"Charles Elbot and David Fulton get it! They get how dominant a force a school′s culture is in assisting—or thwarting—the development of learning and character and how extraordinarily difficult it is to make changes. Unlike most of us, they also get how possible it is to build a desirable school culture. This tidy little volume is the authors′ first step in sharing their inventive ′lesson plans′ from their successful work as school culture builders. When we take these lessons learned to heart, we too will get it!" —Roland Barth, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Education Harvard University Transform your school by shaping a culture based on shared values, beliefs, and behaviors. Based on lessons learned from the authors′ work in improving school culture for more than sixty schools across the country, this inspiring guide for school leaders helps create an "intentional school culture" that fosters excellence, builds character, and improves student achievement. The book provides tools, case studies, strategies, and implementation plans for building a strong school culture and offers guidelines for teacher trainings, principal workshops, staff meetings, and district-level use. The authors demonstrate how to: Support students′ independent and interdependent thinking and behavior Foster ethical decision making Collaborate with students, parents, and teachers Evaluate and monitor a plan to enhance the existing school culture The authors illustrate how deliberately shaping a school culture cultivates faculty trust, sets the groundwork for raising test scores, and is a critical ingredient in building a successful school.

Does your school culture have the power to evoke TEARS OF JOY? Cultivate an AWARD WINNING CULTURE! Building whole child intentionality and action through kindness, empathy, and service will reshape, reimagine, and reinvigorate your educational sphere. In Award Winning Culture, Hans Appel beautifully lays out a school-wide framework with which to redefine our everyday actions that leave learners feeling empowered, valued, and passionate about life. His heartfelt stories punctuate the impact that social emotional learning and leadership development have through Character, Excellence, and Community. As you read this book you will learn... How to implement and support the "soft skills" that are critical for students' future success. How to infuse relevant social emotional learning and character education into project based experiential moments. What it takes to create a daily climate of joyful learners armed and ready to make the world a better place. How to apply intentionality to improve the engagement, connection and relationships for all stakeholders. Today's learners need more than just academic content. They need an educational experience rooted deep in purpose and relevance. Award Winning Culture is an exceptional roadmap to support educators' quest to teach kids what matters most.

Packed with hands-on activities, this practical handbook shows you how to be the transformational leader your school needs to enact a culture change and improve student outcomes.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

Leadership, collaborative learning, and student achievement – discover what works! This resource-rich book provides a straightforward, strategic path to achieving sustainable communities of collaborative learners. Research-proven inquiry techniques, vignettes, case studies and action-oriented protocols help you build strong learning relationships for high-impact student achievement. System leaders, principals and teachers learn to: Integrate diverse views and perspectives Build trust and hear every voice Leverage key resources and processes Build students’ cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills Use “Assessments-in-Action” to improve, monitor and sustain progress Build a collaborative culture through learning together Use this go-to guide to transform your school from a place of ‘good intentions’ to a center of intentional practice today!

"In this book, school leaders from instructional coaches to central office staff will find: - A positive, strengths-based focus on learning gains, rather than learning loss - Long-term strategies for improving instruction and increasing achievement - A focus on literacy and numeracy to help all students improve - Short, easy-to-read approach to lasting improvement"--

A proven program for enhancing students' thinking and comprehension abilities Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study. Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines?small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps?as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon. Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies The book also comes with a DVD of video clips featuring Visible Thinking in practice in different classrooms.