FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LESSON PLANS THAT WOW!
By 

Ed McCormick 
with Stephanie Dyke and Jon Weiman 

“ . . . standards-based approach to education reform works. We're seeing pretty strong evidence that it does . . ." -- Education Week Research Director Christopher Swanson

Mr. Swanson refers to the educational reforms in the United States which began in the late 1980s when outcome-based education was largely rejected as unworkable. Standards-based education is driven largely by the setting of academic standards for what students should know and be able to do. Today, standards-based school reform has become a predominant issue facing public schools. Though, as Mr. Swanson suggests this changed approach has shown to be effective, standards-based education still must be led by knowledgeable teachers and motivated students to maximize its value. 

Lesson Plans that Wow!: 12 Standards-Based Lessons for Classroom and Art Teachers K-12 (ArtMolds; $24.95; November 2007; Paper) by veteran author, teacher and businessman Ed McCormick with Stephanie Dyke and Jon Weiman is the first book to combine the standards-based teaching paradigm high motivation. It combines a cross core curriculum using art as the catalyst to stimulate a student’s passion for learning. The result is that students don ’t feel as it they are being taught all the while making learning fun and teaching a joy.

Lesson Plans that Wow! is more than just good lessons well written—it’s an owner’s manual for a learning by doing. The authors guide the user through a dozen fun filled classroom tested lesson plans such as: 

- Liberty and Casting for All – making copies of the liberty bell while learning history 
- Don’t Let the Trilobites – lessons in the science of paleontology while creating fossils 
- Communications through Gestures – combining sculpture with social studies 
- Putting the ‘You’ in Art – students create a three dimension life portrait of themselves. 
- Plus, eight more fascinating and creating lessons. 

The authors have a life long background of teaching fine arts and other visual arts courses and workshops. Though their creative approach guarantees student fun, each lesson is designed to provoke serious creative thought and learning of the standards-based core curriculum. 

ED MCCORMICK, author, speaker, artist and entrepreneur, is one of America ’s foremost instructional authorities on crafts, mold making and casting. He has taught his workshops throughout the country as well as the U.K. and produced numerous how-to instructional videos. Versed in many artistic mediums, McCormick was first a landscape and figurative painter working in oils and watercolor. But the classical influence of the Greeks and Renaissance soon began surfacing in his work as life-size sculptural creations. McCormick works, writes and teaches from his east coast facility, ArtMolds. He is the co-founder and the managing director of The Association of Lifecasters International (ALI) a guild of almost 1000 artists worldwide. 

STEPHANIE C. DYKE is a writer, teacher and mixed media artist with life-long experience in creating and teaching visual arts and crafts. 

JOHN WEIMAN is a nationally acclaimed teacher, graphic designer, illustrator and adjunct professor at Pratt Institute. 

Lesson Plans that Wow!
12 Standards Based Lessons for Classroom and Art teachers K-12
Author(s): Ed McCormick, with Stephanie Dyke and Jon Weiman
Publisher: Teaching Press
Publication Date: November 2002
ISBN-978-0-9759-5646-5; $24.95; Paper 

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Contact: Ed McCormick 
Publisher: Teaching Press 
18 Bank Street 
Summit , NJ 07901 
Tel: 908-273-5600