Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching


Anita L. Archer - 2010
    This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area. The authors are leading experts who provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material. Sample lesson plans, lively examples, and reproducible checklists and teacher worksheets enhance the utility of the volume. Purchasers can also download and print the reproducible materials for repeated use. Video clips demonstrating the approach in real classrooms are available at the authors' website: www.explicitinstruction.org. See also related DVDs from Anita Archer: Golden Principles of Explicit Instruction; Active Participation: Getting Them All Engaged, Elementary Level; and Active Participation: Getting Them All Engaged, Secondary Level

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science


Atul Gawande - 2002
    Complications lays bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is--uncertain, perplexing, and profoundly human.Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

Beyond Literary Analysis


Allison Marchetti - 2018
    A groundbreaking and absolutely essential book." -- Tom NewkirkAllison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell invite you to join them on a transformational journey. Out of the dark tunnel of boring literary analysis assignments, they lead you into a world where students learn to write fresh, compelling, authentic arguments based on their own unique interests. “There is a place for analysis of literature in our classrooms,” they write. “But we think there is more. In this book, we invite you to explore your teaching of analytical writing from a new perspective. To open your mind to the real world of analytical writing, and challenge traditional notions about what students should be analyzing and how they should write it.”Allison and Rebekah offer a broadened definition of analysis for the 21st century classroom. “Analysis is everywhere,” they argue. “It’s about video games and athletes’ seasons, and the latest album, or the new Netflix series.” This new definition of “text” allows students to tap into their passions—and learn to write with expertise on topics that matter to them. “No matter where your students begin as writers—full of confidence or full of avoidance—unleashing them to explore the topics and texts they are passionate about can transform your classroom and transform their writing.”With samples throughout the book, you’ll see what students of all levels and experiences can do when they’re supported with mentor texts, targeted writing instruction, and the opportunity to write beyond literary analysis.

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now


Maya Angelou - 1993
    This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power do spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou's latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page. "From the Paperback edition."

Happy Teachers Change the World: A Guide for Cultivating Mindfulness in Education


Thich Nhat Hanh - 2017
    Spanning the whole range of schools and grade levels, from preschool through higher education, these techniques are grounded in the everyday world of schools, colleges, and universities. Beginning firmly with teachers and all those working with students, including administrators, counselors, and other personnel, the Plum Village approach stresses that educators must first establish their own mindfulness practice since everything they do in the classroom will be based on that foundation. The book includes easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques perfected by educators to teach themselves and to apply to their work with students and colleagues, along with inspirational stories of the ways in which teachers have made mindfulness practice alive and relevant for themselves and their students across the school and out into the community. The instructions in Happy Teachers Change the World are offered as basic practices taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, followed by guidance from educators using these practices in their classrooms, with ample in-class interpretations, activities, tips, and instructions. Woven throughout are stories from members of the Plum Village community around the world who are applying these teachings in their own lives and educational contexts.

Kids Deserve It! Pushing Boundaries and Challenging Conventional Thinking


Todd Nesloney - 2016
    In Kids Deserve It!, Todd and Adam encourage you to think big and make learning fun and meaningful for students. While you're at it, you just might rediscover why you became an educator in the first place. Learn why you should be calling parents to praise your students (and employees). Discover ways to promote family interaction and improve relationships for kids at school and at home. Be inspired to take risks, shake up the status quo, and be a champion for your students. #KidsDeserveIt

If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating


Alan Alda - 2017
    With his trademark humor and frankness, Alan Alda explains what makes the out-of-the-box techniques he developed after his years as the host of Scientific American Frontiers so effective. This book reveals what it means to be a true communicator, and how we can communicate better, in every aspect of our lives—with our friends, lovers, and families, with our doctors, in business settings, and beyond.

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story


Ben Carson - 1992
    Gifted Hands will transplace you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world, and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physician who lives to help others. In 1987, Dr. Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head -- an extremely complex and delicate operation that was five months of planning and twenty-two hours of actual surgery, involving a surgical plan that Carson helped initiate. Gifted Hands reveals a man with humility, decency, compassion, courage, and sensitivity who serves as a role model for young people (and everyone else) in need of encouragement to attempt the seemingly impossible and to excel in whatever they attempt. Dr. Carson also describes the key role that his highly intelligent though relatively uneducated mother played in his metamorphosis from an unmotivated ghetto youngster into one of the most respected neurosurgeons in the world.

Stories from a Teacher


J. Flores - 2012
    There was nothing in it. I don't really know why I took it. Maybe it made me feel more secure, the way children sometimes carry around a blanket or a teddy bear. I actually hadn't prepared anything. I had no lesson plans, no ideas about what I might say. I had no books, no materials. I didn't even think I was going to have a job until the day before. Since the call, I was meeting with all kinds of people to get my paperwork finished and I had no time to prepare. Some teachers decorate their classrooms. I hadn't bought any posters or decorations. The walls of my classroom stood bare. I got there about two hours early, standing in the middle of the room, feeling a little sick. Maybe it was something I ate, but my stomach spun around inside me. But then, as I stood there, examining the bare walls of the classroom, I started to realize, Room 203 was my room. Mine. No one else would teach in this room but yours truly, for the next 180 school days. Of course, I had been in the room a few times before, but on this day, the room belonged to me. My dream had become real. The gravity of the whole situation really made me want to throw up." - excerpt from Stories from a Teacher *NOTE TO PARENTS/READERS* - Book contains some adult language/content. Book's linked short stories will resonate with high school students and young teachers. note - v 1.102 - 1/3/2015

Up the Down Staircase


Bel Kaufman - 1964
    It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose clash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.

How to Ruin Everything: Essays


George Watsky - 2016
    The essays in How to Ruin Everything range from the absurd (how he became an international ivory smuggler) to the comical (his middle-school rap battle dominance) to the revelatory (his experiences with epilepsy), yet all are delivered with the type of linguistic dexterity and self-awareness that has won Watsky more than 765,000 YouTube subscribers. Alternately ribald and emotionally resonant, How to Ruin Everything announces a versatile writer with a promising career ahead.

The Morning Meeting Book: K-8


Roxann Kriete - 1999
    The third edition offers:Updated examples of Morning Meeting in actionEmphasis on how Morning Meeting supports mastery of Common Core State Standards, 21st century skills, and core social/emotional competenciesUpdated information of the sharing component of Morning MeetingStreamlined format (easier to find examples of greetings, activities, etc.)

Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, Grades K-8


Lucy Calkins - 2014
    -Lucy Calkins, Writing Pathways Lucy Calkins' groundbreaking performance assessments offer instructional tools to support continuous assessment, timely feedback, and clear goals tied to learning progressions that have been aligned with world-class standards. Originally published as part of the bestselling Units of Study in Opinion/Argument, Information, and Narrative Writing, grades K-8, Writing Pathways is ideal for writing workshop, but suitable for any writing instruction context or curriculum.This practical guide includes:Learning progressions for opinion/argument, information, and narrative writing, which map the specific benchmarks students will master for every grade levelOn-demand writing prompts that support schoolwide performance assessmentStudent checklists to help students set goals and integrate crucial self-assessment into their workRubrics to support individual teachers and professional learning communities as they evaluate mastery and plan instruction within and across grade levelsStudent writing samples that illustrate different ways students have exemplified standards and highlight essential features of each writing genreAnnotated exemplar pieces of writing on the same topic for every grade level that highlight the traits you can expect to see at each level of the learning progressions. Who needs Writing Pathways?Educators who are not yet ready to implement the full Units of Study curriculum can use Writing Pathways to get started with Lucy Calkins' proven approach to writing assessment and instruction. Coaches and administrators who are supporting implementation of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study will find Writing Pathways to be an ideal resource to guide their work. Who doesn't need Writing Pathways?The content in this stand-alone edition is the same as in the previous editions found in Lucy Calkins' Units of Study (K-5 and 6-8 are combined in this new edition). Teachers who have the Units of Study do not need this new edition. For more information, visit UnitsofStudy.com.

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family


Mitch Albom - 2019
    You can’t help but fall for Chika. A page-turner that will no doubt become a classic.” --Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club and The Art of Memoir From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tuesdays With Morrie comes Mitch Albom’s most personal story to date: an intimate and heartwarming memoir about what it means to be a family and the young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart.  Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince. With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.” Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost. Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.

Tribes: A New Way of Learning and Being Together


Jeanne Gibbs - 1987
    **Please see the NEW EDITION titled "Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities" by Jeanne Gibbs ISBN:0932762417 Copyright 2006