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In Culturize, Jimmy Casas shares insights into what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs, such as kindness, honesty, and compassion. His stories reveal how these "soft skills" can be honed while meeting and exceeding academic standards of twenty-first-century learning.
This Action Guide is a tool to accompany Culturize: Every Student. Every Day. Whatever It Takes. by Jimmy Casas. A practical book to help all educators understand what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody human traits such as kindness, compassion, and honesty, Culturize begins with the premise that by cultivating a collective professional mindset that centers on championing for all students, expecting excellence in all that we do, carrying the banner for our students, our school, and each other, and serving as merchants of hope for our students and each other, educators can shift schools away from a culture that runs on compliance, blame, and fear to a culture based on investment and caring. Jimmy shares inspiration, stories, and strategies to help overcome the negative undercurrents that exist in school cultures today and explains how educators in all roles can reach students who seem "unreachable," connect with students who are disengaged and at risk of dropping out, ensure that students feel cared for and empowered, and create environments in which all students are challenged and inspired to be their very best. His insights into navigating the complexities of working in schools is an invaluable resource for all educators who desire to make a difference in the lives of the students and parents they serve as well as the colleagues with whom they serve. This Action Guide is a road map to taking action steps based on the ideas found in Culturize so that our schools can best serve the students of today.
Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas are widely acclaimed experts on teaching and leading and are pioneers in the education twitterverse, and now they are sharing their best practices! In What Connected Educators Do Differently, they show how being a connected educator—by using social media to connect with peers across the country and even across the globe—will greatly enhance your own learning and your success in a school or classroom. You’ll find out how to create a personal and professional learning network to share resources and ideas, gain support, and make an impact on others. By customizing your professional development in this way, you’ll be able to learn what you want, how you want, when you want. Best of all, you’ll become energized and inspired by all the great ideas out there and how you can contribute, benefiting both you and your students. Whether you are a teacher or school leader, you will come away from this book with step-by-step advice and fresh ideas to try immediately. Being a connected educator has never been easier or more important than it is right now!
In Handle with Care, authors Jimmy Casas and Joy Kelly examine a variety of difficult school-related situations, both in and out of the classroom. In schools across the country, educators at every level are faced with delicate, challenging situations that require leadership skills and insights in order to produce favorable outcomes for students and staff. This book provides educators with insights into a variety of difficult-to-handle situations and scenarios that educators can relate to and may have experienced themselves. Well-intentioned, but inadequate, human responses are identified and practical ideas for handling delicate situations with dignity and respect are provided. This book will help educators develop tools and techniques to help students and staff emerge from missteps more self-aware, feeling valued, and able to move forward. In this book, you will learn: What it takes to cultivate a school culture in which every student and staff member feels seen and heard.How to treat student and staff missteps as opportunities for teaching and learning based on dignity and respect.How to build leadership capacity and Culturize school pride.The value of student-centered classrooms and school-related programs.
Technology keeps changing, and cyberbullying is as prominent as ever. It’s time to up your game. As social media apps, gaming platforms, and other online environments have given present more opportunities to adolescents to cause harm to their peers, the proportion of youth who’ve experienced cyberbullying continues to rise. This bestselling guide from the co-directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center provides the tools you need today to keep your students safe in this increasingly connected world. Now in its third edition, this essential resource draws on the cyberbullying experiences of thousands of students and incorporates new evidence-based strategies focused on school climate, empathy, resilience, digital citizenship, media literacy, counterspeech, and student-led initiatives. Other updates include: An overview of popular online environments you should know about Techniques for how best to work with parents, student groups, law enforcement, and social media platforms Deeper exploration of the emotional and psychological consequences of cyberbullying A nuanced focus on identity-based (e.g., gender, race, religion, sexual orientation) victimization Summaries of the latest legal rulings and what they mean for your school Featuring solutions that are actionable, relevant, current, and data-driven, this guide will equip you to protect students from online harm.
This Action Guide is a tool to accompany Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to School Every Day by Jimmy Casas. A practical book to help all educators rediscover themselves in order to bring their best self to school every day, Live Your Excellence begins with the premise that by cultivating a mindset that centers on investing in students, colleagues, and-most of all-themselves, educators can shift schools away from a culture that runs on compliance, blame, and fear to a culture based on investment and caring. Jimmy shares inspiration, stories, and strategies to help overcome the negative undercurrents that exist in school cultures today and explains how educators of all stripes can embrace an investment-based approach to everything they do, from collaborative leadership, to working with challenging students, to feelings of inadequacy. His insights into navigating the complexities of working in schools is an invaluable resource for all educators who desire-more than anything-to rediscover their own excellence and make a difference. This Action Guide is just that: a road map to taking action steps based on the ideas found in Live Your Excellence. This Action Guide is intended to take the contents from Live Your Excellence and organize them into such a way that provokes discussion, reflection, and--most of all--action. It is written in a way that allows participants to read and understand critical concepts while also applying these in the classrooms and schools in which they serve.
Experience a Creative Breakthrough in Your Classroom Have you ever wished you were more creative... or that your students were more engaged in your lessons? The Wild Card is your step-by-step guide to experiencing a creative breakthrough in your classroom with your students. Even if you've never painted a portrait or written a poem, you can create unforgettable lessons that help your learners retain content. In this book, Wade and Hope King show you how to draw on your authentic self--your past experiences, personality quirks, interests, hobbies, and strengths--to deliver your content creatively. The seven steps in The Wild Card will give you the knowledge and the confidence to bring creative teaching strategies into your classroom. You'll learn... Why the deck is not stacked against you, no matter what kind of hand you've been dealt Why you should never listen to the Joker How to identify the "Ace up your sleeve" and use it to create classroom magic How to apply the "Rules of Rigor" in order to fuse creativity with learning How to become the Wild Card that changes the game for your students "This book is a teacher wonderland of ideas, inspiration, and mind-blowing magic." --Ron Clark, New York Times bestselling author and cofounder, Ron Clark Academy "Hope and Wade provide powerful, proven, practical steps to discovering the creativity inside of us all." --Kim Bearden, cofounder and executive director, Ron Clark Academy, author of LA Times bestselling Crash Course "Wade and Hope King challenge, equip, and emPOWER you to create lessons that bring light (not dread) to your students' eyes." --Jason David Frank, actor, Power Ranger, and eighth-degree black belt martial artist "These pages are full of real-life stories that will pull you in and challenge you to your core." --Amy Lemons, educator and blogger SetTheStageToEngage.com
A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER As featured in the New York Post and as seen on Tucker Carlson, Fox and Friends, Martha MacCallum, and more. Voted by Book Authority as one of the ten best social policy books of all time! The Parkland school shooting was the most avoidable mass murder in American history. And the policies that made it inevitable are being forced into public schools across America. “After my sister Meadow was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the media obsessed for months about the type of rifle the killer used. It was all clickbait and politics, not answers or justice. That wasn’t good enough for us. My dad is a real tough guy, but Meadow had him wrapped around her little finger. He would do anything she wanted, and she would want him to find every answer so that this never happens again. My dad teamed up with one of America’s leading education experts to launch his own investigation. We found the answers to the questions the media refused to ask. Questions about school safety that go far beyond the national gun debate. And the answers to those questions matter for parents, teachers, and schoolchildren nationwide. If one single adult in the Broward County school district had made one responsible decision about the Parkland shooter, then my sister would still be alive. But every bad decision they made makes total sense once you understand the district’s politically correct policies, which started here in Broward and have spread to thousands of schools across America.” —Hunter Pollack, “Foreword”
Children enter the world curiously hard-wired for creativity and imagination. After a few short years of school, something drastically changes for them. Why? There is an unmistakable and deliberate attempt to control the learning of young people who find themselves sitting in our schools. The industrial model of schooling has taken its toll and victims without remorse. It programs curious young minds to become helpless, dependent, and compliant. It is manipulation and malpractice, but few seem to notice or care. After years of observing and participating in some of these questionable practices herself, Evonne decided it was time to tell the truth about schools. With a credible and strong voice, Evonne tackles the “sacred school rituals” that are rarely questioned and widely accepted as normal. She transparently leads the reader through firmly-held and often faulty assumptions about schooling practices. She offers common sense solutions that challenge us to re-imagine how we do school in this country. With strong conviction, passion, and a call to action, she encourages us to hear and listen to the voices of our children who are crying out for the freedom to learn.
