Learning, the Hardest Job You'll Ever Love!


Book Description

Learning, the Hardest Job You'll Ever Love is a collage of ideas designed for eighth through twelfth grade students and their parents to have better relationships with one another and with the entire school community, to help and support their communities in different ways, and to appreciate the value of the experiences offered within and outside their communities. Steven Sonntag encourages parents to daily practice genuine encouragement and praise, using practical, unique ideas so that their young adults will acquire more self-awareness, better self-respect, more self-accountability, better relationships with their peers and with adult figures, better learning skills, better grades, realistic humility without resorting to bragging about their accomplishments, and increased possibilities of a more successful future as adults in our competitive, global society.




The Smart Classroom Management Way


Book Description

The Smart Classroom Management Way is a collection of the very best writing from ten years of Smart Classroom Management (SCM). It isn't, however, simply a random mix of popular articles. It's a comprehensive work that encompasses every principle, theme, and methodology of the SCM approach. The book is laid out across six major areas of classroom management and includes the most pressing issues, problems, and concerns shared by all teachers. The underlying SCM themes of accountability, maturity, independence, personal responsibility, and intrinsic motivation are all there and weave their way throughout the entirety of the book. Together, they form a simple, unique, and sometimes contrarian approach to classroom management that anyone can do. Whether you're an elementary, middle, or high school teacher, The Smart Classroom Management Way will give you the strategies, skills, and know-how to turn any group of students into the motivated, well-behaved class you love teaching.




The Courage to Teach


Book Description

"This book is for teachers who have good days and bad -- and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life." - Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction] Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students? In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.




The Assistant Principal 50


Book Description

You're an Assistant Principal. Whatever your status—the sole AP in your school, one of two or more APs in your school, a career AP, an AP aspiring to the principalship—yours is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized positions in education. Positioned between teachers and the principal, you are an instructional leader. However, you are not the leader of the school. Therefore, you must carefully navigate your way to ensure that you thrive in your role without "stepping on the toes" of your principal. In The Assistant Principal 50, award-winning, four-time principal Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions that encompass the breadth and depth of the assistant principalship—from finding your leadership "lane" to thriving and being an asset to your principal. Kafele infuses the book (which also includes guidance and insights for principals and aspiring assistant principals) from beginning to end with personal anecdotes and accounts of both failures and successes from his years as an assistant principal. He arms you with tools and insights that will drive you to view the assistant principalship as critical to the climate and culture of your school as well as to student achievement. You, assistant principal, play a critical role in your school's success. The questions that Kafele asks you to consider will aid you as you hone your leadership skills toward becoming an effective leader in your school.




The Ten-Minute Inservice


Book Description

Quick, easy, specific steps that make a difference in teaching and learning Busy school leaders need an easy-to-apply resource to increase teacher effectiveness quickly and efficiently. This book shows principals and staff developers how to improve teaching school-wide through high-impact inservices lasting only ten minutes—incorporated easily into weekly staff meetings. Written by popular education consultants Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux, this important book offers 40 teacher-tested, mini-workshops that can improve teaching in every classroom. The book covers a range of topics, from behavior challenges and parent engagement to motivating students and making lessons meaningful. Offers school leaders a proven plan to help every teacher improve on a weekly basis by conducting simple 10-minute inservice workshops Offers staff developers, new teacher induction coordinators, mentors, and Professional Learning Communities ideas for effective training sessions Each of the 40 mini-training sessions offered include tips on how to introduce the topic, sample scripts to follow, and implementation activities to ensure lasting learning Whitaker and Breaux are bestselling education authors with a proven track record improving teacher effectiveness This handy resource contains a simple and effective method for improving teacher effectiveness school wide.




The Professor Is In


Book Description

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.




School Leadership that Works


Book Description

Describes a variety of leaders hip responsibilities that have an effect on student achievement.




Ask a Manager


Book Description

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together




The Leader in Me


Book Description

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.




The Intuitive Principal


Book Description

Professional demands on school administrators continue to multiply exponentially. Effective administrators require solid preparation programs, continuing professional development, extensive experience, mentoring, and the support of supervisor and school colleagues. Chapter 1, "Intuitive Ways of Knowing," references research on intuition, including information about levels of intuitive input, and the different stages involved in intuitive explorations. Chapter 2, "Developing Behaviors of Intuitive Leadership," examines intuitive leaders and their abilities to "read" the environment. Some behaviors characteristic of intuitive leaders include recognition of timing, a willingness to act, understanding the importance of shared values, embracing shared leadership, trust, collaboration, and a balance in personal and positional political power. Chapter 3, "Powerful Communication: Reading the Silent Language," demonstrates that communication dexterity is paramount to a leader's success, and provides insight into several forms of communication, including listening, speaking, writing, body language, and silence. Intuitive skills can be applied to practical situations involving the art of communication. Chapter 4, "Intuition and the Paradoxes of Leadership," addresses the major paradoxes of leadership, including the leader-versus-manager orientation, autocrat-versus-indecisive decision-making styles, "facilitator-versus-obstructor," and delegating-versus-leader-centered approaches to solving problems. Leaders must provide opportunities for both themselves and their constituents to become skilled in problem solving and decision making. Leaders must empower the staff to make possible the delegation of authority. Effective leaders should realize the important benefits that result from creating collaborative climates. (Contains 26 references.) (TEJ)