Experts in public health and education alike have long advocated for the engagement of youth in nature to foster movement, human-nature connectedness, and mental wellbeing. Physical and health education teachers in school-based programs continue to find a variety of ways to help their students be physically active in the natural environment due to…

In this activity, students will create a flag that symbolizes their perceived identity. Each student will create and use a legend to define their perceived meaning behind the selected elements and how they came to associate that meaning with their identity. Finally, they will share their flag, its associated legend, and what they learned by…

When implemented effectively, competency-based education (CBE) promotes high levels of learning for every student. Further, the practices and structures of a professional learning community (PLC) support this work. Explore a variety of perspectives and examples from educators who have shifted to CBE with great results. The book details how to do…

Background: Student transition to university can be a challenging time. Research suggests that providing space for student reflection and goal setting may facilitate this period of transition. Objective: I describe the "Postcard to my Graduating Self Project," in which psychology students were invited to write postcards to their future…

This text introduces an original, scalable instructional framework called Telling Our Stories (TOS), an approach for supporting culturally informed literacy instruction in the elementary classroom. Connecting the theory to practice, the TOS framework centers the cultural heritage and experiences of students and offers a roadmap to scientifically…

This is a practical guide to designing, teaching, and coordinating service-learning courses, and for developing reciprocal community partnerships and community-based research through a lens of equity that addresses the endemic racial, social, economic, and environmental disparities across society. The text provides a comprehensive framework for…

"Tell Your Story: Teaching Students to Become World-Changing Thinkers and Writers" explores how to help students see themselves as writers and storytellers who are developing the skills and techniques to communicate in ways that resonate with various audiences. When students make that shift and see themselves as active and valued…

Be prepared to enrich students who already know your planned curriculum. "What's Next?" provides the tools you need to preassess students and practical strategies to further their learning. Concrete examples from different content areas and grade levels illustrate the ideas in action. Written for singletons and teacher teams alike, this…

Courses: Small Group Communication, Online Groups and Communities. Objectives: The objectives of this activity are to expose students to common-bond and common-identity group dynamics, including the differences between memberships, as well as member motivations, goals, and outcomes.

This toolkit is designed to guide educators in developing and improving practical measurement instruments for use in networked improvement communities (NICs) and other education contexts in which principles of continuous improvement are applied. Continuous improvement includes distinct repeating processes: understanding the problem, identifying…

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should "start" doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results?…

Individual Education Programs (IEPs) are the entry point to the design of teaching and learning for students with disabilities. This guidebook provides teachers with reflective questions, a sample response bank, strategies from the research-based Learner Variability Navigator, and other resources to write strength-based IEPs. Strength-based…

In the second edition of this pivotal work by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic, you will discover updated and improved resources to use formative data to support higher levels of student learning. Data-driven techniques and new tools will guide you in improving collaboration and student engagement throughout the assessment process. Teams can use the…

All teachers--including career and technical education (CTE) teachers--play a vital role in building a thriving PLC [Professional Learning Community]. In this practical resource, the authors explicitly outline how to improve teaching and learning by integrating PLC best practices into CTE programs. Teams of CTE educators will learn how to clarify…

"Educating for Justice" teams award-winning principal Julia Bott with scholars Scott Seider and Aaliyah El-Amin to describe schoolwide structures and practices that prepare students at every grade level to challenge injustice and build a better world. Sharing research-backed strategies, concrete tools, and examples drawn from real…