The middle school provides a planned transition from childhood to young adulthood: it moves a student from the protective nurture of elementary school to the more depersonalized high school setting gradually, sensitively, and by design. Composed of the ideas from middle school education that each of the educators who choose this wonderful level of educational concentration seem to discover over and over again, this handbook is divided into six sections. The first and second sections introduce the middle schooler and cover the history and focus of middle schools. Section 3 discusses such topics associated with the middle school curriculum as sexuality and physical education, evaluation and grading, and scheduling. Sections 4 and 5 are dedicated to middle school educators--teachers and the principal--and the middle schooler's parents. The sixth section highlights important middle school issues including advisors, behavior, leadership and participation, mixed-age groups, multicultural education, networking, and transition. Intended to become a workbook for each of its readers, this document has wide margins to make room for personal stories and anecdotes. Topics covered in the appendices include learning and learners, boldness, middle school teachers, parent peer groups, middle and upper school cooperation, and the resources used for this document. (KM)

Capturing insights from 20 successful principals, this illuminating book presents real-world strategies that help school leaders refine their administrative skills and generate dramatic improvements in schoolwide achievement.

This handbook balances research-based discussion and practical ideas. Includes a wealth of field-based and reflective activities, readings, and in-service examples. The new edition emphasizes teacher teamwork and differentiation of instruction, two of the most significant new directions in middle level education. A new chapter on different learning styles (Ch. 5) stresses developing appropriate skills to fit individual teaching styles and classrooms. Also new chapters on home, child, and middle school (Ch. 6), teacher as advisor (Ch. 9), teacher- directed instruction (Ch. 13), teaching gifted and at-risk students in regular classrooms (Ch. 14), and making seatwork work (Ch. 15) reflect some of the latest trends today.

A parent objects to a curriculum that includes a unit on Greek gods, arguing that it violates the separation of church and state. As a teacher or administrator, how should you respond? This type of issue is one most educators will have to confront eventually, in addition to other hot-button issues such as zero-tolerance policies, drug and alcohol testing, and prayer in schools. The School Law Handbook is designed to enable educators to confront such issues with information, insight, and initiative. The issues are organized into five areas: the school environment, Constitutional issues, students, personnel, and accountability. Within each area are several chapters, each beginning with a realistic scenario followed by legal and practical analyses of the situation. Armed with this knowledge of the parameters governing each scenario, educators can more effectively manage their responses, asking and answering the key questions: - What are the legal boundaries? - What is the district policy related to this issue? - What are the potential strategies for resolution? In this era of unparalleled public scrutiny, The School Law Handbook is essential reading for all school personnel. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

An expert guide to the development of the middle school model as the best educational environment designed to address students' developmental and social needs as well as educational needs. Middle Grades Education: A Reference Handbook explores the distinctive middle school approach to helping adolescents develop as human beings and citizens as well as students, with coverage that ranges from the conceptual foundations of the middle school model, to research-based best practices, to sample lesson plans and activities. Edited by Pat Williams-Boyd, with contributions from experienced, frontline educators, the book showcases a number of places where the ideal middle school has become reality, where individual talents are nurtured, families are involved, teachers serve as role models and advocates, and crucial health and developmental needs are met. Readers will experience classrooms where students dance their math, sing their science, and breathe the winds of history, and where the joy of learning is bounded only by the educator's imagination.