How to Hire, Train, and Supervise Non-Certified Staff
"An excellent desk reference for all school administrators regarding the role of paraeducators." Kent Gerlach, Professor School of Education Tacoma, Washington "Nancy French's new book provides wide-ranging information, ideas, and strategies to effectively utilize paraeducator support in today's schools. This guide is a helpful resource for administrators and teachers." Michael Giangreco Center on Disability and Community Inclusion Burlington, Vermont Specific Strategies for Utilizing the Talents of One of Our Most Valuable Resources-Paraeducators! Paraprofessionals--or paraeducators--have long been an invaluable resource in our schools. A well-trained paraeducator not only boosts teacher morale and school-home-community relations, but also increases the amount and quality of instructional time as well as student achievement levels. But where are paraeducators' talents best utilized? Who will train them? And how can we best serve the ever-changing needs of the student population? This comprehensive resource provides teachers and administrators with answers to these important questions and much more, supplying practical tools and strategies for how to best recruit, manage, and use paraeducators in their schools. French gives specific guidelines for working with paraeducators in Special Education, Title 1, Bilingual (ESL), School Library/Media Center, General and Special Education Classrooms, Speech/Language Pathology, and Health Care Services, helping teachers and administrators make the right decisions for their districts and schools. Managing Paraeducators includes: Practical, easy-to-use worksheets that identify the needs and readiness of a school to employ paraeducators, providing a platform for team communication and the development of personalized job descriptions Self-assessment and support checklists that identify potential problems and how to surmount them Guidelines for helping make sure paraeducators are being used in ways that most contribute to student achievement Strategies for identifying best practices, timeframes, and person(s) best suited to training paraprofessionals
Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms explores three clusters and ten actual models used in comprehensive school reform. Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms shows how leadership is affected by and transformed by the major reform initiatives being implemented in America's schools. While research-based, the editors and contributors have committed to writing to a broad audience of practitioners. The editors provide readers with lessons in leadership that can be drawn from the programs explored in each chapter by leaders in their field.
New role changes resulting from school reform agandas such as site based managment, school choice and collaboration present an urgent need for school administrators to develop strategies to help them `find their way'. The authors offer mentoring. Their approach is based on understanding the socialization and mentoring literature and their belief that socialization, and therefore mentoring, should be a career-long experience.
Among the most pressing educational problems are those regarding human relations - specifically how students relate to one another, themselves and their environment. Based on extensive field testing and the work of contemporary psychologists, Courageous Teaching is concerned with the contemporary demand for 'values education' in the classroom. The author provides a model which incorporates the 'New R's' - reflection, responsibility, relationships and respect - into the school curriculum.
What is teacher self-evaluation? Why is it important? The authors of this book address these questions by describing common strategies used in teacher self-evaluation and providing numerous examples of simple self-evaluation procedures to help teachers learn about their teaching beliefs, knowledge, practices and effectiveness. They conclude with suggestions for beginning the self-evaluation process.
This volume focuses on maximizing productivity of teachers and other school staff and covers all phases of professional development. Specific suggestions are given on a number of areas, such as hiring the best teachers, providing quality in-service training, motivating and evaluating teachers, arresting burnout, dismissing incompetent teachers and using support staff resources.
Though schools have long relied on teachers to assume leadership roles, they have received little assistance in becoming the leaders they are expected to be. Leadership preparation tends to focus on teaching educators to become administrators rather than teacher leaders. This innovative sourcebook is designed to redress the balance. Based on a thorough review of current literature, A Handbook for Teacher Leaders guides readers through the leadership skills and strategies they will require. Issues covered include leading in curriculum development and school restructuring, and leading teachers in their professional development.
What Award-Winning Elementary and Middle School Principals Do
This volume offers an impressive collection of ideas to enhance education submitted by the heads of some of America's leading schools. The broad range of concepts will be of interest to any teacher who is committed to creating an outstanding school.
This book explains academic anxiety, what causes it and what its physical and intellectual effects are. Strategies are provided for teachers and school counsellors to use with students in a one-on-one setting to overcome serious academic anxiety.
