Whats Worth Fighting For In Your School

In addition to its outstanding analysis of "total teachers" and school culture, this book provides action guidelines for teachers and for principals that are filled with insight that will help school educators take responsibility for reform.

Two challenges that face educators--developing interactive professionalism in the schools, and facilitating teachers and principals as change agents--are examined in this book. Chapter 1 examines the following problem areas in educational change: overload; isolation; "groupthink"; untapped competence; narrow roles; and failed reform. A holistic understanding of the teacher is presented in the second chapter, and the social and working conditions of "total schools" are discussed in chapter 3. The paradox of individuality and collegiality is examined, showing how they can be reconciled in order to improve schools. Chapter 4 offers action guidelines for teachers, principals, and educators. Successful reform is based on improving teachers and school working conditions, which in turn leads to student improvement. (82 references) (LMI)

Lisa Niemi and Patrick Swayze first met as teenagers at his mother's dance studio. He was older and just a bit cocky; she was the gorgeous waif who refused to worship the ground he walked on. It didn't take long for them to fall in love. Their thirty-four year marriage -- which they explored together in The Time of My Life -- was a uniquely passionate partnership. Now, for the first time, Lisa will share what it was like to care for her husband as he battled Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and will describe his last days when she simply tried to keep him comfortable. She writes searingly about her grief in the aftermath of Patrick's death, and candidly discusses the challenges that the past fourteen months without him have posed. But while this is an emotionally honest and unflinching depiction of illness, death, and loss, it is also a hopeful and life-affirming exploration of the power of the human spirit. Lisa shows that no matter how dark the prospect of another day may seem, there are always reserves of strength to call upon, and the love shared between two people will never truly die.

The Howard University protests from the perspective and worldview of its participants We Are Worth Fighting For is the first history of the 1989 Howard University protest. The three-day occupation of the university’s Administration Building was a continuation of the student movements of the sixties and a unique challenge to the politics of the eighties. Upset at the university’s appointment of the Republican strategist Lee Atwater to the Board of Trustees, students forced the issue by shutting down the operations of the university. The protest, inspired in part by the emergence of “conscious” hip hop, helped to build support for the idea of student governance and drew upon a resurgent black nationalist ethos. At the center of this story is a student organization known as Black Nia F.O.R.C.E. Co-founded by Ras Baraka, the group was at the forefront of organizing the student mobilization at Howard during the spring of 1989 and thereafter. We Are Worth Fighting For explores how black student activists—young men and women— helped shape and resist the rightward shift and neoliberal foundations of American politics. This history adds to the literature on Black campus activism, Black Power studies, and the emerging histories of African American life in the 1980s.

The youngest living Medal of Honor recipient delivers an unforgettable memoir that "will inspire every reader” (Jim Mattis) NATIONAL BESTSELLER | A Marine Commandant's Reading List selection On November 21, 2010, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Carpenter was posted atop a building in violent Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when an enemy grenade skittered toward Kyle and fellow Marine Nick Eufrazio. Without hesitation, Kyle chose a path of selfless heroism that few can imagine. He jumped on the grenade, saving Nick but sacrificing his own body. Kyle Carpenter’s heart flatlined three times while being evacuated off the battlefield in Afghanistan. Yet his spirit was unbroken. Severely wounded from head to toe, Kyle lost his right eye as well as most of his jaw. It would take dozens of surgeries and almost three years in and out of the hospital to reconstruct his body. From there, he began the process of rebuilding his life. What he has accomplished in the last nine years is extraordinary: he’s come back a stronger, better, wiser person. In 2014, Kyle was awarded the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his “singular act of courage” on that rooftop in Afghanistan, an action which had been reviewed exhaustively by the military. Kyle became the youngest living recipient of the award–and only the second living Marine so honored since Vietnam. Kyle’s remarkable memoir reveals a central truth that will inspire every reader: Life is worth everything we’ve got. It is the story of how one man became a so-called hero who willingly laid down his life for his brother-in-arms—and equally, it is a story of rebirth, of how Kyle battled back from the gravest challenge to forge a life of joyful purpose. You Are Worth It is a memoir about the war in Afghanistan and Kyle’s heroics, and it is also a manual for living. Organized around the credos that have guided Kyle’s life (from “Don’t Hide Your Scars” to “Call Your Mom”), the book encourages us to become our best selves in the time we’ve been given on earth. Above all, it’s about finding purpose, regardless of the hurdles that may block our way. Moving and unforgettable, You Are Worth It is an astonishing memoir from one of our most extraordinary young leaders.

Presents a collection of magazine and newspaper stories, articles, and columns by the notable journalist, who was killed in 2003 while covering the Iraq war.

"This book is a welcome addition to the "What's Worth Fighting For?" series by two highly respected authors. It contains practical advice to help prepare the teaching profession for a future which is already here and in which the context for teaching and learning will shed the 19th century factory model on which our schools are based. Headteachers and their teacher colleagues will want to be at the forefront of preparing consciously for the future rather than finding themselves as passive recipients of change and this book provides a guide for that journey." - Rowie Shaw, NAHT In this book, Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan argue that in a world of growing complexity and rapid change, it is vital to forge strong, open and interactive relationships with communities beyond schools in order to bring about significant improvements in teaching and learning within schools. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to rediscover the passion and moral purpose that makes teaching and learning exciting and effective. This book makes accessible ideas steeped in research, theory and practice. It will challenge all in education and will provoke thought, elicit debate and encourage action.

This book will help principals (and teacher leaders) fight for fundamentally positive changes that will benefit themselves and their students. Because principals are very often overloaded either with what they are actually doing or with all the things they think they should be doing, their actions, however unintentionally, are frequently shaped by outside events and/or the actions or directions of others. In the heart of this book, "Guidelines for Action, " the author helps principals break the cycle of dependency both for themselves and for those with whom they work.

In the exciting new edition of this bestselling book, Michael Fullan looks at how much has changed in the world of headship and school improvement in recent decades, and offers key guidelines for being a successful head teacher in the 21st century. Policymakers and school reformers have increasingly pointed to the headteacher as the most important agent for change in our schools. The first edition argued that there was little point waiting for the system to improve, and urged headteachers to take charge and to assume that on any given day the system may not know what it is doing. Since then the situation has become even more complex. The good news is that finally the role of head teacher is being recognized by politicians and policymakers as key, but the bad news is that they are overloaded with initiatives and expectations that serve only to fetter deep action. The irony is that as the head teacher is elevated as critical to success, the headship is sinking - overloaded and pulled down at the same time. In this completely rewritten and updated new edition, Fullan furnishes six action guidelines for heads, and six for systems to enable them to make dramatic improvements in schools. He seeks a way out of the current dilemma, helping incumbent and would-be head teachers in leveraging action that will positively change the system in both small and large ways.