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Designing and implementing daily lesson plans can be among the most frustrating and time-consuming aspects of teaching—a tedious exercise that places artificial restrictions on student creativity and engagement with learning. In this game-changing book, author and instructional coach Michael Fisher shows teachers how they can free themselves from rigid and ineffective busywork by replacing lesson plans with learning journeys that are guided by the students’ abilities, interests, and skill levels rather than by pre-selected checklists of day-to-day benchmarks. Loaded with tips, strategies, and detailed real-life examples, Ditch the Daily Lesson Plan is the perfect guide to crafting student-centered learning experiences at all levels and across the content areas.

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Until now, the conversation around mobile devices in schools has been divided into two camps: those favoring 1:1 plans, in which each student is assigned a school-provided laptop or tablet, and supporters of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives that shift the responsibility for providing and maintaining classroom mobile technology to students and their parents. In reality, argues classroom technology expert Susan Brooks-Young, it’s a hybrid model of 1:1 and BYOD that best meets the needs of students, teachers, and schools. A Better Approach to Mobile Devices offers school and district leaders concise, practical advice on how to set up a hybrid mobile technology program or shift an existing 1:1 or BYOD program to the more flexible, cost-effective, equitable, and learning-focused hybrid approach. Drawing on current research and her own extensive experience, Brooks-Young makes the case for hybrid initiatives and then explores the five keys to successful implementation: connection to the curriculum, infrastructure and support, training and professional development, budget, and policies and procedures. The book closes with a checklist of action steps associated with each of the keys, giving administrators and their planning teams a clear path forward.

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Of the 21st century skills vital for success in education and the workplace, "the 4Cs"-critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity—have been highlighted as crucial competencies. This book shows how teachers can more purposefully integrate technology into instruction to facilitate the practice and mastery of each of the 4Cs along with other learning objectives. It’s packed with practical and engaging strategies that will transform the way students experience learning. Whether you want to try something new in your own classroom or discuss ideas as part of a professional learning community, you’ll find lots to explore in Teaching the 4Cs with Technology: How do I use 21st century tools to teach 21st century skills?

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In this essential guide, Starr Sackstein—a National Board Certified Teacher—explains how teachers can use reflection to help students decipher their own learning needs and engage in deep, thought-provoking discourse about progress. She explains how to help students set actionable learning goals, teach students to reflect on and chart their learning progress, and use student reflections and self-assessment to develop targeted learning plans and determine student mastery. Filled with practical tips, innovative ideas, and sample reflections from real students, this book shows you how to incorporate self-assessment and reflection in ways that encourage students to grow into mindful, receptive learners, ready to explore a fast-changing world.

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What if your next faculty meeting began with this question: What are the strengths of our underachieving students? When teachers recognize and focus on student strengths, they transform the learning environment into one of positivity and potential. Students begin to believe in themselves as capable, valued, and respected and show more willingness to invest and engage in school. They perform better. They crave and enjoy academic challenge, and they delight in outdoing themselves. Focusing on strengths is a no-cost, highly effective, nontraditional way of addressing persistent underachievement. Drawing on authors Yvette Jackson and Veronica McDermott's experiences supporting the transformations of schools repeatedly labeled as underachieving, this book offers concrete ways to identify student strengths and then build on them in your classroom or school throughout the year. These field-tested strategies will help awaken students' belief in their own potential and put them on the path to lasting success.

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Whether they’re the result of a mandate from on high, a crisis that needs addressing, or simply a desire for improvement, change initiatives are a constant in most every school. In this book, veteran teacher, administrator, and consultant Jeffrey Benson provides educators with a proven, practical, and broadly applicable system for implementing new practices methodically and effectively. Topics include* Identifying and communicating a clear and understandable vision of change;* Ensuring that all voices in the school are heard and respected during the change process;* Thoroughly and thoughtfully collecting, classifying, and analyzing data related to the change initiative; and* Delegating responsibilities among staff and stakeholders.Replete with checklists, surveys, and worksheets, 10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools is a practical guide for educators determined to seamlessly weave new practices or procedures into the fabric of the school.

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This practical, hands-on guide shows K-12 school leaders how to support STEM programs that excite students and teachers—even if the leader is not an expert in science, technology, engineering, or math. Buckner and Boyd explore ideas for fostering equitable access to rich and rigorous learning experiences, acting as instructional leaders, and building community engagement and partnerships. You’ll get advice on creating a structure to help teachers examine, discuss, and improve students' learning experiences. And you’ll learn how to support teachers in designing challenging lessons that foster students' curiosity and ingenuity in working on real-world problems. Finally, you’ll learn ways you can effectively tap into the wealth of resources in your community to help achieve your STEM vision.

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Are your students excited about writing? Do you want them to be? Do you want them to ask for more writing opportunities and assignments? Do you want them to engage in writing tasks more quickly and with more fluency? The traditional five-step writing process never explicitly teaches students to be fluent in their writing—to be able to write quickly on any topic. Extreme Writing targets precisely that with focused, daily writing sessions that provide students with consistent, long-term engagement. It is designed to appeal to students in grades 4–8, and—best of all—the approach involves little extra work for you. In The Power of Extreme Writing , author Diana Cruchley not only outlines the process but also describes what it looks like in the classroom, explains how to assess student work, and highlights more than a dozen unique inspirations that motivate students to write. Extreme Writing: it's fun, it's fast, and it works.

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In The Freedom to Fail, veteran educator Andrew K. Miller explains the many benefits of intentionally designing opportunities for students to "fail forward" in the classroom. He provides a raft of strategies for ensuring that students experience small, constructive failures as a means to greater achievement, and offers practical suggestions for ensuring that constructive failure doesn't detrimentally affect students' summative assessments. He also describes how teachers, too, can benefit from failure. Establishing a culture that embraces the freedom to fail helps students to adopt a growth mindset, take risks in the service of greater learning, and develop realistic expectations of what it takes to succeed in the world at large. If we deliberately let our students fail in small ways today, we can help to ensure that they'll triumph in a big way tomorrow.

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Students following directions, dutifully completing assignments, and quietly cooperating. For some teachers, this kind of compliance is a goal worth pursuing, but for you, it's not enough. You want real engagement— a classroom filled with students who ask intriguing questions, immerse themselves in assignments, seek feedback on their performance, and take pride in their progress. So even as you race to cover a demanding curriculum and address standards, you're wearing yourself out searching for the hooks that will inspire your students and make them eager to learn. It's not that you're not doing enough to motivate your students; it's that you're probably focusing on the wrong things. In this book, Allison Zmuda and Robyn R. Jackson explain the four keys to real engagement: clarity, context, challenge, and culture . Their smart, concrete strategies for improving classroom assignments, assessments, and environments will help you create learning experiences that are rigorous, meaningful, and rewarding for your students and yourself.

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