BE A HUMAN CALCULATOR


Rajesh Sarswat - 2016
    However, the techniques that you shall find in this book have been tested and used (not only by the author but by countless other people) in examinations time and again.Many techniques mentioned in other books are pretty impractical and sometimes completely unusable. This book is not a package of magic. It is rather a package of methods that if practiced and persevered with can churn up magical results! This book could be a great resource for various competitive examinations and students in middle and senior school. It could help the reader in myriad ways depending upon his or her needs and scope for practice. At the same time one could figure out as to which technique would work for one and which would not, again depending upon one’s set of circumstances and needs. By reading this book, the students will be able to:(a) learn quicker methods by observing some simple techniques;compare various techniques available on each topic;(b) know the limitations of each technique;(c) save some precious minutes in various competitive and school examinations by employing the quick calculation techniques;(d) develop their own tools in the field of quick calculations.

The Art of Explanation - Making Your Ideas, Products and Services Easier to Understand


Lee LeFever - 2012
    Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing. People just don’t see the big idea - and it’s keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem.The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems.Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium. You will learn to:• Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems.• Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience. • Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media. The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.

The Power of a Plant: A Teacher's Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools


Stephen Ritz - 2017
    After what can only be defined as a cosmic experience when a flower broke up a fight in his classroom, he saw a way to start tackling his school’s problems: plants. He flipped his curriculum to integrate gardening as an entry point for all learning and inadvertently created an international phenomenon. As Ritz likes to say, “Fifty thousand pounds of vegetables later, my favorite crop is organically grown citizens who are growing and eating themselves into good health and amazing opportunities.”The Power of a Plant tells the story of a green teacher from the Bronx who let one idea germinate into a movement and changed his students’ lives by learning alongside them. Since greening his curriculum, Ritz has seen near-perfect attendance and graduation rates, dramatically increased passing rates on state exams, and behavioral incidents slashed in half. In the poorest congressional district in America, he has helped create 2,200 local jobs and built farms and gardens while changing landscapes and mindsets for residents, students, and colleagues. Along the way, Ritz lost more than 100 pounds by eating the food that he and his students grow in school. The Power of a Plant is his story of hope, resilience, regeneration, and optimism.

Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters


Robert Probst - 2017
    Now, in Disrupting Thinking they take teachers a step further and discuss an on-going problem: lack of engagement with reading. They explain that all too often, no matter the strategy shared with students, too many students remain disengaged and reluctant readers. The problem, they suggest, is that we have misrepresented to students why we read and how we ought to approach any text - fiction or nonfiction. With their hallmark humor and their appreciated practicality, Beers and Probst present a vision of what reading and what education across all the grades could be. Hands-on-strategies make it applicable right away for the classroom teacher, and turn-and-talk discussion points make it a guidebook for school-wide conversations. In particular, they share new strategies and ideas for helping classroom teachers:–Create engagement and relevance–Encourage responsive and responsible reading–Deepen comprehension–Develop lifelong reading habits“We think it’s time we finally do become a nation of readers, and we know it’s time students learn to tell fake news from real news. It’s time we help students understand why how they read is so important,” explain Beers and Probst. “Disrupting Thinking is, at its heart, an exploration of how we help students become the reader who does so much more than decode, recall, or choose the correct answer from a multiple-choice list. This book shows us how to help students become the critical thinkers our nation needs them to be." Includes online resource bank.

Reversed: A Memoir


Lois Letchford - 2018
    Nothing is impossible when one digs deep,and looks at students through a new lens.

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

Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School


Matt Copeland - 2005
    In Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School , author Matt Copeland provides real-world examples and straightforward answers to frequent questions. He creates a coaching guide for both the teacher new to Socratic seminars and the experienced teacher seeking to optimize the benefits of this powerful strategy. Socratic Circles also shows teachers who are familiar with literature circles the many ways in which these two practices complement and extend each other.Effectively implemented, Socratic seminars enhance reading comprehension, listening and speaking skills, and build better classroom community and conflict resolution skills. By giving students ownership over the classroom discussion around texts, they become more independent and motivated learners. Ultimately, because there is a direct relationship between the level of participation and the richness of the experience, Socratic seminars teach students to take responsibility for the quality of their own learning.Filled with examples to help readers visualize the application of these concepts in practice, Socratic Circles includes transcripts of student dialogue and work samples of preparation and follow-up activities. The helpful appendices offer ready-to-copy handouts and examples, and suggested selections of text that connect to major literary works.As our classrooms and our schools grow increasingly focused on meeting high standards and differentiating instruction for a wide variety of student needs and learning styles, Socratic seminars offer an essential classroom tool for meeting these goals. Socratic Circles is a complete and practical guide to Socratic seminars for the busy classroom teacher.

21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn


James A. Bellanca - 2010
    Highly respected education leaders and innovators focus on why these skills are necessary, which are most important, and how to best help schools include them in curriculum and instruction.

Classroom Habitudes: Teaching Learning Habits and Attitudes in 21st Century Learning


Angela Maiers - 2008
    But how do you work those skills into the curriculum? Learn how to use the content you already teach to challenge students to think critically, collaborate with others, solve new problems, and adapt to change across new learning contexts. Help students build the seven habitudes habits of disciplined decisions and specific attitudes they need to succeed."

The Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12: Teaching for Engagement and Impact in Any Setting


Douglas Fisher - 2020
    But starting now, teachers have the opportunity to prepare for distance learning with purpose and intent--using what works best to accelerate students' learning all the while maintaining an indelible focus on equity.Harnessing the insights and experience of renowned educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie, The Distance Learning Playbook applies the wisdom and evidence of VISIBLE LEARNING(R) research to understand what works best with distance learning. Spanning topics from teacher-student relationships, teacher credibility and clarity, instructional design, assessments, and grading, this comprehensive playbook details the research- and evidence-based strategies teachers can mobilize to deliver high- impact learning in an online, virtual, and distributed environment.This powerful guide includes:- Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for each module to track your own learning and model evidence-based teacher practices for meaningful learning- A diversity of instructional approaches, including direct instruction, peer learning, and independent work that foster student self-regulation and move learning to deep and transfer levels- Discussion of equity challenges associated with distance learning, along with examples of how teachers can work to ensure that equity gains that have been realized are not lost.- Special guidance for teachers of young children who are learning from a distance- Videos of the authors and teachers discussing a wide variety of distance learning topics- Space to write and reflect on current practices and plan future instruction The Distance Learning Playbook is the essential hands-on guide to preparing and delivering distance learning experiences that are truly effective and impactful.

UDL Now!: A Teacher's Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today's Classrooms


Katie Novak - 2016
    UDL is a framework for inclusive education that aims to lower barriers to learning and optimize each individual's opportunity to learn. Novak shows how to use the UDL Guidelines to plan lessons, choose materials, assess learning, and improve instructional practice. Novak discusses key concepts such as scaffolding, vocabulary-building, and using student feedback to inform instruction. She also provides tips on recruiting students as partners in the teaching process, engaging their interest in how they learn. UDL Now! is a fun and effective Monday-morning playbook for great teaching.

Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades


Mary Cowhey - 2006
    Her students learn to make connections between their lives, the books they read, the community leaders they meet, and the larger world. Black Ants and Buddhists  offers no easy answers, but it does include starting points for conversations about diversity and controversy in your classroom, as well as in the larger community. Students and teachers investigate problems and issues together, in a multicultural, antiracist classroom.

Using the Workshop Approach in the High School English Classroom: Modeling Effective Writing, Reading, and Thinking Strategies for Student Success


Cynthia D. Urbanski - 2005
    Take a peek into an effective workshop-based classroom and discover how you can enhance adolescents' technical and creative abilities in reading, writing, and thinking.

Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education


Elena Bodrova - 1995
    Key changes to this edition include a new chapter on dynamic assessment, separate and expanded chapters on developmental accomplishments of infants and toddlers, preschool/kindergarten, and primary grades and on supporting those accomplishments, and elaborations of Vygotsky's ideas from neo-Vygotskians from Russia. FEATURES Written for the beginning student, the book provides a clear discussion of Vygotskian principles including...a historical overview and a complete chapter on the "Zone of Proximal Development," (ZPD). Each section of the book builds on the other...framework, strategies, and applications of the Vygotskian approach. The work of Vygotsky is compared in a fair and balanced way with the work of Piaget. Examples and activities have been class-tested in a variety of classroom environments including a Head Start program, private preschool, and in the Denver Public Schools.

Tools for Teaching: Discipline, Instruction, Motivation. Primary Prevention of Classroom Discipline Problems


Fredric H. Jones - 2000
    Jones describes how highly successful teachers produce orderly, productive classrooms without working themselves to death. This program is the whole package - discipline, instruction and motivation - described in the down-to-earth language of "how to" with plenty of examples for guidance. You will learn how to decrease classroom disruptions, backtalk, dawdling and helpless hand raising while increasing responsible behavior, motivation, independent learning and academic achievement.Like previous editions, the 3rd edition of Tools for Teaching: Discipline, Instruction, Motivation describes the specific skills of classroom management that increase learning while reducing teacher stress. Taken together, these skills provide the synergy required for both the primary prevention of discipline problems and a dramatic increase in teaching efficiency and time-on-task.WHAT'S NEW IN THE 3RD EDITION?The 3rd Edition includes the latest research on both successful teaching practices and the neuropsychology of skill building, as well as two completely new chapters.Chapter 8: Say, See, Do Teaching, reviews the ground-breaking work of John Hattie, Ph.D. Dr. Hattie places the extensive outcome research regarding different teaching methodologies onto a common scale so that their effectiveness can be directly compared. Many of the sacred cows of education do not fair so well, whereas variations of Say, See Do Teaching do extremely well.Chapter 20: Teaching Skills Efficiently, reviews the latest finds of neuropsychology concerning the amount of work needed to create mastery. Once again Say, See, Do Teaching leads the way. This new research provides critical information for teachers when making decisions about how to teach a given lesson.