The Learning Rainforest: Great Teaching In Real Classroom


Tom Sherrington - 2017
    Aimed at teachers of all kinds, busy people working in complex environments with little time to spare, it is a celebration of great teaching - the joy of it and the intellectual and personal rewards that teaching brings.The core of the book is a guide to making teaching both effective and manageable; it provides an accessible summary of key contemporary evidence-based ideas about teaching and learning and the debates that all teachers should be engaging in. It's a book packed with strategies for making great teaching attainable in the context of real schools.The Learning Rainforest metaphor is an attempt to capture various different elements of our understanding and experience of teaching. Tom's ideas about what constitutes great teaching are drawn from his experiences as a teacher and a school leader over the last 30 years, alongside everything he has read and all the debates he's engaged with during that time.An underlying theme of this book is that a career in teaching is a process of continual personal development and professional learning as is engaging in fundamental debates rage on about the kind of education we value. As you meet each new class and move from school to school, your perspectives shift; your sense of what seems to work adjusts to each new context.In writing this book, Tom is trying to capture some of the journey he's been on. He has learned that it is ok to change your mind. More than that - sometimes it is simply necessary to get your head out of the sand, to change direction; to admit your mistakes.

You Suck, Sir


Paul Bae - 2014
    Based on his popular blog of the same name, this is a "Best Of..." collection. Ranging from outrageously funny to touchingly poignant, these collected vignettes into the lives of high school students are an inspiring peek into the connection one teacher has with his students.

Number Sense Routines: Building Numerical Literacy Every Day in Grades K-3


Jessica F. Shumway - 2011
    Shumway created a series of math routines designed to help young students strengthen and build their facility with numbers. These quick 5, 10, or 15 minute exercises are easy to implement as an add-on to any elementary math curriculum. Understanding Number Sense: Students with strong number sense understand numbers, how to subitize, relationships among numbers, and number systems. They make reasonable estimates, compute fluently, use reasoning strategies, and use visual models to solve problems. Number Sense Routines  supports the early learner by instilling the importance of daily warm-ups and explains how they benefit developing math minds for long-term learning.Real Classroom Examples: Shumway compiled her classroom observations from around the country. She includes conversations among students who practice number sense routines to illustrate them in action, how children's number sense develops with daily use, and math strategies students learn as they develop their numerical literacy through self-paced practice.Assessment Strategies:  Number Sense Routines  demonstrates the importance of listening to your students and knowing what to look for. Teachers will gain a deeper understanding of the underlying math skills and strategies students learn as they develop numerical literacy.Shumway writes, "As you read, you will step into various classrooms and listen in on students' conversations, which I hope will give you insight into the power of number sense routines and the impact they have on students' number sense development. My hope is that going into the classroom, into students' conversations, and into their thought processes, you will come away with new ideas and tools to use in your own classroom."

The Power of the Adolescent Brain: Strategies for Teaching Middle and High School Students


Thomas Armstrong - 2016
    Reckless. Impractical. Insecure. Distracted. These are all words commonly used to describe adolescents. But what if we recast these traits in a positive light? Teens possess insight, passion, idealism, sensitivity, and creativity in abundance--all qualities that can make a significant positive contribution to society.In this thought-provoking book, Thomas Armstrong looks at the power and promise of the teenage brain from an empathetic, strength-based perspective--and describes what middle and high school educators can do to make the most of their students' potential.Thoroughly grounded in current neuroscience research, the book explains what we know about how the adolescent brain works and proposes eight essential instructional elements that will help students develop the ability to think, make healthy choices, regulate their emotions, handle social conflict, consolidate their identities, and learn enough about the world to move into adulthood with dignity and grace.Armstrong provides practical strategies and real-life examples from schools that illustrate these eight key practices in action. In addition, you'll find a glossary of brain terms, a selection of brain-friendly lesson plans across the content areas, and a list of resources to support and extend the book's ideas and practices.There is a colossal mismatch between how the adolescent brain has evolved over the millennia and the passive, rote learning experiences that are all too common in today's test-obsessed educational climate. See the amazing difference--in school and beyond--when you use the insights from this book to help students tap into the power of their changing brains.

In Praise of American Educators: And How They Can Become Even Better


Richard DuFour - 2015
    In this thought-provoking book, the author presents a compelling case for why contemporary American educators are the greatest generation in history. He carefully explains why current national reform policies have failed and presents specific steps policymakers, administrators, and teachers must take to transform American schools to meet student needs in the 21st century.

Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators


Craig A. Mertler - 2011
    Mertler′s Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators introduces the process of conducting one′s own classroom- or school-based action research in conjunction with everyday instructional practices and activities. The text provides educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to design research studies, conduct research, and communicate findings to relevant stakeholders and interested parties.

The Little Book of Thunks: 260 Questions to Make Your Brain Go Ouch!


Ian Gilbert - 2007
    What is a Thunk? A Thunk is a beguiling question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks but helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light. The Thunks in this book cover a broad range of topics including truth, justice, reality, beliefs, the natural world, the human condition, art, beauty, existence, difference between right and wrong, good and bad, life and death, war, religion, love, friendship and a whole lot more. The book contains a comprehensive introduction by the author who guides you through the origins and uses of Thunks and how best to use them. Not only are they a fun way to develop thinking skills but they also hit all the right buttons to encourage children .

Managing Emotional Mayhem: The Five Steps for Self-Regulation


Becky A. Bailey - 2011
    Managing Emotional Mayhem lays a conceptual foundation, explores limiting beliefs, presents new adult skills and teaches us how to coach children in this transformative self-regulation process. 168 pages.

The Essential 55 Workbook: Essential 55 Workbook


Ron Clark - 2004
    Ron Clark's The Essential 55 took the country by storm, selling over over one million copies. Now he provides a new edition of the companion workbook with fresh exercises for teachers and parents to transform any child into a successful student. The Essential 55 Workbook is full of easy-to-do lessons to help you reinforce The Essential 55 rules that every child should know. With a series of self-tests, exercises, and questionnaires, The Essential 55 Workbook allows you to adapt Ron Clark's successful tools to your own situation. With determination, discipline, and regular rewards, the children you stick by will be the children you come to admire.

Psychology Applied to Teaching


Jack Snowman - 1971
    "Psychology Applied to Teaching "takes complex psychological theories demonstrates how they apply to the everyday experiences of in-service teachers. The Eleventh Edition combines fresh concepts and contemporary research with long standing theory and applications to create a textbook that speaks to today' s teachers and students."New! "Chapter 9: Social Cognitive Theory has been added in response to reviewer suggestions and the many recent developments in cognitive research. No other educational psychology book currently offers a separate chapter on this topic."New! ""Take a Stand!" features give the author an opportunity to spotlight issues such as inclusion, school violence, or high-stakes testing, and encourages debate on critical issues in education. Also accessible on the textbook web site with additional resources and pedagogy and in the Eduspace course with online chats."New! "Coverage of key national standards including PRAXIS and INTASC has been added and referenced throughout the text. A convenient correlation table highlighting text coverage is located on the inside covers for students and professors, with additional suggestions for instructor use in the IRM."Case in Print" exercises in every chapter use recent news articles to demonstrate how basic ideas or techniques are being applied by educators from the primary grades through high school. Each article is followed by several open-ended questions to encourage reflection. This feature can also be found on the textbook Web site."Suggestions for Teaching in YourClassroom" sections include detailed descriptions of how to apply the information and concepts discussed in the chapter to the classroom. These features are intended to be read while the book is used as a text and to serve as a reference for in-service teachers later on.Journal entries help students to prepare and use a Reflective Journal. Entries appear in the margins of the text and encourage readers to consider their own personality, style, and teaching situation in establishing personal guidelines for teaching. A guide for setting up a Reflective Journal is included in Chapter 16--students can use their journals as a reference before and during their teaching experience.Eduspace is a customizable, powerful Interactive platform that provides instructors with text-specific online courses and content in multiple disciplines. Eduspace gives an instructor the ability to create all or part of their course online using the widely recognized tools of Blackboard and quality text-specific content from HMCo. Instructors can quickly and easily assign homework exercises, quizzes, tests, tutorials and supplemental study materials and can modify that content or even add their own.

The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades K-2: Four Steps for Turning Assessment Data Into Goal-Directed Instruction


Jennifer Serravallo - 2014
    From a kindergartner's loops and pictures to a second grader's reading log, her Literacy Teacher's Playbook details exactly how she comes to understand them deeply and meet everyone's literacy needs-and the standards.My I-wish-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now experiences are the main inspiration for this book, writes Jen. So her workshop-in-a-book shares a powerful approach to assessment, planning, and teaching. Go beyond curriculum to develop differentiated reading and writing goals then plan targeted instruction with her four-step assessment protocol:collect data-student work and everyday assessments-that will be the most useful to you analyze the data to understand deeply what kids know and can do synthesize data from multiple assessments to create learning goals develop instructional plans and follow-ups to monitor progress. What you can pull out of a child's messy seat pocket is data. So Jen provides downloadable assessment packets from real children representing two puzzling types of young learners. Spread Marelle's packet out and let Jen model how she analyzes little kids' work. Next try a guided practice with Emre's work. Then you'll be ready to try it with your own students.My goal, writes Jen, is to help you understand your students with the depth that allows you to tweak your units and ensure you're giving every student opportunities for success. Follow the play tens of thousands of teachers have succeeded with: trust Jen Serravallo and feel the confidence that comes from making winning instructional decisions based on powerful assessments. Preview a sample chapter from the Literacy Teacher's Playbook, K-2.NEW Printable Materialsword pdf Blank Reading Log Levels D-Iword pdf Blank Reading Log Levels J-Mword pdf Blank Reading Log Levels L+word pdf Blank Re-reading Log Levels D-Iword pdf Blank Reading Interest Survey K-2word pdf Blank Reading Interest Survey 3-6word pdf Blank High-Frequency Word Listword pdf Blank Engagement Inventory

Saving the School: The True Story of a Principal, a Teacher, a Coach, a Bunch of Kids and a Year in the Crosshairs of Education Reform


Michael Brick - 2012
    Anabel Garza: No school board would have put her forward as a model principal. Pregnant and alone at sixteen, widowed by twenty-five, Anabel got along teaching English to Mexican immigrants, raising her son, and taking night school classes.But then no model candidate would have taken the job at John H. Reagan High School. Once known to sports fans across Texas as the great champion Big Blue, Reagan was collapsing. The kids were failing the standardized tests, failing on the basketball court, failing even to show up. Teenage pregnancy was endemic. If the test scores and attendance did not improve, the school was set to close at the end of the 2009-10 school year.Anabel took the assignment. Her first work was triage. She cruised the malls for dropouts. She fired ten teachers, including one who produced a ruler to bemoan the distance from the parking lot to her classroom door. She listened to angry lectures from union officials and angrier ones from black ministers. She kept going. She tailored each student's tutoring to the standardized tests. The numbers started to come up.But with the state education commissioner threatening to close the school, the real work began. Anabel set out to re-create the high school she remembered, with plays and dances, yearbooks and clubs, teachers who brought books alive and crowded bleachers to cheer on the basketball team. She reached out to the middle schools, the neighborhoods, and the churches. She gave good teachers free rein. She mixed love and expectations.The circumstances facing Reagan High are playing out all over the country. The get-tough crowd of education reformers, led by Obama's secretary of education, are redoubling their efforts to replace public schools with charter companies. But what happens when the centerpiece of a community is threatened? And what happens when one person just won't quit?For the first time, we can tally the costs of rankings and scores. In this powerful rejoinder to the prevailing winds of American education policy, Michael Brick examines the do-or-die year at Reagan High. Compelling, character-driven narrative journalism, Saving the School pays an overdue tribute to the great American high school and to the people inside.

Save the World on Your Own Time


Stanley Fish - 2008
    When teachers offer themselves as moralists, political activists, or agents of social change rather than as credentialed experts in a particular subject and the methods used to analyze it, they abdicate their true purpose. And yet professors now routinely bring their political views into the classroom and seek to influence the political views of their students. Those who do this will often invoke academic freedom, but Fish argues that academic freedom, correctly understood, is the freedom to do the academic job, not the freedom to do any job that comes into the professor's mind. He insists that a professor's only obligation is "to present the material in the syllabus and introduce students to state-of-the-art methods of analysis. Not to practice politics, but to study it; not to proselytize for or against religious doctrines, but to describe them; not to affirm or condemn Intelligent Design, but to explain what it is and analyze its appeal."Given that hot-button issues such as Holocaust denial, free speech, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are regularly debated in classrooms across the nation, Save the World On Your Own Time is certain to spark fresh debate—and to incense both liberals and conservatives—about the true purpose of higher education in America.

The Big Book of Humorous Training Games


Doni Tamblyn - 2000
    Step-by-step instructions work with dozens of reproducible handouts and worksheets help trainers and speakers minimize preparation time­­and maximized training success.

Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching


Margaret D. Roblyer - 1996
    It shows teachers how to create an environment in which technology can effectively enhance learning. It contains a technology integration framework that builds on research and the TIP model.