I'm a teacher and I do not recommend!
342340
I am an orchestra teacher and I HATE when my parents go on ebay, or craiglist, or here, to purchase an instrument.  ATTENTION PARENTS: You will NOT find a quality violin or viola for under $150, preferably 200!  Stop trying to save a buck and get your child something they will be successful on!
1874165
Horrible book! Too many flaws in this and it's workbook! Some of the keyterms for chapters aren't in the chapters. Too elaborate! Would not recommend this to a student just starting out! We are switching books in mid semester bc it is so horribly written! If your a professor don't waste your students time making them purchase this book! I have heard from several professors from different schools changing books mid semester bc this one is so terrible!
874417
VERY DANGEROUS!!! I am a  high school Visual Arts / Yearbook teacher and I made this purchase from our school's yearbook account. When we set the lights up for the first time (3 days ago) , one of the bulbs blew out and the classroom smelled like fire. As we all tried to carefully take out the bulb, we heard a loud clicking noise. The other light bulbs were going out as well. Now with a classroom full of students, smoke in the air, photo shoots for superlative closely arriving, a school full of students scheduled for photo shoots, and the return date expiring, we are now pretty much screwed. We fund-raised to purchase this set, but we do not have anymore money to purchase another one. Please MAKE THIS RIGHT!
4108710
I'm a high school teacher. I get it. I have kids from a wide variety of backgrounds, my district is considered "low income", I've seen pretty much everything. Helicopter parents, entitled kids, kids with no boundaries, you name it.

This author is one of those teachers who has so many problems with students, yet has never stopped to think that they're the problem. She lets students go WAY too far before disciplining them, and then writes a whole book about her shocking classroom management difficulties. I didn't find this funny or amusing, just severely concerning.

I bought this book thinking it would be entertaining to read and relatable, and maybe even be something to tell my non-teacher friends to read so they would understand the chaos of teaching a little better. Yes, teaching is always a bit of chaos and we deal with ridiculous stuff. But the degree to which this woman experienced these things is so excessive, she is an exception to the norm. This wasn't entertaining, it was just flat out depressing and I hope people who aren't teachers never read it, lest they end up thinking we're all like this.
4761397
The book has too many errors associated with each chapter. This book has confused my students many times and I have been trying to get my school to change books for a year now just because of the errors. There are not enough practice problems for the more difficult calculations and even those answers can be wrong. I have even seen the author write the concentration of a medication wrong on example problems. By chapter 11 it seems like the author gave up and began to use even less examples and create even more errors. Even his formulas for flow rate is incorrect. Unless you want your students to be confused and almost fail I suggest you start clear off this book at all cost.
2561790
So I purchased the wireless Eggspert for my classroom to use for review games. First of all it was ridiculous the number of batteries that I had to put in the system, but I was still excited to try it out with my students. At first it worked pretty well. One of the buzzers never worked from the start, but I also dropped it so I figured that might have been my fault. After reading some of the reviews I found that this was a common problem. Still I planned to use the 5 working buzzers. After using the buzzers once 2 more stopped working. Now I teach 6th grade so my students were not entirely gentle pushing the buzzers, but still you would think they would hold up to more than one use. Now I have 3 "working" buzzers and an Eggspert system that sits in my drawer collecting dust with $80 down the drain. I seriously regret buying this product. If you are a teacher reading this PLEASE do not waste your money like I did. This is a great idea but the buzzers should be able to handle being used more than once.
406898
My 9-year-old son got a book as a gift exchange from Xmas and he really loved it.  So I went and got him 5 books of this series.  After a month, I began getting teacher's complaint that he draws comic using bad words like moron/sucker and at 1 evening, he even calls his sister w similar foul language. I was totally shocked and after he told me he learned them from the series, these books are in a trash.

I cannot believe that these kinda languages are allowed in books young or teenagers.  A lesson learned.

It's a shame for the author to even write such books and for me, I would be much ashamed to read and vote 4-5 stars :(.
3618980
This is just absolutely awful.
I listen to Spanish lessons in my car, and after the great reviews of this, I bought the set.
Terrible.  The teacher speaks with no inflection at all -- with the exception of an overly exaggerated second-to -the -last syllable for verbs.  And, he makes his students speak the same way.  In addition, he provides obscure explanations for changes: "the t and the n are not strong enough to hold up the e, so it splits into two parts -- an i and an e -- when you change verb tenses."  This is something I was told in the 3rd grade, but it doesn't help anyone analyze which other verbs won't have "strong" enough letters.  The lack of inflection in his instruction is mind-numbingly boring.  and the voices of the students are just flat out annoying.  I have never heard a native Spanish speaker speak anything like this.

So... will the third CD be any better?  I have no idea.
4538982
Who in the world are these people reviewing this book?  Must NOT be teachers or all the reviews come from the author of this book!  This it the biggest pile of crap I have ever purchased in my life.  What a complete waste of my money.  Are you kidding me?  A section on how to play the game MasterMind?  How in the world is this helpful for the science classroom.  Instead of giving you clear-cut proven ways of teaching science it analyzes things like "inductive reasoning, lateral thinking, etc"  A section on misconceptions in Biology?  Cold weather causes the flu?  People use only 10% of the brain? Are you kidding me?  This is practical application for teachers struggling to get lessons together?  I am just overwhelmed at how pathetic this book is.  And I just love the section on advance organizers it tells me what a Venn Diagram is and a Flow Chart is in extreme detail?  I think any teacher in their right mind knows what they are, how about some Diagrams made and ready to use by teachers for crying out loud.  The Chart with the Domains of Various Biological Disciplines was really enlightening-- showing for example that ANATOMY deals with organelles, tissues, organs, while the Biochemistry subject of science deals with molecules.  (So glad you cleared that one up for me!)  The memory techniques in extreme detail made me feel like I was sitting in a psychiatry class (maintenance rehearsal technique, chunking technique, multiple modalities technique, semantic depth technique, acronyms technique, acrostics technique, transfer appropriateness technique, discrepant scenes and event technique, retrieval practice technique.)  There are absolutely no practical applications given for any of these memory techniques, just what they are in extreme technical detail!  ANYWAY I COULD GO ON AND ON but will let it go.  This book is by no means applicable for high school science teachers who need practical applications instead of a Ph. D. analysis of "calculations and computer modeling techniques."  Oh, just turned the page to what a topographic map is (in extreme detail), glad you cleared that one up for me as well!!!

Here is one excerpt from the book on Developing a Science Semester Plan (my comments are in parenthesis):

It is essential that every science teacher develop a long-term plan. (DUH NO KIDDING!)  Such plans help pace instruction to ensure sufficient time for key concepts, activities, and assessments. (OK KNEW THAT ONE BEFORE I EVEN WENT TO COLLEGE).  It is helpful to develop a semester plan using a grid such as shown in Table 25.3.  Each column represents a week or other unit of time, and each row represents an element in the teaching plan.  This format makes it very easy to see the semester at a glance. (We are given this wonderful chart with what we are teaching to the left and the weeks we teach them to the right--GEE GLAD YOU SHOWED ME HOW TO DO THAT, JUST DON'T KNOW IF I COULD HAVE FIGURED THAT OUT ON MY OWN).  Anyway, this is a bunch of crap! Do not waste your hard earned teacher money on this nonsense!!!  Also, frustrated with the other reviewers for giving it 4 stars????  Seriously?????
1221499
I hate this book! If I did not have to use this book for my class I would never have bought it.
1853531
I'm giving this book a neutral review because it's not really meant for me. I'm sending it to my daughter, who lives on a boat and who is home-schooling her two youngsters, presently aged 12 and 13. It's her opinion that I think is important to post.

Meanwhile, my first impressions: This is a book for teachers in middle school and high school. It's written by a teacher, and it shows the awful effects of an education degree. On  the first page of chapter three, for example, she writes "I have to share" (meaning she should explain) and goes on to say than when she "entered the teaching profession" (became a teacher) "a paradigm shift in writing instruction was percolating." I'm not sure how a shift can percolate, and I cringe whenever I see the word "paradigm," because it is almost always used by people who don't know what it means.

So I'm suspicious. But I will come back here and, um, SHARE with you what my daughter thinks of it.
4710774
Being a Shakespeare lover and teacher, I was so excited when I saw this book.  I began reading it, eager to enrich my educational knowledge and hopefully improve my teaching practices.  How bitterly, tragically wrong I was.  The book should more aptly be titled, "How To Force Your Children to Memorize Shakespeare, Hate Shakespeare, and Hate You," since that's what it's really teaching.  The author is of the mindset that one cannot truly learn Shakespeare without being able to recite long passages on command, which he brags about forcing his children to show off at dinner parties.  There is no appreciation or joy in the language, no explanation of meaning, just pure rote memorization.  He also doesn't believe in standard scansion line breaks as Shakespeare wrote them and instead uses a "chunking" style of memorization, which in my opinion sounds very unnatural and forced.  Furthermore, in order to use his "chunking" style you have to go to his website and print out the many monologues that he has prepped in this way.  This is possibly one of the most disappointing books I have ever read in my entire life, considering how much I desperately wanted to love it.
4413763
While this book is a great concept, the entire book is filled with errors in grammar and orthography.  Many of the questions are vague or entirely inappropriate for the corresponding story and the author apparently is not terribly concerned with the stories being factually accurate.  My daughter started bringing home the stories as homework and was experiencing a great deal of frustration with them.  This is a 10 year old that loves to curl up with an anatomy book for fun.  I didn't understand the frustration until I started reading the stories.  In order to get her to read them, I started having her edit them in red ink prior to handing them in to her teacher.  The teacher did not appreciate it, but she finally got the message and stopped sending them home.  The fact that a book made it to press without being properly edited is disheartening.  The fact that teachers are praising it is disturbing.  The fact that schools are using such low quality materials enrages me and helps explain the problems with our education system.  For the teachers that think this is a great resource, I have a suggestion: Go get an education.
705064
There is another review on here mentioning the sharpness of the tabs. I read the review after I had purchased the folders and decided I would not let my students use the tabs, but instead I would load all the papers into the folders and then pass them out.

Unfortunately, this did not alleviate the situation. I cut my own figures several times in the process. I had to throw one folder away because I got blood on it. Then, after passing them out and instructing the students to "NOT TOUCH THE PRONGS!" I still had two students cut their fingers. One student was just a small cut (similar to a paper cut) but another student's was deep. It bled for several minutes and required a trip to the nurse and a phone call home (I teach elementary).

I am very disappointed in how unsafe these folders are to use with students, and really with adults, too. Please take caution when bending the prongs or refrain from using the folders at all. It's worth the extra money to buy folders with safer prongs.
3170259
I believe this product may be ok for an average user however, they are not of the quality that can stand up to a high school classroom.  Within days of beginning to use the stylus' we started having problems with the tips not writing.  When the first failed I thought it had to be the iPad itself, but when another new pen was brought out, the iPad proved to be working correctly.  Shortly thereafter, more problems begin.  I have already discarded seven of the forty pens I purchased (and out of my own pocket at that, not classroom funds).  I only use these for one class and not everyday.

I should have know the price was too good to be true!
3891165
This book is more than likely the worst Math book I have ever had to use. I am actually supplementing this book with Stewarts Calculus Early Transcendentals. As a student (an adult one at that), I find the Rogawski book is an evil trick to play on your students. If you are an instructor reading this book consider this (with respect): More than likely you have a PHD in Mathematics and understand where the author is going with the concepts and formulas in calculus. Many of your students do not. The First Chapter 2.1 deals with slopes and limits. Why not just out right tell us (as Stewarts book does) that this will deal with derivatives? Why does Rogawski teach rates of change and not mention derivatives even once, and then he jumps into limits (I do understand the connection, but still)! The placement of 2.1 makes no sense to me at all! I would have bombed this semester had I not accidentally purchased a used copy of Stewarts book thinking my school was going to continue using Stewart. Switching to Rogawski was a bad idea. !
4794651
First, full disclosure -- My review is based on the first lesson only -- I put this ebook down after one "lesson" it was so bad... The page layout is clean and that gives a (false) impression of competence but after only a few pages it becomes obvious that this book is complete crap. I honestly wonder on what the positive reviewers could have based their opinions; they can't have been working carefully.  I once made my living writing and editing exactly this kind of educational material (and no I'm not selling my antiquated work in this review) -- I'm saying I'm professionally familiar with this kind of teaching text. I've seen material this dreadful published before and rather than bore you with my theories of why, how and by whom this stuff gets made, let me just say: I know that when a first lesson contains gross errors in fact and fails at the most basic levels of organization you can be sure the rest of the text isn't going to miraculously improve.

For example: a main topic of the first lesson is Venn diagramming. The text does not merely fail to teach Venn diagramming, it actually fails to correctly solve its own problems! I don't mean typos. The author evidently does not understand what she purports to teach. The text gives data about students taking chemistry, science & math tests to illustrate Venn diagramming intersecting sets. Then... the data is diagrammed incorrectly. I mean it's just wrong. (And, FYI, to illustrate the editorial shortcomings of this book: -- this intersecting sets problem is given (twice) under the absurd and nonsensical heading "Bias and Probability" which is also given twice!)

There are other errors and absurdities in the lesson every bit as grotesque as this. In the first lesson! (Like I said... I stopped) But if this error doesn't convince you -- well, you can't say you weren't warned.

If you are curious to see if this book is really as bad as I claim there are good free sites that teach how to Venn Diagram just a google search away. (It's not particularly difficult.) Learn Venn Diagramming and then check out this free ebook and determine for yourself if material in the first chapter here holds up. Personally, I recommend saving your time and just finding a better text.