This practical guide shows leaders how to implement and sustain a robust microcredentialing program in their school or district. Teachers require rigorous professional learning that ensures mastery rather than simply marking time served. Microcredentials offer a competency-based approach to professional learning that can be tailored to individuals' context, needs, and interests. In this timely book, veteran educators and microcredentialing experts Eric M. Carbaugh, Laura McCullough, Meghan Raftery, and Ebbie Linaburg detail the characteristics of high-quality microcredentials. They explain how leaders can * Set school and district goals for microcredentials. * Select third-party microcredentials or design their own in-house. * Implement a high-quality microcredentialing process. * Structure and support microcredentialing at scale. Building Educator Capacity Through Microcredentials demystifies microcredentialing and shows schools how to take advantage of this powerful approach to professional learning. Readers will acquire the information and tools to launch and scale an effective microcredentialing program that meets the professional learning needs of their staff and, by extension, improves the learning outcomes of their students.

For School Leaders and K-12 Educators Get concrete strategies for designing and implementing cultural and instructional supports for maker learning, and equipping makerspaces to model universal design for learning (UDL) in action. School leaders and classroom teachers alike are looking for ways to integrate maker learning into their work in meaningful ways, but they simply don’t have the time, capacity or resources to review, synthesize or adapt existing models into their own school systems. The Maker Playbook offers a vision and the tools needed to streamline the process, including high-impact strategies you can put directly into action to foster an inclusive maker learning environment. In these pages, you’ll find ready-to-use strategies and resources to guide learners in the design thinking maker learning process. With the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines as a basis, you’ll get ideas for helping all students learn, and guidance for developing the scaffolding to help all learners reach levels of higher-order thinking and engagement. The book: • Offers strategies that can be implemented on a personalized and systemic level to build a maker learning culture and program from the ground up. • Highlights “Go Remote” tips with each strategy to assist you in implementing the ideas in a virtual environment. • Includes recommendations for prioritizing and choosing from the strategies provided to help with planning and implementation. • Offers resources for engagement, representation, action and expression to improve accessibility and boost students’ executive functioning skills. • Includes QR codes and links to digital versions and templates for scaffolding learning to help you jump into action. Whether your school system has begun this journey and is looking for ways to enhance established maker learning and makerspaces or is ready to start laying the foundation for providing maker learning experiences for all learners, this book is designed to help educators make maker learning more accessible for all.

With increasingly interconnected educational and employment ecosystems, credential innovations are trailblazing multiple pathways to professions at a pivotal moment of rapid change. In the current state of credential proliferation, the quest for simultaneous improvement of quality and value reflects heightened cross-sector interests, while at the same time the quest for concurrent enhancement of access and success remains. With the evolving educational models, technologies, and organizations, credential innovations will continue to serve as powerful catalysts in realizing the great promise for inclusive pathways to professions. The Handbook of Research on Credential Innovations for Inclusive Pathways to Professions surveys the state of credential innovations, examines trends and issues, and explores models and strategies with case studies across sectors and disciplines. The 21 chapters are organized in three sections. Section I, Credential Innovations Amid Evolving Ecosystems, features a powerful array of change theories-in-action with topics ranging from conceptual re-visioning to organizational restructuring and programmatic reengineering within evolving ecosystems. Section II, Credential Innovations and Propositions Across Sectors, spotlights diverse approaches to and propositions of credentials within complex socio-economic landscapes across education, business, and technology industries. Section III, Credential Innovation Models and Strategies, showcases institutional innovations ranging from model developments, pedagogical approaches, and personalized engagements to outcome measurements and strategies for sustainable implementation. Lessons learned and implications are explored to share promising practices, inform current development, and influence future policies toward inclusive excellence in education and the workplace.

More than 45 tools and activities that make it easier for professional development leaders to show teachers and administrators how to successfully implement and maintain differentiated instruction.

In teaching, the details matter. When educators make small changes to their practice, they can reap big rewards … and produce big results. Teaching can be a daunting profession. There's so much material to cover and so many demands to meet, issues to resolve, new programs to implement, and relationships to deal with. And there's never enough time! Teachers have always found ways to cope, but what they really need is a new and sustainable way to approach everyday challenges—one that will lead to better outcomes and a healthier environment for their students and themselves. In Small but Mighty: How Everyday Habits Add Up to More Manageable and Confident Teaching, Miriam Plotinsky explores the benefits of "habit stacking"—making a series of small, gradual shifts in practice before, during, and after instruction, and in the broader context of teacher and student wellness. Noting that motivation is an unreliable factor in success, and that large-scale change is often more disruptive than meaningful, Plotinsky offers practical, classroom-based tools and strategies teachers can use to make incremental adjustments to planning, collaboration, classroom management, assessment, feedback, and other elements of practice. Each chapter includes scenarios that readers will recognize as the kinds of anxiety-inducing situations they regularly face along with examples of the transformative changes they can kick off by adopting a few new habits. Like a knowledgeable and trusted mentor, Plotinsky offers advice, support, and reassurance to educators who may be questioning their ability to withstand the pressures of today's school environment and clarifies how a "small but mighty" approach to change leads to a more satisfying and fulfilling experience in the classroom and beyond.

"Chase Mielke provides the best tools and strategies principals and other school leaders need to address teacher burnout and make a real systemic difference"--

A one-stop shop to answer your most pressing questions about what it takes to facilitate. Workshops, committees, teams, and study groups are a regular part of an educator's professional life, and any educator can find themselves in the facilitator role, with a responsibility to aid the group in achieving its goals. The Effective Facilitator's Handbook is here to help. Professional development expert Cathy A. Toll has written a guide for busy facilitators, starting with four simple rules for successful facilitation: listen, start with the end in mind, lead with productive tools, and stay organized. The processes, tools, and templates in each chapter are easy to apply and offer advice about how to create a welcoming environment, set the right tone, understand the group's dynamics, improve communication, and more. This book walks you through the unique purposes, pitfalls, and needs of specific types of groups, whether it's a professional development workshop, a committee focused on one decision or problem, a team that regularly collaborates for student success, or a study group learning about a specific issue. But Toll also considers the bigger picture and connects the patterns behind different types of facilitation skills that will serve you in a variety of situations and settings. As an effective facilitator, you'll be able to increase the value of group time, foster engagement, and help teachers improve their practice so that they can bring their best to the classroom each day.