The Battle for Room 314


Book Description

In this insightfully honest and moving memoir about the realities of teaching in an inner-city school, Ed Boland "smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher [and] shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students" (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black). In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them. Freddy runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented. In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students. Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.




The Survival Guide for New Special Education Teachers


Book Description

This book offers practical guidance on such topics as roles and responsibilities, school environment and culture, classroom organization and management, collaboration with other professionals, and individual professional development.




Preparing Effective Special Education Teachers


Book Description

"What tools are in the toolkit of an excellent special educator, and how can teacher preparation programs provide these tools in the most efficient, effective way possible? This practical, clearly written book is grounded in current research and policy as well as the author's extensive experience as a teacher educator. It identifies what special education teachers need to know to work competently with students with a wide variety of learning challenges and disabilities. Chapters present specific guidelines for helping teacher candidates build critical skills for instruction and assessment, get the most out of field placements, and collaborate successfully with other school personnel and with parents. Subject Areas/Keywords: assessments, curriculum, disabilities, exceptional children, field work, IEPs, inclusion, instruction, learning, lessons, professional development, special education, special needs, standards, students, teacher preparation programs, teacher training, teachers, teaching Audience: Teacher educators in special education, graduate students preparing to be teacher educators, and school district personnel who provide staff development for special education teachers"--




Teacher Education and Black Communities


Book Description

The field of education has been and will continue to be essential to the survival and sustainability of the Black community. Unfortunately, over the past five decades, two major trends have become clearly evident in the Black community: (a) the decline of the academic achievement levels of Black students and (b) the disappearance of Black teachers, particularly Black males. Today, of the 3.5 million teachers in America’s classrooms (AACTE, 2010) only 8% are Black teachers, and approximately 2% of these teachers are Black males (NCES, 2010). Over the past few decades, the Black teaching force in the U.S. has dropped significantly (Lewis, 2006; Lewis, Bonner, Byrd, & James, 2008; Milner & Howard, 2004), and this educational crisis shows no signs of ending in the near future. As the population of Black students in K-12 schools in the U. S. continue to rise—currently over 16% of students in America’s schools are Black (NCES, 2010)—there is an urgent need to increase the presence of Black educators. The overall purpose of this edited volume is to stimulate thought and discussion among diverse audiences (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, and educational researchers) who are concerned about the performance of Black students in our nation’s schools, and to provide evidence-based strategies to expand our nation’s pool of Black teachers. To this end, it is our hope that this book will contribute to the teacher education literature and will inform the teacher education policy and practice debate.




The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists


Book Description

The essential handbook for reading teachers, now aligned with the Common Core The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists is the definitive instructional resource for anyone who teaches reading or works in a K-12 English language arts-related field. Newly revised and ready for instant application, this top seller provides up-to-date reading, writing, and language content in more than 240 lists for developing targeted instruction, plus section briefs linking content to research-based teaching practices. This new sixth edition includes a guide that maps the lists to specific Common Core standards for easy lesson planning, and features fifty brand-new lists on: academic and domain-specific vocabulary, foundation skills, rhyming words, second language development, context clues, and more. This edition also includes an expanded writing section that covers registers, signal and transition words, and writers' craft. Brimming with practical examples, key words, teaching ideas, and activities that can be used as-is or adapted to students' needs, these lists are ready to differentiate instruction for an individual student, small-group, or planning multilevel instruction for your whole class. Reading is the center of all school curricula due to recent state and federal initiatives including rigorous standards and new assessments. This book allows to you skip years of curating content and dive right into the classroom armed with smart, relevant, and effective plans. Develop focused learning materials quickly and easily Create unit-specific Common Core aligned lesson plans Link classroom practice to key research in reading, language arts and learning Adapt ready-made ideas to any classroom or level It's more important than ever for students to have access to quality literacy instruction. Timely, up to date, and distinctively smart, The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists should be on every English language arts teacher's desk, librarian's shelf, literacy coach's resource list, and reading professor's radar.




Literacy Teacher Education


Book Description

Few resources exist to give literacy teacher educators a comprehensive view of effective, innovative practices in their field, making this uniquely practical volume an important addition to the literature. Each chapter describes research findings and pedagogical methods, with an emphasis on what teachers really need to know to succeed. Woven into the text are more than 30 detailed activities and assignments to support teacher development, written by outstanding teacher educators. Links to professional teaching standards and the Common Core State Standards are highlighted throughout. Supplemental materials, including forms, checklists, and handouts, can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.




Teachers Schools and Society


Book Description




Teaching Core Practices in Teacher Education


Book Description

In Teaching Core Practices in Teacher Education, Pam Grossman and her colleagues advocate an approach to practice-based teacher education that identifies “core practices” of teaching and supports novice teachers in learning how to enact them competently. Examples of core practices include facilitating whole-class discussion, eliciting student thinking, and maintaining classroom norms. The contributors argue that teacher education needs to do more to help teachers master these professional skills, rather than simply emphasizing content knowledge. Teaching Core Practices in Teacher Education outlines a series of pedagogies that teacher educators can use to help preservice students develop these teaching skills. Pedagogies include representations of practice (ways to show what this skill looks like and break it down into its component parts) and approximations of practice (the ways preservice teachers can try these skills out as they learn). Vignettes throughout the book illustrate how core practices can be incorporated into the teacher education curriculum. The book draws on the work of a consortium of teacher educators from thirteen universities devoted to describing and enacting pedagogies to help novice teachers develop these core practices in support of ambitious and equitable instruction. Their aim is to support teacher educator learning across institutions, content domains, and grade levels. The book also addresses efforts to support teacher learning outside formal teacher education programs. Contributors Chandra L. Alston Andrea Bien Janet Carlson Ashley Cartun Katie A. Danielson Elizabeth A. Davis Christopher G. Pupik Dean Brad Fogo Megan Franke Hala Ghousseini Lightning Peter Jay Sarah Schneider Kavanagh Elham Kazemi Megan Kelley-Petersen Matthew Kloser Sarah McGrew Chauncey Monte-Sano Abby Reisman Melissa A. Scheve Kristine M. Schutz Meghan Shaughnessy Andrea Wells




Dealing with Difficult Teachers


Book Description

This book provides tips and strategies to help school leaders improve, neutralize, or eliminate resistant and negative teachers. Learn how to handle staff members who gossip in the teacher's lounge, consistently say "it won't work" when any new idea is suggested, send an excessive number of student to your office for disciplinary reasons, undermine your efforts toward school improvement, or negatively influence other staff members. Don’t miss the revised and expanded third edition of this best-seller!




Ed School Follies


Book Description

Rita Kramer’s extraordinary ethnography of schools of education opens one’s eyes to many things, including the degree to which equality has driven out achievement in the ideals and practices taught to future teachers. All those concerned about what our children will learn and what tomorrow’s adults will know should read this book.” —James S. Coleman, Professor of Sociology and Education, University of Chicago