What would a classroom look like if understanding and respecting differences in race, culture, beliefs, and opinions were at its heart? If you were inspired to become a teacher because you wanted to develop young minds, but now find yourself limited by "teach to the test" pressures and state standards, Mary Cowhey's book Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades will reignite the passion and remind you that educators provide more than test prep. Starting her career as a community activist, Cowhey shares her roots and how they influenced her Peace Class, where she asks her students to think critically, learn through activism and discussion, and view the entire curriculum through the framework of understanding the world, and what they can do to make it a better place. Woven through the book is Mary's unflinching and humorous account of her own roots as well as lessons from her heroes: Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr, and others. Her students learn to make connections between their lives, the books they read, the community leaders they meet, and the larger world. Black Ants and Buddhists offers no easy answers, but it does include starting points for conversations about diversity and controversy in your classroom, as well as in the larger community. Students and teachers investigate problems and issues together, in a multicultural, antiracist classroom.

What would a classroom look like if understanding and respecting differences in race, culture, beliefs, and opinions were at its heart? Welcome to Mary Cowhey's Peace Class in Northampton, MA, where first and second graders view the entire curriculum through the framework of understanding the world, and trying to do their part to make it a better place. Woven through the book is Mary's unflinching and humorous account of her own roots in a struggling large Irish Catholic family and her early career as a community activist. Mary's teaching is infused with lessons of her heroes: Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, and others. Her students learn to make connections between their lives, the books they read, the community leaders they meet, and the larger world. If you were inspired to become a teacher because you wanted to change the world, and instead find yourself limited by teach-to-the-test pressures, this is the book that will make you think hard about how you spend your time with students. It offers no easy answers, just a wealth of insight into the challenges of helping students think critically about the world, and starting points for conversations about diversity and controversy in your classroom, as well as in the larger community.

Upon its original publication in Portuguese Teachers as Cultural Workers became an instant success. Translated and published in English and now reissued in paperback with new essays from leading education scholars

Anderson offers smart, ready-to-use ideas for assessment.

Using examples from a Reggio-inspired school with children from ages 6 weeks to 6 years, the authors emphasize the importance of children's rights and our responsibility as adults to hear their voices. Seen and Heard summarizes research and theory pertaining to young children's rights in the United States, and offers strategies educators can use to ensure the inclusion of children's perspectives in everyday decisions. Real-life classroom vignettes illustrate how young children perceive the idea of rights through observation and discussion. The authors' work is based on these essential ideas: (1) the "one hundred languages" children use for exploring, discovering, constructing, representing, and conveying their ideas; (2) the pedagogy of listening, in which children and adults carefully attend to the world and to one another; (3) the notion that all children have the right to participate in the communities in which they reside.

The very idea that the teachings can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in self-absorbed mind-noise. Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. Its easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram's assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide, and to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book.In this new edition of the bestselling book, the author rearranges, revises and expands upon the original material, as well as adding new sections that bring further clarity to his ideas.

Fountas and Pinnell support teachers on the next leg of the literacy journey, addressing the unique challenges of teaching upper elementary students.

The e-book for Healthy Breaks allows you to highlight, take notes, and easily use all the material in the book in seconds. The e-book is delivered through Adobe Digital Editions® and when purchased through the Human Kinetics site, access to the content is immediately granted when your order is received. We live in a “cupcake culture” that celebrates everything with food—often food that’s not good for us. That’s one of the reasons that the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for children ages 2 to 5 and 12 to 19 in the past 30 years, and more than tripled for kids ages 6 to 11 during that same time span. Jenine De Marzo is out to change that culture. She provides all the tools you need to do so in Healthy Breaks: Wellness Activities for the Classroom. This book is filled with teacher-tested 5-to 10-minute activities that take little preparation time and can be done in the classroom, not just in the gym or outdoors. Healthy Breaks promotes healthy lifestyles, beginning with daily wellness activities in the classroom. The activities supplement the physical education and health education programs by promoting natural activity throughout the day. De Marzo also provides suggestions for using these activities in place of the food-centered celebrations that occur throughout the school year. Healthy Breaks presents the following features: • Tools for kindergarten through sixth-grade classroom and health teachers to promote wellness and provide health-related activities in the classroom • Activities for before- and after-school program leaders to increase physical activity and wellness • Clear and concise instructions that make it easy for any teacher to engage students in physical activity and academic learning • Tools for meeting objectives of national wellness policies set by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Schools are uniquely positioned to influence students’ health and wellness. With this resource, classroom teachers can easily integrate activities in their daily schedule. Not only are the activities fun, but they also address the problem of childhood obesity that is rampant in North America. They also aid in meeting objectives of wellness policies set by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Healthy Breaks can be used as a supplemental guide for classroom teachers who want to integrate health, wellness, and movement within their classrooms, as well as an additional guide for physical educators who have limited gym space and resources. And, perhaps best of all, the resource can be used in transforming our “cupcake culture” into a health and wellness culture. Adobe Digital Editions® System Requirements Windows Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or Windows Vista® (Home Basic 32-bit and Business 64-bit editions supported) Intel® Pentium® 500MHz processor 128MB of RAM 800x600 monitor resolution Mac PowerPC Mac OS X v10.4.10 or v10.5 PowerPC® G4 or G5 500MHz processor 128MB of RAM Intel® Mac OS X v10.4.10 or v10.5 500MHz processor 128MB of RAM Supported browsers and Adobe Flash versions Windows Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Mozilla Firefox 2 Adobe Flash® Player 7, 8, or 9 (Windows Vista requires Flash 9.0.28 to address a known bug) Mac Apple Safari 2.0.4, Mozilla Firefox 2 Adobe Flash Player 8 or 9 Supported devices Sony® Reader PRS-505 Language versions English French German

Social and emotional learning is at the heart of good teaching, but as standards and testing requirements consume classroom time and divert teachers' focus, these critical skills often get sidelined. In Sharing the Blue Crayon , Mary Anne Buckley shows teachers how to incorporate social and emotional learning into a busy day and then extend these skills to literacy lessons for young children. Through simple activities such as read-alouds, sing-alongs, murals, and performances, students learn how to get along in a group, empathize with others, develop self-control, and give and receive feedback, all while becoming confident readers and writers. As Buckley shares, Every day we ask young children to respectfully converse, question, debate, and collaborate about literature, science, math problems, history, and more. That's sophisticated stuff and requires sophisticated skills. Social and emotional skills are essential to helping children communicate their knowledge and articulate their questions. We must teach students how to build respectful, caring classroom communities, where students are supported and fully engaged in the learning and everyone can reach their potential.- In this fresh and original book, Buckley captures the humor, wonder, honesty, and worries of our youngest learners and helps teachers understand how to harness their creativity and guide their conversations toward richer expressions of knowledge. Teachers of special populations will especially appreciate Buckley's successful strategies for reaching English language learners and children from high-poverty homes who may not have strong foundations for academic discourse. As Buckley reminds us, By understanding one another-;orally and socially at first, then using those community-building exchanges to strengthen the skills of reading and writing-;we experience the authentic pride and sweet joys of learning, understanding, and connecting to one another.-