Effective and practical coaching strategies for new educators plus valuable online coaching tools Many teachers are only observed one or two times per year on average—and, even among those who are observed, scarcely any are given feedback as to how they could improve. The bottom line is clear: teachers do not need to be evaluated so much as they need to be developed and coached. In Get Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo shares instructive tools of how school leaders can effectively guide new teachers to success. Over the course of the book, he breaks down the most critical actions leaders and teachers must take to achieve exemplary results. Designed for coaches as well as beginning teachers, Get Better Faster is an integral coaching tool for any school leader eager to help their teachers succeed. Get Better Faster focuses on what's practical and actionable which makes the book's approach to coaching so effective. By practicing the concrete actions and micro-skills listed in Get Better Faster, teachers will markedly improve their ability to lead a class, producing a steady chain reaction of future teaching success. Though focused heavily on the first 90 days of teacher development, it's possible to implement this work at any time. Junior and experienced teachers alike can benefit from the guidance of Get Better Faster while at the same time closing existing instructional gaps. Featuring valuable and practical online training tools available at http://www.wiley.com/go/getbetterfaster, Get Better Faster provides agendas, presentation slides, a coach's guide, handouts, planning templates, and 35 video clips of real teachers at work to help other educators apply the lessons learned in their own classrooms. Get Better Faster will teach you: The core principles of coaching: Go Granular; Plan, Practice, Follow Up, Repeat; Make Feedback More Frequent Top action steps to launch a teacher’s development in an easy-to-read scope and sequence guide It also walks you through the four phases of skill building: Phase 1 (Pre-Teaching): Dress Rehearsal Phase 2: Instant Immersion Phase 3: Getting into Gear Phase 4: The Power of Discourse Perfect for new educators and those who supervise them, Get Better Faster will also earn a place in the libraries of veteran teachers and school administrators seeking a one-stop coaching resource.

"Leaders at all levels will benefit from Marcia Conner's amazing book of strategies, exercises, and stories to maximize learning. This book is a must for your reading list this year."--Ken Blanchard, Chief Spiritual Officer, Ken Blanchard Companies "A road map to reawakening the natural process of integrating learning into our daily lives."--Kathy O'Driscoll, Human Resources Director, Microsoft "Finally a publication that genuinely respects learner diversity as much as it offers tangible ideas for dealing with it....Marcia L. Conner is a true learning champion."--Gunnar Bruckner, former Chief Learning Officer, United Nations Development Programme We're all born with a vast capacity to explore and learn. Unfortunately, many of us never discover what we're truly capable of. What if you could reclaim your birthright and tap into your full potential for learning? Imagine how much you could accomplish--how much you could become. Here's your chance to find out. Through her innovative learning programs, Marcia Conner has helped thousands of people unleash the power of their intuition to rediscover the joy of learning and to expand their personal and professional productivity. In Learn More Now, she distills her renowned learning solutions into an easy-to-use ten-step program that will help you: * Learn better, smarter, and faster * Identify your learning style and your motivational style * Synthesize your experiences, perspectives, thoughts, and actions * Develop new pathways in your brain to increase your opportunities * Absorb facts on the fly and overcome information overload * Optimize your environment for concentrating and learning Packed with fun, easy-to-do action steps and exercises, Learn More Now will help you discover how to be more focused and aware, work in step with your natural rhythms, be improvisational in your approach, and transform your life into a learning adventure.

The elements which influence a student's rate and degree of learning are outlined in this volume. Madeline Hunter demonstrates a diversity of practical teaching techniques, including how to design practice so that it does `make perfect' and how to avoid the `black holes' in any sequence of learning.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.