Teaching in Challenging Circumstances


Book Description

This book is an essential resource for teachers who work in challenging circumstances, which might include formal education systems in the developing or developed world and informal or non-formal teaching in areas with growing numbers of refugees or displaced people. It draws on academic and professional research to provide practical advice that will help teachers address concerns including teaching large classes, working with limited resources and supporting learners who have experienced interrupted education and who may be suffering from trauma. It offers suggestions for creating a positive learning environment and implementing effective teaching practice, and discusses the importance of resilience and wellbeing. Each chapter contains key takeaways, relevant case studies and classroom-ready teaching tips and the book also includes opportunities for teachers to reflect on their own knowledge and experience and develop their resilience and ability.




Learning That Transfers


Book Description

"It is a pleasure to have a full length treatise on this most important topic, and may this focus on transfer become much more debated, taught, and valued in our schools." - John Hattie Teach students to use their learning to unlock new situations. How do you prepare your students for a future that you can’t see? And how do you do it without exhausting yourself? Teachers need a framework that allows them to keep pace with our rapidly changing world without having to overhaul everything they do. Learning That Transfers empowers teachers and curriculum designers alike to harness the critical concepts of traditional disciplines while building students’ capacity to navigate, interpret, and transfer their learning to solve novel and complex modern problems. Using a backwards design approach, this hands-on guide walks teachers step-by-step through the process of identifying curricular goals, establishing assessment targets, and planning curriculum and instruction that facilitates the transfer of learning to new and challenging situations. Key features include Thinking prompts to spur reflection and inform curricular planning and design. Next-day strategies that offer tips for practical, immediate action in the classroom. Design steps that outline critical moments in creating curriculum for learning that transfers. Links to case studies, discipline-specific examples, and podcast interviews with educators. A companion website that hosts templates, planning guides, and flexible options for adapting current curriculum documents. Using a framework that combines standards and the best available research on how we learn, design curriculum and instruction that prepares your students to meet the challenges of an uncertain future, while addressing the unique needs of your school community.




Teaching and Its Predicaments


Book Description

Since Socrates, teaching has been a difficult and even dangerous profession. Why is teaching such hard work? In this provocative, witty, sometimes rueful book, Cohen writes about the predicaments that teachers face and explores what responsible teaching can be. He focuses on the kind of mind reading teaching demands and the resources it requires.




Troublemakers


Book Description

A radical educator's paradigm-shifting inquiry into the accepted, normal demands of school, as illuminated by moving portraits of four young "problem children" In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers," challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small. Through delicately crafted portraits of these memorable children—Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus—Troublemakers allows us to see school through the eyes of those who know firsthand what it means to be labeled a problem. From Zora's proud individuality to Marcus's open willfulness, from Sean's struggle with authority to Lucas's tenacious imagination, comes profound insight—for educators and parents alike—into how schools engender, exclude, and then try to erase trouble, right along with the young people accused of making it. And although the harsh disciplining of adolescent behavior has been called out as part of a school-to-prison pipeline, the children we meet in these pages demonstrate how a child's path to excessive punishment and exclusion in fact begins at a much younger age. Shalaby's empathetic, discerning, and elegant prose gives us a deeply textured look at what noncompliance signals about the environments we require students to adapt to in our schools. Both urgent and timely, this paradigm-shifting book challenges our typical expectations for young children and with principled affection reveals how these demands—despite good intentions—work to undermine the pursuit of a free and just society.




Teaching What You Don’t Know


Book Description

In this practical and funny book, an experienced teaching consultant offers many creative strategies for dealing with typical problems. Original, useful, and hopeful, this book reminds you that teaching what you don’t know, to students whom you may not understand, is not just a job. It’s an adventure.




OOPS...I'm a Teacher


Book Description

Teaching: A Job with No Accurate Job Description. The federal government, state education departments, university professors, and "experts" all have plenty of ideas and fix-it schemes for public education. Unfortunately, none of those people know what it's like to actually be a teacher. After 33 years in public education, Dr. Wilson (Bud) Frampton does know what it's like. He spent 15 years in the pressure-cooker environment of middle school education, and an additional 18 years in the even more crucial testing ground of high school education. When it comes to the ups and downs of daily life with hormonal adolescents, Dr. Frampton is a genuine expert. Oops, I'm a Teacher is a memoir about the antics and actions of teaching, a candid look from the trenches, illuminated by anecdotes of entertaining and challenging situations, all told with unflinching realism. It is a genuine look at the environment, obstacles, and issues that permeate the lives of teachers, which are rarely addressed. Oops, I'm a Teacher is also an object lesson in how a non-traditional pathway into secondary education, with military and business experience as a foundation, created a methodology allowing Dr. Frampton to transform ordinary classroom experience into something extraordinary. Dr. Frampton challenges the praise and criticism modern education receives, suggesting that the real issues are seldom seen or discussed beyond school walls. Anyone who has spent time in the school system will recognize the memories unfolding within these pages - and for those who want to learn what education is really about, this eye-opening memoir will provide food for thought. Oops, I'm a Teacher educates, entertains, and gives priceless insight into an important job that most people don't know enough about.




Back to School


Book Description

"Shines a light on institutions that are teaching students, young and old, how to rebuild our economy and put America back to work" (President Bill Clinton). It's a statistic that's sure to surprise: Close to forty-five percent of postsecondary students in the United States today did not enroll in college directly out of high school, and many attend only part-time. Following a tradition of self-improvement as old as the Republic, the "nontraditional" college student is becoming the norm. Back to School is the first book to look at the schools that serve a growing population of "second-chancers," exploring what higher education--in the fullest sense of the term--can offer our rapidly changing society and why it is so critical to support the institutions that make it possible for millions of Americans to better their lot in life. In the anecdotal style of his bestselling Possible Lives, Mike Rose crafts rich and moving vignettes of people in tough circumstances who find their way, who get a second . . . or third . . . or even fourth chance, and who, in a surprising number of cases, reinvent themselves as educated, engaged citizens. Rose reminds us that our nation's economic and civic future rests heavily on the health of the institutions that serve millions of everyday people--not simply the top twenty universities listed in U.S. News and World Report--and paints a vivid picture of the community colleges and adult education programs that give so many a shot at reaching their aspirations. "Thoughtful and surprising." --The Washington Post "Inspiring stories of older Americans attending secondary schools." --Kirkus Reviews




Quick Answers for Busy Teachers


Book Description

Deftly handle the sixty most common problems classroom teachers face Quick Answers for Busy Teachers presents some of the most common challenges teachers encounter in the classroom, and provides expert help toward solving those problems. This easy-to-read guide is organized into short, discreet chapters, making it an ideal quick reference for on-the-spot answers, with practical advice and concise, actionable solutions. Readers will develop systems for dealing with issues that repeatedly crop up, from handling the out-of-control class to falling out of love with the job. The book offers innovative methods and techniques that improve student achievement and behavior while minimizing stress on the teacher. Recover from challenging situations with parents, students, coworkers, or administrators, implement a system that keeps those challenges from happening again, and learn to relax and enjoy this richly rewarding profession. Teaching is difficult. Educators must grapple with a roomful of diverse students, an evolving curriculum, massive organization of books, papers, and supplies, and ever-changing technology. They must deal with challenges from uninvolved parents, overinvolved parents, administrators, and fellow educators. This book helps teachers avoid some of the frustration by providing solutions for the sixty most common challenges teachers face. Deal with the student pushing your buttons, and get that student actively engaged in meaningful learning Keep students on task, and deal effectively with poor test performance Speak your mind at faculty meetings Deal with negative coworkers effectively Handle problem parents without embarrassing students or sacrificing professionalism As a teacher, igniting young minds is only a small part of the battle – it's usually everything else that makes teachers occasionally reconsider their career choice. With solutions and systems in place ahead of time, readers can handle challenges swiftly and skillfully with Quick Answers for Busy Teachers.




Inside Teaching


Book Description

Reform the schools, improve teaching: these battle cries of American education have been echoing for twenty years. So why does teaching change so little? Arguing that too many would-be reformers know nothing about the conflicting demands of teaching, Mary Kennedy takes us into the controlled commotion of the classroom, revealing how painstakingly teachers plan their lessons, and how many different ways things go awry. Teachers try simultaneously to keep track of materials, time, students, and ideas. In their effort to hold all of these things together, they can inadvertently quash students' enthusiasm and miss valuable teachable moments. Kennedy argues that pedagogical reform proposals that do not acknowledge all of the things teachers need to do are bound to fail. If reformers want students to learn, they must address all of the problems teachers face, not just those that interest them.




I’m Already Professionally Developed


Book Description

Eddie Brown found himself in a spot most teachers know all too well: Some days he loved his job, and other days he hated it. Teaching gave him money to take care of his family and a sense of fulfillment. But the culture, the work, the bureaucracy, and the stress wore him out. He walked a thin line between inspiration and despair. Each new school year, he’d give his relationship with academia another try, rolling the dice and praying to avoid a breakup. Things improved when he started coping with his struggles by engaging with them through comedy, joining the Teachers Only Comedy Tour. He went from performing on local stages in Houston in front of a few dozen people to telling jokes in major arenas and theaters across the country. From Charlotte to New York City, Dallas to Biloxi, Baton Rouge to Seattle, Montgomery to Denver, and countless other cities across America, tens of thousands of supportive fans have welcomed him with open arms, loud cheers, and contagious laughter. Join the author as he shares the struggles of what it means to be a teacher and celebrates the significance of mentoring, educating, and encouraging students.