Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools by Clayton M. Christensen
Blended is the practical field guide for implementing blended learning techniques in K-12 classrooms. A follow-up to the bestseller Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis Johnson, this hands-on guide expands upon the blended learning ideas presented in that book to provide practical implementation guidance for educators seeking to incorporate online learning with traditional classroom time. Readers will find a step-by-step framework upon which to build a more student-centered system, along with essential advice that provides the expertise necessary to build the next generation of K-12 learning environments. Leaders, teachers, and other stakeholders will gain valuable insight into the process of using online learning to the greatest benefit of students, while avoiding missteps and potential pitfalls. |
Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle
Whole Brain Teaching, a grass roots, education reform movement, begun in 1999 by three Southern California teachers, has attracted an astonishing following among educators across the U.S. and in 30 foreign countries. Based on cutting edge scientific research, Whole Brain Teaching recognizes that students learn the most when they are engaged in lessons that involve seeing, hearing, doing, speaking and feeling. |
Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller
In Reading in the Wild, reading expert Donalyn Miller continues the conversation that began in her bestselling book, The Book Whisperer. While The Book Whisperer revealed the secrets of getting students to love reading, Reading in the Wild, written with reading teacher Susan Kelley, describes how to truly instill lifelong "wild" reading habits in our students. Based, in part, on survey responses from adult readers as well as students, Reading in the Wild offers solid advice and strategies on how to develop, encourage, and assess five key reading habits that cultivate a lifelong love of reading. Also included are strategies, lesson plans, management tools, and comprehensive lists of recommended books. Copublished with Editorial Projects in Education, publisher of Education Week and Teacher magazine, Reading in the Wild is packed with ideas for helping students build capacity for a lifetime of "wild" reading. |
The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller
Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a child she couldn't turn into a reader. No matter how far behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50 books a year. Miller's unconventional approach dispenses with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore. Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves. Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring. The book includes a dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books that students really like to read. |
Move Your Bus by Ron Clark
Teamwork is crucial to the success of any business, and as acclaimed author and speaker Ron Clark illustrates, the members of any team are the key to unlocking success. Imagine a company as a bus filled with people who either help or hinder a team’s ability to move it forward: drivers (who steer the organization), runners (who consistently go above and beyond for the good of the organization), joggers (who do their jobs without pushing themselves), walkers (who are just getting pulled along), and riders (who hinder success and drag the team down). It’s the team leader’s job to recognize how members fall into these categories, encourage them to keep the “bus” moving by working together, and know when it’s time to kick the riders off. |
Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student by John Spencer & A J Juliani
Something happens in students when they define themselves as makers and inventorsand creators. They discover powerful skills-problem-solving, critical thinking, and imagination-that will help them shape the world's future ... our future. If that's true, why isn't creativity a priority in more schools today? Educators John Spencer and A.J. Juliani know firsthand the challenges teachers face every day: School can be busy. Materials can be scarce. The creative process can seem confusing. Curriculum requirements can feel limiting. Those challenges too often bully creativity, pushing it to the side as an "enrichment activity" that gets put off or squeezed into the tiniest time block. We can do better. We must do better if we're going to prepare students for their future. |
Four Seconds: All the time You Need to Replace Counter-Productive Habits with Ones that Really Work by Peter Bregman
The things we want most—peace of mind, fulfilling relationships, to do well at work—are surprisingly straightforward to realize. But too often our best efforts to attain them are built on destructive habits that sabotage us. In Four Seconds, Peter Bregman shows us how to replace negative patterns with energy boosting and productive behaviors. To thrive in our fast-paced world all it takes is to pause for as few as four seconds—the length of a deep breath—allowing us to make intentional and tactical choices that lead to better outcomes. |
Uncommon Learning: Creating Schools that Work for Kids by Eric C. Sheninger
Integrate digital media and new applications with purpose and build a culture of learning with pleasure! Let students use real-world tools to do real-world work and develop skills society demands. Be the leader who creates this environment. UnCommon Learning shows you how to transform a learning culture through sustainable and innovative initiatives. It moves straight to the heart of using innovations such as Makerspaces, Blended Learning and Microcredentials. Included in the book:
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The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (The 2 Sisters)
The Daily 5, Second Edition retains the core literacy components that made the first edition one of the most widely read books in education and enhances these practices based on years of further experience in classrooms and compelling new brain research. The Daily 5 provides a way for any teacher to structure literacy (and now math) time to increase student independence and allow for individualized attention in small groups and one-on-one. - See more at: http://www.stenhouse.com/html/the-daily-5-second-edition.htm#sthash.T7l6D5Wl.dpuf |
Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind
Traditionally, small-group math instruction has been used as a format for reaching children who struggle to understand. Math coach Kassia Omohundro Wedekind uses small-group instruction as the centerpiece of her math workshop approach, engaging all students in rigorous “math exchanges.” The key characteristics of these mathematical conversations are that they are: 1) short, focused sessions that bring all mathematical minds together, 2) responsive to the needs of the specific group of mathematicians, and 3) designed for meaningful, guided reflection. As in reading and writing workshop, students in Kassia’s math workshop are becoming self-directed and independent while participating in a classroom community of learners. Through the math exchanges, students focus on number sense and the big ideas of mathematics. Teachers guide the conversations with small groups of students, mediating talk and thinking as students share problem-solving strategies, discuss how math works, and move toward more effective and efficient approaches and greater mathematical understanding. Although grounded in theory and research, Math Exchanges is written for practicing teachers and answers such questions as the following:
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Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by Sherry Parrish
This dynamic multimedia resource was created in response to the requests of teachers—those who want to implement number talks but are unsure of how to begin and those with experience who want more guidance in crafting purposeful problems. It supports teachers in understanding:
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When Can You Trust the Experts? by Daniel T. Willingham
Clear, easy principles to spot what's nonsense and what's reliable. Each year, teachers, administrators, and parents face a barrage of new education software, games, workbooks, and professional development programs purporting to be "based on the latest research." While some
of these products are rooted in solid science, the research behind many others is grossly exaggerated. This new book, written by a top thought leader, helps everyday teachers, asministrators, and family members--who dont have years of statistic courses under their belts--seperate the wheat from the chaff and determine which new educational approaches are scientifically supported and worth adopting. Autor's first book, "Why Don't Students Like School?," catapulted him to superstar status in the field of education. Willingham's work has been hailed as "brilliant analysis" by "The Wall Street Journal" and "a triumph" by "The Washington Post". Author blogs for "The Washington Post" and Bittanica.com, and writes a column for "American
Educator"
In this insightful book, thought leader and bestselling author Dan Willingham offers an easy, reliable way to discern which programs are scientifically supported and which are the equivalent
of "educational snake oil."
Clear, easy principles to spot what's nonsense and what's reliable. Each year, teachers, administrators, and parents face a barrage of new education software, games, workbooks, and professional development programs purporting to be "based on the latest research." While some
of these products are rooted in solid science, the research behind many others is grossly exaggerated. This new book, written by a top thought leader, helps everyday teachers, asministrators, and family members--who dont have years of statistic courses under their belts--seperate the wheat from the chaff and determine which new educational approaches are scientifically supported and worth adopting. Autor's first book, "Why Don't Students Like School?," catapulted him to superstar status in the field of education. Willingham's work has been hailed as "brilliant analysis" by "The Wall Street Journal" and "a triumph" by "The Washington Post". Author blogs for "The Washington Post" and Bittanica.com, and writes a column for "American
Educator"
In this insightful book, thought leader and bestselling author Dan Willingham offers an easy, reliable way to discern which programs are scientifically supported and which are the equivalent
of "educational snake oil."