A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Middle School

Review: Bold Women of Medicine

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Imagine, wanting to do something and being told that you can’t.  Determinedly sticking to your guns being degraded by fellow classmates.  Imagine treating the unwanted, the hurt, the broken that no one wants to touch.  Imagine finding ways to treat people that haven’t been done before and changing lives of the one or two.   Imagine these things, now… go grab a copy of Bold Women of Medicine.  Be impressed by these women pioneers.

The stories in the book are amazing, spanning the globe, showing us the determination and grit of these pioneering women.   I learned about hospital and college start up, pioneer nursing stations, innovations in osteo medicine and more.   Women fighting and learning and working.  Striving hard to meet their goal of easing the suffering of others. 

Just who are these women?   Florence Nightingale, Mary Edwards Walker, Elizabeth Kenny, Virginia Apgar, Jerri Nielson, and Adele Levine, just to name a few.  Women from the early 1800’s through to the late 1900’s.  Women, boldly pursuing their dreams in medicine. 

Images dot the pages. These images give us glimpses into the lives of these extraordinary women.

My thoughts:

This was a engrossing book to read, the lives of these women, their determination, it sticks with you.  It would be a great book to give to any girl or women interested in the field of medicine, inspire them and help them make wise decisions as they start their journey.  I found it inspiring read their thoughts embarked on their journey, sometimes choosing a discipline for conducive to families, sometimes seeing a need and then working to fulfill it, and finding ways to work around help problems to meet the patients needs.   These women were galvanized into action, and their stories should inspire the same from us. 

Bold Women of Medicine
   21 Stories of Astounding discoveries, daring surgeries,
      and Healing Breakthroughs.
Susan M. Latta
Chicago Review Press
Hardcover, 230 pages
Medicine, women, healing, young adult
Series: Women of Action
Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press.

Where to find: Amazon Link.

Review: Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education

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So I’ve reviewed Lesson Planning for Highschool, and Moving with Words and Actions, today I have for you the middle school version.   Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a great book for the teacher of middle school physical education, covering the gambit of the what and why, to the how and where.  Filled with instructional tasks, and the break down of a variety of middle school physical activities, to make teaching easier and in line with the national standards. 

Shape American, along with Human Kinetics, has come out with a thorough treatise on teaching middle school students their physical education requirements. 

What do you get?

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a 778 page well written manual on teaching physical education to your middle school students.  It is broken down into 11 chapters divided into two sections.


1. Planning to Student Success in the Middle Grades.
+ The Importance of Teaching for Student Learning in the Middle Grades.
+ Teaching to Standards.
+ Meeting the National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes in Middle School.

2. Lessons Plans for Middle School Physical Education
+ Applying Students’ Skills and Knowledge to Dance and Rhythm
+ Applying Students… to Invasion Games
+ Applying Students… to Net and Wall Games
+ Applying Students… to Fielding & Striking Games and Target Games
+ Applying Students… to Outdoor Pursuits
+ Applying Students… to Physical Participation
+ Applying Students… to Program Design and Fitness Assessment

I like how even in middle school we are encouraged to help our students plan out their physical education even outside the classroom.  Isn’t it great when they want to be involved with something?   I look at my lad and his interest in Karate.  This is Shape America is all about… helping our youth make wise decisions.   They start in the classroom with the encouragement to take it beyond the doors. 

Ergo introducing a wide level of sports/physical fitness options that you might not have considered before.  Such as dance, handball, something called ultimate .. where the student needs to show proficiency in a wide range of activities: catching, throwing, defense and more, learning disc golf, in-line skating, biking, backpacking and more just to name a few.  I have to admit, as I read through the list I wondered… where is ice skating?  I suppose though it would be impossible to list every activity that youth can engage in (as they don’t have karate either). 

Each lesson accredits the teacher who designed the program, as I looked through, they came from all areas of the United States. Each lesson has a number of tasks it is broken down into.  For instance, Pickleball as 8 separate tasks from how to hit the ball, learning game play, playing with a partner and more.  The authors have endeavored to make this treatise and ready to use as they can. 

My Thoughts: 

A great resource for the physical education teacher of middle school.  Broken down into different grade levels this is a wonderful aid to helping your students learn some of the many ways that physical education can take place. I love how each lesson is broken down into smaller tasks to ensure the sport is taught well. 

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education
 - Meeting the National Standards & Grade-level Outcomes.
Strategies for designing student lessons, plus 22 modules
   and 176 Lesson plans
Robert J. Doan
Lynn Couturier MacDonalad
Stevie Chepko
Shape America
Trade Paperback, 178 pages, resource, middle school, 
physical education

Reviewed for Human Kinetics. 

Where to find it?  Amazon Link.

Review: They Lost Their Heads

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I have to admit, I like this book.  It is a slightly oddball way to look at history, but you know what?!?! It works!  🙂  This quirky book “They Lost Their Heads!” takes a look at moments in history from 1355 through 1931 considering our human bodies.

What you get is 42 different stories about famous body parts from around the world.  Teeth, brains, legs, blood, ears, and so much more….

From Lincoln predicting his death and his body being moved around forever, Van Gogh and his ear, and Mata Hari with her preserved head….we are walked through various historical events from a rather unique perspective…the human body and what’s been done with it.

Black and white images fill the pages.  Now I received a uncorrected proof, I don’t know if ready for sale copy will have any colour added.

Frank talk without being gross, with a sense of humour shows many funny and interesting things that have been done to the human body throughout the ages. Imagine being a famous actress and having your leg amputated due to a knee infection…. and that leg being found in a medical school storage room.  Or digging up a body and finding two skeletons but only one head? One of the aspects I most appreciated was for some of the more oddball happenings they would provid

Missing corpses, fat heads, preserved brains, warts, bathing in blood, funeral mourners, body snatched and more. This book is bound to appeal to many a middle school boy, and some girls too. I know I found it to be a fun read.

My Thoughts:

My 12 year old picked it up and read a few chapters in it.  This speaks to the curiousity this book inspires.  Just how to human body parts connect with history?  He thought it was funny and that when he’s done his current read that he’d like to go through this one, or perhaps I could read it to him as part of his history.  (hint hint)  🙂

They Lost Their Heads: Washington's Teeth, Einstein's Brain and other 
    Famous Body Parts
Carlyn Beccia
Bloomsbury Children's Books
Softcover,  192 pages
Ages 10-14 years
History, Middle School, Human Body

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca: They Lost Their Heads!Amazon.com: They Lost Their Heads!

Books for your Middle Schooler

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Mmm… middle schoolers…some love books, and some have yet to learn the joy of the written word, here are some books that might peak their appetite.   They’ve all been enjoyed in our household.  If I wrote a review, I’ve provided a link to go along so you can see what we thought of it.

Once Was a Time.

Time Travel and friendship are the main themes of this middle school book.

I thought this book was an excellent read and am looking forward to seeing my son’s reaction to it.
Freckles is a book about a boy who got a hard start in life and his future looked bleak until he met the right person who gave him a chance.  Then, oh my, did his life changed.  🙂

Go look it up.  I read it ages ago and currently am reading it with my lad.  He’s very much enjoying it.
A Nest for Celeste.

This book is still a favourite.  Good for upper elementary through middle school (or even beyond).

Pete Milano’s Guide to being a Movie Star.

SuperHeroes Don’t Eat Veggie Burgers.

 

March Forward, Girl

An interesting book about racial inequality in the south in the 1940’s.  A tough read.

But not a bad book at all.  Just hard to read some of the things that happened when the Jim Crow laws were in effect.

Time Stoppers.   The lads and I have thoroughly enjoyed these books.  Dad waited IMPATIENTLY for the lad to finish book one and has been enjoying it since.  I got the lad started on a different book so dad would be able to read book two instead of having to wait three months for the lad to finish the second in the series.

Time Stoppers Golden Arrow.

Book two proved to be just as interesting to me as book one…. has me wondering if there will be a book three and just when will it come out.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

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Review: March Forward, Girl

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Oh.. imagine being in the mind of an African-American girl growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 40’s and 50’s.   This is the story of Melba and how she was taught to live her life, even as inwardly she railed against it. Segregation was a horrible thing. The fear, the anger, the shame and the outrage.   It was a hard time of living.

I have to admit, the events of this book are so outside my paradigm of experience and even as I read the book and experienced Melba’s life through her eyes, a part of me didn’t really believe what I was reading.   Could people truly be so mean?  So unthinking?

Then I had to ask myself this question: Would I want my 12 year to read this book?  It’s geared for middle school… but would I truly want him to read it?   He’s a sensitive minded lad who has been raised to realize there are horrors and bad things in the world, but do I really want him reading about it now? And honestly I don’t know.  Melba paints a very real picture of what life was like for her and her people.  The needing to give way, the living in fear, as well as the sheer joy that comes from living with family and having people who genuinely care about your life.  AND oh..there was joy in the midst of it all.  The mixture of the joy with the anger providing good juxstopotion that made it all so much more real. 

I want to tell you how the book ends, but that’s not my role here.  My role is to tell you what I thought abour March Forward Girl.   It was a good book, a needful book to read, and I enjoyed watching Melba mature in her ability to think and DO in her fight against the injustices in her life and in the lives of the people around her.  

I still am not sure about sharing it with my middle schooler, though I might read it with him, that would be a good thing I think.  I think it would be could talk about the things we read together.

Scattered throughout the book are black and white images from Melba, her family, and the events of the day.

March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine.

 

Melba Pattilo Beals

Frank Morrison, Illustrator

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books

Softcover, 10+,

Autobiography, history, America, African-American

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where Can You Find it?

Amazon.com: March Forward, Girl.

Review: Once Was A Time

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Imagine the possibilities…. see the potentials…realize the dreams.  Step in the world of Once Was a Time. This great middle school read introduces us to  Lottie and Kitty who are the best of friends… soul mates who understood each other full well.  Believing in the possibilities, living out the realities of war torn England in 1940. 

This was a well-written novel by Leila Sales, who has author several young adult books.   Lottie and Kitty were so well described I felt as though I knew them and could fun with them.  Girls with crazy imaginations, a willingness to accept each others foibles, and still stick together like glue.  Leaving with dreams and plans, struggling with how their families were, dealing with the terror of war.  Good characters.

Then …oh.. the unimaginable happens, these two soul mates are separated.  What would happen?  How would Lottie manage?  Would Kitty survive?   What happens to their families?

How their lives diverge is a fascinating tale of persistance and hope.   And OH… I want to tell more but then I’d have to say SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!   And who wants that eh?   Themes covered: Time Travel, war, bullying, friendship, library, budgets, books..oh the books!, siblings, travel and more.   A well crafted book quite suited for the middle school crowd.  These characters will linger.

My Thoughts:

My lad has heard me talking about how much I have been enjoying his book, and now that he is finished Time Stoppers, and knowing how his dad has been waiting to read the series, he asked if he could read Once Was a Time next.  I joyfully said “YES!”

This was a great book…history along with intrigue with the joy of learning what true friendship is.  Makes for an excellent book middle schoolers AND their parents!  🙂

Once Was a Time

Leila Sales

Chronicle Kids

Softcover, 340 pages, Ages 10+

Fiction, middle school, time travel

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where can you find?

Amazon.ca:  Once Was a Time.

Amazon.com: Once Was a Time.

Review: The Big Earth Book

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You know what?  I love Lonely Planet Kids books.  I find them to be well made and very interesting.  The Big Earth Book is no different. You are invited to discover how earth, air, fire and water shaped the world that we live … take a tour to discover the past, the present and the future of our world. 

 

The Big Earth Book starts off by introducing us to the fab four. Earth, Air, Fire and Water.   The entire book is divided into those four sections.
Here are some of the topics for each.

Earth:
Structure of the Earth, Geothermal, Digging for Treasure, The World Today

Air: 
Layers of air, Into Space, El Nino, Playing with the wind.

Fire:
Before Fire, Wildfire, Oil Rush, Beacons of Light.

Water: 
Origins of Water, Water and Farming, Canals, The Future of Water.

Colourful illustrations draw the eye in, helping you to want to learn the facts that Mark Brake wants to impart to us. Most of the pages are full of illustrations by Brendan Kearney. Occasionally full colour photos are added.  Aren’t they well done?   You can just see how the ocean currents and the air movements work together can’t you?

This isn’t just a book about four elements, we get history, geography, science and so much more.  The bright colours, the easy reading text, the well placed photos, all add up to a book chock full of good information for your upper elementary to middle school students.

The text is written at an easy to understand level without talking down to the student.  The purpose is to educate with good vocabulary to help the student think, but with enough good material so as to be informed.

I just love how the whole package fits together.   I learned so much leafing through the pages.  For instance, did you know that “trade winds” got their name because at the time “trade” meant “path” in the English language and these winds follow a path as they move about, sailors used them to trace a path across the Atlantic ocean…Neat eh?!

My Thoughts:
Lonely Planets Kids is not a christian organization, and as such follows the old earth frame of reference, this does not need to detract from the great information contained within it’s pages.  It’s bright, colourful pages provide numerous talking points, and help show what the text is referring to.  It’s well worth a look at whether you are secular or Christian.   I think it would be a great resource to add to any library or to leave sitting around for a curious minded child to pick up and leaf through.

The Big Earth Book
Mark Brake
Dr. Mike Goldsmith (consultant)
Lonely Planet Kids
256 pages
Ages 8-12
Hardcover, earth, geography, history, science, resource

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books. 

 Where can I find it?
Amazon.ca: The Big Earth Book.
Amazon.com: The Big Earth Book.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites