Discover best practices for implementing efficient school management! While principals may understandably devote a great deal of attention to supporting the cultural and instructional needs of their schools, the core administrative challenge remains: managing the school's personnel, facilities, and financial resources. As the sixth volume of a seven-part series, What Every Principal Should Know About Operational Leadership provides an essential tool for new and veteran principals who want to run their school sites more efficiently and intentionally every day of the school year. Filled with best practice examples, resources, reflection and self-assessment opportunities, and implementation ideas, this guide also includes the following features: Before we get started" questionnaire and response analysis Case study and accompanying reflective questions "What You Should Know About" section framing each chapter Self-Assessment resource for determining effectiveness of cultural leaders This book covers the essentials for organization and time management, overseeing and evaluating facilities, handling the budget, addressing legal mandates, recruiting and evaluating personnel, working with an assistant principal, and enhancing communication in individual and group settings.
Ready-to-Use Activities and Assessments for Grades 6-12
A must-have, must-read resource for every teacher in all subject areas! "This is a great book and full of good ideas that every classroom teacher can use. It has ideas that can be used with diverse students-gifted, ESL, Special Education, and everything in between. Rozmiarek makes a substantial contribution to the reading field with this book." -Arlene Myslinski, ESL Teacher Buffalo Grove High School, IL In today's competitive environment of standards-based education, improving reading proficiency and increasing content knowledge have never been more important. Yet, developing exceptional reading skills in middle and high school students presents many obstacles. In this practical and user-friendly book, literacy specialist Rebecca Rozmiarek shares more than 100 classroom-tested reading activities that will benefit all students in grades 6-12, including gifted, special education, and ELL students. Incorporating years of success in helping struggling secondary students become expert readers, she provides both a jargon-free overview of critical research and activities that every teacher can use to improve reading comprehension and content retention. Student examples and sample modifications show teachers how reading activities can be used in content areas ranging from math and science to social studies and English, and more. Each chapter contains: A skills overview Detailed descriptions of relevant subskills Skill-building activities An assessment rubric Examples of student work Blank reproducibles of every activity Learn how to use double-entry journals, text coding, bookmarking, and questioning strategies to help students become more proficient readers. Based on IRA and NCTE standards, these activities foster independence, self-reflection, and motivation in all students.
Achieve lasting educational benefits through masterfully administered school program evaluations! The annual process of evaluating school programs raises a legitimate question: how to implement quality program evaluations that will not drain a school's resources, but instead help create a school culture that promotes inspired teaching and high academic achievement-and meets NCLB guidelines? In this updated edition of the bestselling text, authors James R. Sanders and Carolyn D. Sullins demonstrate how an effective program evaluation process can conserve resources while yielding substantial benefits for teachers, parents, students, and schools. This user-friendly resource provides concise yet comprehensive coverage of school program evaluation through a highly regarded five-step program. Illustrated by examples and case studies, this approach is designed to help educators develop competence and confidence in program evaluation. Both practicing and aspiring educators can learn to: Successfully manage logistical and scheduling problems Strategically approach school politics, ethical considerations, and interpersonal relations Comprehensively organize and analyze information regarding school programs Effectively respond to the No Child Left Behind Act Discover how to skillfully administer school evaluations that produce lasting educational results!
"Dr. Johnson's book is far more than a how-to guide for constructing meaningful learning activities for students. It is the definitive treatise on the fundamental concepts of acquiring and transferring knowledge. This is an invaluable contribution." Arlene H. Parisot, Director of Workforce Department Office of Commissioner of Higher Education Montana State System "This is a 'must' read for all teachers and administrators in their search for meaning. Elaine Johnson has artfully captured the essence of the 'best practices' conversation taking place in schools today by speaking directly to the heart of classroom experience." Stephen Olczak, Principal Reynolds High School Oregon Contextual teaching and learning (CTL) is a system for teaching that is grounded in brain research. Brain research indicates that we learn best when we see meaning in new tasks and material, and we discover meaning when we are able to connect new information with our existing knowledge and experiences. Students learn best, according to neuroscience, when they can connect the content of academic lessons with the context of their own daily lives. Johnson discusses the elements of the brain-compatible contextual teaching and learning system: making meaningful connections; investing school work with significance; self-regulated learning; collaboration; critical and creating thinking; nurturing the individual; reaching high standards; and using authentic assessment. Drawing on the practices of teachers in kindergarten through university, Johnson provides numerous examples of how to use each part of the CTL system. Contextual Teaching and Learning: What it Is and Why It's Here to Stay is more than a handbook on precise steps to follow to help children of all abilities achieve high standards by joining academic lessons with their immediate context. This book also explains how the brain works, discusses why teachers need to pay attention to context, and makes a strong case for the need to teach students to think critically and creatively. This inspirational book urges educators to eliminate the student question: "Why do we have to learn this?" If the educators invest learning with meaning by relying on context, that question won't have to be asked.
Improving Comprehension Skills for Test Day--and Beyond
Empower your students to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question! Helping students comprehend what they read is a challenging goal, but even more daunting is teaching students to answer comprehension questions in writing. Based on the author's interactions with her students, this innovative text presents a five-step method that has proven not only to help students improve their literacy skills for standardized tests but also, and more important, to help them respond to what they read in your classroom and beyond. This resource presents a process that requires only two 30-minute sessions per week and can be used across content areas and grade levels. Using the built-in scaffolding, students quickly learn how to dismantle even the most challenging comprehension questions and respond to them in clear, sophisticated paragraphs. Numerous rubrics are included, empowering students to: Analyze and respond effectively in writing to comprehension questions Develop and enhance critical vocabulary skills Learn to assess their own work Recognize what constitutes powerful writing Enhance your students' ability and confidence to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question!
This book is intended to help educators in developing and implementing assessment systems to recognize the many options available for consideration. The author promotes reconsideration of testing assumptions, approaches, and their implications by educators and the educational measurement community, including the intended audience - measurement researchers and students.
A Resource for Educators and Others Seeking Grants and Funding
Administrators and central office personnel are not the only educators writing grants. Classroom teachers are finding that grants can provide an excellent source of funding for special classroom projects, school-wide programmes, and even personal growth opportunities. This book is designed to assist educators and others interested in grant writing in using the Internet as a resource to help locate funding sources and other sites that may prove useful when seeking funding. After reading Chapter II's preliminary information on search engines, prospective grant writers can learn about U.S. as well as state Departments of Education, foundations and educational organizations and associations, and more. The author also covers mailing lists, discussion groups, and the most efficient ways to use e-mail addresses.
In an era of declining resources and rising expectations in United States education, public schools are now competing for allocations from a shrinking pool of resources. This book describes how to develop community involvement in schools in order to gain support in terms of funding or commitment.
The Essential Reference for Teachers, Trainers, Presenters, and Speakers
This book features presentation techniques that have proved successful in the classroom, at conferences and in workshops, and that can be used with one or two participants as well as with large audiences. A checklist is included to help the reader decide which method to use when, as are planning and evaluation worksheets for each method.
