In Recalibrate the Culture, author Jimmy Casas examines the challenges that teachers, leaders, and schools face and shares his assessment on what makes the difference in the overall culture of a school - why do some continue to show positive results while others continue to struggle to maintain a healthy learning environment for all students and staff? This book provides the necessary strategies and tools to assist all teachers, principals, and district office administrators in exploring our inner selves to understand the role we each play in how we can impact the climate and culture of an entire campus when we are strategic and aligned in our practices. The classroom, building, and district levels must see themselves as one and must be intentional in replicating the processes, protocols, and frameworks provided in this book to recalibrate and bring about system-wide change and cultivate a healthier culture.

When we equip our people with a new way of thinking and strategies for approaching their work, we can revitalize our schools and make an immediate positive impact on the culture of every classroom and school across the country.

25 years on, the PLC at Work(R) process continues to produce results across the United States and worldwide. In this fourth edition of the bestseller Learning by Doing, the authors use updated research and time-tested knowledge to address current education challenges, from learning gaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic to the need to drive a highly effective multitiered system of supports.

This book will help K-12 administrators, school leaders, and teacher teams:

• Build shared knowledge of both critical vocabulary and the concepts underlying the key PLC terms
• Learn new, more in-depth strategies for coaching in a PLC at Work
• Make honest assessments of student learning, examine their school culture, and implement conventional practices from a fresh, critical perspective
• Take immediate and specific steps to close the knowing-doing gap and implement PLC concepts in their school and district
• Recognize that the knowledge needed to support students in achieving higher levels is readily available, and the next step is to transform this awareness into an action plan for school improvement
• Follow the step-by-step format outlined in each chapter to advance their school's PLC journey and drive continuous improvement

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Guide to Action for Professional Learning Communities at Work
Chapter 2: Defining a Clear and Compelling Purpose
Chapter 3: Building the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community
Chapter 4: Coaching Collaborative Teams in a Professional Learning Community at Work
Chapter 5: Creating a Results Orientation in a Professional Learning Community
Chapter 6: Establishing a Focus on Learning
Chapter 7: Creating Team-Developed Common Formative Assessments
Chapter 8: Responding When Some Students Don't Learn
Chapter 9: Hiring, Orienting, and Retaining New Staff
Chapter 10: Addressing Conflict and Celebrating in a Professional Learning Community
Chapter 11: Implementing the Professional Learning Community Process Districtwide
Conclusion: Touching the Emotions--Creating a Culture of Caring
References
Index

Kids walk into schools full of wonder and questions. How you, as an educator, respond to students' natural curiosity can help further their own exploration and shape the way they learn today and in the future. The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It's time to recognize that compliance doesn't foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity--and those are the skills our students need to succeed. In The Innovator's Mindset, George Couros encourages teachers and administrators to empower their learners to wonder, to explore--and to become forward-thinking leaders. If we want innovative students, we need innovative educators. In other words, innovation begins with you. Ultimately, innovation is not about a skill set: it's about a mindset. The Innovator's Mindset is for you if: You are a superintendent, district administrator, or principal who wants to empower your staff to create a culture of innovation You are a school leader - at any level - and want to help students and educators become their personal best. You are a teacher who wants to create relevant learning experiences and help students develop the skills they need to be successful. You'll be inspired to: Connect with other innovative educators Support teachers and leaders as learners Tap into the strength of your learning community Create ongoing opportunities for innovation Seek more effective methods for measuring progress And, most importantly, embrace change and use it to do something amazing

What if learning was exciting? What if students felt important and empowered every time they walked into the building? What if parents looked forward to calls from their children's teachers and principals, instead of cringing when the school's number popped up on their phones? To Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome, those aren't far-fetched what ifs; they can (and should) be a reality for every teacher, school, parent, and student. In Kids Deserve It , Todd and Adam encourage you to think big and make learning fun and meaningful for students. While you're at it, you just might rediscover why you became an educator in the first place. Learn why you should be calling parents to praise your students (and employees). Discover ways to promote family interaction and improve relationships for kids at school and at home. Be inspired to take risks, shake up the status quo, and be a champion for your students. #KidsDeserveIt

Leadership Burnout and Recovery takes leaders on a voyage to recognize burnout, admit it, and discover a clear path to recovery. Don unleashes a plan to coach leaders to recapture their joy and never return to that dark, foggy place. Applying Don's proven principles also rejuvenates tired leaders who may be on the verge of burnout.

You're an Assistant Principal. Whatever your status--the sole AP in your school, one of two or more APs in your school, a career AP, an AP aspiring to the principalship--yours is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized positions in education. Positioned between teachers and the principal, you are an instructional leader. However, you are not the leader of the school. Therefore, you must carefully navigate your way to ensure that you thrive in your role without stepping on the toes of your principal.

In The Assistant Principal 50, award-winning, four-time principal Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions that encompass the breadth and depth of the assistant principalship--from finding your leadership lane to thriving and being an asset to your principal. Kafele infuses the book (which also includes guidance and insights for principals and aspiring assistant principals) from beginning to end with personal anecdotes and accounts of both failures and successes from his years as an assistant principal. He arms you with tools and insights that will drive you to view the assistant principalship as critical to the climate and culture of your school as well as to student achievement.

You, assistant principal, play a critical role in your school's success. The questions that Kafele asks you to consider will aid you as you hone your leadership skills toward becoming an effective leader in your school.

With foreword by Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour

Transforming School Culture provides a school improvement plan for leaders to overcome staff division, improve relationships, and transform toxic school cultures into healthy ones.

Dr. Anthony Muhammad contends that in order to transform school culture, we must understand why teachers continue to hold on to models or beliefs contrary to those put forth by their school or district. He explores the human behavior, social conditions, and history that cause the underlying conflict among the four different types of teachers in a school.

The second edition of this best-selling resource delivers powerful new insight into the four types of educators (Believers, Fundamentalists, Tweeners, and Survivors) and how school leaders can work with each group to create positive school culture. The book also includes Dr. Muhammad's latest research as well as a new chapter dedicated to answering frequently asked questions on culture and school leadership in education.

How this new edition will help you create a positive school culture:

• Study the author's research and observations of 34 schools--11 elementary schools, 14 middle schools, and 9 high schools--and how each school's staff supported or hindered student achievement.
• Consider the characteristics of positive school cultures and how your school's culture and climate may differ.
• Learn how laws such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and No Child Left Behind ( NCLB) impact teachers and school culture.
• Understand why teachers must work together to improve student performance.
• Obtain tips for creating a positive school culture and producing synergy.

New in This Second Edition:

• An updated research base, including over 60 new references
• Connections to ESSA as well as reflections on NCLB's impact on education
• Additional insights into the four types of educators
• Further guidance on what it takes to be a transformational leader and redirect Fundamentalists through communication, trust, capacity, and accountability
• A new chapter of frequently asked questions in regard to school culture, leadership, and the four types of educators

Leadership involves power and influence over others-but each of us is trapped by a psychological imperative inside us to use whatever control we have for our own ends. Where does this imperative come from? The author describes four ego patterns, formed during our childhood, which is the source of our drives and fears-Shaping, Defining, Adapting and Defending-and shows how they determine the needs we try to meet in our lives as leaders. Our natural instinct to use our leadership to meet our own needs rather than others' is what he terms 'defendedness'. One strategy of defended leadership is to build a 'front stage' and a 'back stage', which allows us to reveal or conceal aspects of our self according to how threatening we perceive our audience to be. While the best human audiences (in secure relationships, loving marriages, deep friendships and so forth) can go some way towards fulfilling our need for unconditional and dependable approval, ultimately we need to locate a spiritual source of approval if we are to be fully available to serve others freely. With study questions and exercises, as well as leadership tools and an online community.

This thought-provoking book explores the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence in education, urging us to prioritize equity and ethical implementation.

AI can personalize learning and empower students, but it's crucial to address potential biases and ensure it doesn't widen the achievement gap.

The authors, Ken Shelton and Dee Lanier, guide you through the complexities of AI, highlighting both its promises and pitfalls. They advocate for robust oversight, transparency, and collaboration to prevent harm to marginalized communities.

This book empowers educators, policymakers, and parents to become AI activists, shaping a future where AI fosters critical thinking, creativity, and individualized learning for all.

Join the movement! Embrace AI as a tool to humanize education, not replace it.

Discover how to close the knowing-doing gap and transform your school or district into a high-performing PLC. The powerful third edition of this comprehensive action guide updates and expands on new and significant PLC topics. Explore fresh strategies, models, and tips for hiring and retaining new staff, creating team-developed common formative assessments, implementing systematic interventions, and more.

Benefits

• Build a shared knowledge of critical vocabulary and the concepts underlying key PLC terms.
• Equip yourself with the knowledge and tools necessary to model effective reciprocal accountability.
• Make honest assessments of your school by examining conventional practices from a fresh, critical perspective.
• Take immediate and specific steps to close the knowing-doing gap.
• Move beyond planning, and start doing.

Contents

Introduction to the Third Edition

1 A Guide to Action for Professional Learning Communities at Work(TM)

2 A Clear and Compelling Purpose

3 Building the Collaborative Culture of a Professional Learning Community

4 Creating a Results Orientation in a Professional Learning Community

5 Creating a Focus on Learning

6 Creating Team-Developed Common Formative Assessments

7 Responding When Some Students Don't Learn

8 Hiring, Orienting, and Retaining New Staff

9 Resolving Conflict and Celebrating in a Professional Learning Community

10 Implementing the PLC Process Districtwide

Transform your school's reading outcomes through systematic implementation of the science of reading within a multitiered system of supports framework. This comprehensive guide provides over 50 practical tools that help leaders engineer robust support systems across all tiers. Move beyond individual interventions to create lasting, system-level improvements. This book is perfect for school leaders ready to bridge research and practice to achieve reading success for all students.

K-12 school leaders and administrators can use this book to:

• Engineer sustainable, systemwide reading improvement through MTSS
• Implement the science of reading at every tier of instruction
• Build effective team structures that drive lasting change
• Transform assessment data into actionable improvement plans
• Create cohesive support systems that benefit all readers

Contents:
Introduction: Making Reading Improvement Stick
Part 1: Understanding Reading Science
Chapter 1: Foundations of Learning to Read
Chapter 2: Delivering Effective Reading Instruction
Chapter 3: Navigating Reading Assessment
Part 2: Engineering a Robust System of Support
Chapter 4: Foundations of MTSS
Chapter 5: Teaming and Collaboration to Support Reading Improvement
Part 3: Enabling Educators to Improve Reading Outcomes
Chapter 6: Using Data to Drive Tier 1 Reading Instruction for All Students
Chapter 7: Using Data to Drive Tier 2 and Tier 3 Reading Instruction for Some Students
Chapter 8: Improving and Intensifying the Three-Tiered Model for Reading Results
Epilogue
Appendix
References
Index

Data are everywhere. Countries are compared based on how their students perform in international testing. Schools are compared using standardised testing and school-leaver data. Students are tracked using their individual data and that of their peers. But while there is much already written about leadership styles, leading change and the benefits of being data informed, transferring an understanding of educational research and change leadership literature to a data-informed context is not always easy or seamless.

Selena Fisk, EdD, author of Using and analysing data in Australian schools, believes that data should be used to support learning in a way that develops thriving learning communities where students are engaged and motivated. This invaluable resource introduces a 10-step process for leading data-informed change comprising measurable steps for action supported by connections to relevant literature and practical examples showing what the process looks like in schools. Fisk also introduces the 12 key elements required for a leader to prime the environment or build a culture that will enable them to lead data-informed change.

Leading data-informed change in schools offers teacher team leaders, principals and administrators a practical guide on how to collect, analyse and use data to help school communities and the students they serve flourish.

Legacy Leadership is the guide for all leaders to achieve timeless greatness - and live their legacies today. It is a comprehensive platform of 5 Legacy Practices common in all great leaders. It is a philosophy, a model, and a proven process for bringing out individual best, developing leaders, establishing organizational leadership culture, and positively impacting the bottom line. It is a balanced approach to people and production. Legacy in leadership is not about leaving something behind. It is about influencing others enough to cause change, a shift from unconsciously doing leadership to consciously being a leader and living your legacy now. This book provides a comprehensive description of Legacy Leadership (The 5 Legacy Practices). It is an updated and revised version from the original title (2008) which is still in print.

Our personal and professional lives are becoming increasingly intertwined with technology at a pace unprecedented in human history. This hyper-connected age offers tremendous conveniences and advantages; however, it also comes with significant side effects. Rapidly advancing technology is influencing us in ways we are still discovering and not fully understanding. Worse, in an increasing number of contexts, our digital footprint exposes us to these influences without our awareness or deliberate choice. This book offers a leadership model based on alignment of your values, intentions, behaviors, and environment to enable you to live with purpose in the workplace and in life. It provides a framework to lead yourself and others and to have authentic, meaningful impact. Drawing on over twenty years of experience as a leadership development expert, executive coach, and clinical and forensic psychologist, the author gives perspectives on how you may apply mindfulness and the VIBE leadership model to increase your effectiveness in a variety of professional and personal contexts.

From
the authors of the bestselling book Powerful Interactions
comes a guide crafted especially for coaches and all professionals supporting
the work of early childhood teachers.

When the quality of interactions improves, relationships become deeper and stronger, which in turn leads to more effective learning and growth. Taking the three-step Powerful Interactions framework--originally created to enhance the
interactions between children and their teachers--this resource applies it to the interactions between teachers and coaches.

This
new edition offers

Coaching principles, strategies, and stories to inspire and motivate your practice

Insights about developing a strengths-based coaching stance

Information and ideas for building respectful, trusting relationships that
evolve into mutual learning partnerships

You can set in motion ripples of positive change that extend to teachers and,
ultimately, to young children and their families.

In this latest installment to his series of best-selling self-reflection guides, celebrated educator, author, and motivational speaker Baruti Kafele offers school leaders 35 thought-provoking questions to ponder from one fundamental overarching query: Is my school a better school because I lead it?

Musing deeply on discrete leadership matters is an essential component of success for anybody overseeing the day-to-day operations of a school, and doubly so in communities plagued by drugs, violence, or other markers of societal dysfunction. In this book, Kafele offers those seeking to improve the quality of instruction in their institutions hard-won wisdom on such critical issues as ensuring an optimal culture and climate, engaging in parent and community outreach, confirming emergency preparedness, rallying staff, and much more.

Because the sheer volume of responsibilities for a principal or assistant principal can leave you with very little time for developing an effective and consistent self-reflection regimen, Kafele has done the work for you. You need only open the book and begin reading to embark upon a penetratingly insightful journey destined to transform your practice, boost teacher satisfaction, and--most important of all--inspire students to excel academically.

As an early educator, you face many challenges. You may be asking yourself if you're in the right place, doing the right thing. You may be wondering if you're making a difference. You may be feeling symptoms of burnout but see opportunities to be a positive influence on individuals around you.

Change your life and transform your leadership by embarking on a joyful journey today. Even if you do not have an official leadership position, you can lead with joy. If you are an individual who uplifts, guides, and inspires others, then you are a joyful leader!

Throughout this book, Teresa Byington offers ideas for bringing joy to your work with intentionality. Discover ways to rise now by implementing strategies to help you become a more joyful leader. Find ways to shine on the individuals that you lead and inspire them to be more joyful. Filled with real-life examples of early childhood educators leading with joy, each chapter concludes with discussion questions, a reflection activity, and an action plan.

Explore five aspects of joyful leadership:

• Reimagine your purpose.
• Radiate a joyful outlook.
• Engage in joyful action.
• Create caring connections.
• Use reflection to build strengths.

Whether running for office for the first time, or simply thinking of it, RUN inspires, equips, and supports you. It describes the help you'll need, where to find it, and how to ask for it. It empowers candidates for public office to have authentic and relevant political conversations. RUN shows how to be the best candidate you can be, how to make a difference - and how to win.

Baruti K. Kafele, a champion for assistant principals, offers stories from his own leadership practice and thought-provoking advice for being effective in the role.

The job of a school leader is more challenging--and important--than ever. To be effective, administrators need to support their students and staff, but they also need to take care of themselves. Bestselling author Baruti K. Kafele brings this motivational message to the pivotal members of the leadership team who are too often overlooked: assistant principals.

Kafele explains that even as assistant principals gain knowledge and build their leadership identity, their leadership values and skills can be compromised or lost without intentional care. Along with stories from his own years as a transformational school leader, Kafele offers assistant principals 35 thought-provoking questions for reflection and conversation centered on the idea of protection, from How am I protecting my leadership purpose? to How am I protecting my leadership optimism? and How am I protecting my leadership integrity?

Whether you are a new or experienced assistant principal, this insightful book will help you hold a mirror up to your own practice and more effectively navigate your powerful role in improving outcomes for students and schools.

Advance Praise for The Rising Leader Handbook:

This is the most thorough, transformative and compelling book on leadership I have ever read.

- Steve Chandler, author of Time Warrior

The innovative leadership skills in The Rising Leader Handbook will transform and uplevel your own success and self-worth, while generating ripple effects that boost morale and productivity across your organization.

- Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President and CEO, TIME100 Nominee