Rethinking Elementary Education collects the finest writing about elementary school life and learning from 25 years of Rethinking Schools magazine. The articles in this collection offer practical insights about how to integrate the teaching of content with a social justice lens, seek wisdom from students and their families, and navigate stifling tests and mandates. Teachers and parents will find both inspiration and hope in these pages.
"Ruth Charney gives teachers help on things that really matter. She wants children to learn how to care for themselves, their fellow students, their environment, and their work. Her book is loaded with practical wisdom. Using Charney's positive approach to classroom management will make the whole school day go better." - Nel Noddings, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, and author of Caring This definitive work about classroom management will show teachers how to turn their vision of respectful, friendly, academically rigorous classrooms into reality. The new edition includes: More information on teaching middle-school students Additional strategies for helping children with challenging behavior Updated stories and examples from real classrooms. "Teaching Children to Care offers educators a practical guide to one of the most effective social and emotional learning programs I know of. The Responsive Classroom approach creates an ideal environment for learning—a pioneering program every teacher should know about." - Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence "I spent one whole summer reading Teaching Children to Care. It was like a rebirth for me. This book helped direct my professional development. After reading it, I had a path to follow. I now look forward to rereading this book each August to refresh and reinforce my ability to effectively manage a social curriculum in my classroom." - Gail Zimmerman, second-grade teacher, Jackson Mann Elementary School, Boston, MA
Not your typical how-to manual for new teachers, this no-nonsense, jargon-free guide offers a wide variety of tools and tactics for getting through every school day with grace and sanity. Covered in glue, glitter, orange juice—or worse? Make a quick change into the spare set of clothes you keep on hand for just this purpose. Butterflies in your stomach before your first-ever Meet the Teacher Night? Keep your cool by writing the agenda on your board—it’ll double as a crib sheet for you. These tips and hundreds more, covering virtually every aspect of teaching, have all been learned the hard way: from real-life classroom experience. Otis Kriegel’s “little black book” will be a treasured resource for teachers who want not only to survive but to thrive in any situation.
While teaching at an all-Black middle school in Atlanta, Meira Levinson realized that students’ individual self-improvement would not necessarily enable them to overcome their profound marginalization within American society. This is because of a civic empowerment gap that is as shameful and antidemocratic as the academic achievement gap targeted by No Child Left Behind. No Citizen Left Behind argues that students must be taught how to upend and reshape power relationships directly, through political and civic action. Drawing on political theory, empirical research, and her own on-the-ground experience, Levinson shows how de facto segregated urban schools can and must be at the center of this struggle. Recovering the civic purposes of public schools will take more than tweaking the curriculum. Levinson calls on schools to remake civic education. Schools should teach collective action, openly discuss the racialized dimensions of citizenship, and provoke students by engaging their passions against contemporary injustices. Students must also have frequent opportunities to take civic and political action, including within the school itself. To build a truly egalitarian society, we must reject myths of civic sameness and empower all young people to raise their diverse voices. Levinson’s account challenges not just educators but all who care about justice, diversity, or democracy.
Use the neuroscience of emotional learning to transform your teaching. How can the latest breakthroughs in the neuroscience of emotional learning transform the classroom? How can teachers use the principles and practices of positive psychology to ensure optimal 21st-century learning experiences for all children? Patty O’Grady answers those questions. Positive Psychology in the Elementary School Classroom presents the basics of positive psychology to educators and provides interactive resources to enrich teachers’ proficiency when using positive psychology in the classroom. O’Grady underlines the importance of teaching the whole child: encouraging social awareness and positive relationships, fostering self-motivation, and emphasizing social and emotional learning. Through the use of positive psychology in the classroom, children can learn to be more emotionally aware of their own and others’ feelings, use their strengths to engage academically and socially, pursue meaningful lives, and accomplish their personal goals. The book begins with Martin Seligman’s positive psychology principles, and continues into an overview of affective learning, including its philosophical and psychological roots, from finding the “golden mean” of emotional regulation to finding a child’s potencies and “golden self.” O’Grady connects the core concepts of educational neuroscience to the principles of positive psychology, explaining how feelings permeate the brain, affecting children’s thoughts and actions; how insular neurons make us feel empathy and help us learn by observation; and how the frontal cortex is the hall monitor of the brain. The book is full of practical examples and interactive resources that invite every educator to create a positive psychology classroom, where children can flourish and reach their full potential.
How can teachers learn what they need to know? Every community of educators, regardless of field or specialisation, can benefit from being well informed about current research findings. A considerable amount of mathematics education research exists to inform teachers and administrators about teaching and learning mathematics. Research can show what is possible and what looks promising. It can demonstrate what is possible for students - what they can learn under specific kinds of conditions. Research can show that students can reach certain goals and that some kinds of instruction are especially effective in helping them get there. Learn how to use current research to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics. The Teaching and Learning Mathematics series presents ideas from research to improve mathematics education in schools. Each book presents findings from research to enhance the quality of classroom mathematics teaching and learning. Translating Research for Elementary School Teachers contains eleven stand-alone articles, each with a list of references, which put current research into the hands of teachers. Each article addresses key practitioner-generated questions with brief, direct answers, devoid of technical language and theory. It also includes a “How to Use this Book” section that provides specific suggestions for using the book in professional development workshops and for making policy decisions.
In clear, concise language, this book deals with fundamental issues that must be addressed if teachers are to construct coherent and powerful history curricula, including: What are the purposes and goals that different types of teachers establish for their history teaching?, and What do children know and think about history, and what are the teaching implications for our schools? This book represents a major advance in developing a knowledge base about childrens historical learning and thinking that applies to history teaching some of the principles involved in teaching for understanding and conceptual change teaching, methods that have been so successful in other school subjects.
Are you looking for an engaging and accessible resource to support your understanding of classroom instruction? This authors of this text provide you with engaging narrative that brings K-12 classrooms to life. A reflective planning model introduced in the beginning of the text helps you make the important connection between planning and addressing curriculum standards. In addition to reflective teaching, this edition explores classroom management, diversity, standards, curriculum and lesson planning, active and authentic learning, technology in education, assessment, and working in the school community. Because this edition also pays specific attention to professional standards (INTASC, curriculum standards, and Praxis II) you will gain confidence as you prepare for a career in teaching.
Integrating musical activities in the elementary school classroom can assist in effectively teaching and engaging students in Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies, while also boosting mental, emotional and social development. However, many elementary education majors fear they lack the needed musical skills to use music successfully. Future elementary school teachers need usable, practical musical strategies to easily infuse into their curriculum. Written for both current and future teachers with little or no previous experience in music, Using Music to Enhance Student Learning, Second Edition offers strategies that are not heavily dependent on musical skills. While many textbooks are devoted to teaching music theory skills, this textbook is dedicated to pedagogy – the actual teaching of music – particularly in those schools without a separate music class in their curriculum. The ultimate goal is for future teachers to provide their elementary school classes with engaging learning experiences. These learning experiences are clearly presented to enable children to acquire knowledge in all subject areas within a joyful, creative environment rich with music activities. New to the second edition are the animated listening maps, more audio tracks, a new guitar unit, expanded coverage in the recorder unit, a connection with visual art and music, expanded activities in American history and math, and updated research and statistics. SPECIAL FEATURES Animated "Listening Maps" help listeners focus on music selections through clear visual representations of sound. Group Activities reinforce the social aspects of music-making, as well as the benefits of collaborative teaching and learning. A thorough integration of music in the curriculum establishes that music is essential in a child’s development, and that the incorporation of music will enhance all other subjects/activities in the classroom. Learning Aids include "Tantalizing Tidbits of Research," which provide the justifications for why these activities are important, as well as "Teaching Tips," and "Thinking It Through" activities. The Using Music Package Streamed listening selections from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary Periods Get America Singing... Again! Volume 1 (developed in association with the Music Educators National Conference, now NAFME, and other music organizations) with 43 songs that represent America’s varied music heritage of folk, traditional, and patriotic themes Appendices include a songbook with Hispanic folksongs, a recorder music songbook and a guitar unit Companion website hosts various teaching and learning resources ISBN 978-0-367-11067-3 Using Music, Second Edition set includes: ISBN 978-0-415-70936-1 Using Music, Second Edition textbook Get America Singing... Again! Volume 1 songbook ISBN 978-0-429-02487-0 Using Music, Second Edition eBook is the textbok only. The songbook is only available with the print textbook and is not sold separately.
Organized around four commonplaces of education—learners and learning, subject matter, teachers and teaching, and classroom environment—Elementary Social Studies provides a rich and ambitious framework to help social studies teachers achieve powerful teaching and learning results. By blending the theoretical and the practical, the authors deeply probe the basic elements of quality instruction—planning, implementation, and assessment—always with the goal of creating and supporting students who are motivated, engaged, and thoughtful. Book features and updates to the third edition include: • New chapter on classroom assessment that outlines and compares existing assessment strategies, contextualizes them within the framework of state standards, and articulates a constructivist approach that moves away from traditional high-stakes testing towards more meaningful ways of evaluating student learning • New chapter that highlights and explains key elements of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, and shows how the incorporation of critical ELA instruction into the social studies curriculum can foster more ambitious teaching and learning • Real-classroom narratives that introduce each chapter and provide in-depth access to teaching and learning contexts • Practical curriculum and resource suggestions for the social studies classroom • End-of-chapter summaries and annotated teaching resources
