Bringing Out The Best In Teachers

Offers advice for school principals who want to bring out the best in teachers, based on an in-depth study of the everyday strategies that open and effective school principals use to influence, motivate, and empower the teachers in their schools.

Boost teacher-to-teacher collaboration and learning as a means of informal, but powerful professional development! Most teachers have experienced some kind of formal mentoring or induction program. What these programs can miss is the meaningful daily interaction with peers that builds mutual trust and instructional collaboration. Based on a unique investigative study of nearly 300 teachers, this powerful new resource provides informative teacher perspectives of informal, naturally occurring, teacher-to-teacher professional development. The authors identify the following five teacher behaviors that can positively influence other teachers’ morale, teaching skills, and professional growth: • Building healthy relationships by communicating, caring, and developing trust • Using five guiding principles for structuring learning experiences • Planning and organizing for learning • Showing and sharing • Guiding for classroom management This excellent resource helps school leaders promote a culture that encourages lasting professional development. In each chapter, educators share specific experiences and examples, showing each skill in action. School leaders will learn what strong teacher peer "consultants" actually do that leads to improved teacher confidence and motivation, enhanced trust and mutual respect, and reflective instructional behavior among their colleagues. These cost-effective, authentic strategies will build camaraderie and leadership in your school, engaging colleagues as a team in the vital mission of all schools-educating our youth.

"Reading this book is like having a conversation with several great colleagues sharing their ideas and expertise. The ideas and suggestions are clear, relevant, and doable. This book is inspiring!"-Pam Newell Bradley, PrincipalIrving Elementary School, Muskogee, OKTeachers reveal how principals can empower them to perform their best!What strategies do great principals use to influence teachers, students, and classroom instruction? This best-selling book by Joseph Blase and Peggy C. Kirby, now in its third edition, provides the answers from the teachers themselves. New material in this revised edition compares the authors' original research findings with recent literature on transformational leadership, school productivity, and adult learning, as well as the ISLLC and ELCC standards. Such comparisons underscore the continued timeliness and timelessness of this teacher's-eye view of effective school leadership. The book offers strategies and related practices that allow leaders toUse the power of praise Influence others by using expectations and involvement Encourage professional autonomy Lead by standing behind Suggest rather than direct Use formal authority positivelyIdeal for experienced or aspiring school principals, this enlightening and compact resource provides invaluable perspectives on how to motivate and inspire classroom teachers.

The authors show how to develop open, honest, and sincere relationships with teachers and how it is possible to create a school environment that focuses on the social and educational welfare of students.

In this revised edition, Carl Glickman and coauthor Rebecca West Burns synthesize their decades of experience in teacher education and supervision into a comprehensive guide to supporting teacher growth and student learning. Embedded in every page are the essential knowledge, skills, approaches, and methods that leaders need to drive instructional improvement. Official school leaders and classroom teachers striving to be the best will learn how to put the school's goals and priorities into practice by * Selecting the right structure for differentiating teacher professional learning to improve outcomes for students; * Implementing the technical and procedural skills needed to support teacher learning while observing, assessing, and evaluating instruction; * Identifying appropriate relational skills for communicating and working with teachers; * Applying the best interpersonal approach to stretch each teacher based on their own developmental level; * Making the most of teachable moments with immediate response skills; and * Understanding how to support teachers' social-emotional wellness as an essential component of improving practice. In addition, each chapter provides detailed scenarios and case studies that illustrate exceptional leadership, and the Appendixes offer connections to dozens of promising practices. We are in a new era of teaching and learning, and a new kind of leader is needed to guide successful and extraordinary schools. Leadership for Learning: How to Bring Out the Best in Every Teacher gives preK–12 leaders the powerful tools they need to ensure that competent, caring, qualified professionals who want to improve teaching and learning are in every classroom.

The ideas presented in this book are drawn from a study of highly successful principals of schools affiliated with the League of Professional Schools. Chapter 1, "Sharing Governance," presents an overview of the literature on professional development and a description of the study. Chapter 2, "Trusting the Experts: Teachers," focuses on trust as the foundation for shared governance and teacher empowerment. Chapter 3, "Creating Instruction-Oriented Structures That Help Teachers Do Their Best," examines the importance of structuring schools to encourage teacher collaboration and access to decision making. Chapter 4, "A Cornucopia of Supportive Resources," explores how principals use resources such as staff development to enhance teachers' instructional capabilities. Chapter 5,"Encouraging Autonomy and Innovation," reviews extending autonomy and encouraging innovation as strategies to enhance instructional capabilities. Chapter 6, "Modeling Personal Dimensions," highlights the effects of such personal characteristics of principals as optimism, caring, honesty, friendliness, and enthusiasm. Chapter 7, "About Risk and Threat," argues for reducing risk and threat to teachers. Chapter 8, "Valuing and Rewarding Good Work," explains the benefits of rewarding teachers. Chapter 9, "Helping Solve Problems," discusses the importance of adopting a problem-solving orientation. Chapter 10, "Providing Leadership That Is Facilitative and Democratic," presents a portrait of a successful shared-governance principal and considers the future of instruction-oriented, facilitative-democratic leadership in schools. (Contains approximately 300 references.) (TEJ)

Many parents are waking up to the fact that parenting is not about controlling their children, but about empowering themselves and their children. 9 Ways to Bring Out the Best in You and Your Child is about turning power struggles into powerful relationships. It is about raising children who are full of spirit and life, and about teaching them to be caring human beings. Maggie Reigh teaches that parenting is a matter of the heart. Combining profound insights with practical ideas, Reigh shows parents how to raise respectful, responsible, and resilient children, and at the same time, add more life and laughter to their children's lives and their own. This is a book about raising children full of spirit and life, and teaching them to be caring human beings.

Teaching and Learning from Within brings together theory, research, and practice on core reflection, an approach that focuses on people’s strengths as the springboard for personal growth and serves every human being involved in education–including students, teachers, school principals, and university faculty. This approach supports the essential role of authenticity in the development of the whole person. It has been used in contexts around the world and has shown great promise in helping to re-chart the course for education and to re-think its purpose in global and democratic societies. The book looks at the current educational context and the need for core reflection; introduces the theory and its linkages to previous studies in numerous disciplines; presents various applications in multinational research and practice—with teachers, with students and schools, and with teacher educators; and highlights ongoing work in around the world along with future plans, opportunities, and resources for professional development and research. .