Just Teaching


Book Description

Elevating the essential work of today’s teachers Teaching is life-giving work, essential for the development of thriving humans. It is devastating to hear teachers refer to themselves as "just teachers" as if they are powerless and without status. What if we turned the phrase’s meaning upside-down and claimed its redemptive power? "Just teachers" care for each student. Teachers who are just, cultivate freedom, justice, and flourishing. This book will have readers "just teaching" in the best sense of the phrase! Just Teaching has been written for teachers who want to develop the best ways to serve students based on research on how students learn. This book shows how to use appropriate tools, based on the wisdom of generations of educators, in a focused, sustainable way. Readers will find: evidence-based practices to support student feedback, engagement, and wellbeing (for students and teachers, too) case studies from familiar classroom perspectives useful technology suggestions solutions tools for building an overarching approach to meeting the needs of individual students By addressing feedback, engagement, and well-being in ways that are founded on justice and love for students, Just Teaching supports comprehensive, manageable learning while elevating the essential work of educators.




Just Good Teaching


Book Description

Student learning in school music ensembles is often focused on technical skill development. Give your students broader experience involving multiple music learnings, technical proficiency, cognition, and personal meaning. The Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) model will help you plan instruction for school ensembles that promotes a holistic form of music learning and will allow you to use your creativity, passion, and vision. With model teaching plans and questions for discussion, this book can give you richer, more meaningful challenges and help you provide your students with deeper musical experiences. Sindberg combines the theoretical foundations of CMP with practical applications in a book that's useful for practicing teacher-conductors, scholars, and teacher educators alike.




Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds


Book Description

"While no check-list of attitudes, dispositions, behaviors, or actions can define what thriving teachers look like, the teachers interviewed here give us powerful examples of what it takes to face their profession with courage, their content with enthusiasm, and their students with love." -Sonia Nieto One in four public school students in the U.S. now speaks a language other than English at home, and the number of emergent bilingual and immigrant children in our schools continues to grow daily. What does it mean to be a teacher today, when students are more diverse in language, culture, race, and social class than ever before? What does it take to thrive, when the demands of teaching have never been greater? Sonia Nieto found and interviewed 22 teachers of varying backgrounds and school settings who help answer the question of what effective, culturally responsive teaching looks like in the real world. Their stories of success, failure, frustration and hope will resonate with everyone who has struggled to meet the needs of diverse students in our current sociopolitical context. Nieto explores the common themes that arose throughout the interviews, of teaching with a social justice perspective, the moral dimensions of teaching, advocating for students, and challenging the status quo. She raises a persuasive argument that teaching is an ethical endeavor, that we must honor students' identities and believe in their futures, and that ultimately teaching is an act of love. The stories of Nieto's passionate teachers will inspire and motivate you to find joy in teaching students of diverse backgrounds. Read a sample chapter




Reading Reconsidered


Book Description

TEACH YOUR STUDENTS TO READ WITH PRECISION AND INSIGHT The world we are preparing our students to succeed in is one bound together by words and phrases. Our students learn their literature, history, math, science, or art via a firm foundation of strong reading skills. When we teach students to read with precision, rigor, and insight, we are truly handing over the key to the kingdom. Of all the subjects we teach reading is first among equals. Grounded in advice from effective classrooms nationwide, enhanced with more than 40 video clips, Reading Reconsidered takes you into the trenches with actionable guidance from real-life educators and instructional champions. The authors address the anxiety-inducing world of Common Core State Standards, distilling from those standards four key ideas that help hone teaching practices both generally and in preparation for assessments. This 'Core of the Core' comprises the first half of the book and instructs educators on how to teach students to: read harder texts, 'closely read' texts rigorously and intentionally, read nonfiction more effectively, and write more effectively in direct response to texts. The second half of Reading Reconsidered reinforces these principles, coupling them with the 'fundamentals' of reading instruction—a host of techniques and subject specific tools to reconsider how teachers approach such essential topics as vocabulary, interactive reading, and student autonomy. Reading Reconsidered breaks an overly broad issue into clear, easy-to-implement approaches. Filled with practical tools, including: 44 video clips of exemplar teachers demonstrating the techniques and principles in their classrooms (note: for online access of this content, please visit my.teachlikeachampion.com) Recommended book lists Downloadable tips and templates on key topics like reading nonfiction, vocabulary instruction, and literary terms and definitions. Reading Reconsidered provides the framework necessary for teachers to ensure that students forge futures as lifelong readers.




Make Just One Change


Book Description

The authors of Make Just One Change argue that formulating one’s own questions is “the single most essential skill for learning”—and one that should be taught to all students. They also argue that it should be taught in the simplest way possible. Drawing on twenty years of experience, the authors present the Question Formulation Technique, a concise and powerful protocol that enables learners to produce their own questions, improve their questions, and strategize how to use them. Make Just One Change features the voices and experiences of teachers in classrooms across the country to illustrate the use of the Question Formulation Technique across grade levels and subject areas and with different kinds of learners.




Just Great Teaching


Book Description

'Bursting with fresh ideas, packed with practical tips, filled with wise words, this is an inspiring guide for all teachers.' Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility, University of Exeter and co-author of What Works? 50 tried-and-tested practical ideas to help you tackle the top ten issues in your classroom. Ross Morrison McGill, bestselling author of Mark. Plan. Teach. and Teacher Toolkit, pinpoints the top ten key issues that schools in Great Britain are facing today, and provides strategies, ideas and techniques for how these issues can be tackled most effectively. We often talk about the challenges of teacher recruitment and retention, about new initiatives and political landscapes, but day in, day out, teachers and schools are delivering exceptional teaching and most of it is invisible. Ross uncovers, celebrates, and analyses best practice in teaching. Supported by case studies and research undertaken by Ross in ten primary and secondary schools across Britain, including a pupil referral unit and private, state and grammar schools, as well as explanations from influential educationalists as to why and how these ideas work, Ross explores the issues of marking and assessment, planning, teaching and learning, teacher wellbeing, student mental health, behaviour and exclusions, SEND, curriculum, research-led practice and CPD. With a foreword by Lord Jim Knight and contributions from Priya Lakhani, Andria Zafirakou, Mark Martin, Professor Andy Hargreaves and many more, this book inspires readers to open their eyes to how particular problems can be resolved and how other schools are already doing this effectively. It is packed with ideas and advice for all primary and secondary classroom teachers and school leaders keen to provide the best education they possibly can for our young people today.




Just Schools


Book Description

Just Schools examines the challenges and possibilities for building more equitable forms of collaboration among non-dominant families, communities, and schools. The text explores how equitable collaboration entails ongoing processes that begin with families and communities, transform power, build reciprocity and agency, and foster collective capacity through collective inquiry. These processes offer promising possibilities for improving student learning, transforming educational systems, and developing robust partnerships that build on the resources, expertise, and cultural practices of non-dominant families. Based on empirical research and inquiry-driven practice, this book describes core concepts and provides multiple examples of effective practices. “This is the most compelling work to date on school and community engagement. It will be required reading for all my future classes.” —Muhammad Khalifa, University of Minnesota “Full of practical steps that educators and administrators can and must take to build strong collaborations with families.” —Mark R. Warren, University of Massachusetts Boston “This important publication provides a way forward for educators, families, students and community members to co-create “Just Schools” by honoring, validating, and celebrating each other’s knowledge, skills, power and resources.” —Karen Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education




Don't Just Survive, Thrive


Book Description

Stay inspired and motivated with this ultimate teacher self-care action plan designed to help educators avoid workplace stress and burnout. Any educator will tell you it's no surprise that 50% of teachers leave education within their first five years. Being a teacher is deeply rewarding and inspiring, but keeping that big picture in mind is hard after long days, difficult students, and limited resources. On top of it all, teachers have the added burden of managing an entirely new digital learning environment. But burning out doesn't have to be your only option. Don't Just Survive, Thrive offers hardworking teachers a sustainable blueprint for becoming unshakeable at school with the power of self-care. Through mindfulness, connection, and creative art, you can work toward building a trauma-informed, self-aware strategy that fosters resilience and results in more engaged and effective teaching. Just five minutes a day or more of implementing the practical ideas in this book can result in powerful change. These strategies include: - Ten ways to practice mindfulness during recess duty - Guided journaling to celebrate what’s working in your classroom - Daily routines to keep you in the present moment - Quick practices for self-regulation during a conflict situation - Sentence stems to encourage internal dialogue and positive self-talk Whether you're a special education teacher, paraprofessional, speech pathologist, counselor, or any type of educator, this book offers a guide to becoming not only a social-emotional role model for students but a better, healthier teacher.




These 6 Things


Book Description

Dave Stuart Jr.’s work is centered on a simple belief: all students and teachers can flourish. These 6 Things is all about streamlining your practice so that you’re teaching smarter, not harder, and kids are learning, doing, and flourishing in ELA and content-area classrooms. In this essential resource, teachers will receive: Proven, classroom-tested advice delivered in an approachable, teacher-to-teacher style that builds confidence Practical strategies for streamlining instruction in order to focus on key beliefs and literacy-building activities Solutions and suggestions for the most common teacher and student “hang-ups” Numerous recommendations for deeper reading on key topics




Teaching for a Culturally Diverse and Racially Just World


Book Description

Cultural and ethnic diversity is the reality of our world, and much more so in this age of heightened globalization. Yet, do our ways of doing theological education match with our current reality and hopes for a colorful and just tomorrow? How shall we do theological formation so it helps give birth to a culturally diverse, racially just, and hospitable world? This edited volume gathers the voices of minoritized scholars and their white allies in the profession in response to the above questions. More particularly, this volume gathers the responses of these scholars to the questions: What is the plight of theological education? Who are the teachers? Who are our students? What shall we teach? How shall we teach? How shall we form and lead theological institutions? It is the hope of this volume to contribute to the making of theological education that is hospitably just to difference/s and welcoming of our diverse population, which is our only viable future. When we embody this vision in our daily educational practices, particularly in the training of our future religious leaders, we may help usher in a new, colorful, and just world.