Facilitator S Guide To Failure Is Not An Option

Aligning theory with practice, chapter-by-chapter activities and discussion questions examine the critical role of a strong learning community in implementing effective school reform, with a focus on Blanksteins six guiding principles:Common mission, vision, values, and goals Systems for prevention and intervention Collaborative teaming for teaching and learning Data-driven decision making and continuous improvement Active engagement from family and community Building sustainable leadership capacity With the Facilitators Guide to Failure Is NOT an Option™, you can effectively lead others through dialogue, reflection, and application of Blanksteins principles. It is an ideal resource for school principals, district administrators, teacher leaders, and educational policy makers, and perfect for groups of any size-pairs, small workshops, and large seminars.

Help ensure that failure is never an option for any child by demonstrating how school leaders can apply six powerful principles to create successful, sustainable high-performing schools! The resources in this facilitator's guide can also be found at the HOPE Foundation Web site at www.hopefoundation.org.

Presents six principles for creating and implementing high-performance schools and provides ways to handle difficult issues, advice on team teaching and learning, and suggestions for continuous improvement and evaluation of methods.

New case studies, videos, and field-tested processes help educators build high-performing leadership teams and create a school culture that sustains success for every student.

Part manual, part memoir and part call to action, this book demonstrates why the core skill needed by leaders in the next decade and into the future will be authentic and effective communication. Communications based on character, integrity and values will be critical in helping leaders navigate the two mega trends of accelerated technological change and increasing demands for social change. This book is the first to marry practical advice on deepening communication skills with insight from a coaching and cognitive point of view into what techniques works and why, and to pull together the wider societal issues and the operating context for leaders. Counter-intuitive and written to provoke thought and awareness, the author looks at the psychological and emotional effects of our communications and what leaders can do to inspire and engage, guiding them through three sections: • A framework for effective communications • A toolkit, detailing what good looks like in practical situations • The authentic leader, an exploration of the changing communications landscape and why a different kind of leadership is needed C-suite executives, leaders about to take that last step into the C-suite or millennial leaders about to enter the boardroom will value this book as an advisory guide, as a handbook to be used in internal coaching and training sessions and as a manual and aide memoir for themselves.

The work of school leaders is critical in this era, and there is heightened attention on the roles of the leaders as linked to student achievement and school improvement; school culture and climate; and the variables that impact achievement, improvement, culture and climate. The demands on school leaders have significantly changed. About a decade ago, the Southern Educational Regional Board suggested that school leaders impact as much as twenty percent of the achievement in schools. A few years later, the potential impact of school leaders increased to twenty-five percent. Throughout the chapters, the reoccurring concepts regarding the work of leaders are discussed. The need for leaders to move student learning and to respond to changes in education and challenges are contributing factors to the development of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL). In chapter 1 and in other chapters throughout the book; the links and importance between educational leadership and student learning are made. The standards provide a framework of the knowledge and skills needed for school leaders to be prepared for the challenges.

As the workforce ages and younger trainers and managers emerge, facilitation skills take on a new importance and, with the increased use of social networks, new facilitation skills are needed. Written by two facilitation gurus, this book shows how to make any learning environment come alive. It outlines proven guidelines any trainer can use to unify groups, inspire creativity, and get audiences, teams, and colleagues to speak up, talk back, participate, and engage in meetings.

This book prepares educational leaders with the knowledge needed to critically evaluate, select, and use technological tools to be effective school leaders. Authors Jones and Kennedy explore the technology tools needed to support the full range of responsibilities of a school leader, including management and administration, personnel and evaluation, security and safety, instructional leadership, organizational culture and climate, external relationships, and action research. Each chapter unpacks advantages and pitfalls of various technological tools and includes case scenarios that contextualize these ideas for readers. Chapter content is also aligned with The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), the National Educational Leadership Preparation Standards (NELP), and the International Society of Technology Standard in Education (ISTE) standards. This timely and important book adds to the toolbox for educators preparing to become effective and cutting-edge school leaders.