Reimagine your school community. This practical guidebook will help you shift your mindset of online and blended learning from “backup plan” to unprecedented opportunity for rich connections and high-level learning. New and veteran teachers alike will gain insight on how to build in-person and online relationships with students and coworkers to achieve a learning community that supports social-emotional learning, equitable and inclusive instruction, and academic success. Educators of hybrid learning environments will: Understand why relationship-building is fundamental to student success and gain best practices for establishing this foundation Discover new blended, online, and in-person strategies for strengthening connections with your diverse students Gain strategies for offering instruction that is affirming, representative of our diverse world, and rooted in equity Be empowered to think critically about and to change systems currently in place that limit students’ ability to connect and thrive Choose strategies that fit your teaching style from the myriad of vibrant experiences contributed by educators around the world Contents: Preface: Our Journeys to Blended Education Introduction: People-Centered Approaches to Teaching Part I: Reimagining the Online Classroom Chapter 1: Reimagining School as a Global Community Project Chapter 2: Cultivating Strengths-Based Approaches for Inclusion, Support, and Counseling Chapter 3: Fostering Relationships Through Connection-Based Feedback Part II: Inclusive Practices: Diversity and Equity in the Online Classroom Chapter 4: Centering Student Stories Chapter 5: Honoring Multilingual and Multicultural Learners Chapter 6: Accelerating Opportunities for Gifted and Talented Students Epilogue Appendix Glossary References and Resources Index

Help your students find and keep the joy in learning! When creative use of technology meets outstanding teaching, incredible learning happens. This insightful guide is for all educators ready to move into a new commitment to true learning. Principal and respected digital educator Robert Dillon shows readers how to: Use student engagement to promote authentic, thoughtful learning Learn how 16 innovative connected educators provided incredible learning opportunities for their students Implement new technology resources and strategies for all classrooms and grade levels Help students build critical thinking skills and gain confidence in their unique voices "This book combines the voices of seasoned connected educators with great suggestions for growth for those new to building connected classrooms as well as those educators who have been connected for years. Most importantly, the book paints hope for how we can build the connections in classrooms that all kids deserve." Thomas C. Murray, State and District Digital Learning Director Alliance for Excellent Education, Washington, DC "Dillon provides useful tips and resources for transforming your classes into communities in which students help each other succeed. This book is full of examples of teachers using technology to support collaboration and motivate students. Integrating technology is a tough journey, but teachers who implement the tips in this book will see how taking that journey transforms their practice and helps them make meaningful connections with their students." Shelly Terrell, Education Speaker and Trainer, Author Being a connected educator is a requirement today for relevant teaching. However, often, many do not know what effects being connected has on learning. What Bob lays out in this book are the stories and methods every educator needs to know to ensure they are providing the best possible learning for students. The ideas are practical and can work in classrooms that are rich with technology or even those without. A must-add to any professional library." Steven W. Anderson, @web20classroom, Author, The Relevant Educator

Engineering healthy developmental attachments and repairing dysregulation Suicide rates, ADHD diagnoses, gaming addiction, and adolescent depression are increasing exponentially. It’s difficult to ignore the number of children burdened by stress, anxiety, and unhealthy beliefs. However, the brain remains malleable and new experiences can rewrite the story! The Emotionally Connected Classroom will help educators create environments that promote healthy attachments and repair dysregulations that impair learning capacity. Readers will find. Explanations of neuroscience and human behavior. Strategies and tools to help teachers shift from content-focussed learning and assessment to learning that prioritises wellness. Lesson templates to help “train the brain.” Strategies to address dysfunctional behavior. Engaging case studies.

A timely collection of advice and strategies for creating a just classroom from educators across the country, handpicked by MacArthur Genius and bestselling author Lisa Delpit "A favorite education book of the year." —Greater Good magazine Is it okay to discuss politics in class? What are constructive ways to help young people process the daily news coverage of sexual assault? How can educators engage students around Black Lives Matter? Climate change? Confederate statue controversies? Immigration? Hate speech? In Teaching When the World Is on Fire, Delpit turns to a host of crucial issues facing teachers in these tumultuous times. Delpit's master-teacher wisdom tees up guidance from beloved, well-known educators along with insight from dynamic principals and classroom teachers tackling difficult topics in K–12 schools every day. This cutting-edge collection brings together essential observations on safety from Pedro Noguera and Carla Shalaby; incisive ideas on traversing politics from William Ayers and Mica Pollock; Christopher Emdin's instructive views on respecting and connecting with black and brown students; Hazel Edwards's crucial insight about safe spaces for transgender and gender-nonconforming students; and James W. Loewen's sage suggestions about exploring symbols of the South; as well as timely thoughts from Bill Bigelow on teaching the climate crisis—and on the students and teachers fighting for environmental justice. Teachers everywhere will benefit from what Publishers Weekly called "an urgent and earnest collection [that] will resonate with educators looking to teach 'young people to engage across perspectives' as a means to 'creating a just and caring world.'"

The author details and celebrates an approach to teaching that emphasizes connections among school, community, and environment.

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection

A thinking student is an engaged student Teachers often find it difficult to implement lessons that help students go beyond rote memorization and repetitive calculations. In fact, institutional norms and habits that permeate all classrooms can actually be enabling "non-thinking" student behavior. Sparked by observing teachers struggle to implement rich mathematics tasks to engage students in deep thinking, Peter Liljedahl has translated his 15 years of research into this practical guide on how to move toward a thinking classroom. Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K–12 helps teachers implement 14 optimal practices for thinking that create an ideal setting for deep mathematics learning to occur. This guide Provides the what, why, and how of each practice and answers teachers’ most frequently asked questions Includes firsthand accounts of how these practices foster thinking through teacher and student interviews and student work samples Offers a plethora of macro moves, micro moves, and rich tasks to get started Organizes the 14 practices into four toolkits that can be implemented in order and built on throughout the year When combined, these unique research-based practices create the optimal conditions for learner-centered, student-owned deep mathematical thinking and learning, and have the power to transform mathematics classrooms like never before.

Create a connected learning community through social media and rediscover the power of being a learner first. After uncovering the theories and research behind the significance of learning through collaboration with other educators, the authors show you how to take advantage of technology to improve your own learning and ultimately the learning of your students.

When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity. By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt's conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers - Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt's argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring example, Roholt develops the classification of musical instruments as focal things, contending that musical performance can be fruitfully understood as a focal practice. Through this exploration of what generates meaning in life, Roholt makes us rethink the place we allow smartphones to occupy in the everyday. But he remains cautiously optimistic. This thoughtful, needed interrogation of smartphones shows how we can establish a positive role for technologies within our lives.

Bring hope, joy, and positive energy back into the daily work of the classroom. In this book, learn to design brain-friendly learning environments that foster engagement, productivity, and achievement while allowing for seamless integration of educational technology. Discover how flexible, welcoming, and comfortable learning spaces can prepare students for the future. In this book you’ll: Find resources for redesigning spaces on a sustainable budget Support technology integration through blended and virtual learning Hear from teachers and schools whose successfully transformed spaces have increased student achievement