The Joyful Classroom


Book Description

Students learn more—and with more joy—when lessons connect with their lives and interests while challenging them to stretch and grow. In this book, you'll find practical, ready-to-use strategies for creating active and exciting lessons. You'll learn about: Partnering and grouping students for optimum learning Using interactive learning structures such as Maître d' and Swap Meets to support active learning Incorporating acting, drawing, debating, and more into daily lessons while still meeting rigorous learning goals Infusing lessons with choices in what or how to learn to increase students ownership of their learning Incorporating student self-assessment tools to help children monitor and evaluate their own work and identify ways to improve their learning Filled with lesson plans, precise directions for interactive learning structures, planning guides, and more!




The Joyful Teacher


Book Description

"My wish," writes Berit Gordon, "is for there to be more joy and less struggle in a profession where people put in such tremendous effort and do such essential work." No matter what supports you might have in your school or district, you can take charge of your teacher growth and craft your own professional learning journey. The Joyful Teacherprovides a structure to help K-12 teachers across all content areas reflect on their professional development needs, set goals that work, and access practical strategies that will help them meet those goals. While anyone can pop in and pull out strategies for what's needed right now, the goals and strategies are organized in a progression to set teachers up for the most success and highest impact. Coaches and administrators will also find numerous ways to support the teachers they work with and help them feel and be effective. Each chapter begins with a self-assessment checklist to help you find which goal and strategy will be your entry point. Within each strategy you'll find step-by-step instructions, explanations for why and how the strategy works, a detailed "how to," supports and indicators to help you know if the idea is working, and references to help you continue exploring if you want to learn even more. Berit includes grade band suggestions and grade level modifications to help you make the strategy work best for you and your students. There is no "right" place to start and no goal that is more sophisticated or more important than any other. The Joyful Teacherhelps you prioritize what is most essential for what you need and choose goals and strategies that work for you and your students. Where will your journey begin?




Joyful Learning


Book Description

Discover motivating, personalized learning strategies that all of your students will love! Build an active, responsive, and inclusive classroom where every student benefits. Through step-by-step directions, reproducible handouts, classroom-tested examples, and specific guidelines, teachers and teacher teams will discover 60 activities to help you: Quickly and easily modify and adapt design instruction for diverse learners, including students with cultural, language, learning, physical, or sensory differences Transform lectures and whole-class discussions through dynamic, student-centered learning experiences Immerse students in discussion, debate, creative thinking, questioning, teamwork, and collaborative learning Flexibly co-plan and co-teach with a variety of school professionals




Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms


Book Description

The best-selling book of easy-to-implement classroom lessons from the world’s premier educational system—now available in paperback. Finland shocked the world when its fifteen-year-olds scored highest on the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a set of tests evaluating critical-thinking skills in math, science, and reading. That was in 2001; even today, this tiny Nordic nation continues to amaze. How does Finnish education—with short school days, light homework loads, and little standardized testing—produce students who match the PISA scores of other nations with more traditional “work ethic” standards? When Timothy Walker started teaching fifth graders at a Helsinki public school, he began a search for the secrets behind the successes of Finland’s education system. Highlighting specific strategies that support joyful K–12 classrooms and can be integrated with U.S. educational standards, this book, available in paperback for the first time, gathers what he learned and shows how any teacher can implement many of Finland's best practices. A new foreword by the author addresses the urgent questions of teaching, and living, in these pandemic times.




Start with Joy


Book Description

Start with Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness links what we know from the science of happiness with what we know about effective literacy instruction. By examining characters in the books they read, children develop empathy for others and come to understand that we all struggle and we all love. When given a choice about what to write, children express hopes, fears, and reactions to life's experiences. Literacy learning is full of opportunities for students to learn tools to live a happy life. Inside, you'll find: Seven Pillars: The author offers seven pillars that will make classrooms more joyful, engaging, and purposeful--Connection, Choice, Challenge, Play, Story, Discovery, and Movement. Ten Invitations: These ten lessons may be presented at any time of year in the context of any unit and include children's literature suggestions as well as recommended teacher talk to meet children's specific needs. Teaching Tools: Tools and resources that will help students tell their stories and make literacy learning something all students celebrate and cherish. This book honors the adventure that learning is meant to be. By infusing school days with happiness, teachers can support children as they become stronger readers, writers, and thinkers, while also helping them learn that strength comes from challenge, and joy comes from leading a purposeful life.




The Playful Classroom


Book Description

Shows teachers how and why they should bring play into the classroom to make learning meaningful, relevant, and fun. Research studies show that all students—young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural—benefit immensely from classrooms filled with art, creativity, and laughter. Fun, playfulness, creative thinking, and individual expression reinforce positive experiences, which in turn lead to more engaged students, better classroom environments, and successful learning outcomes. Designed for K-12 educators, The Playful Classroom describes how teachers can develop a playful mindset for giving students meaningful, relevant and fun learning experiences. This unique real-world guide provides you with everything you need to incorporate engaging, hands-on lessons and creative activities, regardless of the level and subject you teach. Building on contemporary and seminal works on learning theory and play pedagogy, the authors explain how to inspire your students by bringing play. into your classroom. This clear, user-friendly guide supplies practical strategies and effective solutions for adding the missing ingredients to your classroom culture. Access to the authors’ companion website provides videos, learning experiences, and downloadable teaching and learning resources. Packed with relatable humor, proven methods, and valuable insights, this book enables you to: Provide meaningful experiences that will benefit students both in school and later in life Combine the principles of PLAY with traditional curricula to encourage creative learning Promote trust, collaboration, and growth in students Develop a playful mindset for bringing the arts into every lesson Foster critical thinking in any school community The Playful Classroom: The Power of Play for All Ages is a must-have resource for K-12 educators, higher education professionals, and readers looking for education-based professional development and training resources.




Working Hard, Working Happy


Book Description

In this new book from Routledge and MiddleWeb, author Rita Platt shows how you can create a joyful classroom community in which students are determined to work hard, be resilient, and never give up. She describes how to help build students’ purpose, mastery, and autonomy, so they take ownership over their work and develop a growth mindset for success. Topics covered include: Why joy and effort go hand in hand How to build a classroom climate of caring and achievement Why mastery and goal setting are important How to work with differentiated instruction How to work with cooperative and collaborative learning Why parent-teacher connection is vital How to take your practice of joy and effort beyond the classroom And much more! Each chapter includes practical tools, tips, and ideas that you can use immediately to develop these skills in students, so they find more joy and success in the learning process.




The Synergetic Classroom


Book Description

The Synergetic Classroom: Joyful Teaching and Gentle Discipline. Excellent synthesis of several well-developed models of classroom management, and holds throughout to a core tenet that good teaching and good classroom management are two sides of the same coin.




Joyful Math


Book Description

"This book is about how to create invitations for young children to play with math ideas through art, literacy, and outdoor play. The focus of her book is really on math that occurs OUTSIDE of math time. How can we create space for children to play in our classrooms that builds on their own questions as well as the math they are studying in the curriculum? How can we create a joyful and playful space for math so that children feel like mathematical thinkers with valuable ideas from the very start? How can we create connections between math and children's lives so that they see math as creative and purposeful instead of just learning "school math"?"--




Joyful Fluency


Book Description

"Do you have learners in your classroom who speak English as a second language? Are you are a foreign language teacher? This essential resource links brain research-based teaching practices to language learning presents exciting new ways to encourage second language acquisition in students of all ages. Find hundreds of helpful brain research-based techniques for lesson planning and presentation to promote improved vocabulary retention, better understanding of grammar, and enhanced speaking and writing skills"--Publisher description.