There is clear evidence that the quality of children's learning in school is very dependant on the style of the teacher's approach and the learning environment he or she creates. This, in turn, is a reflection of teachers own beliefs, anxieties and enthusiasms about learning, often gained through their own educational experiences. This edited volume provides a new framework for exploring teachers' views on a whole range of professional issues, for instance the nature of teaching and learning, the needs of students, and their own abilities as learners. Within this is presented a variety of case studies which illustrate how teachers' views impact upon students' learning. The book builds on the well established assumption that teachers are themselves also learners and that the learning processes involved in professional development are in many ways the same as those involved in a classroom context.It shows how the conclusions drawn from this study can be used in a practical way to assist teachers' professional development throughout their career. All teacher trainers and mentors who take seriously their role of helping children to be resourceful, resilient and reflective learners will find that this book helps them to achieve this aim.

There is clear evidence that the quality of children's learning in school is very dependant on the style of the teacher's approach and the learning environment he or she creates. This, in turn, is a reflection of teachers own beliefs, anxieties and enthusiasms about learning, often gained through their own educational experiences.
This edited volume provides a new framework for exploring teachers' views on a whole range of professional issues, for instance the nature of teaching and learning, the needs of students, and their own abilities as learners. Within this is presented a variety of case studies which illustrate how teachers' views impact upon students' learning.
The book builds on the well established assumption that teachers are themselves also learners and that the learning processes involved in professional development are in many ways the same as those involved in a classroom context.It shows how the conclusions drawn from this study can be used in a practical way to assist teachers' professional development throughout their career.
All teacher trainers and mentors who take seriously their role of helping children to be resourceful, resilient and reflective learners will find that this book helps them to achieve this aim.

Get ready for quick and clever designs that you'll be excited to make and show off! Popular designer Terry Atkinson shares her fresh stitching style, along with ideas for customizing many of the projects so you can make them truly unique. Includes tons of tips to help you finish projects fast and build your sewing skills Features a wide variety of home-decor items and personal accessories, including zippered bags and pouches, pillows, table runners, hot pads, napkin holders, and more You'll enjoy making these stitch-in-a-weekend projects as gifts or just for you

Terry Atkinson's study presents a fresh and startling theory about the true origin of one of our most enduring legends - the quest for the Holy Grail. Many authorities agree that the core theme of this seductive story, through all its metaphoric mutations over the centuries, is humanity's unrelenting desire for spiritual transcendence - for a state of heightened consciousness. Our modern concept of the Grail dates from the 15th Century story of the chalice from Christ's Last Supper, brought to the British Isles and then buried or somehow lost, and the subsequent holy mission of King Arthur's knights to retrieve the icon. But in traditional cultures of past millennia, where the legend originates, the goal of this sacred quest was a religious encounter of a different order. Our ancestors sought to reveal the presence of the divine being within through a mind-expanding experience rooted in nature. Every version of the Grail legend features near-impenetrable coded references to its entheogenic origins - the ritual use of naturally occurring psychedelics to reach transcendence. Approaching the subject like a detective solving an ancient mystery, the author employs textual forensics to explain for the first time the meaning behind several aspects of the story that have puzzled scholars for centuries. Unlike such works as Holy Blood, Holy Grail (whose theory was used as the basis of The Da Vinci Code), Atkinson's book delves deeply into Grail literature from the 12th Century, particularly the very earliest written work, Chretien de Troyes' Parsifal. Launching a detailed investigation of the legend's intriguing fish symbolism and examining the key role of shamanism in Celtic and other ancient cultures, the author also uses clues drawn from Grail scholar Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance, the classic study that inspired T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. The Grail is more real than most recent explicators and fabricators imagine, but in a very different way from that assumed by the old-school searchers. The author's astonishing conclusion is that the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria is the long-lost secret origin of the legend.