*"*Mentoring Novice Teachers is thorough, comprehensive, and well thought out. The author provides an important addition to the growing number of publications about mentoring. Its focus is on the content of mentor training and development. Content is conveyed in a constructivist mode through group dialogue, while at the same time allowing for individual reflection."—Hal Portner, Author, Mentoring New TeachersDeepen mentors′ awareness of effectiv...

This text provides opportunities for administrators to use evaluation processes more effectively to support teacher development. Through the use of practice scenarios and communication exercises, principals can develop a more supportive, relational process for teacher evaluation. Too often principals provide evaluation feedback in ways that do not resonate with teachers. This text examines the communicative process and provides practice and skill-building opportunities that will enable pri...

With the current emphasis on assessment and data-driven instruction, pre-service teachers rarely get a chance to consider how they will deal with the dilemmas that may surface in their future classrooms. The case studies in this book enable novice educators to consider the possibilities for dealing with issues, but it also provides a process for them to hone their instructional skills, as the book includes information for developing questions and facilitating the case discussions. In this ...

Any teacher can be a master teacher.So says Robyn R. Jackson, author of the best-selling Never Work Harder Than Your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching.In this book for school leaders, Jackson presents a new model for understanding teaching as a combination of skill and will and explains the best ways to support individual teachers' ongoing professional development. Here, you'll learn how to meet your teachers where they are and help every one of them—...

Turn skepticism about data into knowledge for true educational reform!More versatile than mere number crunching and statistics, data can be an effective tool—or even a powerful catalyst—for change within a school. By replacing cynicism with conviction, learning to harness data′s power, and becoming good users of data to positively impact student achievement, school leaders can develop three crucial capacities: an inquiry habit of mind, data literacy, and a...

Guiding schools through significant change is one of the toughest challenges educational leaders face, but learning from the examples of those who have succeeded can make it less daunting. In Leading Change in Your School, distinguished author and researcher Douglas B. Reeves offers lessons learned through his work with educators in thousands of schools around the world and presents real-life examples of leaders who have met the challenge of change head-on—with impressive results ...

Schools across the world are struggling to balance the statutory requirements of a National Curriculum with their desire to provide the wide, engaging and exciting curriculum that they know children need. Concerns about standards often lead to a narrowing of the curriculum and many schools lack the confidence and approach to design that would enable them to resolve what seems like an impossible dilemma.In this authoritative yet engaging book, Brian Male looks at how schools can mee...

The Pull of the Earth is Laurie Thorp's dirt-under-the-fingernails ethnography of four years in an elementary school garden and the ways in which this garden catalyzed cultural transformation and inspired hope, growth, and community. Filled with photographs, sketches, poetry, and journal entries, Thorp's engaging book describes the educational benefits of learning through the environment: lessons on nutrition, the rhythms and cycles found in nature, and the stability found in entering a re...

Discover the link between ethical leadership and successful educational communities!In an age of accountability and transparency, principals are held responsible for everything from test scores to school finances. Because of this increased accountability, school leaders must regularly confront difficult ethical dilemmas.Ethical Leadership in Schools teaches principals and aspiring principals the concepts that inform ethica...

Guidance for ever-changing challenges, success through improved effectivenessEquip yourself to face the demands of a superintendent with this practical guide for new and veteran school leaders. Understanding leadership and budgets is only one piece of a pie that has grown to include privatization, performance-based teacher compensation, technology, and global comparisons like PISA.Based on 15 years of research with 300 superintendents, including me...

How to base learning on mastery instead of timeWhat if you could remove time and space pressures from the process of teaching and learning? The authors of Off the Clock not only suggest this, but they have implemented it in New Hampshire. Due in part to their work, the New England Consortium won the 2011 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation through the Education Commission of the States. This book′s core idea is that student ac...

Learning can take place anywhere. So does the detail of the physical surroundings provided by schools matter? After many years of minimal investment in school premises, schools in the UK are in the midst of a wave of planning, building and using new schools. This includes all English secondary schools, being renewed through Building Schools for the Future (BSF), as well as schemes for English primaries and programmes of school construction in Scotland and Wales. Starting from an educationa...