The Joy of Teaching


Book Description

Gathering concepts and techniques borrowed from outstanding college professors, The Joy of Teaching provides helpful guidance for new instructors developing and teaching their first college courses. Award-winning professor Peter Filene proposes that teaching should not be like a baseball game in which the instructor pitches ideas to students to see whether they hit or strike out. Ideally, he says, teaching should resemble a game of Frisbee in which the teacher invites students to catch ideas and pass them on. Rather than prescribe any single model for success, Filene lays out the advantages and disadvantages of various pedagogical strategies, inviting new teachers to make choices based on their own personalities, values, and goals. Filene tackles everything from syllabus writing and lecture planning to class discussions, grading, and teacher-student interactions outside the classroom. The book's down-to-earth, accessible style makes it appropriate for new teachers in all fields. Instructors in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences will all welcome its invaluable tips for successful teaching and learning.




Hope and Joy in Education


Book Description

Students, parents, and educators at all levels are increasingly frustrated, demoralized, burned out, and discontented with education and schooling today. At no previous time has it been more necessary to revitalize hope in the promise of education or to reestablish joy in teaching and learning than the current moment. In this timely and inspirational volume, authors from diverse disciplines consider and affirm the many places across curriculum and context where hope and joy are or can be strong and vibrant. Drawing on the life-affirming ideals of renowned education philosopher and school founder Daisaku Ikeda, Hope and Joy in Education will reenergize educational research, theory, and practice. Featuring contributions from such luminaries as Theodorea Berry, Cynthia Dillard, Walter Gershon, Francyne Huckaby, Johnny Lupinacci, and Anita Patterson, this book reminds readers that the classroom is still a magical space, brimming with the brilliant and creative energy of young people. “This is a necessary text at a necessary time if we are to revitalize hope in the promise of education.” —From the Foreword by Cynthia B. Dillard, University of Georgia “A beacon of light toward desirable collective futurities in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and vulnerability.” —Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University “These essays are just what we need in these turbulent, uncertain times: a thoughtful focus on hope and joy as the path to educating for a more just, equitable, relational, and peaceful state of being.” —Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Miami University “This insightful book urges educators to center hope and joy in our work—not by turning away from the despair of the moment, but by fostering dialogue, seeking connection, and always remembering that the true aim of education for teachers and students alike is to become more fully human.” —Gregory Michie, Chicago public school teacher




Teaching for Joy and Justice


Book Description

Presents a collection of essays and practical advice, including lesson plans and activities, to promote writing in all aspects of the curriculum.




Happiness and Education


Book Description

This book explores what we might teach if we take happiness seriously as an aim of education.




Teaching with Joy


Book Description

This edited collection addresses the growing need for ideas and methods conducive to holistic educational practices and aims to encourage more personal growth in students too often distracted by the background noise of war, violence, racism, and environmental deterioration. The contributors are working teachers and professors who have integrated a degree of spirituality into a wide range of classes in both urban and rural settings across the US. This ground breaking collection will provide practical advice about how to implement an ethical and spiritual curriculum while avoiding religious dogmatism.




Joy in Teaching


Book Description

The life of a teacher is complex, and on the best days, you head home knowing that you have positively impacted the lives of your students and in a broader sense potentially bettered the world. Those are the days that you think about when you decide to become a teacher, those are the days they tell you about in college, those are the days you teach for, but those are not all the days. And those other days? Well, they don't get mentioned much, do they? This book is for those days, and sometimes weeks, months, years... when it's hard to see the fruit of the seeds you're planting. It's about developing the resilience to be the best educator in the dimmest of times and becoming the light for others in your field. It takes reflection, planning, and work, but it's all worth it to reclaim the joy in teaching. Joy in Teaching is a book to inspire reflection and to motivate action. This is a book for educators who see the need for a new approach to teaching for their students and themselves. It is for all those who want to know they are not alone when the profession they have dedicated their lives to begins to lose its joy. It is a beacon of light amidst the turbulent turmoil of a profession in which statistics prove has the ability to devour. Nobody decides on a career in education for selfish reasons. Those who choose this path have done so because they care deeply and desire strongly to make a difference. The rewards of teaching are great, but often it is not without sacrifice. Educators face pressures at all levels and each year more and more is added. No one benefits for frustrated or burned-out teachers. However, the benefits from happy, caring, strong teachers are immense. The time is now to reclaim the joy in teaching. Perfect for personal reading and for book studies and professional development, Joy in Teaching clearly lays out methods and tools to boost teacher resilience, reduce job-related stress, and support career retention in schools.




The Joy of Not Knowing


Book Description

The Joy of Not Knowing takes every aspect of the curriculum and of school life and transforms it into a personalised, meaningful and enjoyable experience for all. It offers readers an innovative, theoretical and practical guide to establish a values-based, enquiry-led and challenge-rich learning to learn approach to teaching and learning and to school leadership. This thought-provoking guide provides the reader with a wealth of whole-class, easy-to-implement, malleable, practical ideas and case studies that can be personalised to the vision of each setting, age-group and curriculum. It brings together, as a whole-school framework, the strategies that have been shown to have the greatest impact on practitioner’s professional fulfilment and on children’s life chances, love of learning, intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm for wanting to know. The Joy of Not Knowing enables schools to launch the academic year with a bespoke JONK Learning to Learn Week that enables every student to succeed develops philosophical, creative and critical problem-solving and multi-lingual thinking skills establishes collaborative cultures of thinking, learning and leadership informs practice through active action research incorporates a values-led democratic approach to school life nurtures school-pupil-family-community partnerships Designed for school leaders and practitioners at all levels and across all ages, this practical guide shows how all students can thrive and develop the dispositions of successful lifelong learners and global citizens.




Start with Joy


Book Description

"Start with Joy is a guidebook describing ways teachers can make joy and purpose the center of their teaching and students' literacy learning. Organized by seven pillars, based on the science of happiness, this book offers reasons why students' happiness matters now more than ever, providing lessons, strategies, resources, and children's literature suggestions for how to make sure joy and purpose are at the heart of all instruction"--




Bringing Joy Back Into the Classroom


Book Description

Aimed at motivating teachers to create a welcoming and challenging environment for their students, this professional book is told through a series of anecdotes and stories. It will remind teachers of the intrinsic rewards of teaching (to teach children to love learning) and the powerful role they play as models in this endeavor.




The Mis-Education of Joy


Book Description

The Mis-education of Joy is the story of three lives that intersect one semester in a college classroom and as a result these lives are profoundly changed forever. Joy Hunter is an enthusiastic young girl who shares her faith with everyone. At seventeen, she has always depended on her religious faith to overcome her many obstacles. One of which is a childhood illness that threatened her with no more than fifteen years of life. Upon graduating high school, and being accepted to a local college, Joy for the first time is hopeful about her future. At college, she meets Jim Byrnes, a history professor with a clouded past and a deep rooted contempt for religion. The classroom explodes as Professor Byrnes is challenged by a student named Paul, who the class has labeled "the fanatic," and Joy's faith is put to a new test. Fearing her "light" is growing dim because of her doubt, Joy finds herself searching for answers; but who will she turn to and where is the unseen hand of God that watched over her for 17 years? As Joy, Professor Brynes and Paul seek to separate fact from fiction, they each encounter grace. Told in traditional dialogue form, The Mis-education of Joy is a heartwarming tale that explores the rightsof the believer in a secular society, while showing the role of the believer in a secular society. An insightful story that dares to expose the religious intolerance of our nation; but yet is powerful enough to touch your heart. Highly recommended. -Rev. Dr. Walter L. Davis III It is a true page turner that reminds us that faith persists not because we will it; but because it has a presence and force all of its own. The Miseducation of Joy is long overdue. -Gaelle Affiany, Graduate Student Critics will be challenged and Christians will be encouraged to know that the Word of God is believable and trustworthy. -Myra Rosa, High School Science Teacher