Real Talk For Real Teachers

The New York Times–bestselling author and world-renown teacher offers no-nonsense wisdom for teachers of all ages There’s no one teachers trust more to give them classroom advice than Rafe Esquith. After more than thirty years on the job, Esquith still puts in the countless classroom hours familiar to every dedicated educator. But where his New York Times bestseller Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire was food for a teacher’s mind, Real Talk for Real Teachers is food for a teacher’s soul. Esquith candidly tackles the three stages of life for the career teacher and offers encouragement to see them through the difficult early years, advice on mid-career classroom building, and novel ideas for longtime educators. With his trademark mix of humor, practicality, and boundless compassion, Esquith proves the perfect companion for teachers who need a quick pick-me-up, a long heart-to-heart, or just a momentary reminder that they’re not alone.

This book provides a practical methodology that helps education professionals build rapport with students at-promise while creating learning experiences that are relevant - and life-changing. Teaching with transparency, authenticity, creativity, and grit will lead to higher achievement, student engagement, and graduation rates and fewer discipline problems.

Gain more productive time in each day! Real talk about managing time, reducing stress, and avoiding teacher burnout. Effective time management skills transform teacher confidence and morale, energize and engage students, and improve the learning climate of a classroom—for both you and your students. Weaving wellness research with classroom-tested tips, Real Talk About Time Management helps you improve your classroom learning environment and your mental health. It includes · 35 practical, teacher-proven strategies for saving time and setting personal boundaries · Stories from educators about proactive time management adjustments that worked · “Your Turn” questions that invite personal reflection and strategic planning

Describing effective, creative strategies for talking with students in ways that enhance literacy learning, this book offers a window into the classrooms of four exemplary teachers. Principles of productive classroom discussions are illustrated with detailed case examples. The book shows how—and explains why—"real talk" can enhance student engagement, foster critical thinking, promote mastery of literacy concepts, and instill a lasting love of reading. It offers ideas for selecting children's literature and fitting a range of interactive literacy activities into the school day. The authors draw on current knowledge about the connections between oral language and literacy development across the elementary grades.

For students at risk, Real Talk means real results! To successfully teach struggling students, connection and trust come first. Author Paul Hernandez, a former student at risk, is now a nationally recognized, award-winning educator and trainer. His Real Talk is a practical methodology that helps education professionals build rapport with students while creating learning experiences that are relevant...and life-changing. The results are transformed classroom and school environments, engaged students, and higher achievement. The Pedagogy of Real Talk guides readers through every step of implementation. They will Develop an understanding of the education research and theories that underlie the Real Talk approach Learn the how-to’s for implementing Real Talk with any group of learners Benefit from case studies and lessons learned Real Talk is the smart, inspiring action plan that can help you make a difference in your students’ school experience, from your first classroom conversation to graduation day. Watch Paul Hernandez present on TEDx "This book should be required reading for any educator (future, present, or past) who is dedicated to giving voice to students who have become marginalized by our current educational practices and society as a whole. By creating a culture in which students feel safe exposing their own hopes and fears and discussing their realities, we have real opportunities to establish content and context connections that lend relevance to our students’ learning." Rich Hall, Principal Henrico County Public Schools "Most of us really do care about our students, and especially our at-risk students. But we’re out of ideas for how to work with students who don’t want to be in school, don’t want to engage, won’t do the work—students who don’t want to learn. In this book, Paul Hernandez gives caring teachers a useful tool for connecting with at-risk students and for reaffirming that, deep down, they really do want to learn, after all." Scott Hollinger, University Professor and Instructional Coach Teachers College, Columbia University

Year after year, Rafe Esquith’s fifth-grade students excel. They read passionately, far above their grade level; tackle algebra; and stage Shakespeare so professionally that they often wow the great Shakespearen actor himself, Sir Ian McKellen. Yet Esquith teaches at an L.A. innercity school known as the Jungle, where few of his students speak English at home, and many are from poor or troubled families. What’s his winning recipe? A diet of intensive learning mixed with a lot of kindness and fun. His kids attend class from 6:30 A.M. until well after 4:00 P.M., right through most of their vacations. They take field trips to Europe and Yosemite. They play rock and roll. Mediocrity has no place in their classroom. And the results follow them for life, as they go on to colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. Possessed by a fierce idealism, Esquith works even harder than his students. As an outspoken maverick of public education (his heroes include Huck Finn and Atticus Finch), he admits to significant mistakes and heated fights with administrators and colleagues. We all—teachers, parents, citizens—have much to learn from his candor and uncompromising vision.

The New York Times bestselling author of Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire shares his proven methods for creating compassionate children During twenty-five years of teaching at Hobart Elementary School in inner city Los Angeles, Rafe Esquith has helped thousands of children maxi­mize their potential—and became the only teacher in history to receive the president's National Medal of Arts. In Lighting Their Fires, Esquith translates the inspiring methods from Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire for parents. Using lessons framed by a class trip to a Dodgers game, he moves inning by inning through concepts that explain how to teach children to be thoughtful and honorable people—as well as successful students—and to have fun in the process.

"This book will serve as the non-content area, general teaching methods book in the Five To Thrive series, which launches in the Fall of 2021 with Answers To Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Mathematics. It will follow the same general format: a presentation of 5 critical areas of general practice, with 10-15 questions answered in each section. Each question/answer will be featured on a 2-page spread. The five topic areas include: building an affirming classroom community; keeping students at the center; designing effective, fun, and engaging learning for students; making assessments work for you and your students; and "shh! uncovering the answers to what we often don't talk about," which includes work/life balance, asking for support from administrators, navigating difficult parent conversations"--