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Book Reviews
Just Fine The Way They Are – "If the current crop of children's books doesn't make environmentalists out of the next generation, I don't know what will…bursting with imagination, great stories, exhilarating ideas and wonderful art. How we move around our country — Cars? Bicycles? High-speed rail? — is a big issue in environmentalism, and "Just Fine the Way They Are" shows readers that making decisions about technical progress is not always easy. Beginning in 1805 and hitting every new transportation fad along the way, the book gives a history of U.S. roads, from dirt track to superhighway. At every point, there were people who embraced new technologies…and people who thought things were "just fine the way they were." That's a fine philosophical debate to introduce to budding environmentalists."
— Sonja Bolle, Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 3, 2011
Category Archives: Lesson Plans – Just Fine The Way They Are
Teacher Resources & Lesson Plans Available For “Just Fine the Way They Are”
Since school will be starting soon, educators and parents who would like to engage their children in some fun learning activities can download lesson plans that accompany Just Fine The Way They Are; From Dirt Roads to Rail Roads to Interstates. Developed by two elementary educators who are also adjunct professors in the Department of Education at Earlham College, the
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Just For You Teachers
When I asked two educators to create lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are, I had no idea how far the term “lesson plan” had evolved since my days as a first grade teacher back in the 1970s. The “Social Studies/Transportation” resources they have written for home-school and classroom teachers are formatted just like the “Writer’s Craft” and
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Shakespeare
I’m just home from the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, reading through the “Twelfth Night,” and trying to pick up anything I might have missed when I saw it on stage. Shakespeare is a challenge and there’s no getting to the bottom of any of his plays. There’s no last word on what the bard was trying to say. There’s
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Come For a Ride?
As the third set of lesson plans for Just Fine the Way They Are (“Writer’s Craft”) is posted and ready for you teachers out there to download, I realize how much I like the illustration my graphic designer chose for the “button” that clicks you to those lesson plans: A car in motion…a car obviously on its way somewhere…a car
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