Educators know that teachers are a school's most essential strength. In Building Teachers' Capacity for Success, authors Pete Hall (winner of the 2004 ASCD Outstanding Young Educator Award) and Alisa Simeral offer a straightforward plan to help site-based administrators and instructional coaches collaborate to bring out the best in every teacher, build a stronger and more cohesive staff, and achieve greater academic success. Their model of Strength-Based School Improvement is an alternative to a negative, deficit-approach focused on fixing what's wrong. Instead, they show school leaders how to achieve their goals by working together to maximize what's right. Filled with clear, proven strategies and organized around two easy-to-use tools--the innovative Continuum of Self-Reflection and a feedback-focused walk-through model--this book offers a differentiated approach to coaching and supervision centered on identifying and nurturing teachers' individual strengths and helping them reach new levels of professional success and satisfaction. Here, you'll find front-line advice from the authors, one a principal and the other an instructional coach, on just what to look for, do, and say in order to start seeing positive results right now. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

Educators know that teachers are a school's most essential strength. In Building Teachers' Capacity for Success, authors Pete Hall (winner of the 2004 ASCD Outstanding Young Educator Award) and Alisa Simeral offer a straightforward plan to help site-based administrators and instructional coaches collaborate to bring out the best in every teacher, build a stronger and more cohesive staff, and achieve greater academic success. Their model of Strength-Based School Improvement is an alternative to a negative, "deficit approach" focused on fixing what's wrong. Instead, they show administrators, coaches, and teachers how to achieve their goals by working together to maximize what's right.

“It’s not the doing that matters; it’s the thinking about the doing,” said John Dewey. As a teacher, you work hard to make a positive difference in the lives of your students. But this kind of progress doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s the result of intentionality, planning, effort . . . and thought. The difference between learning a skill and being able to implement it effectively resides in your capacity to engage in deep, continuous thought about that skill. In other words, recognizing why you do something is often more important than knowing how to do it. To help you deepen your thinking and reflect on your capacity as an educator, Pete Hall and Alisa Simeral return to the Continuum of Self-Reflection, which they introduced to coaches and administrators in their best-selling Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success, and redesign its implementation so you can take charge of your own professional growth. In these pages, you’ll find tools specifically made to enhance self-reflection on professional practice, including the Continuum of Self-Reflection and the Reflective Cycle. You’ll be able to assess your current self-reflective tendencies, identify opportunities to reflect on your instruction, and begin to forge a path toward continuous growth and educational excellence.

As a school administrator, instructional coach, or teacher leader, you know that reflective teachers are effective teachers. But how can you help teachers become self-reflective practitioners whose thoughtful approach translates into real gains for student achievement? In Creating a Culture of Reflective Practice—a companion volume to their teacher-oriented book Teach, Reflect, Learn—authors Pete Hall and Alisa Simeral draw on lessons learned from educators across grade levels, content areas, and district demographics to present a definitive guide to developing a culture of reflective practice in your school. Hall and Simeral expand on ideas originally presented in Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success to help you gain a clear understanding of your role and responsibilities—and those of your teachers—within each stage of the Continuum of Self-Reflection. Armed with the book’s real-life examples and research-based tools, you’ll learn how to determine the current location of all stakeholders on the continuum and how teacher-leadership activities, transformational feedback, and strategic coaching can move them forward. The end result? A schoolwide culture that both values reflection and uses it to ensure that teachers—and their students—reach their fullest potential.

While most educators believe working in teams is valuable, not all team efforts lead to instructional improvement. Through richly detailed case studies The Power of Teacher Teams demonstrates how schools can transform their teams into more effective learning communities that foster teacher leadership. The benefits of successful teacher teams include: improved performance for both teachers and students; meaningful professional development; group adoption of a new curriculum; shared insights into student work; better classroom management; support for new teachers; new roles for teacher leaders; and opportuniteis for mentor support.School leaders will find guidelines, methods, and concrete steps for building and sustaining effective teacher teams. Also included is a DVD with video case studies and one CD with reproducibles. The most important reason for building teacher teams is to enhance student learning through improved instruction, and that story is at the heart of this book.

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection

With five new case studies, this revised edition shows principals and staff developers how to collaborate with teachers in fostering, developing, and supporting teacher leadership.