In Teaching for Purpose, Heather Malin explores the idea of purpose as the purpose of education and shows how educators can prepare youth to live intentional, fulfilling lives. The book highlights the important role that purpose—defined as “a future-directed goal that is personally meaningful and aimed at contributing to something larger than the self”—plays in optimal youth development and in motivating students to promote the cognitive and noncognitive skills that teachers want to instill. Based on a decade of research conducted at the Stanford University Center on Adolescence, the book explores how educators and schools can promote purpose through attention to school culture, curriculum, project learning, service learning, and other opportunities. Malin argues for expansive thinking on the direction schools should take, especially in terms of educating students to be creative, innovative, and self-directed critical thinkers. The book includes profiles of six organizations working in schools across the US that have made purpose development a priority. Infused with the engaging voices of purposeful youth, Teaching for Purpose offers a fresh, inspirational guide for educators who are looking for new ways to support students to succeed not only in school, but in life.

Great teaching is not just a matter of talent or creativity or passion. Teachers are made, not born, and great teachers know why they do what they do in their classrooms. They do it strategically and purposefully based on technique. Teach on Purpose! demonstrates a high-quality research-based and practical approach to teaching that focuses on how to use data about students’ identities, experiences, and knowledge to design responsive curriculum and instruction that ensures learning. The authors provide secondary school teachers with scientifically proven strategies for creating learning environments that increase student motivation, engagement, and academic achievement. The text features model units authored and taught by practicing classroom teachers in math, science, social studies, and language arts to demonstrate key principles that can be used in any classroom to be a true professional educator. Teach on Purpose! empowers teachers across all content areas to create meaningful teaching and learning experiences together with their students for the success of all. “Examines powerfully both the art and the science, the heart and the mind of teaching, arguing for distributive practices that link healing and hope to profound opportunities based in responsive classroom engagements” —David Kirkland, associate professor of English and Urban Education, New York University “Will energize you and remind you why you joined the teaching profession in the first place.” —Renee Boss, National Board Certified Teacher and Education Blogger “Encourages us all to remember that we shape our students with the skills we help them develop and, just as equally, with the fires we ignite within them.” —Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, former student and 2016 Kentucky Teacher of the Year “Soon-to-be-teachers, new teachers, veteran teachers, embittered teachers, emboldened teachers, and even those who prepare and work with those teachers will benefit from this book.” —Brandon Abdon, Advanced Placement Program, The College Board

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

For five days a week for approximately nine months out of the year totaling countless hours, teachers work with other people’s most treasured gifts—their children. That the teacher is the most important element in fostering an energetic, engaging, and inspiring classroom environment where authentic learning can unfold cannot be overstated. Indeed, it is the teacher who understands self or does not; it is the teacher who is prepared or is not; it is the teacher who has command of subject matter or does not; it is the teacher who inculcates in an appropriate way or does not; and, it is the teacher who is patient, understanding, empathetic, and enthusiastic or is not. To that end, Teaching With Purpose underscores what it means to be an insightful teacher, foundationally emphasizing that the central aspect toward richly transforming education is through the professionalization of what it means to be a teacher. Written in accessible language, and attentive to connecting theory to practice, the benefits and features of this book are mindful of a diverse readership.

"Drawing on Christine Sleeter's review of research on the academic and social impact of ethnic studies commissioned by the National Education Association, this book will examine the value and forms of teaching and researching ethnic studies. The book employs a diverse conceptual framework, including critical pedagogy, anti-racism, Afrocentrism, Indigeneity, youth participatory action research, and critical multicultural education. The book provides cases of classroom teachers to 'illustrate what such conceptual framework look like when enacted in the classroom, as well as tensions that spring from them within school bureaucracies driven by neoliberalism.' Sleeter and Zavala will also outline ways to conduct research for 'investigating both learning and broader impacts of ethnic research used for liberatory ends'"--

In Memoriam for Julia Gardner.

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