Learn how to develop and teach effective courses on the vital issues of family life The Craft of Teaching About Families presents a variety of course designs, evaluation methods, and teaching techniques and strategies that can be used to address the complexities of family life. This unique book prepares students for the challenges they’ll face as they leave the campus for the classroom, providing them with the problem-solving skills they’ll need for success. The book’s contributors—a distinguished panel of family scientists, sociologists, public policy analysts, psychologists, and extension specialists—examine a range of topics, including family law and policy, advocacy, parenting skills, international families, and diversity. One of the few books geared to teaching family studies, particularly family policy and family law, The Craft of Teaching About Families reaffirms the importance of teaching in a time when controversial family issues receive constant attention from the media, the courts, and the legislatures. In addition to articles on family policy, family law, marriage and the family, family interaction and dynamics, and cultural diversity, the book addresses empirical assessments of internships and service learning activities in family-oriented courses, the effectiveness of various teaching strategies, including role-playing, classroom simulations, and Web-based assignments. Divided into three sections for ease of use, The Craft of Teaching About Families examines: Family Law and Family Policy how to build writing skills through the preparation of court briefs and policy memos how to use cooperative learning research teams to teach family law how to design better courses by understanding students’ perceptions of family policy issues how cooperative extension can help involve families in the policymaking process Family Dynamics how to develop a course in father-daughter relationships how to incorporate parenting education workshops into a parent-child relationship course how to prepare students to become competent multicultural educators how to develop a course on international families from a family strengths perspective how to develop a new framework for teaching family resources management Teaching Techniques in Family Science how to incorporate effective role-playing into the syllabus how to use small-group work to create a positive experience in the classroom how to educate future teachers about psychological abuse how to teach students about forgiveness toward those who have hurt them how to analyze the results of service-learning assignments in family diversity The Craft of Teaching About Families is an essential resource for professionals who teach about individuals and families at any level, in any setting—formal or informal.

"Family isn't always your relatives. It's the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what." -Unknown Teachers do so much more than just teach academics. They build a sense of community within their classrooms, creating a home away from home where they make their students feel safe, included, and loved. With its heartfelt message and colorfully whimsical illustrations, "Our Class is a Family" is a book that will help build and strengthen that class community. Kids learn that their classroom is a place where it's safe to be themselves, it's okay to make mistakes, and it's important to be a friend to others. When hearing this story being read aloud by their teacher, students are sure to feel like they are part of a special family. And currently, during such an unprecedented time when many teachers and students are not physically IN the classroom due to COVID-19 school closures, it's more important than it's ever been to give kids the message that their class is a family. Even at a distance, they still stick together.

An essential guide for teachers and parents that’s destined to become a classic, The Art of Teaching Children is one of those rare and masterful books that not only defines a craft but offers a magical reading experience. After more than thirty years in the classroom, award-winning teacher Phillip Done decided that it was time to retire. But a teacher’s job is never truly finished, and he set out to write the greatest lesson of his career: a book for educators and parents that would pass along everything he learned about working with kids. From the first-day-of-school jitters to the last day’s tears, Done writes about the teacher’s craft, classrooms and curriculums, the challenges of the profession, and the reason all teachers do it—the children. Drawing upon decades of experience, Done shares time-tested tips and sage advice: Real learning is messy, not linear. Greeting kids in the morning as they enter the classroom is an important part of the school day. If a student is having trouble, look at what you can do differently before pointing the finger at the child. Ask yourself: Would I want to be a student in my class? When children watch you, they are learning how to be people, and one of the most important things we can do for our students is to model the kind of people we would like them to be. Done tackles topics you won’t find in any other teaching book, including Back to School Night nerves, teacher pride, the Sunday Blues, Pinterest envy, teacher guilt, and the things they never warn you about in “teacher school” but should, like how to survive recess duty, field trips, and lunch supervision. Done also addresses some of the most important issues schools face today: bullying, excessive screen time, the system’s obsession with testing, teacher burnout, and the ever-increasing demands of meeting the diverse learning needs of students. But The Art of Teaching Children is more than a guide to educating today’s young learners. These pages are alive with inspiration, humor, and tales of humanity. Done welcomes us like visitors at Open House Night to the world of elementary school, where we witness lessons that go well and others that flop, periods that run smoothly and ones that go haywire when a bee flies into the room. We meet master teachers and new ones, librarians and lunch supervisors, principals and parents (some with too much time on their hands). We get to know kids who want to hold a ball and those who’d rather hold a marker, students with difficult home lives and children with disabilities, youngsters who need drawing out and those who happily announce (in the middle of a math lesson) that they have a loose tooth. With great wit and wisdom, irresistible storytelling, and boundless compassion, The Art of Teaching Children is the new educator’s bible for teachers, parents, and all who work with kids and care about their learning and success.

Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.

Nellie and her little brother Gus discuss all kinds of families during a day at the zoo and dinner at home with their relatives afterwards.

From the Foreword“These authors have clearly shown the value in looking for the signature pedagogies of their disciplines. Nothing uncovers hidden assumptions about desired knowledge, skills, and dispositions better than a careful examination of our most cherished practices. The authors inspire specialists in other disciplines to do the same. Furthermore, they invite other colleagues to explore whether relatively new, interdisciplinary fields such as Women’s Studies and Global Studies have, or should have, a signature pedagogy consistent with their understanding of what it means to ‘apprentice’ in these areas." -- Anthony A. Ciccone, Senior Scholar and Director, Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.How do individual disciplines foster deep learning, and get students to think like disciplinary experts? With contributions from the sciences, humanities, and the arts, this book critically explores how to best foster student learning within and across the disciplines. This book represents a major advance in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) by moving beyond individual case studies, best practices, and the work of individual scholars, to focus on the unique content and characteristic pedagogies of major disciplines. Each chapter begins by summarizing the SoTL literature on the pedagogies of a specific discipline, and by examining and analyzing its traditional practices, paying particular attention to how faculty evaluate success. Each concludes by the articulating for its discipline the elements of a “signature pedagogy” that will improve teaching and learning, and by offering an agenda for future research.Each chapter explores what the pedagogical literature of the discipline suggests are the optimal ways to teach material in that field, and to verify the resulting learning. Each author is concerned about how to engage students in the ways of knowing, the habits of mind, and the values used by experts in his or her field. Readers will not only benefit from the chapters most relevant to their disciplines. As faculty members consider how their courses fit into the broader curriculum and relate to the other disciplines, and design learning activities and goals not only within the discipline but also within the broader objectives of liberal education, they will appreciate the cross-disciplinary understandings this book affords.

No matter your size, shape, or pedigree--if you love each other, you are a family! Moms, dads, sisters, brothers — and even Great Aunt Sue — appear in dozens of combinations, demonstrating all kinds of nontraditional families! Silly animals are cleverly depicted in framed portraits, and offer a warm celebration of family love. From School Library Journal PreS-Gr 1—Imagine a house with many rooms, whose walls each have a different color or wallpaper, accenting a family portrait hanging there. On a rustic wooden wall hangs the first portrait—a large family of ducks posing beside a still pond. The next spread shows three pandas in pink vests, much like the pink oriental wallpaper behind them. Each portrait features a gently rhyming line: "Some children live with their grandparents…/and some live with an aunt./Some children have many pets…/and some just have a plant." All of these appealing images demonstrate different ways of being a family. "Some children live with their father./ Some children have two mothers./Some children are adopted./Some have stepsisters and—brothers." The cartoon-style critters contrast pleasantly with more realistic elements—a bamboo plant, a slender ceramic dog, a fat ceramic cat. Families of hippos, tigers, lions, ostriches, and whales join the other family groups in the final spread. The loud-and-clear message is that "if you love each other, then you are a family." And imagine the many children who will be reassured because they have found a portrait of a family they will recognize as their own. A solid choice for most libraries.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN