Intentional Excellence

Excellence and Impactful Leadership don't happen accidentally Excellence is a journey where leaders discover who they are, what they value, and the principles that drive them. True excellence and impactful leadership require intentional strategies. Pursuers of excellence are able to see barriers as obstacles that they can overcome. It is those barriers and challenges that strengthen us in our pursuit of excellence. To Be Excellent on Purpose means avoiding excuses and making a plan for life and working the plan to make it a reality. Longtime teacher, author, presenter, and Principal of the Year Sanée Bell shares personal and professional stories and strategies that will make your own leadership both intentional and impactful. In the inaugural book in the Lead Forward Series, Bell introduces teachers, principals, school district leaders, and leaders in all spaces to a simple, but powerful, system that makes you more cognizant of your own leadership style and your journey to daily excellence. Inside Be Excellent on Purpose, you'll find dozens of stories and accompanying strategies that give you a unique approach to leadership and intentional daily excellence, while answering these critical questions: How do you find your Why? How do you meet the individual needs of all stakeholders? How do you as a leader transform learning, teaching, and professional growth? How do you inspire and energize your students and staff? How do you champion equity in your space? How do you promote and support innovation? Engage with the content The Lead Forward Series is designed to give you grassroots stories from people who are in the field, doing the work daily, while providing a space to interact with the content. Each chapter contains a LeadForward Journal, with guiding questions and sentence stems, which you can write on and share with friends and colleagues, encouraging them to Lead Forward and to Be Excellent on Purpose. Before you return to school or work ... read Be Excellent on Purpose, and bring the power of intentional excellence and impactful leadership to all of your shareholders every day.

Are we bold enough to recognize our own excellence in our schools and communities? This question drives Intentional Excellence, an audacious attempt at developing a Pedagogy of Excellence in Latina/o schools and communities as a result of observations, insights, and lessons learned from work with schools and communities across the United States. Louie F. Rodríguez argues that while there is no shortage of excellence in some of the schools and communities that struggle the most, there is a pedagogical void, or an Excellence Paradox, that has disallowed excellence from being used as a potential tool to transform the culture of education. This book offers an additive framework for committed stakeholders and outlines six key observations including the contagious nature of excellence, excellence as a responsibility, the political viability of excellence, the additive possibilities of excellence, the role of excellence as a curricular and pedagogical tool, and the role of excellence in working toward equity and social justice in education. Rodríguez discusses a series of case studies that have used Excellence Campaigns to organize, define, and recognize their own excellence. The book also discusses the possibilities of excellence beyond education and proposes a new role in education to make excellence happen: Excellence Engineers. The book concludes with a theory of action that is necessary for excellence to thrive in the twenty-first century. Our children and communities deserve to see themselves as «models of excellence» and this book proposes a pedagogy to help get us there.

Are we bold enough to recognize our own excellence in our schools and communities? This question drives Intentional Excellence, an audacious attempt at developing a Pedagogy of Excellence in Latina/o schools and communities as a result of observations, insights, and lessons learned from work with schools and communities across the United States. Louie F. Rodríguez argues that while there is no shortage of excellence in some of the schools and communities that struggle the most, there is a pedagogical void, or an Excellence Paradox, that has disallowed excellence from being used as a potential tool to transform the culture of education. This book offers an additive framework for committed stakeholders and outlines six key observations including the contagious nature of excellence, excellence as a responsibility, the political viability of excellence, the additive possibilities of excellence, the role of excellence as a curricular and pedagogical tool, and the role of excellence in working toward equity and social justice in education. Rodríguez discusses a series of case studies that have used Excellence Campaigns to organize, define, and recognize their own excellence. The book also discusses the possibilities of excellence beyond education and proposes a new role in education to make excellence happen: Excellence Engineers. The book concludes with a theory of action that is necessary for excellence to thrive in the twenty-first century. Our children and communities deserve to see themselves as «models of excellence» and this book proposes a pedagogy to help get us there.

"Charles Elbot and David Fulton get it! They get how dominant a force a school′s culture is in assisting—or thwarting—the development of learning and character and how extraordinarily difficult it is to make changes. Unlike most of us, they also get how possible it is to build a desirable school culture. This tidy little volume is the authors′ first step in sharing their inventive ′lesson plans′ from their successful work as school culture builders. When we take these lessons learned to heart, we too will get it!" —Roland Barth, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Education Harvard University Transform your school by shaping a culture based on shared values, beliefs, and behaviors. Based on lessons learned from the authors′ work in improving school culture for more than sixty schools across the country, this inspiring guide for school leaders helps create an "intentional school culture" that fosters excellence, builds character, and improves student achievement. The book provides tools, case studies, strategies, and implementation plans for building a strong school culture and offers guidelines for teacher trainings, principal workshops, staff meetings, and district-level use. The authors demonstrate how to: Support students′ independent and interdependent thinking and behavior Foster ethical decision making Collaborate with students, parents, and teachers Evaluate and monitor a plan to enhance the existing school culture The authors illustrate how deliberately shaping a school culture cultivates faculty trust, sets the groundwork for raising test scores, and is a critical ingredient in building a successful school.

A master class in achieving and sustaining excellence, even in the most challenging of times—from the host of The Learning Leader Show and author of Welcome to Management Millions of business professionals aspire to become effective leaders. But for hardworking, growth-oriented top performers who are always looking to improve and for rigorous thinkers who are never quite satisfied with the status quo, the true goal is the lifelong pursuit of excellence. Leadership advisor Ryan Hawk has interviewed hundreds of the most productive achievers in the world on his acclaimed podcast, The Learning Leader Show, to discover the best practices for pursuing and sustaining excellence. He found a pattern of uncommon behaviors that set these stellar individuals apart. By following their examples, you will learn how to: Commit to yourself and the process―and build purpose, focus, and discipline Develop resilience to face new challenges―and find inspiration for the long haul Seek guidance―and lead others to new heights Meet the moment―and make the most of every opportunity to excel Create a trusted group of advisors―and become a lifelong learner Packed with specific actions to take, experiments to run, and tools to analyze what works best for you, this uncompromisingly practical guide will inspire, challenge, support, and empower you to become your very best. Put mindsets into action and turn behaviors into habits with The Pursuit of Excellence.

Teaching models that focus on blended and virtual learning have become important during the past year and have become integral for the continuance of learning. The i²Flex classroom model, a variation of blended learning, allows non-interactive teaching activities to take place without teachers’ direct involvement, freeing up time for more meaningful teacher-student and student-student interactions. There is evidence that i²Flex leads to increased student engagement and motivation as well as better exploitation of teachers’ and classroom time leading to the development of higher order cognitive skills as well as study skills for students' future needs related to citizenship, college, and careers. The Handbook of Research on K-12 Blended and Virtual Learning Through the i²Flex Classroom Model focuses not only on how to design, deliver, and evaluate courses, but also on how to assess teacher performance in a blended i2Flex way at the K12 level. The book will discuss the implementation of the i²Flex (isquareFlex), a non-traditional learning methodology, which integrates internet-based delivery of content and instruction with faculty-guided, student-independent learning in combination with face-to-face classroom instruction aiming at developing higher order cognitive skills within a flexible learning design framework. While highlighting new methods for improving the classroom and learning experience in addition to preparing students for higher education and careers, this publication is an essential reference source for pre-service and in-service teachers, researchers, administrators, educational technology developers, and students interested in how the i2Flex model was implemented in classrooms and the effects of this learning model.

Intentional: Excellence is Not an Anomaly illustrates the importance of deliberate decisions and behavior for achieving excellence in any area of life. In this book Tarsha Chambers argues that excellence is not a random occurrence, but rather the result of deliberate actions and choices made consistently over time. This book provides practical insights and strategies for cultivating intentional habits and behaviors that can lead to greater success and fulfillment. Additionally, this book will help you navigate how to develop habits that align with your values and priorities. If you're ready to take accountability of your life and pursue your passions with intentionality, let's get started.

Would you like to have the tools to motivate, inspire and transform any team to deliver the best possible results on any project? Then this is the book for you! Dr. Ross F. Williams Jr. is excited to bring you this powerful toolset in his new book: Intentional Leadership!This book demands that you ask yourself: -What are the three most important things I want to accomplish today?-What are the three big things I want to create or accomplish this year?-What truly matters to me in terms of how I spend my time?-How well are my choices matching up with what matters most to me?When it comes to developing strong leadership and helping your team to achieve their goals with sterling results, Intentional Leadership is the most effective means for changing an individual's mindset and producing desired outcomes. Teams thrive on clear and effective communication from those in leadership so that the team has an accurate picture of what is expected, how success is measured, and for targeted results. Dr. Ross F. Williams Jr. has delineated the elements of an intentional approach to leadership in this guide and lays out the ways in which you can give your team the extra fuel necessary to give the very best of themselves. Intentional Leadership is an essential element to the survival and the prosperity of any organization. Without strong leadership that is diligent in its approach to communicate the needs to others, the team members will not see success. Only through motivating oneself and inspiring others, true transformation can occur. In this book, Dr. Williams outlines the pillars, or three "Big Rocks" that will stand at the center of any organization's success.The genesis of change begins from within, and this book equips the reader with the necessary tools to Motivate, Inspire and Transform any individual mindset for impactful change.This book is available on Amazon to assist you in effectively taking control of your team and assure the success of your organization.