Eradicate Average

CULTURIZE Your School.

Average schools don't inspire greatness--and greatness is what our world needs if we are going to produce world-changing learners.

In Culturize, author and education leader Jimmy Casas shares insights into what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs, such as kindness, honesty, and compassion. His stories reveal how these soft skills can be honed while meeting and exceeding academic standards of twenty-first-century learning. You'll learn...

• How to reach those who seem unreachable

• What to do when students disengage or drop out of school

• How to ensure your learners feel cared for and empowered

• How to create an environment where all learners are challenged and inspired to be their best

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Jimmy Casas guides readers to understand that school culture must be a daily focal point for all school leaders.

--Beverly Hutton, Ed.D., Deputy Executive Director, National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)

No matter your title or profession, page after page of this book will inspire you.

--Kayla Delzer, CEO, Top Dog Teaching Inc.

Read this book to culturize your school and to live your excellence--every day.

--Thomas C. Murray, Director of Innovation, Future Ready Schools

In this follow-up to Cultivating Genius, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad adds a fifth pursuit--joy--to her groundbreaking instructional model. She defines joy as more than celebration and happiness, but also as wellness, beauty, healing, and justice for oneself and across humanity. She shows how teaching from cultural and historical realities can enhance our efforts to cultivate identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and-indeed-joy for all students, giving them a powerful purpose to learn and contribute to the world. Dr. Muhammad's wise implementation advice is paired with model lessons and assessment tools that span subjects and grade levels.

Dear Teacher, You're Enough isn't a book about how to teach better. It's a book about how to live better when teaching is your life. Credentials can only carry you so far. When life hits hard and then harder, you need a force more powerful to help you navigate the stream of self-doubt and defeat.

Packed with truth and vulnerability, Christina Lindvay cuts right to the heart of modern teaching. She explores how personal and collective transitions cause us to lose our footing, how fears of safety and overcrowded classrooms leave us feeling inadequate, and how our inner critic is often the loudest in the room. Christina provides validation and support for anyone experiencing hardship in or out of the classroom. Through examination of the internal and external pressures we face, she'll help you find the clarity and compassion to sustain yourself as a high-striving educator.

DTYE won't give you all the answers but it will be with you as you explore them through what causes grief, joy, and everything in between in Teacherhood.

As his school began rebounding from the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, visionary educator Ron Clark asked himself a crucial question: How can we continue to improve when we're already giving our all? The answer was to ask his staff to brainstorm ways to be just a little bit better. If everyone committed to ten of these one percenters, as he called them, they would have a major impact. That's exactly what happened, and today, the Ron Clark Academy is leading the way with simple but innovative practices that are transforming the lives of students, parents, and teachers.

In Be 1% Better, Clark opens his playbook, sharing dozens of ways he and his staff have made change doable. The strategies here work both within and beyond the classroom by breaking change down into baby steps that can easily be integrated into daily tasks and that don't involve months of planning or considerable resources.

Be 1% Better equips educators, administrators, staff, and school leaders with everything they need to get just a little bit better, then watch as these one percenters cascade into cultural and curricular shifts that benefit everyone.

Ron Clark is the New York Times best-selling author of The Essential 55, which has sold more than one million copies in twenty-five different languages. Clark's other works, Move Your Bus, The End of Molasses Classes, and The Excellent 11 were all met with critical acclaim. He has been named American Teacher of the Year by Disney and was Oprah Winfrey's pick as her Phenomenal Man. He founded the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, which more than 145,000 educators from around the world have visited to learn about the extraordinary ways that teachers and parents of RCA have helped children achieve great success. Clark has been featured on the Today show and CNN, and his experiences have been turned into the uplifting film The Ron Clark Story, starring Matthew Perry.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) suggests exciting ways to design and deliver engaging, rigorous learning experiences-as a growing international movement of UDL practitioners can attest. However, implementing UDL also requires us to unlearn many beliefs, assumptions, and teaching practices that no longer work.

In this lively and fun book, UDL experts Allison Posey and Katie Novak describe colleagues who have implemented UDL and experienced exponential success: increased graduation rates, an increase in the number of students taking AP exams, and decreased special education referrals and out-of-school suspensions.

However, they have also found that sometimes, even when teachers learn about UDL and believe in its power to transform their teaching and learning environments, many still do not change. They don't believe this is because educators are unwilling to make changes, but perhaps because they may not think there is a strong reason to change, or perhaps they do not know the first steps to take.

The authors have wrestled with this dilemma for years, trying many different approaches to teach and model UDL. They have come to understand that for all the research, brain science, and best practices that are behind UDL as a way to reach all students without differentiating learning at every turn, there is an elephant in the room. Most teachers - and they include themselves in this group - have a hard time integrating new learning.

Why is changing what we do so hard? Posey and Novak posit that, to change how we think about teaching, how to manage classrooms, and how to develop curriculum, we must unlearn. In a profession that spends so much time thinking about learning, the process of unlearning is what needs to happen before real change can happen.

Wait, what? The unlearning process has been such a transformative experience for Posey and Novak that they want to invite fellow educators on this journey to design learning experiences that not only are accessible for students but that challenge them to become more autonomous and self-directed in their learning.

They have seen student agency increase and engagement skyrocket when UDL is implemented. They have observed teachers transformed by UDL who celebrated their learning journeys along the way. But this isn't just a book about UDL. It is a book that recognizes the fact that we aren't meeting the needs of all students and we know that we can.

The process of unlearning as part of the learning process has been well documented. What is unique about this book is that the authors support the process of unlearning using UDL. UDL is a tool that guides the design of learning environments to support the anticipated variability of students, to help educators be goal-directed and to prioritize engagement, and to ensure that every individual knows how to be an expert learner who is motivated, knowledgeable, and strategic.

Posey and Novak developed The Unlearning Cycle to support educators seeking to implement UDL in their practice. It includes the following essential elements, though these do not necessarily occur in a linear progression:

1) Understand variability

2) Know your goals

3) Transform tried-and-true practices

4) Prioritize engagement

5) Scaffold expert learning

This book is for teachers and the professionals who support them. It is for educators who are interested in UDL but have not been able to transform practice to increase the outcomes of all learners. As an educator, you can go through the process individual, with a team in a professional learning community, or as a school or district.

Although much has changed in schools in recent years, the power of differentiated instruction remains the same--and the need for it has only increased.

Today's classroom is more diverse, more inclusive, and more plugged into technology than ever before. And it's led by teachers under enormous pressure to help decidedly unstandardized students meet an expanding set of rigorous, standardized learning targets. In this updated second edition of her best-selling classic work, Carol Ann Tomlinson offers these teachers a powerful and practical way to meet a challenge that is both very modern and completely timeless: how to divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively instruct so many students of various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests.

With a perspective informed by advances in research and deepened by more than 15 years of implementation feedback in all types of schools, Tomlinson explains the theoretical basis of differentiated instruction, explores the variables of curriculum and learning environment, shares dozens of instructional strategies, and then goes inside elementary and secondary classrooms in nearly all subject areas to illustrate how real teachers are applying differentiation principles and strategies to respond to the needs of all learners.

This book's insightful guidance on what to differentiate, how to differentiate, and why lays the groundwork for bringing differentiated instruction into your own classroom or refining the work you already do to help each of your wonderfully unique learners move toward greater knowledge, more advanced skills, and expanded understanding. Today more than ever, The Differentiated Classroom is a must-have staple for every teacher's shelf and every school's professional development collection.

STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream explores the ways that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can transform all young people's lives through learning. This includes reimagining our collective relationship to STEM by presenting it as more accepting and accessible than previously acknowledged. Beginning with the ways that STEM has been used to marginalize many children, the book examines the need for the arts - including culture - to serve as an anchor for instruction. It also describes the need for making (hands-on creation and tinkering) in establishing relevance in learning. Then, through an experiential approach, the book articulates the value of dreaming of a future that is inclusive of all young people, especially those furthest from opportunity.

To help all children claim their STEM identity, the book provides educators, policy makers, and community leaders with tangible ways to honor culture, increase equity, and encourage curiosity. The book demystifies STEM and shows a clear pathway to empowering children with the skills needed to succeed in a science and tech-based world. In addition, it offers educators a roadmap to developing future creators, innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs. This includes providing the tools and knowledge necessary to advocate for sustainable change and address inequity, apathy, and the many other real problems in education.

To do so, the book combines real-world stories, observations, and research in a visually-rich package that includes activities, inspiring quotes, and key takeaways. To help ground research and theory, readers will hear from - and be inspired by - practitioners, activists, and artists ranging from renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to founding Wu-Tang Clan member GZA to acclaimed educator Gholdy Muhammad. In profiling these innovators, the book reveals how readers can nurture creativity, spark joy, and promote perseverance in all children.

CAN YOU IMAGINE:

• working with super-charged confidence because you have clarity about how to ensure equity for EVERY student?
• leveraging equitable practices that will make student achievement both measurable and predictable?
• never again wondering if you make a difference, because you now understand you are the difference?

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS, THEN YOU NEED...

RUTHLESS EQUITY

In this powerful, unvarnished examination of the internal obstacles to providing genuine equal opportunities for every student, bestselling author Ken Williams shows readers how to identify and defeat the enemy of equity by unlocking these barriers.

RUTHLESS EQUITY is a provocative, empowering coach and guide guaranteed to galvanize every educator who dreams of being an equity warrior who delivers learning, excellence and achievement for ALL students, regardless of background.

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.

Even before the hit TV show whose name she inspired ever aired, Ms. Abbott was a larger-than-life figure.

The teacher who put the Abbott in TV's hit Abbott Elementary is just as serious about education-and caring-as the show is funny. In her classroom, in the hallways, and in her Philadelphia neighborhood, she could do what other teachers couldn't. But even the legendary Ms. Abbott wasn't always prepared for the situations she faced, though she was always up to the challenge. Now, Teaching the Ms. Abbott Way is here to tell her story and inspire educators with her example.

This book looks at the key moments in Ms. Abbott's career and life, gives voice to her philosophy on teaching, and shows how any educator can care for their students by being serious and passionate about not just what they learn but the climate and community they learn it in.

Now in its 3rd edition, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching is the definitive guide to the gradual release of responsibility--an instructional framework any teacher can use to help students to be more successful and self-directed learners.

To gradually release responsibility is to equip students with what they need to master content and develop new competencies. On a day-to-day basis, it means delivering lessons intentionally structured to incorporate four interrelated phases:

* Focused Instruction (I do it) that sets students up for cognitive apprenticeship by establishing lesson purpose, modeling strategies and skills, and sharing information and insight.
* Guided Instruction (We do it together) that incorporates targeted prompts, cues, and questions to scaffold understanding.
* Collaborative Learning (You do it together) that allows students to consolidate and extend understanding through accountable group tasks built on discussion and cooperative problem solving.
* Independent Learning (You do it alone) that provides students opportunities to practice and apply the skills and knowledge they've acquired to create authentic products and ask new questions.

Authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey detail the components of each phase, sharing proven strategies and real-life examples. You'll find a variety of useful tips for classroom implementation, along with new guidance on teacher credibility, social-emotional learning, and embedding assessment throughout all four phases. No matter what grade level or subject you teach, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching is an essential resource for improving your practice and empowering your students.

Presenting the latest iteration of the Framework for Teaching--the most comprehensive tool yet for teacher self-assessment and reflection, observation and feedback, and collaborative inquiry.

Since 1996, hundreds of teacher preparation programs and thousands of schools, school districts, and government agencies have turned to the Framework for Teaching for a better understanding of excellent instruction. The Framework's four domains, 22 components, and 78 key elements provide an expansive, holistic definition of what teachers across the K-12 spectrum should know and be able to do in the exercise of their profession. Critically, it gives practitioners a common language for visualizing, talking about, and reflecting on their work as they chart their ongoing progress toward instructional excellence.

This streamlined third edition of Enhancing Professional Practice presents the latest evolution of the Framework for Teaching--one that is true to its constructivist roots, shaped by ongoing research, and informed by the experiences of educators in the field. Here you'll find ...

- An updated exploration of a teacher's essential responsibilities, organized into the Framework's four domains--Planning and Preparation, Learning Environments, Learning Experiences, and Principled Teaching.

- Detailed discussions of the 22 teaching competencies (or components) shown to improve student learning, with rubrics clarifying the critical attributes of each and how they manifest at various levels of professional proficiency--Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, and Distinguished.

- A more explicit emphasis on the Framework's philosophical foundation along with additional attention to what teachers can do to achieve equity, honor students' identities, foster social-emotional development, and promote both joyful inquiry and intellectual rigor.

- A more expansive view of family and community engagement and a look at the importance of high-quality instructional materials.

- Increased emphasis on the Framework as a tool for ongoing professional learning--a way to transform what for teachers is too often a meaningless ritual of supervisory evaluation into a powerful process for thinking about and pursuing instructional excellence.

- A summary of the research base and a full set of reproducible domain and component rubrics.

If you or your school are not already using the Framework for Teaching to enhance professional practice, there's never been a better time to join the movement.

The book begins with a discussion of how to understand challenging behavior. This book takes the perspective that behaviors are a result of critical skill deficits in social and emotional skills and can be understood from a perspective of their function for the student.

Next, this book covers the importance of positive, proactive and collaborative methods for addressing behavior. A central theme of this book is for staff members to move away from reactive, disciplinary methods that stress consequences and contingencies to methods that help students address the underlying needs evidenced by their behavior.

A complete review of many different types of behavior management skills, when to use them, how to use them (along with sample dialogue) is provided. This chapter helps the paraprofessional develop a variety of interventions for different students and situations.

De-escalation skills with sample dialogue are also provided to help paraprofessionals learn how to work with students who are emotionally escalated and potentially violent.

The book provides an in-depth discussion of personal/professional boundary dilemmas when working with students. This includes a definition of six types of professional boundaries, and ways to respond to student boundary violations.

The last chapter is devoted to helping paraprofessionals understand common disability categories and psychological diagnoses and debunk some of the myths associated with them.

This book is written especially for education paraprofessionals (often called paraeductors, teacher's aides, educational assistants, or para pros.) The book is also appropriate for anyone who works directly with children in the school district including teachers, volunteers, counselors, bus drivers and other staff who may need to manage difficult behavior.

• Interact and dialogue with teachers as partners
• Guide teachers to identify emotionally compelling, measurable, and student-focused goals
• Set coaching goals, plan strategies, and monitor progress for optimal impact
• Use documentary-style video and text-based case studies as models to promote maximum teacher clarity and proactive problem solving
• Streamline teacher enrollment, data collection, and deep listening

Jim writes, When we grow, improve, and learn, when we strive to become a better version of ourselves, we tap into something deep in ourselves that craves that kind of growth. Read The Impact Cycle and soon you'll discover how you can continually refine your practice to help teachers and students realize their fullest potential.

View Jim Knight's Impact Cycle video trailer:

Effective and practical coaching strategies for new educators plus valuable online coaching tools

Many teachers are only observed one or two times per year on average--and, even among those who are observed, scarcely any are given feedback as to how they could improve. The bottom line is clear: teachers do not need to be evaluated so much as they need to be developed and coached.

In Get Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo shares instructive tools of how school leaders can effectively guide new teachers to success. Over the course of the book, he breaks down the most critical actions leaders and teachers must take to achieve exemplary results. Designed for coaches as well as beginning teachers, Get Better Faster is an integral coaching tool for any school leader eager to help their teachers succeed.

Get Better Faster focuses on what's practical and actionable which makes the book's approach to coaching so effective. By practicing the concrete actions and micro-skills listed in Get Better Faster, teachers will markedly improve their ability to lead a class, producing a steady chain reaction of future teaching success.

Though focused heavily on the first 90 days of teacher development, it's possible to implement this work at any time. Junior and experienced teachers alike can benefit from the guidance of Get Better Faster while at the same time closing existing instructional gaps.

Featuring valuable and practical online training tools available at http: //www.wiley.com/go/getbetterfaster, Get Better Faster provides agendas, presentation slides, a coach's guide, handouts, planning templates, and 35 video clips of real teachers at work to help other educators apply the lessons learned in their own classrooms.

Get Better Faster will teach you:

• The core principles of coaching: Go Granular; Plan, Practice, Follow Up, Repeat; Make Feedback More Frequent
• Top action steps to launch a teacher's development in an easy-to-read scope and sequence guide

It also walks you through the four phases of skill building:

• Phase 1 (Pre-Teaching): Dress Rehearsal
• Phase 2: Instant Immersion
• Phase 3: Getting into Gear
• Phase 4: The Power of Discourse

Perfect for new educators and those who supervise them, Get Better Faster will also earn a place in the libraries of veteran teachers and school administrators seeking a one-stop coaching resource.

Stop the Hate for Goodness Sake shows teachers how to confront racism and disrupt discrimination in order to deepen students' understanding of social justice, diversity, and equity. Background information, statistics, and reports on incidents of hate will help students consider ethical and moral behavior. Forty step-by-step lessons involve discussion, oral and written narratives, case studies, assumption charts, and more. This thoughtful examination of today's world will help teachers encourage reflection, foster inclusion, and inspire students to take action. This in-depth guide will show teachers of 8- to 14-year-olds how to start and manage important conversations that will lead to change.