Tune Up Your Teaching & Turn On Student Learning


Book Description

Two teaching experts offer methods for maximizing student comprehension in all areas of education—with extensive research and practical examples. All teachers want their students to think, learn, and understand. In this helpful guide, veteran educators Dr. JoAnn Jurchan and Dr. Chuck Downing examine what successful teachers are doing—and not doing—to achieve those goals. Often without realizing it, many teachers provide students ways to complete their assignments with minimal effort or comprehension. The problem is how to avoid the “TMI” trap—because Too Much Information can stifle critical thinking. Tune Up Your Teaching provides clear and detailed methods teachers can use to raise the level of both thinking and learning in their classrooms. Written in a conversational style, Jurchan and Downing use concrete examples in all core areas of education. To clarify critical points, the authors include “He Said She Said” dialogues providing insight into their thought process. Neither a “cookbook” nor a “one size fits all” solution, Tune Up Your Teaching instead describes a research-based process that can be personally tailored by any teacher to her or his situation.




Tune Up Your Teaching and Turn on Student Learning


Book Description

Teachers want their students to think, learn, and understand. Some teachers are more successful than others in achieving those goals. Two veteran educators provide a clear and detailed description of how to help teachers change their methods and raise the level of both thinking and learning in their classrooms.




The Teacher Tune-up


Book Description

In addition to the many tangible benefits this workbook provides individual teachers, it has also been designed to meet the needs of schools and districts that are always looking to purchase effective professional development opportunities for their faculties. Since school districts and principals today also seek evidence of accountability from their teachers for such professional development, the addition of a workbook is the perfect solution to meet those needs.




Teach Smarter


Book Description

Discover new, practical methods for teaching literacy skills in your early childhood classroom. Has teaching early literacy skills become a stumbling block to getting your preschool students kindergarten ready? Break out of the tired “letter of the week” routine and learn how to transform your lessons with fun and effective techniques. Teach Smarter: Literacy Strategies for Early Childhood Teachers will equip teachers to infuse every aspect of their teaching with exciting hands-on literacy teaching methods that engage students and help them build authentic connections with books, so that 100% of their students will have a strong literacy foundation and will be fully prepared for success in kindergarten and beyond. Respected author Vanessa Levin, veteran early childhood educator and author of the “Pre-K Pages” blog, breaks down the research and translates it into realistic, actionable steps you can take to improve your teaching. Features specific examples of teaching techniques and activities that engage students in hands-on, experiential learning during circle time, centers, and small groups. Offers a simple, four-step system for teaching literacy skills, based on the foundational principles of early literacy teaching Demonstrates how to build your confidence in your ability to get 100% of your students ready for kindergarten, long before the end of the school year Understand the problems with traditional literacy teaching and identify gaps in your current teaching practice with this valuable resource.




Tuned in and Fired Up


Book Description

What can teachers do to inspire their students? In this book, Sam Intrator provides detailed portraits of powerful learning episodes in a high school classroom and suggests numerous practical ideas to help teachers cultivate their own seemingly magical learning moments.




Just Ask Us


Book Description

Based on over 1000 nationwide student surveys, these 10 deep engagement strategies help you implement achievement-based cooperative learning. Includes video and a survey sample.




From Master Teacher to Master Learner


Book Description

From Master Teacher to Master Learner by Will Richardson explores the fact that, although the world has seen great technological transformations, very little real school change has taken place. Creating true digital classrooms requires schools to desert their traditional practices in order to make better use of 21st century structures and technologies. This practical guide shows educators how to promote learning over knowing, and invites them to rethink the ways school can best prepare today's students for the future. Educators will: Contemplate antiquated education premises that educators need to abandon and unlearn to fit the modern world, Explore the differences between a culture of teaching and a culture of learning and how learning cultures diverge, Gain key starting points for creating atmospheres that encourage powerful learning, Reflect on the web literacies that teachers may have trouble developing, Review how students and educators can best use web tools, such as social medial and blogs, and in which areas these applications are the most helpful for educational purposes, Solutions Series Solutions for Digital Learner-Centered Classrooms offers K-12 educators easy-to-implement, recommendations on digital classrooms. In a short, reader-friendly format, these how-to guides equip practitioners with the digital tools they need to engage students and transport their district, school, or classroom into the 21st century.




Flip Your Classroom


Book Description

Learn what a flipped classroom is and why it works, and get the information you need to flip a classroom. You’ll also learn the flipped mastery model, where students learn at their own pace, furthering opportunities for personalized education. This simple concept is easily replicable in any classroom, doesn’t cost much to implement, and helps foster self-directed learning. Once you flip, you won’t want to go back!




The Schools Our Children Deserve


Book Description

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.




Understanding by Design


Book Description

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.