The ultimate new teacher's guide to surviving and thriving in the classroom, Smart from the Start is the springboard to help you establish and improve your practice in meaningful ways.Teachers have a wide range of responsibilities—not all of which can be addressed in teacher preparation programs—and for new and returning educators especially, it can be daunting to think about all that is required throughout the school year. This book provides more than 100 easy-to-incorporate tools spread across six major points of concern: * Beginning of the year: set up your classroom and establish rules and procedures. * Classroom management: establish a healthy learning environment. * Instructional planning: lead high-quality lessons and anticipate students' diverse needs. * Student engagement: motivate students and maintain their quality of learning. * Assessment: align assessment with curriculum and instruction and build rubrics and tests. * Teacher well-being: find the joy in teaching and take care of yourself. Your first few years of teaching don't have to be formidable or confusing. James H. Stronge, Jessica M. Straessle, and Xianxuan Xu have synthesized decades of research to identify and carefully consider the attributes of the job that especially relate to new teachers. With Smart from the Start, you can take your first steps into teaching with confidence and create a classroom environment that will benefit your students.

What does it take to be a good school principal? No two principals work exactly the same way, but research shows that effective principals focus on a core set of factors critical to fostering success among all students.In this second edition of Qualities of Effective Principals, James H. Stronge and Xianxuan Xu delineate these factors and show principals how to successfully balance the needs and priorities of their schools while continuously developing and refining their leadership skills. Throughout the book, the authors provide practical tools and extensive research that will help principals * Assess, exhibit, and harness instructional leadership to meet a school's goals. * Foster and sustain an effective school climate for learning. * Select, support, and retain high-quality teachers and staff. * Manage school resources effectively and efficiently. * Create, maintain, and strengthen internal and external community relationships. * Define their role in student achievement. This book also includes practical skills checklists, along with quality indicators and red flags for effective leadership. Qualities of Effective Principals, 2nd Edition, is an excellent resource for both experienced and new principals committed to developing and leading strong schools that help all students succeed.

Research surrounding teacher quality and teacher effectiveness has continued to grow and become even more prominent as teaching has become more professionalized globally and countries have invested more comprehensively in teacher education, certification, and professional development. To better understand teacher effectiveness, it is important to have a global viewpoint to truly understand how beliefs and practices vary in each country and can lead to different characterizations of what makes an effective teacher. This includes both cross-cultural commonalities and unique differences in conceptualization of teacher effectiveness and practices. With this comprehensive, international understanding of teacher effectiveness, a better understanding of best practices, teacher models, philosophies, and more will be developed. International Beliefs and Practices That Characterize Teacher Effectiveness identifies, shares, and explores the predominant conceptual understandings of beliefs and practices that characterize effective teachers in different countries. This book provides international and cross-cultural perspectives on teacher effectiveness and examines the prominent philosophies of teaching and pedagogical practices that characterize teachers in selected countries. Each chapter includes a background, such as history and undergirding philosophy within each country, effective teacher models, prominent applications of teacher effectiveness practices, and special or unique features of teaching in the specific countries mentioned. This book is essential for practicing educators in various countries, teacher educators, faculty, and students within schools and colleges, researchers in international comparative studies, organizations engaged in international education, and administrators, practitioners, and academicians interested in how teacher effectiveness is characterized in different countries and regions across the world.

Research surrounding teacher quality and teacher effectiveness has continued to grow and become even more prominent as teaching has become more professionalized globally and countries have invested more comprehensively in teacher education, certification, and professional development. To better understand teacher effectiveness, it is important to have a global viewpoint to truly understand how beliefs and practices vary in each country and can lead to different characterizations of what makes an effective teacher. This includes both cross-cultural commonalities and unique differences in conceptualization of teacher effectiveness and practices. With this comprehensive, international understanding of teacher effectiveness, a better understanding of best practices, teacher models, philosophies, and more will be developed. International Beliefs and Practices That Characterize Teacher Effectiveness identifies, shares, and explores the predominant conceptual understandings of beliefs and practices that characterize effective teachers in different countries. This book provides international and cross-cultural perspectives on teacher effectiveness and examines the prominent philosophies of teaching and pedagogical practices that characterize teachers in selected countries. Each chapter includes a background, such as history and undergirding philosophy within each country, effective teacher models, prominent applications of teacher effectiveness practices, and special or unique features of teaching in the specific countries mentioned. This book is essential for practicing educators in various countries, teacher educators, faculty, and students within schools and colleges, researchers in international comparative studies, organizations engaged in international education, and administrators, practitioners, and academicians interested in how teacher effectiveness is characterized in different countries and regions across the world.

For years, students in the United States have lagged behind students in many other countries on such measures of achievement as the PISA and TIMSS assessments. In an increasingly globalized world, such a gap is worrisome. Armed with statistics, examples, and cautionary tales from Scandinavia to Japan, James H. Stronge and Xianxuan Xu have written a book that can help educators better prepare students and close that gap. In What Makes a World-Class School and How We Can Get There, you will find: Careful analysis of recent international assessment results-what they mean and what can be done to improve them. In-depth profiles of high-achieving education systems around the globe-their histories, their lessons learned, and what they can teach educators and policymakers in the United States. Strategies for aligning successful educational approaches from international systems to U.S. schools-which strategies to use, in which subjects, and with which students. Transformative ideas for cultivating a truly world-class system of schooling-both simple and complex ways to raise the bar for all students, no matter what their background. Educators in every country must ensure that their students are as prepared as possible to lead a future generation of citizens. This thought-provoking and copiously researched book provides educators with a blueprint for radical improvement based on the hard-learned experiences of their peers around the world.

The United States and China: two nations drastically different in demographics, history, political structures, and education systems. Despite these differences, educators in each country have discovered they have much to learn from one another. The United States looks east and is captivated by the high assessment scores that many Chinese students achieve. China looks west and is enamored with how the United States fosters innovation and creativity in students. Teachers are increasingly looking across borders to expand, adapt, and offer their students a more balanced education. West Meets East is based on the fundamental premise that strong teaching is at the heart of educational quality and that we all benefit from understanding the practices and professional thinking of exemplary teachers. With this in mind, Grant and her colleagues set out to discover which beliefs and strategies of effective teachers can cross the cultural divide and help students in each nation make breakthrough advances. As educators, it's important to understand that even though we're setting new goals and improving outcomes, excellence is a moving target. In the globally connected 21st century, educational innovations in one country can reset the bar for students around the world. Only by learning from one another can we be sure all our students remain competitive and successful.