Sixteen teachers. Sixteen journeys. All on a quest to become outstanding teachers of writing. All taking different paths to acquire and hone those skills that make a teacher effective. From kindergarten to college, teachers are faced with the daunting task of instilling the art of writing in their students. From creative writing to research, the art of writing incorporates the writing process to create the inking of our thinking. These 16 teachers from across the nation have traveled a long and arduous path to seek and to reach for the methods and strategies that will make them successful writing teachers. This is their stories.

This book provides a critical reflection on the ways dance studio teachers recognize, reflect and respond to cultural difference within their dance studio classes, particularly in the rural context in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Through dance teachers' narratives, it reveals the complexities of multiculturalism within dance studio classes and examines related issues of inclusion and exclusion within dance education. Understanding the dance practices provided by teachers like those in rural communities within Aotearoa/New Zealand is an increasingly urgent concern in an era of growing political, social and cultural tensions, for students and scholars of performing arts, leadership and community development. While previous research and publications have investigated cultural difference and global multicultural arts practices, this book presents a critical lens on performing arts practice and socio-cultural challenges experienced by local dance teachers within rural communities in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

MasterClass in Religious Education provides a comprehensive exploration of the major themes in religious education research and pedagogy, drawing on international research. The author draws together historical, theological/religious and comparative and international perspectives to explore religious education's role in confronting controversial issues, and the implications this has for teaching, learning and research. This book incorporates discussions of current, post-9/11 debates on religion in the modern world, focusing particularly on the relationship of religion to secular, political contexts. Liam Gearon pays close attention to debates around religion in liberal democratic societies, looking at topics such as citizenship, human rights, and identity.

This book discusses a number of ways in which out-of-school science education can uniquely engage learners with 'wicked' global problems such as biodiversity loss and climate change. The idea for the volume originated in discussions among members of the ESERA special interest group on "Science Education in Out-of-School contexts". It emerged from these discussions that out-of-school institutions and experiences offer opportunities for critical engagement in wicked problems that go far beyond what is possible solely in the science classroom. The book opens with a principled discussion of the nature of wicked problems and what addressing them involves. This introduction clarifies key terms and ideas to create a coherent backdrop for the rest of the book. Subsequent chapters discuss the challenges of designing educational experiences to address wicked problems, as well as the teaching and learning that takes place. The authors offer perspectives across a range of out-of-school environments such as science centres, natural history museums, botanical gardens, geological sites, and local communities. The book concludes with a chapter that synthesises the findings from the various contributions and points to the messages for educators. Finally, the editors outline an exciting research agenda to build knowledge of education addressing wicked problems. The intended audience of the book includes teachers, educators/facilitators, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and early career researchers as well as established researchers.

The goal of this series is to use teachers' accounts of classroom inquiry to make public and explicit the processes of doing research in classrooms. Teaching is a complex, multi-faceted task, and this complexity often is not captured in research articles. Our goal is to illuminate this complexity. Research that is done in classrooms by and with teachers is necessarily messy, and our stance is that the ways in which this is so should be articulated, not hidden. Through the chapters in this volume we learn about the questions that capture the attention of teachers, the methodologies they use to gather data, and the ways in which they make sense of what they find. Some of the research findings could be considered preliminary, others confirmatory, and some may be groundbreaking. In all cases, they provide fodder for further thinking and discussion about critical aspects of mathematics education.

This book describes novel approaches designed to enhance the professional training of physics teachers, and explores innovations in the teaching and learning of physics in the classroom and laboratory. It features selected contributions from the International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP) and Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning (MPTL) Conference, held in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, in July 2018, which brought together two communities: researchers in physics education and physics teachers. The book covers a broad range of topics, highlighting important aspects of the relationship between research and innovation in the teaching of physics, and presenting fresh insights to help improve learning processes and instruction. Offering a contemporary vision of physics teaching and the learning process, the book is of interest to all teachers and researchers committed to teaching and learning physics on the basis of good evidence.

180 Days of Spelling and Word Study is a fun and effective daily practice workbook designed to help students improve their spelling skills. This easy-to-use first grade workbook is great for at-home learning or in the classroom. The engaging standards-based activities cover grade-level skills with easy to follow instructions and an answer key to quickly assess student understanding. Each week students learn 10 words, focusing on spelling rules, patterns, and vocabulary. Watch students become better spellers with these quick independent learning activities.Parents appreciate the teacher-approved activity books that keep their child engaged and learning. Great for homeschooling, to reinforce learning at school, or prevent learning loss over summer.Teachers rely on the daily practice workbooks to save them valuable time. The ready to implement activities are perfect for daily morning review or homework. The activities can also be used for intervention skill building to address learning gaps.

The volume reports on interdisciplinary discussions and interactions between theoretical research and practical studies on geometric structures and their applications in architecture, the arts, design, education, engineering, and mathematics. These related fields of research can enrich each other and renew their mutual interest in these topics through networks of shared inspiration, and can ultimately enhance the quality of geometry and graphics education. Particular attention is dedicated to the contributions that women have made to the scientific community and especially mathematics. The book introduces engineers, architects and designers interested in computer applications, graphics and geometry to the latest advances in the field, with a particular focus on science, the arts and mathematics education.

A new emphasis in this edition of Spark the Brain, Ignite the Pen is writing to learn in the content areas. This edition of the work first published in 2006 includes a collection of classroom-tested quick writes designed to assist students in thinking and writing about significant content in the disciplines. Contributors to the book teach a wide array of grade levels (K through college) and subject areas e.g., English, social studies, math, science and health), and the quick writes included in the book are ideal for use in a variety of classroom subjects and settings. Given the current research validating the impact of using writing tasks to learn content, this volume should be useful to a wide range of teachers, teacher educators, and professional development trainers K-12.

An analogy is a comparison between two things. It points out the similarities between two things that might be different in all other respects. Analogies cause us to think analytically about forms, uses, structures, and relationships. First Time Analogies is the ideal launching pad to start nonreaders on the road to real thinking experiences with these pictorial and symbolic analogies that are both challenging and motivating. The book is divided into four sections that let you introduce analogies in a developmental way. The levels are: recognizing relationships; choosing one item to complete the analogy; given two items, choosing two other items that have the same relationships; and pairing up four items to complete two related pairs. Exercises are presented on worksheets that require circling the correct answer, as well as cutting out pictures and pasting them in the correct spaces. Attractive illustrations will draw students into the engaging exercises. Although they think they are just solving fun puzzles, they will be doing serious thinking and building a basis for future experiences in critical thinking. This is the first in a series of books that introduce analogies at varying difficulties and formats. The other books are Analogies for Beginners, Analogies for the 21st Century, Thinking Through Analogies, and Advancing Though Analogies. Grades K-2

The driving forces behind mathematics learning trajectories is the need to understand how children actually learn and make sense of mathematics-how they progress from prior knowledge, through intermediate understandings, to the mathematics target understandings-and how to use these insights to improve instruction and student learning. In this book, readers will come to understand what learning trajectories are, the research and methodology that are necessary for developing them, and gain insight into potential applications of learning trajectories. A synthesis and research outcome in their own right, learning trajectories provide detailed description of instructionally-grounded development of mathematical concepts and reasoning from the perspective of student learning, and, overall, building on decades of accumulated experience in mathematics education research. However, their greater importance may lie in their potential as frameworks that contribute an unprecedented coherence across classroom instruction, professional development, standards, and assessment, by focusing squarely on conceptual understanding and reasoning instead of assessment-driven procedural knowledge. This potential was sufficiently compelling as an organizing framework to have been cited as a basis for the Common Core mathematics standards, the new mathematics learning expectations that are now consistent across most of the United States. (Among the conference attendees were the writers of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, at the beginning of the Standards drafting process.) This book is an outgrowth of a conference on learning trajectories, hosted in 2009 at North Carolina State University, which examined research on learning trajectories. An overarching message of the chapters in this volume is that learning trajectories, by focusing on how children's mathematical reasoning develops, are coming into their own as a rigorous underpinning for both instruction and accountability. Some of the learning scientists featured in this volume have played major roles learning trajectories' evolution--from small-scale day-to-day conjectures by individual teachers, to systematic research endeavors that teachers and scientists alike can use to interpret standards, plan instruction, and formatively assess student work. The work in this volume will be of interest to mathematics educators, teachers, and professional development specialists.

Collins International Primary Maths supports best practice in primary maths teaching, whilst encouraging teacher professionalism and autonomy. A wealth of supporting digital assets are provided for every lesson, including slideshows, tools and games to ensure they are rich, lively and engaging. Each Workbook page has three levels of challenge which allow learners to practise and consolidate their newly acquired knowledge, skills and understanding of the mathematics they are learning. Questions throughout the course develops learners' Thinking and Working Mathematically skills, and each lesson offers an opportunity for personal reflection on progress. The series also supports Cambridge Global Perspectives (TM) with activities that develop and practise key skills. Provides learner support as part of a set of resources for the Cambridge Primary curriculum framework (0096) from 2020. This series is endorsed by Cambridge Assessment International Education to support the new curriculum framework 0096 from 2020.

This volume was written primarily for teachers who have developed (or who are being encouraged to develop) an awareness of and commitment to teaching mathematics for understanding. The research findings presented in these chapters suggest instructional implications worthy of these teachers' consideration. Often, the authors in this volume describe instructional practices or raise issues that have the potential to broaden views of teaching and learning mathematics. These chapters provide interesting problems and tasks used in the authors' work that readers can use in their own classrooms. The volume can also be used with courses for preservice and inservice teachers, collaborative teacher study groups, and other professional activities. A hallmark of good research is its connection to the relevant literature in the field, and the authors of this volume have themselves drawn from the research literature to inform their work. The reference lists accompanying these chapters can be useful resources and should not be overlooked. Most importantly for teacher education, this volume showcases the variety of ways teachers can become engaged in research, and we hope that readers will recognize that teacher research can be both accessible and beneficial in the preparation and professional development of teachers. This is not to suggest, however, that this volume is intended only for teachers and teacher educators. It is also intended to be an interesting, informative resource for other researchers, school administrators, and policy makers. The research presented in this volume is intended to provide an opportunity for those outside the classroom to gain insight into the kinds of issues that matter to teachers, the ways in which those issues might be researched, and the contributions that classroom research makes to mathematics education.

This book looks at a number of topics in economic education, presenting multiple perspectives from those in the field to anyone interested in teaching economics. Using anecdotes, classroom experiments and surveys, the contributing authors show that, with some different or new techniques, teaching economics can be more engaging for students and help them better retain what they learned. Chapters cover a wide range of approaches to teaching economics, from interactive approaches such as utilizing video games and Econ Beats, to more rigorous examinations of government policies, market outcomes and exploring case studies from specific courses. Many of the chapters incorporate game theory and provide worked out examples of games designed to help students with intuitive retention of the material, and these games can be replicated in any economics classroom. While the exercises are geared towards college-level economics students, instructors can draw inspiration for course lectures from the various approaches taken here and utilize them at any level of teaching. This book will be very useful to instructors in economics interested in bringing innovative teaching methods into the classroom.

This book draws on the author's experience as a storyteller, drama practitioner and researcher, to articulate an emerging dialogic approach to storytelling in participatory arts, educational, mental health, youth theatre, and youth work contexts. It argues that oral storytelling offers a rich and much-needed channel for intergenerational dialogue with young people. The book keeps theory firmly tethered to practice. Section 1, 'Storyknowing', traces the history of oral storytelling practice with adolescents across diverse contexts, and brings into clear focus the particular nature of the storytelling exchange and narrative knowledge. Section 2, 'Telling Stories', introduces readers to some of the key challenges and possibilities of dialogic storytelling by reflecting on stories from the author's own arts-based practice research with adolescents, illustrating these with young people's artistic responses to stories. Finally, section 3, 'Story Gaps', conceptualises dialogic storytelling by exploring three different 'gaps': the gap between storyteller and listener, the gaps in the story, and the gaps which storytellers can open up within institutions. The book includes chapters taking a special focus on storytelling in schools and in mental health settings, as well as guided reflections for readers to relate the issues raised to their own practice.

A collection of 150 unique games and activities to help support teaching of Primary PE. Designed with busy teachers in mind, the Classroom Gems series draws together an extensive selection of practical, tried-and-tested, off-the-shelf ideas, games and activities guaranteed to transform any lesson or classroom in an instant. Easily navigable, allowing you to choose the right activity quickly and easily, these invaluable resources are guaranteed to save you time and are a must-have tool to plan, prepare and deliver first-rate lessons.

A Volume in The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast: Monograph Series in Mathematics EducationSeries Editor Bharath Sriraman, The University of MontanaThe intent of this monograph is to showcase successful implementation ofmathematical discourse in the classroom. Some questions that might beaddressed are: * How does a teacher begin to learn about using discourse purposefully toimprove mathematics teaching and learning?* How is discourse interwoven into professional development content courses toprovide teachers with the tools necessary to begin using discourse in their ownclassrooms?* What does a discourse-rich classroom look like and how is it different from other classrooms, from both theteacher's and the students' perspectives?* How can teachers of pre-service teachers integrate discourse into their content and methods courses?* How can we use discourse research to inform work with teachers, both pre- and in-service, for example, to helpthem know how to respond to elicited knowledge from students in their classrooms?* What are the discourse challenges in on-line mathematics courses offered for professional development? Canon-line classrooms also be discourse-rich? What would that look like?* In what ways does mathematical discourse differ from discourse in general?