Inspiring Professional Growth


Book Description

You've probably seen it: frustration builds, teacher turnover rises, staff meetings become insufferable, indifference breeds throughout the school. The solution? Exploring new ways to engage and motivate teachers. When your staff feels supported and empowered to grow and develop their skills, your program and the children will thrive. Implementing key concepts--collaboration, individualized professional-development plans, and team goals--can completely revolutionize your program. In this follow-up to her book Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership, author Susan MacDonald, MEd, addresses the need for offering nurturing, encouraging, and empowering professional development. Featuring easy-to-use tips, research-based strategies, leadership vignettes, and interactive and reflective exercises, Inspiring Professional Growth provides leaders with a framework to create a system that supports teachers throughout their careers. Learn how to: Acquire new leadership skills Gain confidence in your leadership role Establish a growth culture Work with and nurture even challenging staff members Cultivate collaboration and collective goal setting Facilitate meaningful professional development Inspiring Professional Growth will guide you to experience firsthand the many benefits, from better child outcomes to increased teacher retention, of creating a nurturing and empowering workplace.




Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership


Book Description

A positive, strengths-based leadership system is the key to transforming the quality of early childhood programs. Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership lays out strategies designed to support program leaders in finding new ways to reduce the levels of stress on themselves and their staff, and move into a unified, engaging system for leading with passion, intention, and purpose. Grounded in current research, the book incorporates decades-old best practices, making the strategies appropriate for leaders of all backgrounds. The book addresses common dilemmas: How do I motivate and inspire teachers? How can I be the most effective in observing and giving nonjudgmental feedback? How can I be more confident in my role as a leader? How can I manage my time more effectively? Author Susan MacDonald's goal is to take leaders past their challenges with a vision of new possibilities so they can ensure a high-quality learning environments, fueled by positive, engaging energy.




The PD Book


Book Description

Develop transformational professional development programs that build and sustain your school community In The PD Book, bestselling author Elena Aguilar and co-author Lori Cohen offer seven habits—and a wealth of practical tools—that help you transform professional development. In this book, you'll learn how to inspire adult learners, the importance of having clear purpose, and how to navigate power dynamics in a group. You'll also learn a new way to plan PD that allows you to attend to details and be a responsive facilitator. The dozens of tips and tricks, anecdotes and research, and tools and resources will enable you to create the optimal conditions for learning. You'll also: Craft effective outcomes for your adult students and design an agenda that aligns with adult learning principles Use storytelling as a tool for effective workshops and trainings Plan backwards from evaluations and outcomes to create powerful and lasting educational experiences Ideal for educational leaders and administrators, professional development facilitators, coaches, and positional leaders in both K-12 and higher education, The PD Book is an incisive resource offering concrete strategies for educators at all levels.




Mindset


Book Description

From the renowned psychologist who introduced the world to “growth mindset” comes this updated edition of the million-copy bestseller—featuring transformative insights into redefining success, building lifelong resilience, and supercharging self-improvement. “Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes “It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.” After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment. In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love—to transform their lives and your own.




Onward


Book Description

A practical framework to avoid burnout and keep great teachers teaching Onward tackles the problem of educator stress, and provides a practical framework for taking the burnout out of teaching. Stress is part of the job, but when 70 percent of teachers quit within their first five years because the stress is making them physically and mentally ill, things have gone too far. Unsurprisingly, these effects are highest in difficult-to-fill positions such as math, science, and foreign languages, and in urban areas and secondary classrooms—places where we need our teachers to be especially motivated and engaged. This book offers a path to resiliency to help teachers weather the storms and bounce back—and work toward banishing the rain for good. This actionable framework gives you concrete steps toward rediscovering yourself, your energy, and your passion for teaching. You’ll learn how a simple shift in mindset can affect your outlook, and how taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally is one of the most important things you can do. The companion workbook helps you put the framework into action, streamlining your way toward renewal and strength. Cultivate resilience with a four-part framework based on 12 key habits Uncover your true self, understand emotions, and use your energy where it counts Adopt a mindful, story-telling approach to communication and community building Keep learning, playing, and creating to create an environment of collective celebration By cultivating resilience in schools, we help ensure that we are working in, teaching in, and leading organizations where every child thrives, and where the potential of every child is recognized and nurtured. Onward provides a step-by-step plan for reigniting that spark.




Professional Development, Reflection and Enquiry


Book Description

′Wow, this book has some inspiring ideas... It comes at a perfect time as schools try to mesh school improvement with performance management, new standards for various career stages and staff development... Well written, with an attractive layout and a consistently clear voice, it draws on wide and up-to-date research and writing from all parts of the United Kingdom... There are no easy answers in this book, but plenty of powerful ideas that might help us ask useful questions about how CPD encourages a commitment to professional and personal growth, and increases self-confidence, job satisfaction and enthusiasm for working with children and colleagues. This is what being a professional is all about′ - Times Educational Supplement, Book of the Week Teaching professionals need to be able to successfully respond to change, and when necessary drive change within schools. To accomplish this, teachers need to be secure in their understanding of their place within the profession and their teaching identity. The focus of this book is upon enabling teachers to explore new ways of working with children, with colleagues and with communities. This book provides teachers working towards Advanced Skills Teacher or Chartered Teacher status, and those on other Continuing Professional Development courses, with an essential text to assist in this process of personal and professional reflection and development planning. The authors focus upon the social, cultural and political aspects of professional development, and explore issues of professional identity.




Motivating & Inspiring Teachers


Book Description

Like the best-selling first edition, this book is filled with strategies to motivate your staff and maintain a high level of energy at your school. This guide will help all educators approach work every day in an enthusiastic, focused, and positive state of mind. This book will help you: -Motivate your faculty with the Friday Focus--a staff memo that works! -Understand the power of praise and how to best utilize it every day -Make sure staff meetings, teacher evaluation, and daily activities raise the energy level in your school -Maximize the holidays, open house nights, and other special events the make your staff feel special




Getting Ahead


Book Description

A leading executive coach pinpoints three vital traits necessary to advance your career In Getting Ahead, one of the top 50 executive coaches in the United States, Joel Garfinkle reveals his signature model for mastering three skills to take your career to the next level: Perception, Visibility, and Influence. The PVI-model of professional advancement will teach you to: (1) Actively promote yourself as an asset and valuable person inside the organization, (2) Increase your visibility to gain others’ recognition and appreciation for your efforts and (3) Become a person of influence who makes key decisions inside the organization. Getting Ahead will put you ahead of the competition to become a known, valued, and desired commodity at your company. For more than two decades, Joel Garfinkle has worked closely with thousands of executives, senior managers, directors, and employees at the world's leading companies, and has authored 300 articles on leadership Offers detailed guidance on how to increase exposure, boost visibility, enhance perceived value for your organization, and ultimately achieve career advancement Explains how to get your name circulating among higher levels of management so others know you, see your results, and acknowledge the impact you bring to the company




Motivating & Inspiring Teachers


Book Description

Like the best-selling first edition, this book is filled with strategies to motivate your staff and maintain a high level of energy at your school. This guide will help all educators approach work every day in an enthusiastic, focused, and positive state of mind. This book will help you: -Motivate your faculty with the Friday Focus--a staff memo that works! -Understand the power of praise and how to best utilize it every day -Make sure staff meetings, teacher evaluation, and daily activities raise the energy level in your school -Maximize the holidays, open house nights, and other special events the make your staff feel special




The Wild Card


Book Description

Experience a Creative Breakthrough in Your Classroom Have you ever wished you were more creative... or that your students were more engaged in your lessons? The Wild Card is your step-by-step guide to experiencing a creative breakthrough in your classroom with your students. Even if you've never painted a portrait or written a poem, you can create unforgettable lessons that help your learners retain content. In this book, Wade and Hope King show you how to draw on your authentic self--your past experiences, personality quirks, interests, hobbies, and strengths--to deliver your content creatively. The seven steps in The Wild Card will give you the knowledge and the confidence to bring creative teaching strategies into your classroom. You'll learn... Why the deck is not stacked against you, no matter what kind of hand you've been dealt Why you should never listen to the Joker How to identify the "Ace up your sleeve" and use it to create classroom magic How to apply the "Rules of Rigor" in order to fuse creativity with learning How to become the Wild Card that changes the game for your students "This book is a teacher wonderland of ideas, inspiration, and mind-blowing magic." --Ron Clark, New York Times bestselling author and cofounder, Ron Clark Academy "Hope and Wade provide powerful, proven, practical steps to discovering the creativity inside of us all." --Kim Bearden, cofounder and executive director, Ron Clark Academy, author of LA Times bestselling Crash Course "Wade and Hope King challenge, equip, and emPOWER you to create lessons that bring light (not dread) to your students' eyes." --Jason David Frank, actor, Power Ranger, and eighth-degree black belt martial artist "These pages are full of real-life stories that will pull you in and challenge you to your core." --Amy Lemons, educator and blogger SetTheStageToEngage.com




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