While working with students, their parents, and with colleagues, I noticed God is always at work. In many casual conversations, I was encouraged by the number of colleagues that stated their dependence on God for guidance. These short devotions are intended as an encouragement to educators, beginning their school day, to draw attention to the activities of the Holy Spirit in their life and work activities. It is my prayer the reader will identify with many of these devotions and be reminded of the Holy Spirit's activity in their lives.

How do you get a fourth-grader excited about history? How do you even begin to persuade high school students that mathematical functions are relevant to their everyday lives? In this volume, practical questions that confront every classroom teacher are addressed using the latest exciting research on cognition, teaching, and learning. How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the bestselling How People Learn. Now, these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in teaching history, science, and math topics at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. The book explores the importance of balancing students' knowledge of historical fact against their understanding of concepts, such as change and cause, and their skills in assessing historical accounts. It discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. And it shows how to overcome the difficulties in teaching math to generate real insight and reasoning in math students. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities. How Students Learn offers a highly useful blend of principle and practice. It will be important not only to teachers, administrators, curriculum designers, and teacher educators, but also to parents and the larger community concerned about children's education.

Lessons from the Virtual Classroom, Second Edition The second edition of the classic resource Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom offers a comprehensive reference for faculty to hone their skills in becoming more effective online instructors. Thoroughly revised and updated to reflect recent changes and challenges that face online teachers, Lessons from the Virtual Classroom is filled with illustrative examples from actual online courses as well as helpful insights from teachers and students. This essential guide offers targeted suggestions for dealing with such critical issues as evaluating effective courseware, working with online classroom dynamics, addressing the needs of the online student, making the transition to online teaching, and promoting the development of the learning community. Praise for Lessons from the Virtual Classroom, Second Edition "Palloff and Pratt demonstrate their exceptional practical experience and insight into the online classroom. This is an invaluable resource for those tasked with creating an online course." — D. Randy Garrison, professor, University of Calgary, and author, Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines "Faculty will deeply appreciate and make use of the many explicit examples of how to design, prepare, and teach both blended and fully online courses." — Judith V. Boettcher, faculty coach and author, The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips "Lessons from the Virtual Classroom is filled with insightful caveats and recommendations, pointed examples to enhance your practice, succinct summaries of the research, and engaging visual overviews. Each page brings the reader a renewed sense of confidence to teach online as well as personal joy that there is finally a resource to find the answers one is seeking." — Curtis J. Bonk, professor of education, Indiana University-Bloomington, and author, Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing

This book is about lessons learned (both conferred and received) by a fictional protagonist, E. Randall Mann, who was a law teacher at a major law school for over fifty years. There are nine stories or chapters that comprise this book. The stories appear as written in the first person by Mann and a fictitious student, Billie Williams, who served as Mann's research assistant after he retired and ultimately wrote two of the stories in remembrance following Mann's death. Although the context for the lessons learned is law school and legal education, the lessons are intended to be transcendent. They explore the complex ingredients of life that often enrich us all: courage, resilience, survival, introspection, self-knowledge and self-awareness, death and loss, race, trust, friendship, love, and, above all, inspiration. Praise for Lessons Learned: "These stories are written by a mentor and colleague who taught law for 51 years and who provided a guiding influence to countless law school students, administrators, and deans. They serve as a wonderful supplement to One L by Scott Turow, as they go beyond the first year to offer perspectives throughout the law school experience, including lessons learned from colleagues, mentors, family, and above all students." -- Mike Spivey, Spivey Consulting Group There are a number of "lessons learned" contained in this book but there seem to be two prime lessons woven into the fabric of these stories of a teacher. The first lesson learned is stated in metaphorical terms in Chapter 3 and describes the best law school teacher as "a Socratic teacher who could lead and orchestrate an entire class much like the best of symphony conductors . . . but leaves the making of music to orchestral players." More direct are his descriptions of real teachers as those who earn the trust of their students, have a sense of humor and create an effective "classroom chemistry." ... As a colleague of Professor Becker's, Michael Waterstone, wrote, this book "ought to appear on every dean's recommended reading list for people considering law school, or about to enter law school, or about to begin as an entry level teacher in law school." To which I would add, "and every pre-law advisor."-- Gerald Wilson, Duke Universiy

Educators who work with pre-service teachers understand the significant role they play in mentoring the next generation of teachers. Those who have "walked the talk" and been classroom teachers themselves, working with students daily over the course of a school year, can share powerful stories on transformative teaching. To fully prepare tomorrow's teachers, educators need to mix theory about best practice with the reality of teaching in classrooms. Cases on Emotionally Responsive Teaching and Mentoring provides a collection of case studies from former classroom teachers who now work with pre-service teachers to provide an understanding of the expectations and outcomes of teaching through actual K-12 teaching experiences. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cultural identity, teacher development, and learner diversity, this book is ideally designed for pre-service teachers, mentors, educators, administrators, professors, academicians, and students seeking current research on the diverse nature of schools, children, and learning and applying concepts to best suit the profession.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

You can develop the skills to meet the needs of learners in any learning environment. This approachable, in-depth guide unites the adaptability of Universal Design for Learning with the flexibility of blended learning, equipping educators with the tools they need to create relevant, authentic, and meaningful learning pathways to meet students where they're at, no matter the time and place or their pace and path. With step-by-step guidance and clear strategies, authors Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker empower teachers to implement these frameworks in the classroom, with a focus on cultivating community, building equity, and increasing accessibility for all learners. As we face increasing uncertainty and frequent disruption to traditional ways of living and learning, UDL and Blended Learning offers bold, innovative, inclusive solutions for navigating a range of learning landscapes, from the home to the classroom and all points in between, no matter what obstacles may lie ahead.