"New and veteran leaders who plan professional development or facilitate collaborative group work will find a tool kit of practical process strategies that work!" -Jan Rozzelle, Executive Director School Leadership Institute, The College of William and Mary "Everything you need is in this book. Activities and processes are so clearly explained and easy to follow that educators can adopt the ideas and use them over and over again! A must for teachers, administrators, and professional developers." -Margaret Hable, Educational Consultant The busy leader's easy-to-use resource for successful team building! Tapping into a school's potential for change begins with creating teams that are well organized and committed to sustainable results. This guidebook offers school leaders a wealth of practical team-building strategies for developing trust, establishing a team mission, leading and managing team meetings, and celebrating successes. Team-building consultant Carol Scearce presents an easy-to-use format in an updated edition that includes: Two new chapters on agenda design and problem-solving processes Techniques for facilitating more productive team-building sessions Strategy levels from "simple to use" to "for the committed" Vignettes and examples in each chapter Find out how to move your team members from "brainstorming" to "performing" by implementing team processes that can create lasting change in your school!
"New and veteran leaders who plan professional development or facilitate collaborative group work will find a tool kit of practical process strategies that work!" -Jan Rozzelle, Executive Director School Leadership Institute, The College of William and Mary "Everything you need is in this book. Activities and processes are so clearly explained and easy to follow that educators can adopt the ideas and use them over and over again! A must for teachers, administrators, and professional developers." -Margaret Hable, Educational Consultant The busy leader's easy-to-use resource for successful team building! Tapping into a school's potential for change begins with creating teams that are well organized and committed to sustainable results. This guidebook offers school leaders a wealth of practical team-building strategies for developing trust, establishing a team mission, leading and managing team meetings, and celebrating successes. Team-building consultant Carol Scearce presents an easy-to-use format in an updated edition that includes: Two new chapters on agenda design and problem-solving processes Techniques for facilitating more productive team-building sessions Strategy levels from "simple to use" to "for the committed" Vignettes and examples in each chapter Find out how to move your team members from "brainstorming" to "performing" by implementing team processes that can create lasting change in your school!
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.
"This very accessible book is filled with practical, doable activities and ideas that will enhance the learning of students by involving parents in respectful, meaningful, and productive ways." -Judy Chapman, District Principal, Curriculum Instruction & Assessment, School District #34, Abbotsford, BC "Dr. Boult has written the ultimate guide for helping school administrators and teachers create an effective partnership with parents. Any educational stakeholder (parent, teacher, administrator) will benefit from its content." -Connie Brownell, Teacher Lester B. Pearson School Board, Montreal, QC Use these practical strategies to engage parents and create more successful outcomes for students! Would you like to see children score significantly higher on reading tests? Stay in school longer? Excel in academics? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're not alone! These goals, obtainable and achievable, are directly linked to parent involvement. By taking a committed role in their children's education, parents make a direct, positive impact on academic achievement. With decades of research to support this claim, 176 Ways to Involve Parents, Second Edition, presents ready-to-use ideas to fully engage parents in the school community. Containing numerous new strategies for building bridges between schools and families, this updated edition provides practical ways to: Welcome parents as vital members of the school community Sustain ongoing communication with families Include parents in school governance Develop parent volunteer programs Foster shared ownership of the educational process By including parents as educational partners, schools can create a rich environment that fosters positive student self-esteem and academic success.
Lessons to Prepare Your Students for Standardized Assessments and for Life
Enhance your students' writing skills and boost their scores on standardized writing tests! In today's high-stakes environment, standardized test scores not only gauge student performance, but are also linked to a school's status and the funding it receives. This helpful resource provides educators with a classroom-tested writing curriculum that has proven to boost student scores on standardized writing tests while helping them develop skills for lifelong writing success. The authors offer structured, day-to-day lesson plans linked to national standards; easy-to-use writing tools; and carefully crafted, unscripted lessons that cover a scope and follow a sequence that aims for student success. This curriculum is designed to help you: Become a confident writing teacher Prepare your students for all practical applications of writing Provide students with the analytical tools and skills they need to succeed on standardized writing tests Accommodate students' strengths and weaknesses Create confident readers and writers of your most reluctant students Your students need more than writing prompts and grammar lessons to ensure they will have lifelong writing success. Finally--a way for teachers to provide quality writing instruction that allows them to meet testing demands on time and with confidence!
Lessons to Prepare Your Students for Standardized Assessments and for Life
Enhance your students' writing skills and boost their scores on standardized writing tests! In today's high-stakes environment, standardized test scores not only gauge student performance, but are also linked to a school's status and the funding it receives. This helpful resource provides educators with a classroom-tested writing curriculum that has proven to boost student scores on standardized writing tests while helping them develop skills for lifelong writing success. The authors offer structured, day-to-day lesson plans linked to national standards; easy-to-use writing tools; and carefully crafted, unscripted lessons that cover a scope and follow a sequence that aims for student success. This curriculum is designed to help you: Become a confident writing teacher Prepare your students for all practical applications of writing Provide students with the analytical tools and skills they need to succeed on standardized writing tests Accommodate students' strengths and weaknesses Create confident readers and writers of your most reluctant students Your students need more than writing prompts and grammar lessons to ensure they will have lifelong writing success. Finally--a way for teachers to provide quality writing instruction that allows them to meet testing demands on time and with confidence!
'Grady's book encourages principals who are perpetually pressed for time to get to correspondence that languishes at the bottom of their to-do lists. My own correspondence has doubled since getting my hands on this book!' - Cathie West, Principal, Mountain Way Elementary School, Granite Falls, WA 'The letters cover a wide variety of topics and give administrators ideas on what kind of letters to write. After going through the letters, I realize that I need to send more letters of appreciation to parents and organizations' - Gina Segobiano, Principal//Superintendent, Signal Hill School District 181, Belleville, IL As the key communicators for schools, principals write a wide range of correspondence-from thank-you letters and congratulations to best wishes and other personal notes. Yet, this critical responsibility can easily fall victim to every administrator's busy schedule. Marilyn Grady's updated and expanded collection of letters is truly a timesaving starter kit, with user-friendly and easy-to-personalize templates to revitalize every busy administrator's communications repertoire. This practical resource provides jargon-free templates useful for o Improving communication with parents, teachers, and other school stakeholders o Initiating a "letter-a-day" plan to improve school culture o Advancing parent education, health and wellness, and safety initiatives, among others o Reminding you to communicate with all stakeholders o Evaluating your current written communication o Identifying areas where you could communicate more This targeted collection will add a new level of organization, efficiency, and effectiveness to your communication tasks. Unlock the secrets of effective communication and watch relationships on all levels flourish! Includes a PC- and Mac-compatible CD-ROM containing all letters for easy customization.
"The authors provide many instances in which educators have met or exceeded expectation for growth using the Success for All program, leaving the reader with the feeling that the greatest concern is what is best for the child!" -Pamela Opel, Science Curriculum Coordinator Gulfport School District, Biloxi, MS "The book offers a good background for any school or school system that is considering changing their reading curriculum." -Sandra Kraynok, Kindergarten Teacher Rock Cave Elementary School, WV A proven and powerful model for elementary school literacy! Elementary schools are continuously challenged to ensure that all students become capable readers. Significantly updated with new research and further experience with multiple schools, this enlightening book shows how a school or district can build every child's literacy skills, based on the real-world strategies of an acclaimed school reform program that has benefited more than 2 million children. Written by the program's founders and leaders, this resource shows how educators can use the Success for All program to reach at-risk students and promote schoolwide academic achievement. The authors describe how schools can effectively combine prevention, intensive early intervention, and ongoing assessment to promote strong reading skills. This new edition of One Million Children provides updates to all curriculum areas-including multimedia approaches-drawn from the program's nationwide research and recent advancements. Readers will find: Guidance on developing students' readiness to learn through preschool and kindergarten programs that promote pre-literacy Reading curricula for each age group, with supplemental information on writing and math Recommendations on professional development that helps teachers and administrators support literacy Advice on removing roadblocks to learning through multidisciplinary Solutions Teams and individualized tutoring programs New adaptations for English language learners These strategies and best practices, based on the experiences of thousands of schools, can help all children succeed in the elementary years.
20 Biggest Mistakes Principals Make and How to Avoid Them is specifically designed for principals as a means of reflecting on their personal behaviour and experiences as principal. The mistakes reported in this book reflect a collection of conversations with teachers, administrators, and the author's own personal experiences as both a teacher and ......
