While the importance of good teaching may be intuitively obvious, only over the past decade has education research begun to quantify the high economic stakes around teacher quality. In a world where the goals of national education systems are being transformed, from a focus on the transmission of facts and memorization to a focus on student…

Teachers sometimes feel that much of what they learned about teaching was learned in the classroom---not the college classroom, but the room in which they teach. As every teacher knows--or eventually learns--a good sense of humor is essential to having a happy, healthy teaching experience. This book points out some of the things they always forget…

No one stakeholder group can realize lasting change on their own; nor can any reform initiative focusing on just one type of strategy create the workplace conditions needed to truly build capacity within the education profession. Rather, stakeholders must focus on collaborating, reaching common understanding, and prioritizing for ultimate impact…

Almost half of new teachers leave the profession within their first year. New teachers need support, mentoring, encouragement, and, most importantly, hope in order to survive the challenges of their first years of teaching. "Burned In" features essays from today's most visionary educators, including Jim Burke, Peter Elbow, James Loewen, Gregory…

This groundbreaking work examines teacher quality, work norms, and professional learning opportunities, using data from 15 countries. The authors compare and contrast the United States with two high-achieving countries--Japan and Australia--that have implemented very different approaches to improving teacher quality. Drawing on both large…

"Politics and the Primary Teacher" is an accessible introduction to some of the thorniest aspects of a primary teacher's role. It aims to support your understanding of the constant changes in education policy, give you confidence to engage critically with current political debates, and consider how you might shape your response accordingly.…

The No Child Left Behind legislation, by legitimizing a stark, one-size-fits-all, industrial model of education, has denied the inherent complexity and richness of what teachers do. Discussing teaching in terms of Chaos Theory, Chapin explains that while excellent teaching may occur at the edge of chaos, it is not chaotic. There are patterns…

As a consequence of the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law, there is tremendous pressure on school principals, teachers, school superintendents, district staff, state departments of education and governors to maximize the increase in student achievement that is obtained with every dollar of expenditure. Currently, teachers are…

Like the best-selling first edition, this book is filled with strategies to motivate your staff and maintain a high level of energy at your school. This guide will help all educators approach work every day in an enthusiastic, focused, and positive state of mind. This book will help you: (1) Motivate your faculty with the Friday Focus; (2)…

Find out how to keep your best teachers on staff, and make sure your new teachers stay motivated beyond their first years on the job. In this book, leading educational consultant Franklin Schargel offers 162 easy-to-apply tips and strategies for principals and administrators looking to hire quality teachers, raise faculty job satisfaction, and…

Many people--political leaders, school administrators, school board members, interest group leaders, community leaders, parents/guardians--seek to impact education, but efforts to improve education will be enhanced if they are based on reality and the experts on the classroom reality are current teachers. Anyone who seeks to improve education must…

The book tracks co-author Paul Weinberg during his first year of teaching as he is introduced to the daily tribulations of an urban Los Angeles high school. Paul's father Carl Weinberg, who fifty years earlier himself began his career in education an urban secondary school teacher, shares his experiences side-by-side with those of his son.…

The essays in "Globalization on the Margins" explore the continuities and changes in Central Asian education development since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reflecting on two decades of post-socialist transformations, they reveal that education systems in Central Asia responded to the rapidly changing political, economic, and…

Switching from humor to sentiment at the turn of a page, this is a great gift book for retiring teachers or any teacher having a rough day. It deals humorously with situations every teacher can relate to. An added bonus is a Donna Whyte poem that's perfect for reading at retirement celebrations.

Exemplary Middle Grades Research: Evidence-Based Studies Linking Theory to Practice features research published throughout 2009 in MGRJ that has been identified by the Information Age Publishing's review board as the most useful in terms of assisting educators with making practical applications from evidence-based studies to classroom and school…