Chalk Dust:
Chalk Dust is a must-read for classroom teachers and school administrators; a collection of lucid, inspiring, often hilarious (sometimes heartrending) two-page articles about author David Ellison's experiences as a classroom teacher and assistant principal. Like the Jolly Ranchers Ellison keeps in his pocket as rewards, the anecdotes are small, varied treats; each brief enough to be sampled during a coffee break or while on hall duty. The topics and problems Ellison treats are wide-ranging (gum-chewing, practical jokes, fighting, insubordination, homelessness, student service learning, high-stakes testing, to name a few). Many of the articles (which first appeared as newspaper columns in the San Francisco Bay area where Ellison works) will strike a chord of recognition (especially for those who work with middle school and high school students, like Ellison), bring a smile, and even offer a new solution to an old problem.
Creating Caring Communities:
What does it mean to care? Caring is a thoughtful, empathetic concern for the world around us. It is a pebble that, when thrown into a pond, spreads influential rings to the family, school, community, and beyond. In Creating Caring Communities with Books Kids Love, teachers and parents are shown how to build a caring community in the classroom and at home in order to help combat apathy and violence in our world today. Specifically targeted for grades K through 6, and incorporating a wide range of fiction and nonfiction selections, as well as offering a rich foundation of expository and expressive activities, Creating Caring Communities provides teachers with tools for promoting caring attitudes, behaviors, and values among young learners in their personal, family, school, neighborhood, nation, and world environments.
The Cooperative Classroom:
This guide for current teachers and future teachers provides them with the necessary skills to create classrooms where cooperation is a way of helping to empower students and themselves as learners. The book answers the difficult questions that teachers often ask about cooperative learning such as, "Why should I use cooperation?", and "When, how, and how much should I use cooperation?". Both pre-service and in-service teachers have extensively field-tested the models, examples, and scenarios featured in this book developed to help them acquire a new understanding and appreciation of the power of working together.
Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach:
This new edition incorporates many insights and strategies the authors have learned while working extensively with teachers to implement the project approach. Since the popular first edition was published in 1989, the authors have continued to help teachers around the world understand the benefits of this approach. Katz and Chard discuss in great detail the philosophical, theoretical, and research bases of project work. The three typical phases of project work are presented and detailed suggestions for implementing each one are described. Using specific examples, this book clarifies and articulates the process and benefits of the project approach.
Enhancing Professional Practice:
The framework for teaching described in this book is based on the PRAXIS III: Classroom Performance Assessments criteria developed by Educational Testing Service. This framework identifies those aspects of a teacher's responsibilities that have been documented through empirical studies and theoretical research as promoting improved student learning. Those responsibilities seek to define what teachers should know and be able to do in the exercise of their profession. In this framework, the complex activity of teaching is divided into 22 components clustered into four domains of teaching responsibility: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. Although the components are distinct, they are also related to one another: A teacher's planning and preparation affect instruction, and all these are affected by the reflection on practice that accompanies a unit and lesson.
The framework of professional practice is designed to meet the needs of novice teachers, who are concerned with day-to-day survival; experienced teachers, who want to improve their effectiveness and help their colleagues do so as well; and highly accomplished teachers, who want to move toward advanced certification and serve as a resource to less-experienced colleagues.
Introduction to the Foundations of American Education:
Keeping pace with current issues and professional requirements, such as standards and teacher certification, this classic text offers solid coverage of the foundations of education. This best-selling text by respected authorities in their fields continues to develop successful teachers by providing a broad introduction to the foundations of education through interesting and current discussions of theory and practice. The book offers a thorough overview of the historical, legal, philosophical, social, and practical aspects of American education. The thirteenth edition includes features dedicated to classroom observation, INTASC standards, and teacher certification.
