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!

    (And more importantly, when it will not!)Which business structures could reduce your Federal income tax or Self-Employment Tax.

    Efforts to define and then assess the key qualities of writing have helped pinpoint what outcomes matter most and how to measure them, yet they threaten to become an end in themselves. Meanwhile, high-quality instruction seeks to create a safe environment that applauds risk taking by supporting students through strategies that are not readily measured. In this landmark book, Vicki Spandel takes on the immeasurable, opening an exciting discussion about the conditions writers need to achieve their full potential and offering practical applications for any writing classroom.In The 9 Rights of Every Writer Spandel invites nine published authors into a discussion of what makes writing work. Well-known novelists, researchers, science writers, and teacher-writers join this dynamic conversation, and together they draw vital conclusions about teaching strategies that both lead to growth in craft and allow good teaching to flourish. Join Spandel and friends in discovering the personal and instructional importance of:reflecting finding personally important topics going off topic personalizing the writing process writing badly to unearth and clarify meaning observing other writers at work assessing constructivelyand well experiencing structural freedom unearthing the power of each writer's voice. As you will discover, The 9 Rights of Every Writer weaves the philosophical into the practical, offering powerful, ready-to-use lessons that jumpstart the progress of the writers in your classroom and help them reach writing standards. Harness your passion for writing instruction, let go of rigid practices, and balance the needs of maturing writers with today's classroom realities. Read The 9 Rights of Every Writer, learn to trust your teaching instincts, and concentrate on what matters most: creating an instructional setting where writers can achieve success that soars beyond what can be measured.

    Glatthorn offers examples of how principals can incorporate curriculum leadership into their organizational behavior and re-examines the key issues that continue to influence principals in the real world.

    This is why both teachers with struggling students and those with AP students have embraced the book through 15 printings. Each chapter is divided into two sections: concepts that show how professional writers develop their art and lesson strategies to implement these concepts in the classroom. New and expanded concepts in the second edition include:an introduction to grammatical chunksexpanded discussion of the five basic brush strokes and examination of advanced brush strokes presentation on the nonfiction modelexplanation of the character wheel-a visual aid that helps students to write both a nonfiction and fiction character sketch. Plus, the updated and expanded CD includes customizable files of the 60+ strategies; reproducible handouts; images and quotes for projection in the classroom; and dozens of weblinks.

    Plus, it helps you identify areas of weakness so you can focus your study time. Sample problems and step-by-step examples with explanations in the math and physics sections show you how to work through each problem so you understand the steps it takes to complete the equation. Practice tests with answer keys for each topic - located in the appendices for quick access - help you assess your understanding of each topic and familiarize you with the types of questions you're likely to encounter on the actual exam. HESI Hints boxes offer valuable test-taking tips, as well as rationales, suggestions, examples, and reminders for specific topics.End-of-chapter review questions help you gauge your understanding of chapter content.A full-color layout and more illustrations in the life science chapters visually reinforce key concepts for better understanding.Expanded and updated content in each chapter ensures you're studying the most current content.Basic algebra review in the math section offers additional review and practice.Color-coded chapters help you quickly find specific topic sections.Helpful organizational features in each chapter include an introduction, key terms, chapter outline, and a bulleted chapter summary to help you focus your study.A glossary at the end of the text offers quick access to key terms and their definitions.

    Written by the two original Master Trainers for LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP), the book outlines how LSP can develop teams, people, relationships and business . Based on the merging of play with organizational development, systems thinking and strategy development, LSP can foster improved meetings, faster innovation processes, team growth, and better communication.The belief that everyone intends to do good and has the potential to do it is at the heart of LSP. The method nurtures the idea that everyone in an organization can contribute to discussions and outcomes. Building with LEGO bricks is a type of creative play that triggers a different kind of thought process, unleashing imagination and potential that is frequently untapped by the logical mind. The book explains this hands-on, minds-on approach, and discusses the theory as well as the practical implementation of LSP. Topics include:Observation of internal and external interaction dynamics Fostering a free and honest exchange of opinions Suspending hierarchy for better, more effective communication Facilitating change by encouraging exploration The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method is employed by start-ups and multinational corporations alike to maximize synergy among teams and throughout organizations. For leaders looking to boost effectiveness and see better results, Building a Better Business Using the LEGO(R) SERIOUS PLAY(R) Method is a comprehensive introduction to this creative management technique.

     -Lucy Calkins, Author of Units of Study for Teaching WritingHidden Gems will transform the way we read student work. -Thomas Newkirk, Author of Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad OnesYou don't get true, fire-in-the-belly energy for writing because you fear getting a bad grade, but because you have something to say and your own way of saying it. -Katherine BomerIf you're like Katherine Bomer, you've grown weary of searching for what's wrong in student writing, and you want better ways to the respond to pieces whose beauty and intelligence doesn't shine on the first read. Now she shares how she learned instead to search-sometimes near the surface, sometimes deep beneath-to find, celebrate, and teach from writers' Hidden Gems.My hope is that as teachers we can respond to all students' writing with astonished, appreciative, awe-struck eyes, writes Katherine. Through protocols, sample assessments, and demonstrations with actual student work, she shows how to bring the brilliant facets of your writers to the surface as you:spot hidden stylistic gems in writing that is unconventional or vernacular uncover content and organizational gems even when you don't find the subject matter engaging or significant respond by naming and celebrating writers' gems instead of hunting for mistakes give lasting compliments using the inspiring language of published writers that motivate students to keep writing, revising, and polishing their gems. Accept Katherine Bomer's invitation to read work by young, unseasoned writers the way we would inquire our way into a poem by Nikki Giovanni, Jimmy Santiago Baca, or Naomi Shihab Nye and to notice the quirky brilliance and humor, the heartbreaking honesty, and surreal beauty in even the slightest bits of writing. You'll soon discover that student writers often perform remarkable feats in the craft of writing, and that you can achieve remarkable results with them when you uncover theirHidden Gems.

    In The EduProtocol Field Guide, Jon Corippo and Marlena Hebern outline sixteen classroom-tested protocols to break up clichéd lesson plans, build culture, and deliver content to K–12 students in a supportive, creative environment. Start Smart Smart Start activities set your students up for success by teaching them how to learn, using tools like Frayer Models and Venn Diagrams on fun subjects. In addition to preparing your students to learn, Smart Start activities help build a positive culture in your classroom. Finish Strong EduProtocols are customizable, frames that use your content to create lessons to help students master academic content, think critically, and communicate effectively while creating and working collaboratively. EduProtocols can be used with nearly all subjects and grade levels and are UDL (Universal Design for Learning)-friendly to support all learners. Simplify the process of creating engaging and personalized learning opportunities for every student. The EduProtocol Field Guide shows you how.

    (Just think about all those New Year’s resolutions that revert to status quo by January 5th!) But real change is possible, sustainable, and even easy when it happens little by little. In Shift This! educator and speaker Joy Kirr identifies how to make gradual shifts—in your thinking, teaching, and approach to classroom design—that will have a massive impact in your classroom. You’ll learn how to… Shift learning to make it authentic and student-led. Shift the classroom environment to make it a space in which students thrive. Shift conversations and classwork to get kids thinking rather than repeating. Shift away from homework and grades to keep the focus on learning. Shift the way you spend your time at school so you have more time to enjoy life at home. You can create the kind of classroom you’ve always dreamed of. Make the first shift today!

    Seven weeks later she was in a first grade classroom in Flatbush, Brooklyn, nearly completely unprepared for what she was about to face. New York Times education reporter Abby Goodnough followed Donna Moffett through her first year as a teacher, writing a frontpage, award-winning series that galvanized discussion nationwide. Now she has expanded that series into a book that, through the riveting story of Moffett's experiences, explores the gulf between the rhetoric of education reform and the realities of the public school classroom. Ms. Moffett's First Year is neither a Hollywood- friendly tale of ‘one person making a difference,' nor a reductive indictment of the public education system. It is rather a provocative portrait of the inadequacy of good intentions, of the challenges of educating poor and immigrant populations, and of a well-meaning but underprepared woman becoming a teacher the hard way.While the story takes place in New York, Ms.Moffett's first year is a metaphor for the experiences of teachers everywhere in America, one that illuminates the philosophical, economic, political, and ideological dilemmas that have come more and more to determine their experience —and their students' experiences — in the classroom.

    This text is an invaluable resource for any new teacher or veteran teacher in search of new ideas as this latest edition is packed with new activities and strategies for teaching reading.