What does it mean to care? Caring is a thoughtful, empathetic concern for the world around us. It is a pebble that, when thrown into a pond, spreads influential rings to the family, school, community, and beyond. In Creating Caring Communities with Books Kids Love, teachers and parents are shown how to build a caring community in the classroom and at home in order to help combat apathy and violence in today's world. Specifically targeted for grades K-6, and incorporating a wide range of fiction and nonfiction selections, as well as offering a rich foundation of expository and expressive activities, Creating Caring Communities provides teachers with tools for promoting caring attitudes, behaviors, and values among young learners in their personal, family, school, neighborhood, nation, and world environments.
As schools struggle to teach all students, the multi-age teaching and learning framework has emerged as one of today’s most effective ways to structure schools. Multi-age Learning Community (MAC) Program is a professional development program in action. It presents a framework that can transform schools from a graded system to a multi-age learning environment. This multi-age school targets students’ individual and personal needs and allows students to excel and succeed. The school reform climate today focuses on schools of choice and building effective school environments. This multi-age program creates a unique school niche that is marketable to families. Parents have the option of sending their children to schools that concentrate on achievement that best meets the needs of the learner without disrupting the mandates of the curricula. This book is intended to assist educators at all levels of all school organizations, as well as give policymakers, educators and parents the information on an effective school program. This book gives information on how to transform schools into multi-age classrooms. This book is divided into four parts that explain both the theory and the practice of effective strategies for the multi-age school program: Organizational Practice, Building Culture, Learning Processes, and Assessment and Systemic Improvement. There are specific basic principles and practices that are integrated into a quality and effective framework discussed in the chapters of this book. Each chapter begins with a vignette based on my experiences in multiage schools and concludes with an educator’s reflection to recap the concepts in the chapter. Each chapter also integrates snapshots that areshort real-to-life passages that bring to life concepts discussed in the chapter. Although this book discusses multi-age schools, these ideas may be applied to all school environments. To accommodate all school programs, at the end of each chapter, a section titled Application for All Schools is a framework that discusses just how to apply chapter concepts in any school or classroom program. It is recommended that the reader review the book one time in sequence and then reread each chapter as needed, to give meaning to the reader’s purpose.
Create a unified, caring classroom in which all students love to learn and feel a sense of belonging. Developed from the author’s experience, this resource helps you create an emotionally safe environment, teach empathy as a primary skill, and much more.
Instructional theory describes a variety of methods of instruction (different ways of facilitating human learning and development) and when to use--and not use--each of those methods. It is about how to help people learn better. This volume provides a concise summary of a broad sampling of new methods of instruction currently under development, helps show the interrelationships among these diverse theories, and highlights current issues and trends in instructional design. It is a sequel to Instructional-Design Theories and Models: An Overview of Their Current Status, which provided a "snapshot in time" of the status of instructional theory in the early 1980s. Dramatic changes in the nature of instructional theory have occurred since then, partly in response to advances in knowledge about the human brain and learning theory, partly due to shifts in educational philosophies and beliefs, and partly in response to advances in information technologies. These changes have made new methods of instruction not only possible, but also necessary in order to take advantage of new instructional capabilities offered by the new technologies. These changes are so dramatic that many argue they constitute a new paradigm of instruction, which requires a new paradigm of instructional theory. In short, there is a clear need for this Volume II of Instructional Design Theories and Models. To attain the broad sampling of methods and theories it presents, and to make this book more useful for practitioners as well as graduate students interested in education and training, this volume contains twice as many chapters, but each half as long as the ones in Volume I, and the descriptions are generally less technical. Several unique features are provided by the editor to help readers understand and compare the theories in this book: *Chapter 1, which discusses the characteristics of instructional theory and the nature of the new paradigm of instruction, helps the reader identify commonalities across the theories. *Chapter forewords, which summarize the major elements of the instructional-design theories, are useful for reviewing and comparing theories, as well as for previewing a theory to decide if it is of interest, and for developing a general schema that will make it easier to understand. *Editor's notes provide additional help in understanding and comparing the theories and the new paradigm of instruction to which they belong. *Units 2 and 4 have introductory chapters to help readers analyze and understand the theories in those units. This is an essential book for anyone interested in exploring new approaches to fostering human learning and development and thinking creatively about ways to best meet the needs of learners in all kinds of learning contexts. Readers are invited to use Dr. Charles Reigeluth's Web site to comment and to view others' comments about the instructional design theories in this book, as well as other theories. Point your browser to: www.indiana.edu/~idtheory
In a seemingly tumultuous time of political change, caring and healing are needed now more than ever. This is especially true in education, which has been criticized for a disproportionate focus on the technical aspects of teaching with less focus on its “human” aspects. Creating Caring and Supportive Educational Environments for Meaningful Learning is a collection of innovative research on the practical and theoretical questions involved in organizing traditional and nontraditional areas of study around themes of care and support for students within the framework of current educational systems and standards. While highlighting topics including service learning, ethics of care, and student mental health, this book is ideally designed for teachers, administrators, researchers, and academicians seeking current research on the importance and ethics of the human aspects of education.
It is essential for all schools to integrate trauma-informed care into practice as children, parents, and teachers live with the threat of COVID-19. In her new book, Lesley Koplow explores the Emotionally Responsive Practice (ERP) approach designed to support children and teachers’ emotional well-being in the public-school setting. ERP encourages school staff to look at children through the lens of child development, as well as through the lens of their life experiences, in order to help them resolve foundational social and emotional milestones. Unlike many SEL programs, ERP asks adults to consider the ways that educational philosophy and school climate impact emotional, social, and cognitive outcomes for young children. This timely resource offers teachers, school leaders, and school-based clinicians a vision and blueprint for engaging in relationship-based, trauma-informed practice in early childhood and elementary school grades. Book Features: A timely sequel to the author’s groundbreaking text, Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal, Second Edition. Explores the need for meaningful curriculum as a component of a healing school environment.Provides a unifying language to help teachers, school leaders, and school social workers to work across disciplines.Includes specific examples of classroom processes and practices that support the emotional well-being of young children.
Rituals and traditions in preschool programs have the power to - Connect children, families, and staff - Foster a sense of belonging - Create a positive learning environment The information in this book answers the questions of why rituals and traditions are important and how teachers can incorporate them into their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plans to create a supportive, caring community.
This book focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners, who should be growing and learning along with the children in their care. It lays out a theory of what parents and teachers need to care for children and themselves and then it shows how the author has assisted parents and teachers to put these theories into practice. McDermott relies on stories and listening to the voices of parents, teachers and children to make her case. She weaves together the latest theories and research with these stories. She uses narratives of actual school meetings, workshops, parent planning and discussion groups, testimonies, newsletters, and research of others in the field, to demonstrate applications of theory and research. She fills a gap by focusing on parents from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Key Features: o Focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners o Focuses on the dynamic process of parenting and teaching o Provides a theory to practice model to support parents, families and teachers o Provides a tool or guide for thinking through problems and finding solutions that take into consideration the needs of all involved.
