Launch Your Classroom

Shift to blended learning to transform education Blended learning has the power to reinvent education, but the transition requires a new approach to learning and a new skillset for educators. Loaded with research and examples, Blended Learning in Action demonstrates the advantages a blended model has over traditional instruction when technology is used to engage students both inside the classroom and online. Readers will find: Breakdowns of the most effective classroom setups for blended learning Tips for leaders Ideas for personalizing and differentiating instruction using technology Strategies for managing devices in schools Questions to facilitate professional development and deeper learning

Something happens in students when they define themselves as makers and inventors and creators. They discover powerful skills-problem-solving, critical thinking, and imagination-that will help them shape the world's future ... our future. If that's true, why isn't creativity a priority in more schools today? Educators John Spencer and A.J. Juliani know firsthand the challenges teachers face every day: School can be busy. Materials can be scarce. The creative process can seem confusing. Curriculum requirements can feel limiting. Those challenges too often bully creativity, pushing it to the side as an "enrichment activity" that gets put off or squeezed into the tiniest time block. We can do better. We must do better if we're going to prepare students for their future. LAUNCH: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student provides a process that can be incorporated into every class at every grade level ... even if you don't consider yourself a "creative teacher." And if you dare to innovate and view creativity as an essential skill, you will empower your students to change the world-starting right now. Look, Listen, and Learn Ask Lots of Questions Understand the Problem or Process Navigate Ideas Create Highlight What's Working and Failing Are you ready to LAUNCH?

Engaging Practices for Integrating Restorative Justice Principles in Group Settings As restorative practices spread around the world, scholars and practitioners have begun to ask very important questions: How should restorative practices be taught? What educational structures and methods are in alignment with restorative values and principles? This book introduces games as an effective and dynamic tool to teach restorative justice practices. Grounded in an understanding of restorative pedagogy and experiential learning strategies, the games included in this book provide a way for learners to experience and more deeply understand restorative practices while building relationships and improving skills. Chapters cover topics such as: Introduction to restorative pedagogy and experiential learning How a restorative learning community can be built and strengthened through the use of games and activities How to design games and activities for teaching restorative practices How to design, deliver, and debrief an activity-based learning experience In-depth instructions for games and activities for building relationships, understanding the restorative philosophy, and developing skills in practice An ideal handbook for educators, restorative justice program directors and trainers, consultants, community group leaders, and anyone else whose work draws people together to resolve disagreements or address harm, this book will serve as a catalyst for greater creativity and philosophical alignment in the teaching of restorative practices across contexts.

Writing your next lesson plan? Launch Your Classroom Instruction can help! Launch Your Classroom Instruction!: Planning and Delivering Effective Lessons is an all-inclusive handbook to writing a lesson plan and delivering content to maximize student engagement for all learning styles. Designing meaningful lessons that align with learning objectives is a critical aspect of teaching, and we provide you with all the strategies to encourage active learning in your classroom. In the third book of the Launch Your Classroom! Series, we give you information about current best practices in pedagogy and lesson planning, tips for effectively executing your lessons after you have written them, and guidance on how to use varying assessment strategies to evaluate student learning and implement differentiation successfully. Launch Your Classroom Instruction!: Planning and Delivering Effective Lessons includes:* Components of a lesson plan * Class warm-up exercises * Interactive classroom activities * Sample mental models for students * Active learning techniques The Launch Your Classroom! Series is designed to offer new teachers ready-to-use, teacher-created resources. We pick up where many teaching orientations leave off, giving you research-based teaching strategies to improve classroom setup, classroom management, student engagement, and more! Going beyond instructional theory, we provide you with relatable examples, sample teaching activities, and opportunities for advanced study and practice.Launch Your Classroom! is a multi-platform resource, utilizing books and instructional videos to equip new teachers with critical information about how to succeed. Our proactive approach will help you set up a classroom network that will support learning and confront problems before they begin.

Classrooms can be unpredictable places, but with this book you will be able to maintain a disciplined and productive learning environment. ""Launch Your Classroom! is a powerful resource that will surely help teachers have a successful school year."-Martha R., Science Teacher "Launch Your Classroom! is a good resource for improving your teaching experience."-Sonia G., Spanish Teacher Launch Your Classroom Management!: Creating a Well-Run Classroom is a comprehensive guide for student behavior management and classroom discipline. Designing a clear classroom management plan early on will help you maximize student engagement and learning throughout the school year. In the second book of the Launch Your Classroom! Series, we give you all the essential tips and strategies for preventing student misbehavior and intervening when they occur. Reading this book, you will learn about developing effective rules with logical consequences, establishing procedures and transitions that discourage misbehaviors, and how to appropriately react to student disruptions. Launch Your Classroom Management!: Creating a Well-Run Classroom includes: Habits of effective classroom managers Guidelines for creating effective rules Behavior tracking checklists Case studies for specific misbehaviors Sample behavior contracts The Launch Your Classroom! Series is designed to offer new teachers ready-to-use, teacher-created resources. We pick up where many teaching orientations leave off, giving you research-based teaching strategies to improve classroom setup, classroom management, student engagement, and more! Going beyond instructional theory, we provide you with relatable examples, sample teaching activities, and opportunities for advanced study and practice. Launch Your Classroom! is a multi-platform resource, utilizing books and instructional videos to equip new teachers with critical information about how to succeed. Our proactive approach will help you set up a classroom network that will support learning and confront problems before they begin.

Are you preparing for your first year teaching and confused about where to start? Launch Your Classroom! can help. "Launch Your Classroom! prepared me to deal with my new school culture. It helped me adjust quickly to the new environment."-Nicole D., 4th-grade Teacher "Launch Your Classroom! is an amazing tool for classroom management and teacher professionalism that anyone can benefit from." -Kerry-Ann F., Language Arts Teacher Launch Your Classroom!: Building a Foundation for Learning is a quick-start guide for new teachers and returning teachers to master the USA classroom. In the first book of the Launch Your Classroom! Series, you will learn everything you need to know to ensure a successful school year before the first day of class even begins. We start with the basics, covering essential information about the USA education structure, as well as approaches for adapting to your school's culture, designing your classroom and building rapport with students, parents, and coworkers. In Launch Your Classroom!: Building a Foundation for Learning, we give you all the resources to get started, including: * Classroom setup charts * Classroom supplies checklist * Ice-breakers for teachers * Instructional videos The Launch Your Classroom! Series is designed to offer new teachers ready-to-use, teacher-created resources. We pick up where many teaching orientations leave off, giving you research-based teaching strategies to improve classroom setup, classroom management, student engagement, and more! Going beyond instructional theory, we provide you with relatable examples, sample teaching activities, potential setbacks, and opportunities for advanced study and practice. Launch Your Classroom! is a multi-platform resource, utilizing books and included instructional videos to equip new teachers with critical information about how to succeed. Our proactive approach will help you set up a classroom network that will support learning and confront problems before they begin.

Adele Scheele, a widely published career strategist, has created a roadmap designed to inspire students to use their time wisely, to help their parents become better coaches to their children, and to empower college faculty and administrators to become more active mentors. Only a fraction of students actually know how to use college as a stepping-stone for educational exploration and social connection. Most students are keenly disappointed when the expected transformation from college to career does not automatically happen. They do not know that they have to make it happen through their own engagement. Packed with practical and accessible advice, Scheele's approach provides critical strategies to the burgeoning number of students—whether they are children of advantaged parents or children of immigrants, high school students anticipating their college career, or adult women re-entering college after years of working or childrearing. All students are seeking the American Dream, hoping that the secret to success will be included with their diplomas. Launch Your Career in College provides a guide to maximizing the return on their educational investment. Offering practical and accessible advice for college students, Launch Your Career in College offers a guide to maximizing the return on students' and their parents' financial and educational investments. College is an experiment in hope. It is an expensive investment of time—often more than four years—and of money—anywhere from $4000 to $40,000 per year. Yet the biggest investment, by far, is that of hope—hope that by simply attending college students will be able to turn their majors into successful careers and rewarding lives. Students and their parents expect that college will be the single transforming agent to make them acceptable, valuable, knowledgeable, professional, and employable. Seldom is this expectation voiced, but it is there, deeply embedded in our views about higher education. It is not just hoped for. It is believed to be true. This books can help students, educators, and parents make that hope a reality.

The best story is one that comes from the heart. The library is having a contest for the best story, and the quirky narrator of this book just has to win that rollercoaster ride with her favorite author! But what makes a story the best? Her brother Tim says the best stories have lots of action. Her father thinks the best stories are the funniest. And Aunt Jane tells her that the best stories have to make people cry. A story that does all these things doesn't seem quite right, though, and the one thing the whole family can agree on is that the best story has to be your own. Anne Wilsdorf's hilarious illustrations perfectly capture this colorful family and their outrageous stories in Eileen Spinelli's heartfelt tale about creativity and finding your own voice.