Teachers Do Make A Difference

In praise of the greatest job in the world... The right book at the right time: an impassioned defense of teachers and why we need them now more than ever. Teacher turned teacher’s advocate Taylor Mali inspired millions with his original poem “What Teachers Make,” a passionate and unforgettable response to a rich man at a dinner party who sneeringly asked him what teachers make. Mali’s sharp, funny, perceptive look at life in the classroom pays tribute to the joys of teaching…and explains why teachers are so vital to our society. What Teachers Make is a book that will be treasured and shared by every teacher in America—and everybody who’s ever loved or learned from one.

Making a Difference: Challenges for Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education has been written to provide an international forum of scholarly discussion around the theme of how teachers and teacher educators can make a difference. It examines some of the challenges that need to be addressed across the teaching profession. The chapters have been developed by the contributors from a set of keynote presentations and refereed papers given at the 2005 International Study Association for Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) Conference, in Sydney, Australia. The conference was attended by 190 delegates, from a diverse range of countries: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the West Indies. A distinctive feature of the conference was the range of education systems, policies, teacher education programs, school districts, classrooms, teachers and students whose views were argued for and critiqued. This book has been prepared so that it reflects that breadth of contexts and issues. The book is presented in four sections, each emphasising a unique dimension of what is involved in making a difference. The authors offer a range of viewpoints from their different cultural, historical and professional contexts. While each section has a special emphasis, the major themes of heeding challenges and making a difference are woven into all the sections. The chapters in this book provide readers with frameworks, evidence and examples addressing challenges and making a difference. Evidence is presented as to how realities have been transformed for students, teachers and teacher educators as well as for the profession itself. We hope that your engagement with the authors and material in this ISATT forum will motivate you to transform realities in your own professional worlds. ISATT members please contact our Acquisitions Editors responsible for Brill's Education list, for the ISATT members discount.

Discipline with Dignity details an affirming approach to managing the classroom that promotes respect for self and others. This completely updated 3rd edition offers practical solutions that emphasize relationship building, curriculum relevance, and academic success. The emphasis is on preventing problems by helping students to understand each other, work well together, and develop responsibility for their own actions, but the authors also include intervention strategies for handling common and severe problems in dignified ways. Filled with real-life examples and authentic teacher-student dialogues, Discipline with Dignity is a comprehensive and flexible system of prevention and intervention tools that shows how educators at all levels can *Be fair without necessarily treating every student the same way. *Customize the classroom to reflect today's highly diverse and inclusive student population. *Seek students' help in creating values-based rules and appropriate consequences. *Use humor appropriately and effectively to respond to abusive language. *Fine-tune strategies to resolve issues with chronically misbehaving students and "ringleaders" or bullies. This book is not simply a compendium of strategies for dealing with bad behavior. It is a guide to helping students see themselves in a different way, to changing the way they interact with the world. The strategies innate to this approach help students make informed choices to behave well. When they do, they become more attuned to learning and to understanding how to use what they learn to improve their lives and the lives of others--with dignity.

Teachers + Schooling Making a Difference takes seriously the question that teachers ask, 'What do I do on Monday?' and does provide answers.' From the foreword by Professor Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin Education debates are currently dominated by free-market ideologists who push privatisation and competition as the answer to every problem, regardless of damage to schools and pupils. Teachers + Schooling Making a Difference shows that we can think about education in a far more productive way.' Professor R.W.Connell, University of Sydney This book is a lesson in making hope practical.It makes a compelling argument for recognising, supporting and enabling teachers as central to progressive school reform.' Professor Jenny Ozga, University of Edinburgh What teachers do in the classroom really matters, even though schools cannot compensate fully for difficulties children may face at home and in society. Good teachers and good schools have been making a difference in children's lives for generations, but what exactly is it that works? Based on extensive research in 1000 primary and secondary classrooms, this book examines the tough questions about teaching methods, curriculum, assessment and teachers' professionalism. The authors isolate the key elements that make the difference in the classroom, and offer teachers practical approaches to working with all their students. Teachers and Schools Making a Difference is essential reading for teachers and school administrators who want to improve their professional skills and offer a genuinely democratic education.

Feedback is arguably the most critical and powerful aspect of teaching and learning. Yet, there remains a paradox: why is feedback so powerful and why is it so variable? It is this paradox which Visible Learning: Feedback aims to unravel and resolve. Combining research excellence, theory and vast teaching expertise, this book covers the principles and practicalities of feedback, including: the variability of feedback, the importance of surface, deep and transfer contexts, student to teacher feedback, peer to peer feedback, the power of within lesson feedback and manageable post-lesson feedback. With numerous case-studies, examples and engaging anecdotes woven throughout, the authors also shed light on what creates an effective feedback culture and provide the teaching and learning structures which give the best possible framework for feedback. Visible Learning: Feedback brings together two internationally known educators and merges Hattie’s world-famous research expertise with Clarke’s vast experience of classroom practice and application, making this book an essential resource for teachers in any setting, phase or country.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools. “[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

Acknowledging that teachers make a difference not only to what students learn about content, but what they learn about life, this volume offers discussion of topics including setting high expectations for students, conveying confidence, creating classroom rituals & traditions, & much more.

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

The best-selling book of easy-to-implement classroom lessons from the world’s premier educational system—now available in paperback. Finland shocked the world when its fifteen-year-olds scored highest on the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a set of tests evaluating critical-thinking skills in math, science, and reading. That was in 2001; even today, this tiny Nordic nation continues to amaze. How does Finnish education—with short school days, light homework loads, and little standardized testing—produce students who match the PISA scores of other nations with more traditional “work ethic” standards? When Timothy Walker started teaching fifth graders at a Helsinki public school, he began a search for the secrets behind the successes of Finland’s education system. Highlighting specific strategies that support joyful K–12 classrooms and can be integrated with U.S. educational standards, this book, available in paperback for the first time, gathers what he learned and shows how any teacher can implement many of Finland's best practices. A new foreword by the author addresses the urgent questions of teaching, and living, in these pandemic times.