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.




Creating the School Family


Book Description

Incorporates everything you need to successfully create and teach 12 classroom structures, integrating social-emotional well-being into your existing curriculum.




Designing Your Life


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.




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.




School, Family, and Community Partnerships


Book Description

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.




The Schools Our Children Deserve


Book Description

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.




Doing School


Book Description

This book offers a highly revealing and troubling view of today's high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Denise Pope, veteran teacher and curriculum expert, follows five motivated and successful students through a school year, closely shadowing them and engaging them in lengthy reflections on their school experiences. What emerges is a double-sided picture of school success. On the one hand, these students work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honours, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values and manipulate the system by scheming, lying, and cheating. In short, they do school, that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community. The words and actions of these five students - two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds - underscore the frustrations of being caught in a grade trap that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today's schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the success that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?




Starting School


Book Description

From first day nerves to finding your peg, this reassuring read is full of humour and fun for children and parents alike. A classic picture book which offers advice and enjoyment for the whole family before school starts.




Building a Curious School


Book Description

Unleash the power of curiosity and the joy of learning! Curiosity is hardwired in all of us, but the longer students stay in school, the less curious they become. Why is that? Building a Curious School uncovers the many subtle ways in which formal education seems to hinder our natural curiosity and reveals how rekindling a sense of wonder in schools can prime the pump for learning, foster a culture of engagement, grow better educational leaders, and prepare students and staff to lead more fulfilling lives. Grounded in research, this engaging examination of curiosity shows educators how to intentionally cultivate inquisitiveness and wonder in teaching and learning. It includes · A plethora of activities, ideas, and tips to encourage curiosity · Compelling examples of curiosity at work in schools, businesses, and communities · Tools for supporting curiosity in ways that spark meaningful conversations and promote empathy, equity, and social-emotional learning If you′ve ever wondered anything, really—just out of curiosity—then you′ve got what it takes to lead your school to restored curiosity and your students to wellbeing and success. "This book lays out a vision as to the way schools can and should be approached to stimulate curiosity as a natural part of the teaching/learning process." --Robert J. Marzano, Cofounder and CAO, Marzano Resources, Cofounder and Strategic Advisor, Marzano Research "A powerful ‘must-read’ for all educators who want learning not only to be lively but also impactful and meaningful for every student." --Lyn Sharratt, Internship Supervisor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada




Prepared


Book Description

A blueprint for how parents can stop worrying about their children’s future and start helping them prepare for it, from the cofounder and CEO of one of America’s most innovative public-school networks “A treasure trove of deeply practical wisdom that accords with everything I know about how children thrive.”—Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit In 2003, Diane Tavenner cofounded the first school in what would soon become one of America’s most innovative public-school networks. Summit Public Schools has since won national recognition for its exceptional outcomes: Ninety-nine percent of students are accepted to a four-year college, and they graduate from college at twice the national average. But in a radical departure from the environments created by the college admissions arms race, Summit students aren’t focused on competing with their classmates for rankings or test scores. Instead, students spend their days solving real-world problems and developing the skills of self-direction, collaboration, and reflection, all of which prepare them to succeed in college, thrive in today’s workplace, and lead a secure and fulfilled life. Through personal stories and hard-earned lessons from Summit’s exceptional team of educators and diverse students, Tavenner shares the learning philosophies underlying the Summit model and offers a blueprint for any parent who wants to stop worrying about their children’s future—and start helping them prepare for it. At a time when many students are struggling to regain educational and developmental ground lost to the disruptions of the pandemic, Prepared is more urgent and necessary than ever.