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Draw on and develop the skills of your own faculty to provide effective, job-embedded professional development (PD) that is based on proven strategies and cost-effective PD models.
Effective facilitation is complex What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time. This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides: • An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise • Easy-to-use one-page summaries of "Deliberate Acts of Facilitation" • Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.
For sustained success, educators must commit to their own lifelong improvement. A clear correlation exists between level of focus on teacher professional development (PD) and student success. In this book, John Murray identifies the characteristics of effective professional learning, detailing eight strategies for planning, and executing, and evaluating PD programs. Content includes: The proven “backward” approach to articulating the goals of your PD program Descriptions of innovative and effective designs for professional learning such as Lesson Study and Instructional Rounds Powerful approaches to designing and implementing online PD
Build transformational leadership using social media! Close the gap of knowledge and experience between educators and learn how you really can find the time to connect with other leaders using social media. This highly instructive and conversational guide makes it easy. Filled with real-world experiences from leaders all over the country, you’ll build balanced and effective leadership skills, grow a network of support, and model your vision for a thriving community of learners. Includes a handy start-up guide to help busy principals: Connect virtually with K-12 leaders Model continuous learning Find solutions using Twitter, Google Hangouts, and more
Are you ready to plan your best lessons ever? With so many demands and so much content available for teachers, we need to put a higher value on an often-overlooked skill: planning learning experiences that will both engage and inspire our students, by design, over time. Planning Powerful Instruction is your go-to guide for transforming student outcomes through stellar instructional planning. Its seven-step framework—the EMPOWER model—gives you techniques proven to help students develop true insight and understanding. You’ll have at your fingertips: the real reasons why students engage—and what you must do to ensure they do a framework to help you create, plan, and teach the most effective units and lessons in any subject area more than 50 actionable strategies to incorporate right away suggestions for tailoring units for a wide range of learners downloadable, ready-to-go tools for planning and teaching Whether you are a classroom teacher, an instructional leader, or a pre-service teacher, Planning Powerful Instruction will forever change the way you think about how you teach and the unique value you bring to your learners.
Develop transformational professional development programs that build and sustain your school community In The PD Book, bestselling author Elena Aguilar and co-author Lori Cohen offer seven habits—and a wealth of practical tools—that help you transform professional development. In this book, you'll learn how to inspire adult learners, the importance of having clear purpose, and how to navigate power dynamics in a group. You'll also learn a new way to plan PD that allows you to attend to details and be a responsive facilitator. The dozens of tips and tricks, anecdotes and research, and tools and resources will enable you to create the optimal conditions for learning. You'll also: Craft effective outcomes for your adult students and design an agenda that aligns with adult learning principles Use storytelling as a tool for effective workshops and trainings Plan backwards from evaluations and outcomes to create powerful and lasting educational experiences Ideal for educational leaders and administrators, professional development facilitators, coaches, and positional leaders in both K-12 and higher education, The PD Book is an incisive resource offering concrete strategies for educators at all levels.
Unleash powerful teaching and the science of learning in your classroom Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning empowers educators to harness rigorous research on how students learn and unleash it in their classrooms. In this book, cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and veteran K–12 teacher Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., decipher cognitive science research and illustrate ways to successfully apply the science of learning in classrooms settings. This practical resource is filled with evidence-based strategies that are easily implemented in less than a minute—without additional prepping, grading, or funding! Research demonstrates that these powerful strategies raise student achievement by a letter grade or more; boost learning for diverse students, grade levels, and subject areas; and enhance students’ higher order learning and transfer of knowledge beyond the classroom. Drawing on a fifteen-year scientist-teacher collaboration, more than 100 years of research on learning, and rich experiences from educators in K–12 and higher education, the authors present highly accessible step-by-step guidance on how to transform teaching with four essential strategies: Retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition. With Powerful Teaching, you will: Develop a deep understanding of powerful teaching strategies based on the science of learning Gain insight from real-world examples of how evidence-based strategies are being implemented in a variety of academic settings Think critically about your current teaching practices from a research-based perspective Develop tools to share the science of learning with students and parents, ensuring success inside and outside the classroom Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning is an indispensable resource for educators who want to take their instruction to the next level. Equipped with scientific knowledge and evidence-based tools, turn your teaching into powerful teaching and unleash student learning in your classroom.
Teachers, as life-long learners, engage in professional development to deepen their understanding of content and instructional methods. Teacher professional development is a form of adult education, and adults learn best if they are actively involved in their own learning and see it relative to their own needs. Grounding professional development in actual classroom practice is a highly powerful means of fostering effective teachers. Research has shown that, for professional development to be effective, several components of instruction should be considered: reflection on practice, problems arising in practice, subject matter content, and principles of adult learning. Practice-Based Professional Development in Education is a cutting-edge research publication that explores both effective and ineffective professional development practices and presents arguments for why adult learning theory should be considered when designing a professional development session. Highlighting a range of topics including social media, education reform, and teacher learning, this book is essential for teachers, academicians, education professionals, policymakers, curriculum designers, researchers, and students.
In today’s schools, teachers are frequently called on to adapt new curricula and instructional practices in their classrooms. Making sense of the complexities of teaching occurs primarily during the work day, and instead of relying on before or after school one-size-fits-all professional development activities, schools must support teachers in learning on the job. The latest book from renowned author Sally J. Zepeda is written for teachers, teacher leaders, and school and district leaders who want to support job-embedded learning, a powerful form of professional development characterized by active learning and reflection grounded in the context of a teachers’ work environment. Job-Embedded Professional Development provides a framework for helping teachers stop, take a deep breath, and learn along the way as they engage in their daily work. Through the engaging job-embedded learning activities, processes, and cases from the field explored in this book, teachers will immediately be able to: Implement what they are learning in the context of their own classrooms; Work with supportive peers who can coach them along the way; Get feedback on what’s working and what needs to be tweaked; Learn as adult learners fully capable of making sound professional judgments; Engage in conversations that allow teachers to dig deeper into their practices; Focus intently on content knowledge and the linkages to instruction and assessment; Capitalize on learning in digital learning environments before, during, and after school; Gain confidence in themselves and others through learning together.
