Anticipate the School You Want


Book Description

The year is 1943. American GIs are pouring into England, bringing with them romance and heartache. An American army unit has set up base outside a small Hampshire town in preparation for the D-Day landings. Lieutenant Jack Webster is focused on preparing his men for battle and has no intention of getting involved with a woman while there is a war to fight. But then he meets Samantha Mitchell, a beautiful English nurse whose life has already been shattered by four long years of war, and almost at once his resolve begins to weaken... Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and its aftermath, A Nightingale Sang is a heart-warming story that celebrates the triumph of love over the separation of war.




Creating the School You Want


Book Description

Educational futuristics_a creative mix of dynamic pedagogy and evolving futuristics_offers KD12 professionals, parents of school-age children, and youngsters alike a new tool for upgrading the learning that significantly shapes our future. This book makes a case for its empowering employ, offers over twenty pragmatic classroom exercises, warns against employment mistakes, calls for a paradigm shift in KD12 education, and details ways to get there from here. Building on a the previous book by the author (Anticipate the School You Want), this new book responds to questions raised by readers of that book and adds ideas from eleven experts. Unique on the shelf of KD12 advocacy material, Creating the School You Want recommends long-overdue attention to tomorrow_to ways of making, studying, assessing, and employing forecasts the better to assure a finer tomorrow.




Principal Matters


Book Description

Leadership is not easy. It requires motivation, action, and courage. Principal Matters is a great resource for motivation and practical strategies for principals or school leaders who want to invest in self-growth that leads to flourishing service, instead of burnout. William D. Parker offers insights from over twenty years of experience as an educator, and over ten years as a school administrator. You are invited to this one-on-one conversation to learn how to better understand your purpose, lead others, influence change, and successfully manage the challenges of school leadership. Whether you are an aspiring principal or leading your own building or district, you will find Principal Matters both inspiring and instructive. One reader called it, "Chicken Soup for the Principal's Soul!" Read ahead for insight into how to lead with courage, action, motivation, and teamwork! Here's some feedback from some others who recommend the book: "Will is a great storyteller, and his use of these connections makes this book easy to read but also memorable. His focus on 'purpose'-going beyond what you do in school-is something that all leaders should really consider if they are going to make a difference in both their professional and personal lives." -George Couros, Principal, founder of ConnectedPrincipals.com, and an Innovative Teaching, Learning and Leadership consultant "Will generously shares experiences from his personal and professional life to remind principals of the big picture as well as the small details that are essential to the success of our school communities...Being a school leader can be lonely work, as the role of principal is only truly understood by those who have served in the position. Mr. Parker has utilized his time occupying the principal's office to develop practical yet inspiring tips for administrators. I'm excited to politely steal many of his great ideas with my own students and staff this school year!" -Rachel Skerritt, Principal of Eastern Senior High School, a D.C. Public School. 2013 Principal Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education "Will writes with passion, conviction and insight. This book will equip you with the tools you'll need to face the frustrations you're sure to encounter as an educator, while enabling to you find renewed purpose and meaning as you influence your students to be the best they can be." -Daniel Wong, author of The Happy Student "This book explains the why of school leadership, not just the how. If you want to understand the right motives for school leadership and the steps to being a successful principal, you should read, Principal Matters by William D. Parker." -Jon Gordon, author of The Energy Bus and Soup This book captures the essence of effective teamwork and leadership. A great read for school administrators!"-Annette Breaux, educator, co-author with Todd Whitaker of The Ten Minute Inservice




Understanding by Design


Book Description

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.




Applied Statistics I


Book Description

Rebecca M. Warner’s bestselling Applied Statistics: From Bivariate Through Multivariate Techniques has been split into two volumes for ease of use over a two-course sequence. Applied Statistics I: Basic Bivariate Techniques, Third Edition is an introductory statistics text based on chapters from the first half of the original book. The author′s contemporary approach reflects current thinking in the field, with its coverage of the "new statistics" and reproducibility in research. Her in-depth presentation of introductory statistics follows a consistent chapter format, includes some simple hand-calculations along with detailed instructions for SPSS, and helps students understand statistics in the context of real-world research through interesting examples. Datasets are provided on an accompanying website. Bundle and Save Applied Statistics I + Applied Statistics II: Basic Bivariate Techniques, Third Edition Bundle Volume I and II ISBN: 978-1-0718-1337-9 An R Companion for Applied Statistics I: Basic Bivariate Techniques + Applied Statistics I Bundle ISBN: 978-1-0718-1325-6
















Methods of Educational and Social Science Research


Book Description

As the new subtitle indicates, the book emphasizes the logic of methods to provide the student a solid basis for future methodology changes, enhancing the integrated approach of the previous edition. Among the author’s many goals are for users to: understand research’s contribution to knowledge building as a social process through which findings become accepted as knowledge; acquire the background to read, analyze, and understand research using a variety of approaches as well as the hallmarks necessary to evaluate each method; and realize that the responsibility for ethical research is fundamentally theirs and that value choices are involved, beginning with the choice of research problem. Updates to the new edition include an extensive example of the use of the computer in the literature search and a new chapter on the reflective researcher. The expanded treatment of qualitative research includes the pros and cons of using software in qualitative analysis. Conceptual analysis, an important concept missing from the second edition, has returned by request because of its widely employed logic in both qualitative and quantitative methods. The author has acknowledged the troublesome nature of the concepts internal validity and external validity and has more clearly defined these important foundational concepts as Internal Integrity and External Generality. Useful tools to facilitate learning include additional reading lists, important terms and concepts, tips on effective research methods and hallmarks of methods, application problems and exercises, a glossary, and an appendix on writing a research proposal. A Web site is available with auxiliary learning enhancements and updates.