Today, educators often find themselves facing a dizzying array of materials and resources, whether they are a box of dusty skills cards handed down from a retiring teacher, a professional book passed on by a colleague, a procedure recommended by a supervisor, a program required by a district, a book reviewed on a blog, a unit downloaded from a website, or a strategy highlighted in a brochure. But how do we know which of these will help the children in our classrooms? How do we find helpful resources without squandering funding or instructional time-not to mention our students' potential? In The Right Tools, Towanda Harris lays out a path that teachers and administrators can use to make informed decisions about what resources and practices they need for the students they teach. Rather than telling you what to buy or use, Towanda offers tools and guidance to help you to make that decision as you identify what you and your students need match resources with your goals for your students use the resource with a focus on your students assess how well the resource is working adjust how you are using the resource as necessary utilize one of the most powerful resources available to you as a teacher-your colleagues. Resources are only a piece of your teaching, alongside knowledge of best practices, and a deep understanding of your students. Yet each of these pieces can have powerful effects. By finding and using resources that are well matched to your students and their academic goals, you can keep working to help students reach their full potential.

This volume examines scientific practice through studies of research tools in an array of twentieth-century life sciences. The contributors draw upon and extend the multidisciplinary perspectives in current science studies to understand the processes through which scientific researchers constructed the right--and, in some cases, the wrong--tools for the job. The articles portray the crafting or accessing of specific materials, techniques, instruments, models, funds, and work arrangements involved in doing scientific work. They demonstrate the historical and local contingencies of scientific problem construction and solving by highlighting the articulation between the tools and jobs. Indeed, the very "rightness" of the tools is contingently constructed, maintained, lost, and refashioned. The cases examined include evolutionary biology laboratory systems (James R. Griesemer), the plasmid prep procedure in molecular biology (Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch), models in the human ecology of African pastoralists (Peter Taylor), the micromanometer in metabolic studies (Frederic L. Holmes), genetics research and the role played by Planaria (Gregg Mitman and Anne Fausto-Sterling) and by corn (Barbara A. Kimmelman), quantitative data in field biology (Yrj Haila), taxidermy in natural history (Susan Leigh Star), technical standardization in bacteriology (Patricia Peck Gossell), and the discipline of immunology as the tool for stabilizing conceptual definitions in the field (Peter Keating, Alberto Cambrosio, and Michael Mackenzie). Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Selecting the Right Manufacturing Improvement Tools offers an easy-to-read and comprehensive review of the most important current industrial improvement tools that every manufacturing or industrial executive, operational manager or engineer needs to know, including which tool to use for a particular type of manufacturing situation. But his book goes beyond a simple comparison of improvement tools to show how these tools can be implemented and supported. Instead, it offers a broader strategic explanation of how they relate to one another, and their relative strengths and weaknesses in the larger context of the entire enterprise. It demonstrates how to use these tools in an integrated way such that they are not just be viewed as another "program of the month or management fad. Selecting the Right Manufacturing Improvement Tools guides the use of these individual management tools within the need for aligning the organization, developing leadership, and managing change, all for creating an environment where these tools will be more successfully applied. - Provides an excellent review of the most popular improvement tools and strategies - Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, including 5S, Kanban, Quick Changeover, and Standardization, Total Productive Maintenance, Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance (or Condition Monitoring), and Root Cause Analysis. - Illustrates the use of each tool with case studies, using a fictitious company called "Beta International," which continues its journey to business excellence from author's previous book, Making Common Sense Common Practice - Describes the foundational elements necessary for any tool to work - leadership, organizational alignment and discipline, teamwork, performance measurement, change management, and the role of innovation. - Concludes with a recommended hierarchy for the use of the various tools, and provides enough information so that individual circumstances and issues can be related to these improvement tools, making better decisions and having greater business success.

Do you have a job to tackle but are unsure what tools you need? Are you in the market for a new drill but can't decide what type is best?Are you lost in a sea of confusing terminology?If so, this is the book for you. Covering drills, saws, sanders, grinders, routers, multi-tools and more - plus all their related accessories - this comprehensive guide breaks down the jargon and explains what tasks each tool is suited to, which tools are a luxury and which ones you can't live without, and what features to look out for when purchasing a new tool.Fully illustrated and dispelling some common myths along the way, this book will arm you with the knowledge to be able to choose your power tools with confidence and ensure you use the right tool for the job.

This book is the result of a four-year study into the most commonly used management tools and techniques in the areas of business strategy and finance, marketing, production and operations, and procurement and supply chain management. It explains which tools are used in small, medium-sized and large companies, whether based in the US, Europe or Asia, across many different industrial and service sectors. It explains where companies find out about particular tools, and examines which appear to be the most successful.

This work provides school change leaders with tools, techniques, tips, examples, illustrations, and stories about promoting school change. Tools provided include histograms, surveys, run charts, weighted voting, force-field analysis, decision matrices, and many others. Chapter 1, "Introduction," applies a matrix for asking questions about change in four typical scenarios. Chapter 2, "Asking the Right Questions," presents critical questions regarding five stages of school improvement: preparation, focus, diagnosis, plan development, and implementation/monitoring. Chapter 3, "Answering the 'Where Are We Now?' Question," discusses ways to use data on student achievement, perceptual data, and the need to clarify roles and responsibilities. Chapter 4, "Answering the 'Where Do We Want to Go?' Question," applies the initiation, planning, and training stages of three models. Chapter 5, "Answering the 'How Will We Get There?' Question," contrasts the planning, training, and implementation stages of three relevant models. Chapter 6, "Answering the 'How Will We Know We Are (Getting) There?' Question," explores elements of assessing outcomes and reveals the importance of accurate monitoring. Chapter 7, "Answering the 'How Will We Sustain the Focus and Momentum?' Question" demonstrates the need for such critical elements as maintenance, institutionalization, and the PDCA tasks of check, act, and adjust plans. Chapter 8, "Bonus Questions" includes additional guidance for administrators on other aspects of school-improvement efforts. Chapter 9, "Using This Book," contains an index of tools and reviews scenarios and examples to further clarify the use of the tools described in earlier chapters. (Contains 21 annotated references and a 7-page index.) (TEJ)

Now in its third edition, this classic text remains the seminal resource for in-depth information about major concepts and principles of the cultural-historical theory developed by Lev Vygotsky, his students, and colleagues, as well as three generations of neo-Vygotskian scholars in Russia and the West. Featuring two new chapters on brain development and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development, as well as additional content on technology, dual language learners, and students with disabilities, this new edition provides the latest research evidence supporting the basics of the cultural-historical approach alongside Vygotskian-based practical implications. With concrete explanations and strategies on how to scaffold young children’s learning and development, this book is essential reading for students of early childhood theory and development.