With foreword by Harry K. Wong Change is coming at us from all angles: technological, cultural, social, and environmental. This presents a great challenge (and a great opportunity) in schools and in the teaching profession. With Owning It, you'll discover an array of easy-to-implement strategies designed to help you excel in the myriad of modern-day responsibilities of teachers and educators: classroom leader, mentor, colleague, team member, and public professional. This book will empower teachers to own their careers, teach effectively, and develop strong relationships: Acquire straightforward strategies for dealing with everyday situations found in classrooms, schools, and communities. Understand the multifaceted role of a teacher in today's schools and how to balance the numerous responsibilities -- from classroom management to relationships with colleagues. Feel inspired and motivated to bring out the best in yourself as well as in your students. Observe creative approaches to improve teaching strategies and student engagement. Answer reflection questions to connect with and relate to the strategies covered in the book. Contents: Part 1: Owning It in Your Classroom: Strategies for Creating an Environment of Achievement Chapter 1: Revisit Your Personal Philosophy's Value Chapter 2: Make the Most of the First Five Minutes of Any Class Chapter 3: Increase Your Classroom Presence to Seem Like You're Everywhere at Once Chapter 4: Never Sabotage a Teachable Moment Chapter 5: Help Students Learn Out Loud and Still Keep a Handle on Your Classroom Chapter 6: Transform Your Perception of Data and Help Your Students Succeed Chapter 7: Think Outside the Bubble on All-Important Standardized Tests Part 2: Owning It With Your Most Challenging Students: Strategies for Succeeding With At-Risk and Struggling Student Populations Chapter 8: Bring Ethnic Identity and Culturally Relevant Curriculum Into Your Classroom Chapter 9: Close the Achievement Gap With At-Risk Students Chapter 10: Succeed With At-Risk Youth Chapter 11: Manage Disruptive Classroom Behavior Chapter 12: Establish a Negotiation With At-Risk and Struggling Students Chapter 13: Reel Parents in With Three Basic Strategies Chapter 14: Empower Students by Putting Them in Charge Part 3: Owning It at Your School and District: Strategies for Succeeding as a Member of a Staff Team Chapter 15: Turn Not Another Meeting Into Let's Get to Business! Chapter 16: Help Your School's New Teachers Succeed (and Stick Around) Chapter 17: Improve Schools by Minding Collegial Generation Gaps Chapter 18: Approach a Colleague About a Conflict Chapter 19: Five Ways to Make Shared Positions Work for Teachers, Students, and Administrators Part 4: Owning It in Your Community: Strategies for Making a Positive Impact Beyond Your School and Classroom Chapter 20: Turn Potential Foes Into Supportive Allies Chapter 21: Put the Spotlight on Your School Chapter 22: Get Teachers Into the Community and the Community Into Teachers Chapter 23: Step Up and Share Your Ideas With Fellow Educators Chapter 24: Make Blogs an Essential Support Mechanism for Teaching

As professional learning communities become more widespread, educators have learned that they can't simply form grade-level or subject-area teams and call it a day. To profoundly affect teacher practice and student learning, PLCs need strong and knowledgeable leadership. In Facilitating Teacher Teams and Authentic PLCs, Daniel R. Venables draws on his extensive experience helping schools and districts implement effective PLCs to explore this crucial but often-overlooked need. Taking a two-pronged approach to PLC facilitation, Venables offers targeted guidance both for leading the people in teacher teams and for facilitating their work. This practical resource provides: Strategies for facilitating interactions among colleagues in PLCs and building trust and buy-in. Field-tested, user-friendly protocols to focus and deepen team discussions around texts, data, teacher and student work, teacher dilemmas, and collaborative planning time. Tips for anticipating and addressing interpersonal conflicts and obstacles that commonly arise during use of protocols. Current and prospective PLC facilitators at every grade level will find this book an essential guide to navigating the challenging and rewarding endeavor of leading authentic PLCs. Build your skills, and help your team rise to the next level.

If a fundamental goal of schooling is to prepare young people for the unknowable future, why do we assign students so many clearly defined tasks with predetermined solutions? According to educator and creativity expert Ronald A. Beghetto, the best way to unleash students' problem solving and creativity-and thus prepare them to face real-world problems-is to incorporate complex challenges that teach students to respond productively to uncertainty. In this thought-provoking book, Beghetto explains: How to foster ""possibility thinking"" to help students open up their thinking in creative, sometimes counterintuitive ways. The process of lesson unplanning, a way of transforming existing lessons, activities, and assignments into more complex classroom challenges. Four basic action principles that teachers and students can use to design and solve complex challenges both inside and outside the classroom. The steps for creating legacy challenges, which require students to identify a problem, develop a solution, and ensure that their work makes a lasting contribution. With planning forms and detailed sample activities, this practical guide will enable teachers at every grade level to design a full range of challenges in any subject area. Invite uncertainty into your classroom-and discover what your students are capable of.

Computer simulations, serious digital games, and gamification add fun and engagement to business courses, while also improving students' learning outcomes. Computer Simulations and Gaming provides business educators with the theoretical background, selection foundations, and implementation advice they need to successfully select and implement computer simulations, serious digital games, and/or gamification elements. The book opens by defining computer simulations, serious digital games, and gamification, then highlights the learning theories that contribute to their effectiveness at improving learning outcomes. From there the authors provide information that helps educators select computer simulations, serious digital games, and/or gamification elements, by reviewing their benefits and drawbacks, identifying contextual considerations, and providing a heuristic. The authors then offer advice to prepare educators to implement computer simulations, serious digital games, and/or gamification elements in their classrooms. In addition, they have included a list of tools and resources as well as an annotated bibliography that point readers towards helpful additional information. In an ever-changing world of tech, business educators at all levels will come to rely on the helpful guidance in Computer Simulations and Gaming to engage students.

Capturing years of innovation within contemporary action research, Hilary Bradbury highlights where action research for transformations (ART) is directed: towards responding to climate change and achieving global sustainability goals. Paying particular attention to social justice, the book brings together the human and social sciences, exploring the impact action research can make. Chapters introduce a metamodel and quality choicepoints around which pioneering techniques are displayed. Illustrated with rich personal cases throughout, the book examines agents of change who are also subjects of change. With a strong relational focus, the book also utilizes these cases to show how a broad uptake of ART for policy, health and social care, education, and management looks in practice. This book will be a vital tool for social science researchers looking to better understand social science as a participatory practice, as well as the methods and importance of action research. Community organizers, policy makers and activists seeking to become more active in realizing a more sustainable world will also find this to be an invigorating read.

Conversations between administrators and teachers take place every day, for many reasons, but what can we do to elevate them so that they lead to better professional relationships, more effective school leaders and teachers, and improved learning for students? C.R.A.F.T. Conversations for Teacher Growth offers the answer, demonstrating how exchanges that are clear, realistic, appropriate, flexible, and timely can be transformational. The authors explain how C.R.A.F.T. conversations support leaders' efforts in four ""cornerstone"" areas: Building Capacity, Invoking Change, Promoting Collaboration, and Prioritizing Celebration. With this foundation in place, they offer explicit guidance for developing the skills necessary to move through all components of a C.R.A.F.T. conversation: planning, opening, engaging, closing, reflecting, and following up. Extended vignettes featuring administrators and teachers bring each component to life, illustrating how focused efforts on improving how we communicate and build relationships can help schools achieve their goals and become places where adults-and students-thrive.

Telling Tales Out of School Chronicling the tales he had collected throughout his career in education started as a lockdown pastime for Chris Lowe. The end result is Telling Tales Out of School: fifty tales to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Prince William School, Oundle. The Tales are all based on true events or stories told to Chris by fellow teachers: stories, about growing up, about learning, teaching and coping together. All proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the James Rutterford Trust, which is targeted at families who need financial support to enable their children at PWS to take part in school activities, school trips, to provide equipment to aid their study or to support out-of-hours school activities. Please visit tellingtales.bigcartel.com for more information about the project and to buy further copies of Telling Tales Out of School.

Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. He has conversations with people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings and listens as the men and women he works with explore new ways to think about their situation. Could we ever be good if we never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Could someone in prison ever be more free than someone outside? These questions about how to live are ones we all need to ask, but in this setting they are even more urgent. When Andy steps into jail, he also confronts his inherited guilt: his father, uncle and brother all spent time in prison. He has built a different life for himself, but he still fears that their fate will be his. As he discusses questions of truth, identity and hope with his students, he searches for his own form of freedom. Moving, sympathetic, wise and frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written and unforgettable book. Through its blend of memoir, storytelling and gentle philosophical questioning, readers will gain a new insight into our justice system, our prisons and the plurality of lives found inside.

In this inspiring and thought-provoking follow-up to his 2009 best-seller Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life, Baruti Kafele makes the case that the ""attitude gap"" that often affects underperforming students can only be closed if educators first help students develop the will to strive for excellence. According to Kafele, educators can achieve remarkable results by focusing on five key areas: The teacher's attitude toward students. The teacher's relationship with students. The teacher's compassion for students. The learning environment. The cultural relevance of instruction. Replete with practical strategies and illustrative anecdotes drawn from the author's 20-plus years as a teacher and principal in inner-city schools, Closing the Attitude Gap offers a wealth of lessons and valuable insights that educators at all levels can use to fire up their students' passion to learn.

Universities across the world strive to be engaged institutions whose purpose is to foster positive social change through teaching, research and community engagement. The integration of these roles may sometimes hinder authentic engagement. Community engagement research in South Africa: histories, methods, theories and practice proposes a transformative model for engagement, in which societal involvement is the driving force behind all activities of the university. This overarching focus serves to blur the divisions between the core higher education and training activities as research becomes more community-based and teaching prepares students to be agents to be informed by research through teaching and learning, and to be agents for positive social change in all spheres of life. This idea is explored throughout the book, with chapters written by renowned community engagement practitioners and scholars of various disciplines. Contributions map community engagement interventions in the intersections of fields such as education, the social sciences, psychology, health, planning, engineering and architecture. They share best practices and draw from theoretical scholarship and practical experience, innovative ways of conceptualising, establishing and "community experiencing" projects. Based on original research, contributors encourage thought of modelling the practical implementation of community engagement at universities.

In this comprehensive resource for elementary school teachers, Kristina J. Doubet and Jessica A. Hockett explore how to use differentiated instruction to help students be more successful learners-regardless of background, native language, learning preference, or motivation. They explain how to: Create a healthy classroom community in which students' unique qualities and needs are as important as the ones they have in common. Translate curriculum into manageable and meaningful learning goals that are fit to be differentiated. Use pre-assessment and formative assessment to uncover students' learning needs, tailor tasks accordingly, and ensure that students are ""getting it."" Provide interactive learning experiences that encourage students to engage with both the content and one another. Present students with avenues to take in, process, and produce knowledge that appeal to their varied interests and learning preferences. Navigate potential roadblocks to differentiation. Each chapter provides a plethora of practical tools, templates, and strategies for a variety of subject areas developed by and for real teachers. Whether you're new to differentiated instruction or looking to expand your repertoire of DI strategies, Differentiation in the Elementary Grades will show you classroom-tested ways to better engage students and help them succeed every day. Includes URL and password for free downloadable forms.

This 2nd edition of the UK's best selling book on medical school interviews contains up to date information on NHS current issues and extensive advice on how to handle MMI-style interviews. This book presents an in-depth look at over 150 medical school interview questions. The book provides you with techniques to address the various types of questions, analyses good and bad examples of answers, teaches you how to add depth to your answers and how to answer those difficult ethical scenarios and lateral thinking questions. If someone asked you: Why medicine? or What are the qualities of a good doctor? Would you crumble or would you respond with the same old cliche as the next candidate? How about: What makes a good team player? Are you a leader or a follower? Should alcoholics receive liver transplants? Was it a good idea to send a man to the moon?

Learn how to cultivate student voices and facilitate equitable participation so that young people are prepared to speak up and lead when the moment calls for it. In a world where public speaking often determines whose needs are addressed and whose values prevail, how can we create brave classroom spaces where young people can effectively express their thoughts and advocate for themselves and others? In Amplify Student Voices, AnnMarie Baines, Diana Medina, and Caitlin Healy introduce Expression-Driven Teaching to show how centering youth voices and expression in the classroom meets both academic and social and emotional learning goals. The authors promote instruction in various forms of public speaking-storytelling, debate, poetry, presentation, and self-advocacy-as a way to pursue equity in education and counter the oppression that has long silenced the voices of marginalized groups. This engaging book features extensive first-person accounts from young people who describe their journey toward effective public speaking and how it has helped them affirm their identity, confront life's many challenges, and pursue opportunities with increased confidence. Their insights also inform and supplement the authors' practical recommendations and how-tos for incorporating the various public speaking formats into everyday instruction at all grade levels and across subject areas. Both informative and inspiring, Amplify Student Voices challenges traditional notions of "good" public speaking, broadens its definition, and demonstrates how to engage learners to create a world that is more inclusive and just.

Research on the brain has shown that emotion plays a key role in learning, but how can educators apply that research in their day-to-day interactions with students? What are some teaching strategies that take advantage of what we know about the brain? Engage the Brain answers these questions with easy-to-understand explanations of the brain's emotion networks and how they affect learning, paired with specific suggestions for classroom strategies that can make a real difference in how and what students learn. Readers will discover how to design an environment for learning that: Makes material relevant, relatable, and engaging. Accommodates tremendous variability in students' brains by giving them multiple options for how to approach their learning. Incorporates Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and guidelines. Uses process-oriented feedback and other techniques to spark students' intrinsic motivation. Author Allison Posey explains how schools can use the same ""emotional brain"" concepts to create work environments that reduce professional stress and the all-too-common condition of teacher burnout. Real-world classroom examples, along with reflection and discussion questions, add to the usefulness of Engage the Brain as a practical, informative guide for understanding how to capture the brain's incredible power and achieve better results at all grade levels, in all content areas.

A four-step process for effective equity practices in schools, with an array of professional development activities, leadership tips, and downloadable tools. Recent years have brought new calls to dismantle discriminatory policies and practices in U.S. schools. But adopting an equity focus doesn't guarantee the desired results. There's a risk that doing equity will be toothless-surface level and designed more to avoid tension and blame than to build a better educational system. In Leading Your School Toward Equity, veteran educator Dwayne Chism shows district, school, and teacher leaders a four-step process for taking equity work beyond talk and into effective action. You'll learn concrete ways to: Define and clarify equity. Guide even reluctant staff to a consensus understanding of what equity is, why it's necessary, and what it will look like. Create productive discomfort. Use intentional dialogue to lead staff to a place where they can talk frankly about privilege, bias, racial inequality, and how these affect students' experience of schooling. Build efficacy. Help staff develop higher levels of individual and shared professional efficacy-the number one factor influencing equitable educational outcomes-and create an empowered group of educational equity allies united for results. Normalize action. Support the day-to-day use of an equity lens, a mindset that empowers all teachers to counteract stereotypes and rectify conditions that negatively affect students of color. To make this complicated work a little easier, Chism provides an array of assessments, coaching guides, and activities to use with staff. If you're committed to creating a true equity-driven culture, if you're ready for courageous leadership, this book is for you.

It's no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands won't be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a shift, project-based learning (PBL) offers a proven framework to help students be better equipped to tackle future challenges. Project Based Teachers encourage active questioning, curiosity, and peer learning; create learning environments in which every student has a voice; and have a mastery of content but are also comfortable responding to students' questions by saying, ""I don't know. Let's find out together."" In this book, Suzie Boss and John Larmer build on the framework for Gold Standard PBL originally presented in Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning and explore the seven practices integral to Project Based Teaching: Build the Culture. Design and Plan. Align to Standards. Manage Activities. Assess Student Learning. Scaffold Student Learning. Engage and Coach. For each practice, the authors present a wide range of practical strategies and include teachers' reflections about and suggestions from their classroom experiences. This book and a related series of free videos provide a detailed look at what's happening in PBL classrooms from the perspective of the Project Based Teacher. Let's find out together. A copublication of ASCD and Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

Explore the web of factors that influence your power as a teacher-and how you can better use that power to foster student agency and empowerment. What kind of power do teachers have? What influences their instructional decision making-and how does that affect students, particularly Black students and other students of color? How can educators move away from practices that oppress and devalue students to practices that support and empower them? These are just a few of the questions that author Tanji Reed Marshall answers in Understanding Your Instructional Power. Countering the notion that teachers are powerless in the classroom, she introduces the Power Principle to help teachers unpack how they understand and use the power associated with their authority and responsibility as an educator. Drawing from her own experience as a classroom teacher and coach, Reed Marshall explains how the Power Principle reveals itself through various elements, including language use (by both students and teachers), "hidden curriculum," and classroom culture. She identifies four levels of curricular autonomy that teachers have (Unfettered, Calibrated, Restricted, and Minimal) and four dimensions of instructional power that characterize their classroom environment (Empowering, Agentive, Protective, and Disenfranchising). Reflection exercises throughout the book guide readers through a deep analysis of their personal and professional histories and ideologies, including how these influence students' learning experiences. Reed Marshall shares her own journey of setbacks and progress as she offers support and encouragement to K-12 teachers seeking to use their power in productive ways so that all students can bring their full selves to class and receive the education they deserve.

Unlike ""fix-it"" strategies that targeted teachers are likely to resist, educator-centered instructional coaching-ECIC-offers respectful coaching for professionals within their schoolwide community. Evidence-based results across all content areas, authentic practices for data collection and analysis, along with nonevaluative, confidential collaboration offer a productive and promising path to teacher development. Coaches and teachers implement ECIC through a before-during-after-BDA-cycle that includes comprehensive planning between coach and teacher; classroom visitation and data collection; and debriefing and reflection. Drawing on their extensive experience with ECIC, authors Ellen B. Eisenberg, Bruce P. Eisenberg, Elliott A. Medrich, and Ivan Charner offer this detailed guidance for coaches and school leaders on how you and your school can: Create the conditions for an effective ECIC program. Get buy-in from teachers. Clearly define the role of coach. Roll out a coaching initiative. Ensure ongoing success with coaching. Filled with authentic advice from coaches, Instructional Coaching in Action provides valuable insight and demonstrates how educator-centered instructional coaching can make a difference in teacher learning, instructional practice, and student outcomes.