Fishy Field Trip Description: When their class project for Ocean Awareness Day falls into Ms. Frizzle’s fish tank, Tim and his classmates board the Magic School Bus with their teacher for a real underwater adventure.

The automobile. The microscope. The Internet. Without these amazing inventions, our lives would be totally different. But how did these cool creations come to be. And who were the inventors that dreamed them up. Go behind the scenes of history-and learn the truth about the gadgets and tools that changed the world. Packed with quizzes, photos, and zillions of wacky facts, this chronicle of jaw-dropping discoveries might even inspire you to invent something of your own!

Price: $1 to $64

Secondary School Teaching Reviews: The book is a decent resource, covering planning, styles of instruction, and assessment. It includes useful exercises that send students into the educational community to get a closer look at how things are done in local schools.

Secondary School Teaching Description: This popular standard is everything a methods book for grades 7-12 should be: practical, concise, research-based, and user-friendly. The authors’ beliefs about what teaching should be and what good teachers should do form the bedrock upon which a full complement of effective methods is built. Basic to the book is the idea that teaching skills can be learned: content is organized around four developmental components involved in becoming a competent teacher the “why, what, how, and how well” of teaching.

Whatever one teaches, children will always need to know how to learn, how to read, and how to think productively, work cooperatively, and communicate effectively. This book shows future teachers how to teach precisely that. A four part organization covers orientation to teaching and learning in today’s secondary schools; planning for instruction; strategies, aids, media, and resources for effective instruction; and assessment and continuing professional development.

Price: $43 to $259

Cover notes on the book say it is “an engaging cultural history about twenty-first-century American life.” I submit it is, instead, a cultural narrative about life in California. Where else would you find players, when gunshots erupt in the neighborhood, react by citing the type weapon being fired, then resume practice as if nothing unusual happened. Going in, I expected the story would convince me that California high school football is the best played anywhere in the U.S. Despite the author’s conviction that California has not just the best but probably the second- and maybe third-best teams anywhere any given year, I came away figuring teams from my state and others would fare well playing the Golden State schools.

Had there been more interstate games, I doubt The Streak would have happened. I give the book 3 stars because I consider it about midway between the most and least enjoyable books I’ve read. Oh yes, if you’re buying it, suggest you get the September 2005 edition that includes epilogue and afterword rounding out the story.

One Great Game Reviews: Don Wallace did an excellent job profiling the stark differences between De La Salle and Long Beach Poly, creating much more interest in the game and it’s outcome. Whether you are a fan of DLS or Poly, you couldn’t help but come away with a greater appreciation of the other school.

One Great Game Description: For more than a century, no Number 1 and Number 2 high schoolfootball team had ever met until October 6, 2001One Great GameThis is the story of two teams Concord De La Salle, a private Catholic school in an upscale Northern California suburb, and Long Beach Poly, a proud public institution from a blue collar SoCal seaport striving to achieve the same goal: the all American dream.In this supercharged account of the first ever national high school championship game, acclaimed sports journalist and former Poly varsity football player.

Don Wallace goes out onto the field and straight into the heart of each team. One Great Game offers a rare look at the world of young adult sportsmanship, featuring up-close and personal interviews with the team players and their families, coaches and cheerleaders, rabid fans and sworn enemies. The result is a powerful piece of sports literature in the tradition of the classic Friday Night Lights. More than a book about football, One Great Game is an engaging cultural history about twenty-first-century American life.

One Great Game Reviews: When I first picked up the book I was worried that the account would be bias toward the Poly side, especially considering it’s the writer’s alma mater. However, Mr. Wallace presents a fair, balanced account of one of the most anticipated prep sporting events ever. He starts off about a year prior to the game, when it was only a rumor and concludes with an action filled account of the game.

Characters are well developed, and although I can only speak from experience on the De La Salle side seem to be very accurate. The introduction leading up to the game got a bit long winded at times, but outside of that the book was hard to put down. I recommend it to any fan of high school sports, as well as for people curious of how two of the most successful football programs in America opperate.

One Great Game Reviews: Wallace is able to captivate an audience with his descriptions of the preparation that went into the game itself. His attention to detail as to how each schools football programs arrived at the point of their unforgetable matchup is outstanding. I am most impressed with how the book uses high school football as a metaphor for how life as viewed by those involved in the game.

Don Wallace describes his own upbringing in Long Beach and the dynamics that have that have occured since he has moved away. His definitions of the suburban community of Concord, California, and how it somewhat evolves around the school with the infamous winning streak, actually makes the town sound interesting.

The Last Game Reviews: This entertaining documentary really fits the bill for football fans and for the families who follow and support high school athletes. It’s the inside story of an entire season of championship football in Eastern PA. Infrequently, weak reality TV camera work zeroes in too much on the less than-inspiring star player. But overall, the story merits its current popularity in a medium thin on family choices.

The Last Game Description: The high-school football documentary The Last Game depicts one season of one of the best teams in Pennsylvania, Central Bucks West. Led by star running back Dustin Picciotti and coach Mike Pettine Sr., the team attempts to continue a winning streak that has been maintained through the previous two seasons. The biggest threat they face on their run to yet another state championship is a team coached by Mike Pettine Jr.

The Last Game Reviews: This movie starts off a bit slowly with some character building and some background views of the area and the football program, but before long you can see where its all heading, to a big showdown, Father v Son, undefeated CB West, against the only other team that seems able to hold a candle to them, coached by the son of their Coach. Great footage of that match, and then each step down the State Championship road gets more exciting and more intense.

The Last Game Reviews: There are several films out now about Prep Football, and some are a waste of your time. This one accurately shows the emotion of both coaches and players, as well as some great game footage.

Price: $14.23

Math Games for Middle School Reviews: This book reminds me a bit of “The Big Book of Tell Me Why” that children love to read. I am a home schooling mom, not a math teacher. I am home schooling an accelerated second grader. For our “normal” math class work, we are use Singapore Math and the “Key To” series. Terms are also defined. We are only on the first chapter and my son only grasps some of the layers of the onion, but we are both enjoying the book. Our country relies too much on formulas and not enough on understanding. This book would bring joy to a class as an opening warm up to get them thinking.

I wish we had more educators like the author of this book that excited his students to the joy of mathematics and not just to rote learning of rules that seemingly “dropped on us from the sky.” The author taught on the faculties of Columbia university for 50 years and Princeton for 5 years. His earliest work was 8 years in his native city on the faculty of the University of Rome. Ph.D. in mathematics and in civil engineering. He has a center called the Salvadori Center that is dedicated to improving teaching in middle schools with emphasis on math and science. His words, “I have dedicated the last years of my life entirely to teaching the young, from kindergartners through high schoolers.”

Math Games for Middle School Description: From addition and subtraction to plane and space geometry, graphing, simultaneous linear equations, and probability, this book explains middle-school math with problems that kids want. Intriguing facts about the history of math show what a human creation it is: Both the Maya and the Hindus of India invented the concept of zero, but the Maya did it first by 400 years; in 1858 Mr. William Shanks, a British mathematician, hand-calculated pi to 707 decimal digits and had them inscribed on his tombstone! Alas, the last 200 or so were wrong.

Math Games for Middle School Reviews: I teach middle school mathematics and I think the book is great to aid in cooperative learning groups. Using the information and developing work stations will enhance the students’ knowledge of the material. As a lesson, the book would require the creativity of the teacher to add other material and/or adjustments to make it interesting. This book is best for reteaching or review of the topics being taught.

Math Games for Middle School Reviews: Every summer I try and purchase books and magazines in order to find new and interesting lesson plans. I purchased this book thinking I could get at least something new and interesting to excite my kids. This book definitely didnt help. College students would be bored with the books writing style and exercises. And most of the ideas are old and rejected from years past.

Price: $4 to $42

Old School Soul Party Live Reviews: My dad had me buy this for him and when I started watching it with him, I was blown away. I didn’t realize how many songs I recognized. I in turn was happy that he made me get this because it truly is wonderful. My dad watched it everyday for a week or two! That’s how much he loves it.

Old School Soul Party Live Description: A virtual who’s who of the original soul musicians, this showcase revisits the early days of the genre, with live performances by such greats as Patti LaBelle, Isaac Hayes, Cuba Gooding Sr., the Whispers, and many more.

Old School Soul Party Live Reviews: This DVD is Slamming from start to finish. Feel Good soulful Music and arrangements that still are on Point. Vocals are strong as well. Audience Participation is felt as well. the Bands are on point as well. Everybody knows all the songs from start to finish along with songs that have solos&trademark Riffs or Groove parts.

Old School Soul Party Live Reviews: This is one heck of a production by PBS. This DVD features multiple Soul acts from the early ’70s, and represents the best of its kind. While I did not enjoy all of the perfomers, the rest of the performers were simply magnificent. This show put me smack in the middle of the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia where I saw some of the most memorable performances in my life including the likes of the super sonic Delphonics and the Stylistics who are featured in this DVD.

What makes this such a steller DVD is that the singers performed the song exactly like the original recording and the band was awesome. In addition, the recording was so good, the music could be heard with stunning clarity. Strangely, this sounded best in Dolby Prologic rather than Dolby Digital 5.1. I believe this is a PCM recording which may explain its wide dynamic range and clarity. EVERY instrument can be heard on this one. If you don’t get this DVD or if you don’t like this DVD, then you’ve got a hole in your soul. This is a good representation of soul music from the ’70s, great singing, great musicians and orchestra, and great moves by the artist. Its very entertaining and involving.

Old School Soul Party Live Reviews: I own many music DVDs and this is certainly one of the best. Nicely produced, great quality, and jam-packed with Old School monster hits. Includes some classic footage in addition to the live performances. Personally, I wished the Philly Soul Flashback clip and the Stevie Wonder clip would not have been as abbreviated, but that in no way detracts from the overall value of the DVD.

Price: $14.95

Middle School Advantage 2008 Description: Supplement your child’s middle school curriculum with the award-winning content of Middle School Advantage 2008. Developed with State Testing Standards in mind, Advantage 2008 is aimed at providing in-depth lessons with sample problems and questions to teach, reinforce and track a student’s progress over multiple core subjects. Take advantage of over 9,000 lessons and 2,400 exercises in Math, English, Science, History, Foreign Language and Typing. This educational software adapts to different learning styles and levels while it tracks each students’ progress with quizzes and tests. As a bonus, 2007 Encyclopedia Britannica Ready Reference is included.

Price: $39.95

Middle School Success Deluxe Reviews: I worked on this product, I voice the character of “madison”. Any company that is willing wo work with new, young talent gets an A+ in my book. And, while we were reading the scripts, a lot of teh math that I was teaching, i didn’t actually understand, since it was a cold read. The writing was so good that even without having heard the terms before or having the benefit of the visuals that come with the program, i learned the math. in fact, one of the concepts was introduced in my math class about a month later, and I already understood it all and eventually aced the test, just from two hours of work on that particular lesson.

Middle School Success Deluxe Description: The new definition of “achievement” Introducing Middle School Success Deluxe, the leading-edge suite of software tools for the personal computer. Providing students with a uniquely diverse, fundamental course of study, Middle School Success Deluxe is the zenith of self-paced instruction on CD-ROM. Offering award-winning, educator-endorsed content, unrivaled breadth and scope of curriculum, and absorbing activities to captivate user interest and maintain motivation, the Middle School Success Deluxe learning system represents the very definition of educational achievement for middle school students.

Price: $40

Harry Potter Interactive DVD Game Reviews: Although the graphics and concept are good, the responsiveness to the arrow keys makes progressing through the game nearly impossible. This is the worse game I’ve ever played on a DVD. It’s certainly not worth the money.

Harry Potter Interactive DVD Game Description: This interactive game is based on the first three Harry Potter movies. The game can be played by up to four people, who take on roles as Hogwarts students who are all striving to get tickets to the Quidditch World Cup.

Shipping: This item will be delivered to you via USPS Trackable Media Mail or UPS Mail Innovations and will take from 2 days to 3 weeks from the time the item leaves our warehouse.

Harry Potter Interactive DVD Game Reviews: The software is very buggy and am unable to use remote control on any of our computers, dvd players,etc. I will return if cannot get directional arrows to work during Quiddich challenge and Owl’s flying. The game itself appears to be for very young children and not for anyone over 10 or so. Teenagers and adults find questions, etc very simple and unchallenging. Besides, the controls do not respond as written in booklet.

Harry Potter Interactive DVD Game Reviews: Received this game from my husband as a Christmas present. Be aware that if you start this game as a one player as I did and then wanted to switch to multi you’re in for a very frustrating time. When we got past “that” glitch we both got as far as the third year and had been utterly stuck at the Forbidden Forest/Werewolf section for three days. Sorry, lose, lose, lose, lose at the same section. We too are like the previous poster, it was purchased at Target. I’ve emailed Warner Bros. to no avail to see if these kinds of problems are widespread. Some players are stuck at Quidditch, others elsewhere.

Harry Potter Interactive DVD Game Reviews: This game is a waste of money. It could be a lot of fun, except the instructions for some of the activities are inadequate and require guesswork. Navigation using the remote’s arrow keys is useless. We have three dvd players, with one of them brand new, and I couldn’t get past the Quidditch end-of-year challenge, despite literally 20 tries. It didn’t matter which arrow I pushed, at what time, anything. I also was unable to direct the owl flying through the trees during one of the extracurricular activities. And sometimes the game just did what it wanted, with me not pressing anything on the remote.

Price: $21.33

Pretend and Play School Teacher Supplies Reviews: When my daughter opened this gift she was so excited because she wanted it so bad. She is always playing school so while pretending to be a teacher she is also learning herself.

Pretend and Play School Teacher Supplies Description: The kids are happily playing “school,” but the teacher’s running low on supplies. Let the play continue with this replacement set of supplies that includes report cards, stickers, a grade book, certificates of excellence, hall passes and activity sheets.There are 210 pieces in all, for use with or without the Pretend and Play School Set, sold separately. Everything comes packaged in a box, so the young teacher’s desk stays neat.

Price: $13.99