An introduction to best practices in education for kindergarten, first, and second grades, offering clear, practical advice; plenty of real-life examples; and grade-specific strategies for developmentally responsive teaching, engaging academics, positive community, and effective classroom management.

This open access book presents a comparative study on how large-scale professional development programs for teachers are designed and implemented. Around the world, governments and educators are recognizing the need to educate students in a broad range of higher order cognitive skills and socio-emotional competencies, and providing effective opportunities for teachers to develop the expertise needed to teach these skills is a crucial aspect of effective implementation of curricula which include those goals. This study examines how large-scale efforts to empower teachers for deeper instruction have been designed, how they have been implemented, and their outcomes. To do so, it investigates six programs from England, Colombia, Mexico, India, and the United States. Though all six are intended to broaden and deepen students’ curricular aspirations, each takes this expansion of curricular goals in a different direction. The ambitious education reforms studied here explicitly focus on building teachers’ capacity to teach on a broader set of goals. Through a discerning analysis of program documents, evaluations, and interviews with senior leaders and participants in the programs, the book identifies the various theories of action used in these programs, examines how they were implemented, and discusses what they achieved. As such, it offers an indispensable resource for education leaders interested in designing and implementing professional development programs for teachers that are aligned with ambitious instructional goals.

This book explores how school leaders—both formal and informal—can create a supportive culture that leverages teamwork and empowers teachers to become leaders. By focusing on three foundational principles—empowerment, collegiality, and risk taking—schools can develop and enhance educators' capacity for success. With this practical resource, you will learn intentional and actionable strategies that empower participation in leadership at all levels through peer observation and team action planning. The book’s chapters explore how to create systems that support trusting relationships, inspire distributed leadership, provide a vehicle for teachers to learn from each other and take risks, and develop informal and formal teacher leaders. This book provides a positive and proactive approach to collaborative school leadership that will invigorate your school community to work together more effectively for improved student outcomes. Rich reflection questions in each chapter help readers conceptualize the information presented and take actionable steps toward improvement Additional tools are available online for easy download here: www.routledge.com/9781032040554.

The ideas presented in this book are drawn from a study of highly successful principals of schools affiliated with the League of Professional Schools. Chapter 1, "Sharing Governance," presents an overview of the literature on professional development and a description of the study. Chapter 2, "Trusting the Experts: Teachers," focuses on trust as the foundation for shared governance and teacher empowerment. Chapter 3, "Creating Instruction-Oriented Structures That Help Teachers Do Their Best," examines the importance of structuring schools to encourage teacher collaboration and access to decision making. Chapter 4, "A Cornucopia of Supportive Resources," explores how principals use resources such as staff development to enhance teachers' instructional capabilities. Chapter 5,"Encouraging Autonomy and Innovation," reviews extending autonomy and encouraging innovation as strategies to enhance instructional capabilities. Chapter 6, "Modeling Personal Dimensions," highlights the effects of such personal characteristics of principals as optimism, caring, honesty, friendliness, and enthusiasm. Chapter 7, "About Risk and Threat," argues for reducing risk and threat to teachers. Chapter 8, "Valuing and Rewarding Good Work," explains the benefits of rewarding teachers. Chapter 9, "Helping Solve Problems," discusses the importance of adopting a problem-solving orientation. Chapter 10, "Providing Leadership That Is Facilitative and Democratic," presents a portrait of a successful shared-governance principal and considers the future of instruction-oriented, facilitative-democratic leadership in schools. (Contains approximately 300 references.) (TEJ)

"What is teacher empowerment? It's not just some formal administrative position exercised from above. It starts with expanding our professional roles in small everyday actions that make our jobs more fulfilling and less difficult. And then we can take on larger school-improvement tasks as we become ready to tackle them. . . . This book, then, is about extending one's professional role in small ways and large in the school community, in order to improve one's teaching, one's work life, and the school as a whole--and that is what we mean by teacher empowerment." Steven Zemelman and Harry Ross Experts talk about teacher empowerment, but this is the first book with direct, easy-to-take steps for teacher self-empowerment. Drawing from research, the experiences of practicing teachers, and the principles of community organizing, Steven Zemelman and Harry Ross prove that school leadership isn't just for those at the top of the ladder. Whatever your position, use the 13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment to deepen your professionalism and achieve: more effective teaching and deeper job satisfaction more enjoyment in your work more exciting collaboration with your colleagues more resources and professional opportunities. Listen to a podcast where Steve Zemelman and Harry Ross interview two teachers who used the principles in the 13 Steps to get the teaching life they wanted. Take one step at a time or pick and choose the strategies you most need right now. Or use the study guide with colleagues in PLCs or teacher study groups and together bring the 13 Steps of Teacher Empowerment to life. You'll not only develop your own professional power--you'll help make your school community more supportive and productive. "As I sat down and began to read this book, the voice in my head first whispered, then spoke a little louder, and finally screamed--Where have you been all my life?...I can't overemphasize the importance of this book. We need this book and we need it now. It is a road map to a vibrant, thriving, long-lasting teaching life." Stephanie Harvey Coauthor of Comprehension & Collaboration

Learn how to make instructional coaching more empowering and effective by supporting teachers as learners and leaders in their own classrooms. This unique book offers a powerful assets-based coaching framework that capitalizes on teachers’ strengths, internal motivation, and professional goals. The authors provide a useful analysis of popular theories and models that ground coaching and support intentional planning; tools and strategies to help you enact the framework through ongoing coaching cycles; and examples, vignettes, and transcripts to illustrate coaching in practice. Each chapter also includes opportunities for reflection and practice to guide you along the way. Appropriate for school-and district-based coaches of all levels of experience, this book will enable you to provide a more targeted, proactive learning experience for ongoing teacher growth. With an instructional framework designed to empower teachers, increased teacher professional capacity can be expected for lasting impact on students, classrooms, schools, and communities.

We want students to master academic standards, and we want them to be confident, adaptive, and socially responsible. Above all, we want them to find meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Achieving these goals requires a concerted focus on the social-emotional skills that empower students in and beyond the classroom. In Teaching to Empower, Debbie Zacarian and Michael Silverstone explore what an empowered student looks like in our increasingly diverse contemporary schools and prompt educators to examine their own relationship to empowerment. The book's evidence-based strategies and authentic examples show you how to foster an inclusive culture of agency, self-confidence, and collaboration that will give each of your students—regardless of race, culture, language, socioeconomic status, abilities, sexuality, or gender—the opportunity, responsibility, and tools to become an active learner, thoughtful community member, and engaged global citizen. Whether you're a preservice teacher, a classroom novice, or a veteran, you'll find the practical guidance you'll need to * Create inclusive and empowering physical learning spaces. * Set up self-directed learning and promote positive interdependence. * Promote student self-reflection. * Teach the skills of collaboration. * Foster the self-advocacy that fuels deeper, more autonomous learning. * Partner more effectively with families and the community to support student empowerment.

Discover how high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the world Producing highly skilled and committed teachers is not the work of a single innovative school or the aggregation of heroic individuals who succeed against the odds. In high-performing countries, the opportunities for teachers to learn sophisticated practices and continue to improve are embedded systemically in education policies and practices. Empowered Educators describes how this seemingly magical work is done—how a number of forward-thinking educational systems create a coherent set of policies designed to ensure quality teaching in all communities. . . and how the results are manifested in practice. Spanning three continents and five countries, Empowered Educators examines seven jurisdictions that have worked to develop comprehensive teaching policy systems: Singapore and Finland, the states of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia, the provinces of Alberta and Ontario in Canada, and the province of Shanghai in China. Renowned education expert Linda Darling-Hammond and a team of esteemed scholars offer lessons learned in a number of areas that shape the teaching force and the work of teachers, shedding unprecedented light on areas such as teacher recruitment, preparation, induction and mentoring, professional learning, career and leadership development, and more. Find out how quality teaching is developed and conducted across the globe Discover a common set of strategies for developing, supporting, and sustaining the ongoing learning and development of teachers and school leaders See how high-performing countries successfully recruit and train educators Understand why the sharing of expertise among teachers and administrators within and across schools is beneficial A fascinating read for researchers, policymakers, administrators, teacher educators, pre-service teachers and leaders, and anyone with an interest in education, this book offers a rare glimpse into the systems that are shaping quality teaching around the world.

Teacher leadership remains at the forefront of conversations in teacher education, with discussions on recruitment, retention, and effectiveness. Teachers are at the core of schooling, and the roles they assume and types of leadership they engage in are multi-dimensional. Teacher leadership comes in many shapes and definitions. In this sense, both opportunities and challenges exist in teacher leadership. While national competencies continue to define dispositional and knowledge base for teacher leaders, there is still work to be done to define and add to the body of scholarship on this topic. Teacher leadership opportunities provide development for teachers as a key retention strategy; however, role ambiguity presents challenges in how to empower teachers for formal and informal roles of leadership while maintaining the teacher identity. Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity provides a comprehensive look at the opportunities and challenges of teacher leadership, drawing on research and practice that add to the body of knowledge for teacher leadership, which is a niche in education that differs from educational administration. Highlighted topics within this book include models for teacher leadership, teacher education, types of leadership roles, the development and retention of teacher leaders, and leadership across different types of school districts. This book is ideally designed for inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in teacher leadership roles and the way in which teacher identity is maintained in relation to these other leadership positions.

Craig Mertler’s Action Research: Improving Schools and Empowering Educators introduces practicing educators to the process of conducting classroom-based action research. Practical and comprehensive, the book focuses on research methods and procedures that educators can use in their everyday practice. This Fifth Edition adds enhanced coverage of rigor and ethics in action research, means of establishing quality of both quantitative and qualitative data, as well as strengthened pedagogical features. New material includes discussions of social justice advocacy as an application of action research and the inclusion of abstracts in research reports.