Examines the disconnect between public policy and classroom practice—and what educators need to change in order to teach children well.

Early childhood educators need to be cognizant of the disconnect between public policy and classroom practice—the success of children they teach depends on it. This book analyzes how ineffective practices are driven by unexamined public policies and why educators need to challenge their thinking in order to make a difference in children's lives. A very complex story about public policy and the importance of teaching is told while entertaining and engaging the reader throughout. Michael Gramling is an expert in providing family literacy training and positive guidance training and has conducted experiential supervisor and mentor coach institutes for Head Start programs.

Wall Street Journal Best Nonfiction Pick; Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year Clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair takes an in-depth look at how the Internet and the digital revolution are profoundly changing childhood and family dynamics, and offers solutions parents can use to successfully shepherd their children through the technological wilderness. As the focus of the family has turned to the glow of the screen—children constantly texting their friends or going online to do homework; parents working online around the clock—everyday life is undergoing a massive transformation. Easy access to the Internet and social media has erased the boundaries that protect children from damaging exposure to excessive marketing and the unsavory aspects of adult culture. Parents often feel they are losing a meaningful connection with their children. Children are feeling lonely and alienated. The digital world is here to stay, but what are families losing with technology's gain? As renowned clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair explains, families are in crisis as they face this issue, and even more so than they realize. Not only do chronic tech distractions have deep and lasting effects but children also desperately need parents to provide what tech cannot: close, significant interactions with the adults in their lives. Drawing on real-life stories from her clinical work with children and parents and her consulting work with educators and experts across the country, Steiner-Adair offers insights and advice that can help parents achieve greater understanding, authority, and confidence as they engage with the tech revolution unfolding in their living rooms.

Everyone is talking about signing with young children. As a form of early communication for infants and toddlers, or as a transitioning tool for children just beginning to speak, the benefits of signing with hearing children are endless. Sign to Learn is the first complete introduction to sign language curriculum for hearing preschoolers. In this unique resource, you will learn how to integrate American Sign Language (ASL) into your classroom to enhance the academic, social, and emotional development of children, and how to respectfully introduce children to Deaf culture. This comprehensive, fully illustrated curriculum contains captivating activities and lesson plans grouped by themes, including feelings, food, seasons, animals, songs, and families. Sign to Learn also contains strategies for using sign language with children with special needs and in multilingual classrooms, and it describes how ASL can assist you in developing a literacy program and in managing your classroom. Information-rich appendices include a thorough ASL illustration index, sample letters to families, and resources for further reading.

Collective leadership is based on shared decision-making, transparency, and involving the people affected by change in the process. Current research shows that a collective approach to leadership is advantageous to organizations and Five Elements of Collective Leadership for Early Childhood Professionals helps teachers, providers, administrators, and system change leaders think differently about opportunities available to lead, and incorporate a collective approach into programs.

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.

This book lays out in clear language the challenges to the sustainability of the current economic system. It then considers possible market, government and values-driven responses. "This book highlights how, by focusing too heavily on particular aspects of the world around us, different groups have reached vastly different conclusions about relevant priorities. This is so much so that it is almost as if these different sectors of society do not share the same planet." -- from the foreword by Alexis Lau, Director, Environmental Central Facility, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology