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When Teaching Gets Tough offers practical strategies for teachers who need help sustaining their energy and enthusiasm for teaching. Written with a deep understanding of the issues that teachers face every day, the book also includes sections for administrators who want to help teachers stay at the top of their game.
Too many idealistic, gifted, and conscientious educators are leaving the teaching profession after just a few years in our nation’s classrooms. They feel alone, frustrated and disillusioned by the bureaucracy, stress, and challenges of modern public education. Teaching is Tough! A Practical Guide to Classroom Success is designed to help these novice teachers during their critical early years in overcoming the many daily difficulties and obstacles that they routinely face. Written by several of Virginia’s finest and most experienced educators, the book contains a series of easy-to-read informative essays which provide realistic advice and guidance that can be immediately applied and implemented in the classroom. The book is also supported by a constantly updated website (http:www.teachingistough.com) which, when used in conjunction with the text, provides immediate access to suggested resources and materials. Teaching is Tough! is an invaluable resource for all novice and mentor teachers. It will help educators to become more effective by improving their instruction as well as their interaction with parents and students.
Is great teaching a gift that only a few of us are born with, or is it a skill that can be learned? In Never Work Harder Than Your Students, Robyn Jackson makes a radical assertion: Any teacher can become a master teacher by developing a master teacher mindset. The master teacher mindset can be achieved by rigorously applying seven principles to your teaching until they become your automatic response to students in the classroom. The more you practice these seven principles, the more you begin to think like a master teacher: 1. Start where your students are. 2. Know where your students are going. 3. Expect to get your students to their goal. 4. Support your students along the way. 5. Use feedback to help you and your students get better. 6. Focus on quality rather than quantity. 7. Never work harder than your students. Using these principles, Jackson shows you how to become a master teacher no matter where you are in your practice. Each chapter provides a detailed explanation of one of the mastery principles, the steps you need to take to apply them to your own practice, and suggestions for how you can begin practicing the principle in your classroom right away. Jackson offers stories from her own teaching practice, as well as from other teachers she has helped, to show you how each principle works. Teaching is a hard job, but using Jackson’s principles will help you and your students reap the rich rewards of that hard work.
This book provides tips and strategies to help school leaders improve, neutralize, or eliminate resistant and negative teachers. Learn how to handle staff members who gossip in the teacher's lounge, consistently say "it won't work" when any new idea is suggested, send an excessive number of student to your office for disciplinary reasons, undermine your efforts toward school improvement, or negatively influence other staff members. Don’t miss the revised and expanded third edition of this best-seller!
As every educator knows all too well, teaching can be an incredibly challenging profession. Whether the challenges are rooted in district policies, colleagues’ actions, or student behaviors, the effect on teachers is always the same: frustrating and demoralizing. In The Resilient Teacher, Allen Mendler offers simple but effective strategies for dealing with a variety of thorny situations that most teachers will face in their careers. These strategies will help you to: communicate tactfully but forthrightly with administrators, colleagues, and students whose actions interfere with your ability to do your job properly; confidently and convincingly express your thoughts and expectations to all stakeholders; and increase your influence with coworkers, students, and parents. All teachers face roadblocks in their jobs that can keep them from doing what’s best for students. In these pages, you will find the solutions you need to resolve common problems quickly and neatly--and to bounce back stronger than ever.
Diana Johnson has more than twenty years of experience as a homeschool parent and nearly fifteen years of experience managing the homeschool department at a Christian bookstore. When Homeschooling Gets Tough is largely based on her direct interaction with a broad range of customers who were in need of support. Many homeschoolers struggle with feelings of inadequacy and failure when their homeschool situation is not picture-perfect. In this timely book, Diana offers challenged homeschooling parents practical advice mixed with spiritual insight about (1) controlling the curriculum quest, (2) defining basic educational objectives for different age groups, (3) streamlining commitments, and (4) developing realistic goals and schedules. Homeschooling can be tough at times, but here's a book to help make it easier.
In this revised and updated 4th edition, Discipline with Dignity provides in-depth guidance for implementing a proven approach to classroom management that can help students make better choices and teachers be more effective. Emphasizing the importance of mutual respect and self-control, the authors offer specific strategies and techniques for building strong relationships with disruptive students and countering the toxic social circumstances that affect many of them, including dysfunctional families, gangs, and poverty. Educators at all levels can learn * The difference between formal and informal discipline systems and when to use each. * The role of values, rules, and consequences. * How to address the underlying causes of discipline problems that occur both in and out of school. * What teachers can do to defuse or prevent classroom disruptions and disrespectful behavior without removing students from the classroom. * Why traditional approaches such as threats, punishments, and rewards are ineffective--and what to do instead. * How to use relevance, teacher enthusiasm, choice, and other elements of curriculum and instruction to motivate students. * How to reduce both teacher and student stress that can trigger power struggles. With dozens of specific examples of student-teacher interactions, Discipline with Dignity illustrates what you can do--and not do--to make the classroom a place where students learn and teachers maintain control in a nonconfrontational way. The goal is success for all, in schools that thrive.
All students can benefit from a deeper understanding of how our language works. Playing With Language shows elementary school educators (K–6) how to think about, talk about, and manipulate language out of context. This cognitive skill set, known as metalinguistic awareness, is an important component of reading ability. This practical guide scales activities and teaching suggestions to students’ age, linguistic background, and individual strengths and challenges. The authors offer suggestions for introducing metalinguistic concepts like phonological, semantic, and syntactic awareness with fun activities like games, songs, rhymes, and riddles. The book also identifies and explains research that supports using metalinguistic teaching with diverse students and English learners to build skills in multiple areas, including reading comprehension and decoding ability. Teachers will find that students introduced to language play become continually engaged with language, finding real-world examples with wonder and delight. Book Features: Compiles information on all forms of metalinguistic awareness (MA), spanning different linguistic units and developmental reading levels.Contains personal anecdotes and classroom-testedÊinstructional recommendations for encouraging language play. Presents research on how individual language skills affect reading ability.Offers suggestions for full lesson plans with small groups or whole classes of children, as well as ideas for infusing MA activities into everyday exchanges and book choices.
