil, of course, still waiting for women playin in the band
I'm using my daughter's account.Unlike her, I'm pretty old now, only 6 years younger than Bobby, so the GD and derivatives have been the soundtrack of/behind my entire life.

But I'm female. I needed Gracie and Janis in my early days with their uncompromising ways out there furthur even then, so much more than I ever did the GD -- let alone the poetry and sheer beauty of Joan, Joni, Judy, Odessa, Mary, et al.I've needed all of those women and their daughters for my own purposes in life so much that only now, here 40 years later, can I turn back to the GD and especially furthur to notice what I missed along the way.

They didn't mean to leave us out.No-one who was formed in those transition times ever did.It just didn't occur to them and still hasn't that we've been alongside them all along, as such untapped musical resources.How odd that these so critical persons who inadvertently contributed so much in general to the freedom we women are still exploring now, have STILL never noticed WHAT we specifically are and can be, over this past 40 years.It makes me laugh and cry; but gratefully (hehe), I'm too old now to fuss much about it.

I so enjoyed hearing Phil read his story via audible, whispering into my similarly destroyed hearing from years of too much loud rock and roll.He's been one of my lifetime older brothers, older cousin, my friend.He and the GD have subtly, importantly guided my entire life -- without me ever paying attention to them either!

I'm having SO MUCH FUN going to these furthur concerts, listening to Phil's book, accessing my brother-in-law's 300 GD concert tapes.:)Don't know yet what it means to be circling around to this again at the end of my times, but I did lose the thread of the fun of things a few years ago.So good to be gifted with that again.I can tell there's more to come.

Thanks, Phil.And thanks for hooking up with Bobby again and pulling in these new guys.It's so fresh.You've been getting stronger and wilder every time I see you.Can't wait for Red Rocks.

Val

Like a Show: Wonderful, Fascinating, and Far From Perfect
Dead books vary in focus and quality, from Blair Jackson's detailed and loving examination to Rock Scully's frequently-fun but always lurid (and occasionally dubious) HST pastiche. As the only version of the tale told by a founding member, Phil's Searching for the Sound is unmissable...if incomplete at times.

As with his music, Lesh gives his best; a familiar song, finding new life through an honest and unpredictable performance. Intellectual precision, spiritual exploration, and plain old fun are here in abundance, and he doesn't avoid the tricky bits, either....but in music, as in everything, you may see the shape more clearly through the parts that are left out.

One thing that struck me was Phil's willingness to rise to the daunting challenge of relating the near-ineffable details of a trip; I've never read a more accurate and evocative description (not even from Huxley or Dr. Thompson). Well done!

Likewise, his awareness of the fans is unmatched. While rock star autobiographies usually limit audience participation to sales statistics (or particularly memorable groupie-groping incidents), Phil more than acknowledges the role of the Heads as the vast, essential Other Band Member.

Just as I'm thinking "looks like Phil's not going to get personal", he examines his relationships with his father, with his wife and children, with fellow band members and Family. He refuses to either shy away from or dwell upon his own demons (he's merciless and yet matter-of-fact about his own drinking problems), while giving others as much credit or space as possible.

Understandably, he is firmly focused upon the music, and he's at his best when he indulges his true calling. Whether it's an unexpectedly-detailed aside about Modulus Graphite or an insight into the genesis of a song, the reader will get choice nuggets that make the ride completely and uniquely worthwhile. While I'm sometimes disappointed that he doesn't go into more depth, I understand that talking too much about the nuts and bolts of artistic creation can often spoil the delicate balance of its beauty.

Sometimes it all comes together in a brief but memorable passage, like anecdotes about driving to the next show or stopping at a remote diner along the way. In both brief scenes we get an evocative taste of the connections between a beloved musician, his family, and the fans. No other band has this alchemy, and no other participant could tell the story like this.

Though the quality of the writing is consistently admirable, the pace can be uneven and gaps in the narrative are obvious to those that know the story from other angles. Yeah, it ain't the best book you'll ever read, and it's probably not even the most satisfying Book of the Dead...but Searching for the Sound is still something special, more than just "a must-read for fans".

Can't beat it!
The book came quickly and is in great shape.No book jacket, but I don't mind. For the price and ease of online ordering, this was a great experience.

Great insight and behind the scenes details
After 25 years of being a Deadhead, I still love finding out interesting details about the band's history. Phil's book is really well written and gives the unique perspective of a band member. I enjoyed Rock Scully's book but it only covers 20 years and Rock wasn't even in the band. Phil's book covers almost 40 years and gives interesting insight that could only come from within. I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who loves the Grateful Dead.

I'm seeing Phil with Furthur and have a whole new appreciation for him now. Feel free to email me at billandlupe@q.com to share your thoughts about the book, Phil or the Dead.

the best!
Behind the scenes, candid, entertaining, forthright... a real learning experience, and a good ride...historically significant, and more...xofD ... Read more

Product Description
In December 2002 Phil Spector - legendary record producer, legendary control freak, legendary recluse - sat down on a sofa in his Los Angeles castle and gave his first major interview for twenty-five years. The journalist he talked to was Mick Brown. Shortly afterwards, Phil Spector was arrested for murder. Over the course of that day, Spector spoke with extraordinary candour about his life and career; his mercurial rise to become the most successful record producer of the sixties; the genius thathad been both a blessing and a curse; his creation of a sound never before heard in music; his trademark 'Wall of Sound'; his fragile mental state and his years on the brink of insanity. 'I've been a very tortured soul', said Spector. 'I have not been happy. I have devils inside that fight me'. The interview with Spector (described by MOJO as 'one of the most famous interviews in rock journalism') appeared as a cover story in the Telegraph magazine on 1 February 2003. Twenty-four hours later, a Hollywood actress named Lana Clarkson was shot dead in Spector's castle. Phil Spector was immediately arrested, and later released on $1m bail to await trial.Tearing Down the Wall of Sound is Mick Brown's personal odyssey into the heart of the strange life and times of Phil Spector. Beginning with that fateful meeting in Spector's home, and recounting the story of his colourful life and career, including the unfolding of the Clarkson case, this is one of the most bizarre and compelling stories in the annals of pop music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a peek inside SpectorWorld
Reading this book, it's evident that Spector had some issues from an early time in his life that have carried on through until now. Add to that his eccentricity, treatment of women, love of guns and you have the recipe for disaster.

This colorful character who at times flirted with genius but who will probably die in prison now, is well detailed by Mick Brown in this sizeable biography. ... Read more

Product Description
Anything you've ever wanted to know about the characters in Invincible, but were afraid to ask. Power levels, hometowns, relatives, origins, shoe sizes... it's all here. Written in the tradition of that other famous handbook, The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe features drawings from some of the top talents in comics and animation. ... Read more