Performance-focused Smile Sheets

Download Performance-focused Smile Sheets PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781941577004
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (77 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Performance-focused Smile Sheets by : Will Thalheimer

Download or read book Performance-focused Smile Sheets written by Will Thalheimer and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, "Performance-Focused Smile Sheets," completely reimagines the smile sheet as an essential tool to drive performance improvement. Traditional smile sheets (i.e., learner response forms, student reaction forms) don't work! Decades of practice shows them to have negligible benefits. Scientific studies prove that traditional smile sheets are not correlated with learning results! Yet still we rely on smile sheets to make critical decisions about our learning interventions. In this book, Dr. Will Thalheimer carefully builds the case for a new methodology in smile-sheet design. Based on the learning research, "Performance-Focused Smile Sheets" shows how to write better questions, more focused on performance. The book also shows how to deploy smile sheets to our learners to get valid feedback--feedback that can be used to help us as trainers, instructional designers, teachers, professors, eLearning developers, and chief learning officers build virtuous cycles of continuous improvement.

What’s Your Formula?

Download What’s Your Formula? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Association for Talent Development
ISBN 13 : 195215748X
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (521 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis What’s Your Formula? by : Brian Washburn

Download or read book What’s Your Formula? written by Brian Washburn and published by Association for Talent Development. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your Periodic Table of Learning Elements Engaging, effective training programs are a mixture of science and art, requiring the right balance of adult learning theory, available technology, intuitive tools, proven practices, creativity, and risk. How does a trainer find the right combination and proportion of these elements? How does a trainer know what’s possible? To answer these questions, Brian Washburn offers a simple yet elegant periodic table of learning elements modeled on the original periodic table of chemical properties. Washburn’s elements—which are organized into solids, liquids, gases, radioactive, and interactive categories similar to their chemical cousins—are metaphors for the tools and strategies of the field of learning design; when they’re combined, and under certain conditions, they have the potential to create amazing learning experiences for participants. They are that impactful. From critical gas-like elements like the air we breathe, present in every training room (think instructional design or visual design), to radioactive elements, powerful and dangerous yet commonly used (think PowerPoint), Washburn guides you through the pitfalls and choices you confront in creating engaging learning experiences. A well-designed training program can be world-changing, he argues, and if you believe in your craft as a learning professional, you can do this too. Whether you’re an experienced learning designer or new to the field, this book inspires with new ideas and ways to organize the design of your learning programs. With stories from Washburn’s professional experience, the book includes a hands-on glossary of definitions and descriptions for more than 50 of his elements.

Holden's Performance

Download Holden's Performance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 125012896X
Total Pages : 377 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Holden's Performance by : Murray Bail

Download or read book Holden's Performance written by Murray Bail and published by Picador. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holden's Performance by award-winning author Murray Bail is the story of Holden Shadbolt, a guileless and matter-of-fact innocent as he passes through the cities and landscape of Australia. His reassuring silent presence and photographic memory make him useful to men of power and women who appear to need his protection. He is surrounded by larger than life figures whose exploits and adventures Holden follows—ex-Corporal Frank 'Bloodnut' McBee, the scrap dealer who woos his mother; his uncle Vern, a shortsighted proofreader who likes facts and eating newspaper with is breakfast cereal; and the crippled artist Harriet, whose twists and curves appeal to Holden as he holds to his own unswervingly straight lines.

Structured Methods in Language Education (SMiLE)

Download Structured Methods in Language Education (SMiLE) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781734080827
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (88 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Structured Methods in Language Education (SMiLE) by : Enid Wolf-Schein

Download or read book Structured Methods in Language Education (SMiLE) written by Enid Wolf-Schein and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Structured Methods in Language Education (SMILE) is a complete language/literacy program, easily implemented and shown to be effective in teaching language skills to individuals of all ages, with profound disabilities. It uses progressive methods of instruction, phonics, and word-building.

Great Books

Download Great Books PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439127158
Total Pages : 518 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (391 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Great Books by : David Denby

Download or read book Great Books written by David Denby and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *NATIONAL BESTSELLER* “A lively adventure of the mind...The tone of the prose...is one of unqualified enthusiasm: energy, vigor, intellectual curiosity, and what might be called an ecstasy of imaginative journalism.” —The New York Times Book Review At the age of forty-eight, writer and film critic David Denby returned to Columbia University and re-enrolled in two core courses in Western civilization to confront the literary and philosophical masterpieces -- the "great books" -- that are now at the heart of the culture wars. In Great Books, he leads us on a glorious tour, a rediscovery and celebration of such authors as Homer and Boccaccio, Locke and Nietzsche. Conrad and Woolf. The resulting personal odyssey is an engaging blend of self-discovery, cultural commentary, reporting, criticism, and autobiography -- an inspiration for anyone in love with the written word.

Core Performance

Download Core Performance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rodale Books
ISBN 13 : 1609616324
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (96 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Core Performance by : Mark Verstegen

Download or read book Core Performance written by Mark Verstegen and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2005-04-14 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Core Performance is the first program that delivers strength and muscle mass, endurance and a lean body, balance and flexibility, athletic quickness and power--all in less than an hour a day. How? By giving you a personal coach who has worked with some of the most famous and successful athletes in the world today. The intense focus on the muscles of your core--abs, lower back, hips, and thighs--will help you stand taller and prevent the back pain from which most people eventually suffer. The detailed nutrition section guarantees that you'll feed your muscles, starve your fat, and get boundless energy when you need it most. This program is like nothing you've ever seen before--it enables you to totally transform your body in just 12 weeks. The potential is within you, and the power to unleash that potential is within Core Performance.

Design Thinking for Training and Development

Download Design Thinking for Training and Development PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Association for Talent Development
ISBN 13 : 1950496198
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (54 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Design Thinking for Training and Development by : Sharon Boller

Download or read book Design Thinking for Training and Development written by Sharon Boller and published by Association for Talent Development. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Better Learning Solutions Through Better Learning Experiences When training and development initiatives treat learning as something that occurs as a one-time event, the learner and the business suffer. Using design thinking can help talent development professionals ensure learning sticks to drive improved performance. Design Thinking for Training and Development offers a primer on design thinking, a human-centered process and problem-solving methodology that focuses on involving users of a solution in its design. For effective design thinking, talent development professionals need to go beyond the UX, the user experience, and incorporate the LX, the learner experience. In this how-to guide for applying design thinking tools and techniques, Sharon Boller and Laura Fletcher share how they adapted the traditional design thinking process for training and development projects. Their process involves steps to: Get perspective. Refine the problem. Ideate and prototype. Iterate (develop, test, pilot, and refine). Implement. Design thinking is about balancing the three forces on training and development programs: learner wants and needs, business needs, and constraints. Learn how to get buy-in from skeptical stakeholders. Discover why taking requests for training, gathering the perspective of stakeholders and learners, and crafting problem statements will uncover the true issue at hand. Two in-depth case studies show how the authors made design thinking work. Job aids and tools featured in this book include: a strategy blueprint to uncover what a stakeholder is trying to solve an empathy map to capture the learner’s thoughts, actions, motivators, and challenges an experience map to better understand how the learner performs. With its hands-on, use-it-today approach, this book will get you started on your own journey to applying design thinking.

Results

Download Results PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crown Business
ISBN 13 : 0307337316
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Results by : Bruce A. Pasternack

Download or read book Results written by Bruce A. Pasternack and published by Crown Business. This book was released on 2005-10-18 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every company has a personality. Does yours help or hinder your results? Does it make you fit for growth? Find out by taking the quiz that’s helped 50,000 people better understand their organizations at OrgDNA.com and to learn more about Organizational DNA. Just as you can understand an individual’s personality, so too can you understand a company’s type—what makes it tick, what’s good and bad about it. Results explains why some organizations bob and weave and roll with the punches to consistently deliver on commitments and produce great results, while others can’t leave their corner of the ring without tripping on their own shoelaces. Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack help you identify which of the seven company types you work for—and how to keep what’s good and fix what’s wrong. You’ll feel the shock of recognition (“That’s me, that’s my company”) as you find out whether your organization is: • Passive-Aggressive (“everyone agrees, smiles, and nods, but nothing changes”): entrenched underground resistance makes getting anything done like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall • Fits-and-Starts (“let 1,000 flowers bloom”): filled with smart people pulling in different directions • Outgrown (“the good old days meet a brave new world”): reacts slowly to market developments, since it’s too hard to run new ideas up the flagpole • Overmanaged (“we’re from corporate and we’re here to help”): more reporting than working, as managers check on their subordinates’ work so they can in turn report to their bosses • Just-in-Time (“succeeding, but by the skin of our teeth”): can turn on a dime and create real breakthroughs but also tends to burn out its best and brightest • Military Precision (“flying in formation”): executes brilliant strategies but usually does not deal well with events not in the playbook • Resilient (“as good as it gets”): flexible, forward-looking, and fun; bounces back when it hits a bump in the road and never, ever rests on its laurels For anyone who’s ever said, “Wow, that’s a great idea, but it’ll never happen here” or “Whew, we pulled it off again, but I’m tired of all this sprinting,” Results provides robust, practical ideas for becoming and remaining a resilient business. Also available as an eBook From the Hardcover edition.

Five Feet Apart

Download Five Feet Apart PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 1534451560
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (344 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Five Feet Apart by : Rachael Lippincott

Download or read book Five Feet Apart written by Rachael Lippincott and published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a major motion picture starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson! Goodreads Choice Winner, Best Young Adult Fiction of 2019 In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel that’s perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, two teens fall in love with just one minor complication—they can’t get within a few feet of each other without risking their lives. Can you love someone you can never touch? Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions. The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals. Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment. What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?

Fierce Attachments

Download Fierce Attachments PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1466819006
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fierce Attachments by : Vivian Gornick

Download or read book Fierce Attachments written by Vivian Gornick and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2005-09-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments—hailed by the New York Times for the renowned feminist author’s “mesmerizing, thrilling” truths within its pages—has been selected by the publication’s book critics as the #1 Best Memoir of the Past 50 Years. In this deeply etched and haunting memoir, Vivian Gornick tells the story of her lifelong battle with her mother for independence. There have been numerous books about mother and daughter, but none has dealt with this closest of filial relations as directly or as ruthlessly. Gornick’s groundbreaking book confronts what Edna O’Brien has called “the principal crux of female despair”: the unacknowledged Oedipal nature of the mother-daughter bond. Born and raised in the Bronx, the daughter of “urban peasants,” Gornick grows up in a household dominated by her intelligent but uneducated mother’s romantic depression over the early death of her husband. Next door lives Nettie, an attractive widow whose calculating sensuality appeals greatly to Vivian. These women with their opposing models of femininity continue, well into adulthood, to affect Gornick’s struggle to find herself in love and in work. As Gornick walks with her aged mother through the streets of New York, arguing and remembering the past, each wins the reader’s admiration: the caustic and clear-thinking daughter, for her courage and tenacity in really talking to her mother about the most basic issues of their lives, and the still powerful and intuitively-wise old woman, who again and again proves herself her daughter’s mother. Unsparing, deeply courageous, Fierce Attachments is one of the most remarkable documents of family feeling that has been written, a classic that helped start the memoir boom and remains one of the most moving examples of the genre. “[Gornick] stares unflinchingly at all that is hidden, difficult, strange, unresolvable in herself and others—at loneliness, sexual malice and the devouring, claustral closeness of mothers and daughters...[Fierce Attachments is] a portrait of the artist as she finds a language—original, allergic to euphemism and therapeutic banalities—worthy of the women that raised her.”—The New York Times

Blindsight

Download Blindsight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1429955198
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Blindsight by : Peter Watts

Download or read book Blindsight written by Peter Watts and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sophie's World

Download Sophie's World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1466804270
Total Pages : 735 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sophie's World by : Jostein Gaarder

Download or read book Sophie's World written by Jostein Gaarder and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

Now, Discover Your Strengths

Download Now, Discover Your Strengths PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743201140
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Now, Discover Your Strengths by : Marcus Buckingham

Download or read book Now, Discover Your Strengths written by Marcus Buckingham and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-01-29 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths comes with an access code to the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. This updated assessment includes reports and resources that go far beyond the standardized reports of the older assessment by providing you with personalized insight statements unique to your specific combination of strengths. The original publication of Now, Discover Your Strengths in 2001 launched a worldwide strengths revolution. To date, more than 20 million people have discovered their strengths, and tens of thousands more are discovering theirs every week. Gallup Press has published numerous strengths-based books, and Gallup Strengths Center has become a worldwide destination for strengths-based development. Since the book's release, Gallup has continued to dedicate countless hours to developing our strengths science, the brainchild of the late Dr. Donald O. Clifton, who was named Father of Strengths-Based Psychology by the American Psychological Association. Part of that investment resulted in Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 -- a refined upgrade of the original assessment for discovering your strengths. To ensure that you have the best possible experience in discovering and developing your strengths, we have made Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 available to those who purchase the 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths. The updated assessment includes new reports and resources, including the Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide. This guide goes far beyond the standardized reports of the older assessment by providing you with personalized insight statements unique to your specific combination of strengths. These highly customized Strengths Insights are an in-depth analysis of your top five strengths. They describe who you are in astonishing detail and provide you with a comprehensive understanding of yourself, your strengths and what makes you stand out. These updated resources, in combination with the 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths, give you the best opportunity to soar with your strengths -- at work and in your life.

Design for how People Learn

Download Design for how People Learn PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : New Riders
ISBN 13 : 0321768434
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (217 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Design for how People Learn by : Julie Dirksen

Download or read book Design for how People Learn written by Julie Dirksen and published by New Riders. This book was released on 2011 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Products, technologies, and workplaces change so quickly today that everyone is continually learning. Many of us are also teaching, even when it's not in our job descriptions. Whether it's giving a presentation, writing documentation, or creating a website or blog, we need and want to share our knowledge with other people. But if you've ever fallen asleep over a boring textbook, or fast-forwarded through a tedious e-learning exercise, you know that creating a great learning experience is harder than it seems. In Design For How People Learn, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples, Design For How People Learn will teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

Oxford Textbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care

Download Oxford Textbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198736134
Total Pages : 457 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Oxford Textbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care by : David William Kissane

Download or read book Oxford Textbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care written by David William Kissane and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communication is a core skill for medical professionals when treating patients. Cancer and palliative care present some of the most challenging clinical situations. This book provides evidence-based guidelines alongside case examples, tips, and strategies to achieve effective, patient-centred communication.

Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions

Download Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Association for Talent Development
ISBN 13 : 1947308386
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (473 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions by : Clark N. Quinn

Download or read book Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions written by Clark N. Quinn and published by Association for Talent Development. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can You Tell Learning Fact From Fiction? “Training should be tailored to individual learning styles.” “We only use 10 percent of our brain.” “Multitasking is as simple and efficient as flipping a switch.” Some myths and superstitions have their fervent believers. But unlike everyday misconceptions such as “Bats are blind” or “George Washington had wooden teeth,” these learning myths can cost you. Fortunately, trained skeptic Clark Quinn has once and for all laid them bare before the research and evidence. Now, myth busting has never been easier. Millennials, Goldfish, & Other Training Misconceptions debunks more than 30 common assumptions about good learning design to help you avoid wasting time, resources, and goodwill on unproven practices. Drawing on cognitive psychology and brain science, Clark arms you with the ammo to challenge the claims you’re likely to hear from peers and co-workers. Be a smart consumer, and stand behind the science of learning.

Telling Ain't Training

Download Telling Ain't Training PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Telling Ain't Training by : Harold Stolovitch

Download or read book Telling Ain't Training written by Harold Stolovitch and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the first edition of Telling Ain t Training was published in 2002, its practical, learner-focused approach quickly became a favorite with learning and development professionals, as well as school teachers, parents, professors, and anyone else who trains, educates, or instructs. Chockfull of myth-busting research and ready-to-use tools, always delivered in a lighthearted and entertaining style, Telling Ain t Training set new standards for the training industry. That s a tough act to follow, but this long-awaited new edition does not disappoint. While it has been updated, expanded and enhanced to reflect almost a decade of progress, fans of Telling Ain t Training will be relieved to find that its lively, user-friendly tone has been carefully preserved. In fact, this is a book that faithfully practices what it preaches, engaging the reader from page one and immediately involving them in the first of many try-it-yourself exercises in learning.