A modern-day reflective guide to detail how school leaders can develop a unique and expansive learning environment for teachers. The book is a practical manual that includes examples of activities that can be promoted to develop informal and formal teacher learning activities. Atwal argues that in the very workplaces where the core business is 'learning', the quality of staff learning in schools is poor and underdeveloped - there is significant room for improvement. This book is essential reading for all those interested in driving improvement in education in schools and anyone who has cared about children's learning or teacher learning.

"Serena Pariser and Victoria Lentfer provide answers to common questions that linger in the brain of a newer teacher. As a newer teacher myself, I wish a book like this existed when I started out. This book is engaging, informative, and so much more. Each section includes helpful tips and is easily organized and accessible. This book is truly an amazing guide for newer teachers, and I highly recommend it as it will form the perfect basis for that exciting and powerful start of a new journey. Teaching can be many things, but this book is truly a game changer for anyone starting out." —Susan Jachymiak Teacher, Leader, and Author Create a positive and energetic classroom where learning can flourish. This insightful, friendly guide to establishing a dynamic classroom is a lifeline of practical support for teachers, providing answers to your biggest questions at the moment you most need them. Through instructional tools, teaching tips, classroom examples, reading suggestions, and more, Answers to Your Biggest Questions about Creating a Dynamic Classroom equips teachers to embark on the path of success toward building a positive and energetic learning environment. It details brief, actionable answers to your most pressing questions in five areas of effort: How do I build an affirming classroom community? How do I keep students at the center? How can I design effective, fun, and engaging learning for students? How can I make assessments work for me and my students? What are the things I need to know that are rarely discussed in a teacher training program? This is a resource to keep handy on your desk and reach for often for establishing a vibrant and welcoming classroom community. Practical guidance on topics such as communicating with parents, asking for administrator support, and maintaining a work/life balance, help teachers not only succeed in the early years of teaching, but thrive.

Discover why and how schools must become places where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted As educators, parents, and citizens, we must settle for nothing less than environments that bring out the best in people, take learning to the next level, allow for great discoveries, and propel both the individual and the group forward into a lifetime of learning. This is something all teachers want and all students deserve. In Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools, Ron Ritchhart, author of Making Thinking Visible, explains how creating a culture of thinking is more important to learning than any particular curriculum and he outlines how any school or teacher can accomplish this by leveraging 8 cultural forces: expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment. With the techniques and rich classroom vignettes throughout this book, Ritchhart shows that creating a culture of thinking is not about just adhering to a particular set of practices or a general expectation that people should be involved in thinking. A culture of thinking produces the feelings, energy, and even joy that can propel learning forward and motivate us to do what at times can be hard and challenging mental work.

The Thinking Teacher offers a current and reflective resource for teachers at every level who wish to transform their thinking and their practice in the classroom. Written by teacher professional learning expert Dr. Kulvarn Atwal, the book shows teachers how they can make a positive difference to every single student they teach. He shares strategies that will empower you to navigate your way through a complex profession in a continual cycle of learning and improvement. The greatest influence on the quality of students' learning in schools is the quality of teaching. This book is based on the best available evidence of how to maximise your effectiveness in the classroom. The book includes specific examples of how to build your teaching powers through reflective practice as well as teaching strategies that will enable your students to develop as independent learners. Filled with practical strategies, Atwal encourages teachers to transform their mindsets and experiment with how they teach to improve their practice. It is essential reading for teachers at the beginning of their careers as well as anyone at any level of experience who is interested in improving their teaching.

Is the learning in your classroom static or dynamic? Shake Up Learning guides you through the process of creating dynamic learning opportunities-from purposeful planning and maximizing technology to fearless implementation.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

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.

Radically reimagine our ways of being, learning, and doing Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on "fixing" and "filling" academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the student up—with classrooms, schools and systems built around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential. Street data reminds us that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable and that data can be humanizing, liberatory and healing. By breaking down street data fundamentals: what it is, how to gather it, and how it can complement other forms of data to guide a school or district’s equity journey, Safir and Dugan offer an actionable framework for school transformation. Written for educators and policymakers, this book · Offers fresh ideas and innovative tools to apply immediately · Provides an asset-based model to help educators look for what’s right in our students and communities instead of seeking what’s wrong · Explores a different application of data, from its capacity to help us diagnose root causes of inequity, to its potential to transform learning, and its power to reshape adult culture Now is the time to take an antiracist stance, interrogate our assumptions about knowledge, measurement, and what really matters when it comes to educating young people.

It Takes an Ecosystem explores the idea and potential of the Allied Youth Fields—an aspirational term that suggests increased connection across the multiple systems in which adults engage with young people. Recent research and initiatives make a strong case for what developmentalists have argued for decades: A young person’s learning and development is shaped in positive and negative ways by the interactions they have with all the adults in their life. Now is the time to reshape our systems to support this scientific understanding. The chapters in this book provide ideas, tools, examples, and visions for a more connected, more equitable world for young people and the adults in their lives. Endorsements for It Takes an Ecosystem "It Takes an Ecosystem offers a powerful and timely engagement of the possibilities and challenges facing the Out-of-School Time sector…this book charts a path forward for scholars, practitioners, community members to imagine OST anew---in ways that are socially just and affirming, centered on the optimal development of youth and the power of community." — Bianca Baldridge University of Wisconsin Madison "The book’s emphasis on an ecosystem approach, anchored in commitments to equity and racial justice, combines evidence-based analyses with a future-oriented call to action for the allied youth fields. This book will be a must-read for those committed to radically re-thinking how we bring sectors together to support thriving for children and youth." Ben Kirshner University of Colorado

Blended learning is more than just "teaching with technology"; it allows teachers to maximize learning through deliberate instructional moves. This On-Your-Feet Guide zeroes in on one blended learning routine: Station Rotation. The Station Rotation model moves small groups of students through a series of online and off-line stations, building conceptual understanding and skills along the way. This On-Your-Feet-Guide provides: 7 steps to planning a Station Rotation lesson A full example of one teacher's Station Rotation A blank planning template for designing your own Station Rotation Helpful assessment strategies for monitoring learning at each station Ideas to adapt for low-tech classrooms or large class sizes Use blended learning to maximize learning and keep kids constantly engaged through your next Station Rotation lesson! Laminated, 8.5”x11” tri-fold (6 pages), 3-hole punched