The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroom


Mary Griffith - 1998
    Without bells, schedules, and rules about what to do and when, the knowledge they gain through mindful living and exploration is absorbed more easily and enthusiastically. Learning is a natural, inborn impulse, and the world is rich with lessons to be learned and puzzles to be solved.Successful unschooling parents know how to stimulate and direct their children's learning impulse. Once you read this book, so will you!

High Challenge, Low Threat: How the Best Leaders Find the Balance


Mary Myatt - 2016
    It is the quality of these, whatever the size of the organisation, which make the difference between organisations which thrive, and those which stagnate.This is not to argue for soft, easy and comfortable options. Instead it considers how top leaders manage to walk the line between the impossible and the possible, between the undoable and the doable, and to create conditions for productive work which transcend the difficulties which come towards us every day. Instead of dodging them, they embrace them. And by navigating high challenge, low threat, they show how others how to do the same.

The Hidden Lives of Learners


Graham Nuthall - 2007
    It explores the three worlds which together shape a student’s learning – the public world of the teacher, the highly influential world of peers, and the student’s own private world and experiences. What becomes clear is that just because a teacher is teaching, does not mean students are learning.Using a unique method of data collection through meticulous recording -audio, video, observations, interviews, pre and posttests - and the collation and analysis of what occurred inside and outside the classroom, Graham Nuthall has definitively documented what is involved for most students to learn and retain a concept. In the author’s lifetime the significance of his discoveries and the rare mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were widely recognised and continue to be one of the foundation stones of evidence-based quality education.This book is the culmination of Professor Graham Nuthall’s forty years of research on learning and teaching. It is written with classroom teachers and teachers of teachers in mind. But realising time was short and that his life’s work was laid out in learned papers for fellow researchers, he wrote this brief but powerful book for a much wider audience as well: for all those who seek a better understanding of classroom learning.After completing his PhD at the University of Illinois, Graham Nuthall returned to take up academic positions at the University of Canterbury New Zealand. Throughout his long and distinguished career he continued to work closely with his academic colleagues in the USA and other countriesHe served on the editorial boards of international journals including Journal of Education for Teaching, Social Psychology of Education, Journal of Classroom Interaction and was Joint Editor of Teaching and Teacher Education: an International Journal of Research and Studies. His work has been translated into several languages and he was a visiting fellow at Stanford, London, Illinois and other universities. The recipient of many awards including The Royal Society of New Zealand’s Science and Technology Medal, The McKenzie Award for Excellence in Research in Education, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, his students and those he worked with remember him as warm, empathetic, and inspiring."Teachers who care about students and learning will be fascinated by the student voices that speak on the pages of this book, and what those voices reveal about learning in classroom settings, The Hidden Lives of Learners is a generous gift from Graham Nuthall to teachers everywhere."- Greta Morine-Dershimer

Row the Boat: A Never-Give-Up Approach to Lead with Enthusiasm and Optimism and Improve Your Team and Culture (Jon Gordon)


Jon Gordon - 2021
    

Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act Is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools


Deborah Meier - 2004
    Originally supported by a bipartisan coalition, it purports to improve public schools by enforcing a system of standards and accountability through high-stakes testing. Many people supported it originally, despite doubts, because of its promise especially to improve the way schools serve poor children. By making federal funding contingent on accepting a system of tests and sanctions, it is radically affecting the life of schools around the country.But, argue the authors of this citizen's guide to the most important political issue in education, far from improving public schools and increasing the ability of the system to serve poor and minority children, the law is doing exactly the opposite. Here some of our most prominent, respected voices in education-including school innovator Deborah Meier, education activist Alfie Kohn, and founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools Theodore R. Sizer-come together to show us how, point by point, NCLB undermines the things it claims to improve: * How NCLB punishes rather than helps poor and minority kids and their schools * How NCLB helps further an agenda of privatization and an attack on public schools * How the focus on testing and test preparation dumbs down classrooms * And they put forward a richly articulated vision of alternatives.Educators and parents around the country are feeling the harshly counterproductive effects of NCLB. This book is an essential guide to understanding what's wrong and where we should go from here.

The Zen Teacher: Creating Focus, Simplicity, and Tranquility in the Classroom


Dan Tricarico - 2015
    All it takes are a few moments of peace and a little focus. If you're like many teachers, your day is busy, demanding, even chaotic. But just because you live in a fast-paced, always-on world, doesn't mean your life has to feel rushed and crazy. In The Zen Teacher, educator, blogger, and speaker Dan Tricarico provides practical, easy-to-use techniques to help teachers slow down and create a sense of focus, simplicity, and tranquility in the classroom - and in life. As a teacher, you have incredible power to influence, even improve, the future. By being at your best - unrushed and fully focused - you ensure that every interaction with your students is beneficial, for them and for you. If you're new to the concept of Zen, don't worry. In this introductory guide, Dan Tricarico explains what it means to develop a Zen practice - something that has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with your ability ability to thrive in the classroom. The Zen Teacher will help you: Maximize your performance while lowering your stress. Transform your classroom and experience a better quality of life. Focus on things that really matter and let go of things you can't control. Find time to take care of yourself, so you can be at your best!

Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners, and Experts with Something to Teach


Danny Iny - 2018
    The name of today's game, both personally and professionally, is to be constantly learning: just enough, just in time, and never stopping. But where can knowledge workers, professionals, and lifelong learners go to find the training and education they need to stay current and thrive?It's no secret that universities and colleges are struggling to keep pace and stay current. Often out of touch, exorbitantly overpriced, and slowed by unwieldy infrastructures, bureaucracies and tenure, these institutions are fundamentally designed to deliver a mode of education that still serves an important purpose, but leaves many of our individual and collective needs for learning and growth sorely unmet.This crisis is an opportunity for the experts and professionals who possess the knowledge and skills that are so sorely needed by so many. The solution is to package their expertise into leveraged learning programs that create transformation for the lifelong learners who need them, and profit for the experts who create them.Danny Iny, a successful educator entrepreneur, has been leading the charge on this growing movement. And in Leveraged Learning he lays out the guidebook for navigating and thriving in this new world – both as a lifelong learner, and as an expert with something to teach.As a lifelong learner, you'll gain the skills and acquire the tools that you need to grow and thrive:* How education has changed, and the implications for knowledge workers and professionals.* Why the education system is failing you, and what alternatives to consider.* How to hack your patterns of behavior to support and accelerate your learning.* The two layers of learning that you must stack together to achieve mastery.* Which mental habits are critical to achieving ongoing, sustained success.* How to tell which online courses are worth taking, and which to avoid.* Why most online courses have single-digit completion rates, and how to transcend the statistics.And as an expert with something to teach, you'll learn how to package your expertise for others' benefit, and your profit:* What it really takes to develop a lucrative revenue stream from your expertise.* The piloting methodology that has worked for thousands of successful online course creators.* How to design a curriculum that engages students and leads to mastery.* What to test, measure, and iterate as your course grows and evolves.* Research-based techniques to help every student perform at the 98th percentile of success.* Methodologies for peer-based feedback that cost-effectively support student learning.* How to engineer student success with accountability, gamification, and artificial intelligence.All this and much, much more is yours for the taking. Leveraged Learning is your indispensable guide to staying current, growing, and thriving in the modern world.From the book:"The current dysfunction of education is so egregious because it hurts so many of us. Most obviously, it hurts the graduates who find themselves with a degree that has practically no market value, forced to make ends meet as Starbucks baristas or Uber drivers.It hurts the bearers of a combined $1.4 trillion of student debt. For those keeping score, that’s more than credit card debt... and unlike credit card debt, you can’t even declare bankruptcy and free yourself of the potentially lifelong consequences of a bad decision you might have made as a teenager.It hurts the employers who are starved for talent. Education hasn’t prepared job seekers with the skills to fill more than six million open jobs in the United States alone, even as almost seven million Americans are unemployed and looking for work. It hurts the learners who seek alternatives. They waste enormous amounts of time and money bouncing between a host of imperfect options like MOOC programs with completion rates that max out at 15 percent, overpriced continuing education programs offered by universities, and courses provided by private instructors of varying quality.And it hurts educators and learning professionals. They labor heroically to brighten their students’ futures, but often that their best efforts can’t overcome the inertia and challenge of the systems in which they operate.We all hurt from the broken nature of modern education, that no longer prepares us for success. And we all need a solution that is more than just a band-aid.Thankfully, such a solution exists. That’s what this book is about."

SEO 2013 & Beyond: Search Engine Optimization Will Never Be The Same Again


Andy Williams - 2012
    Panda was designed to remove low quality content from the search engine results pages. The surprise to many were some of the big name casualties that were taken out by the update. On 24th April 2012, Google went in for the kill when they released the Penguin update. Few SEOs that had been in the business for any length of time could believe the carnage that this update caused. If Google's Panda was a 1 on the Richter scale of updates, Penguin was surely a 10. It completely changed the way we need to think about SEO. On September 28th 2012, Google released a new algorithm update targeting exact match domains (EMDs). I have updated this book to let you know the consequences of owning EMDs and added my own advice on choosing domain names. While I have never been a huge fan of exact match domains anyway, many other SEO books and courses teach you to use them. I'll tell you why I think those other courses and books are wrong.The EMD update was sandwiched in between another Panda update (on the 27th September) and another Penguin update (5th October).Whereas Panda seems to penalize low quality content, Penguin is more concerned about overly aggressive SEO tactics. Stuff that SEOs had been doing for years, not only didn't work any more, but now can actually cause your site to be penalized and drop out of the rankings. That’s right, just about everything you have been taught about Search Engine Optimization in the last 10 years can be thrown out the Window. Google have moved the goal posts. I have been working in SEO for around 10 years and have always tried to stay within the guidelines laid down by Google. This has not always been easy because to compete with other sites, it often meant using techniques that Google frowned upon. Now, if you use those techniques, Google is likely to catch up with you and demote your rankings. In this book, I want to share with you the new SEO. The SEO for 2013 and Beyond.

The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years


B. Janet Hibbs - 2019
    "I can think of no better guide than The Stressed Years of Their Lives for overwhelmed parents and stressed-out kids for navigating these turbulent times. This is required reading for the college set.” —Brigid Schulte, author of the New York Times bestselling OverwhelmedAll parenting is in preparation for letting go. However, the paradox of parenting is that the more we learn about late adolescent development and risk, the more frightened we become for our children, and the more we want to stay involved in their lives. This becomes particularly necessary, and also particularly challenging, in mid- to late adolescence, the years just before and after students head off to college. These years coincide with the emergence of many mood disorders and other mental health issues.When family psychologist Dr. B. Hibbs's own son came home from college mired in a dangerous depressive spiral, she turned to Dr. Anthony Rostain. Dr. Rostain has a secret superpower: he understands the arcane rules governing privacy and parental involvement in students’ mental health care on college campuses, the same rules that sometimes hold parents back from getting good care for their kids. Now, these two doctors have combined their expertise to corral the crucial emotional skills and lessons that every parent and student can learn for a successful launch from home to college.

What Connected Educators Do Differently


Todd Whitaker - 2015
    You'll find out how to create a personal and professional learning network to share resources and ideas, gain support, and make an impact on others. By customizing your professional development in this way, you'll be able to learn what you want, how you want, when you want. Best of all, you'll become energized and inspired by all the great ideas out there and how you can contribute, benefiting both you and your students.Whether you are a teacher or school leader, you will come away from this book with step-by-step advice and fresh ideas to try immediately. Being a connected educator has never been easier or more important than it is right now!

Beware Dangerism!


Gever Tulley - 2011
    If you're younger, it's unlikely you did any of these things. Has the world become that much more dangerous? Statistically, not at all. But our society has created pervasive fears around letting kids be independent and take risks -- and the consequences for our kids are serious. Gever Tulley takes on these media-inflated fears -- which he calls "dangerism" -- with surprising statistics and insights into the nature of fear and risk.About the author: Gever Tulley is the co-founder of the Tinkering School, a weeklong camp where lucky kids get to play with their very own power tools.

The Best Joke Book (Period): Hundreds of the Funniest, Silliest, Most Ridiculous Jokes Ever


William Donohue - 2014
    Inside, you'll find hundreds of jokes that are guaranteed to stir up a room full of smiles, including knock-knocks, witty puns, and one-liners. Complete with hilarious quotes from celebrities like Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, and Jerry Seinfeld, everyone will revel in each gut-busting moment.So whether you're looking to add a few jokes to your repertoire, impress your buds, or improve your banter, this sidesplitting book arms you with the perfect joke for any occasion!

Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Gift of Great Expectations


Joanne Lipman - 2013
    K” – the fierce, foot-stomping Ukrainian-born music teacher who rehearsed them until their fingers almost bled, and who made them better than they had any right to be. Away from the classroom, though, life seemed to conspire against him at every turn. Strings Attached takes you on his remarkable journey, from his childhood on the run in Nazi Germany, to his life in America caring for his two young daughters and his disabled wife, to his search for his younger daughter after she mysteriously disappears - a search that would last for seven years. His unforgettable story is lyrically told in alternating chapters by two childhood friends who reconnected decades later: Melanie Kupchynsky, his daughter, and Joanne Lipman, a former student. Joanne recalls the intimidating teacher who nevertheless "had such absolute confidence—faith, really—in my ability to do better.” Melanie tells of a father who gave heart and soul to his family and students, who loved music and open skies, and who in spite of everything believed hard work would result in great beauty.Heartbreaking yet ultimately triumphant, Strings Attached is a testament to the astonishing power of hope--and a celebration of the profound impact that one person can have on the lives of others._______________________To hear the music from STRINGS ATTACHED, please visit StringsAttachedBook.com

What's Math Got to Do with It?: How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Success


Jo Boaler - 2015
    Featuring all the important advice and suggestions in the original edition of What’s Math Got to Do with It?, this revised edition is now updated with new research on the brain and mathematics that is revolutionizing scientists’ understanding of learning and potential.As always Jo Boaler presents research findings through practical ideas that can be used in classrooms and homes. The new What’s Math Got to Do with It? prepares teachers and parents for the Common Core, shares Boaler’s work on ways to teach mathematics for a “growth mindset,” and includes a range of advice to inspire teachers and parents to give their students the best mathematical experience possible.

Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World


David Perkins - 2014
    But how do we know what today's learners will really need to know in the future? Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World is a toolkit for approaching that question with new insight. There is no one answer to the question of what's worth teaching, but with the tools in this book, you'll be one step closer to constructing a curriculum that prepares students for whatever situations they might face in the future.K-12 teachers and administrators play a crucial role in building a thriving society. David Perkins, founding member and co-director of Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, argues that curriculum is one of the most important elements of making students ready for the world of tomorrow. In Future Wise, you'll learn concepts, curriculum criteria, and techniques for prioritizing content so you can guide students toward the big understandings that matter.Understand how learners use knowledge in life after graduation Learn strategies for teaching critical thinking and addressing big questions Identify top priorities when it comes to disciplines and content areas Gain curriculum design skills that make the most of learning across the years of education Future Wise presents a brand new framework for thinking about education. Curriculum can be one of the hardest things for teachers and administrators to change, but David Perkins shows that only by reimagining what we teach can we lead students down the road to functional knowledge. Future Wise is the practical guidebook you need to embark on this important quest.