Reclaiming The Teaching Profession

Reclaiming the Teaching Profession gives educators (especially teachers and future teachers) and their allies a clear overview of the massive effort to dismantle public education in the United States, which includes a direct attack on teachers. The book details, and provides a systematic critique of, the shaky assumptions at the foundation of the market-based reform initiatives that dominate the contemporary education scene. It names and exposes the motives and methods of the powerful philanthropists, politicians, business moguls, and education entrepreneurs who are behind the reform movement. It provides counter narratives that public school advocates can use to talk back to those who would destroy the teaching profession and public education. It includes examples of successful acts of resistance and identifies resources for challenging reformers’ taken for granted primacy in the education debate. It concludes with strategies educators can use to “speak truth to power,” reclaim their professional status, and reshape the education landscape in ways that serve all of America’s children and preserve our democracy.

Drawing from a wealth of research and experience, this book shows educators how to use the transformative power of professional learning in community to raise the professional stature of educators. The authors, experts in their field, provide clear steps and real-school examples with a focus on collaborative adult learning for student gains, community respect, professional satisfaction, and collegial support. They examine pitfalls and distractions, and show clear images of what empowered Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) look like for teachers, administrators, and leaders at the school and district level. The authors also provide practical tools for advancing and measuring progress. This resource will help educators move from a climate of sanctions to one of mutual trust and support committed to students and dedicated to working and learning together.

Drawing from a wealth of research and experience, this book shows educators how to use the transformative power of professional learning in community to raise the professional stature of educators. The authors, experts in their field, provide clear steps and real-school examples with a focus on collaborative adult learning for student gains, community respect, professional satisfaction, and collegial support. They examine pitfalls and distractions, and show clear images of what empowered Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) look like for teachers, administrators, and leaders at the school and district level. The authors also provide practical tools for advancing and measuring progress. This resource will help educators move from a climate of sanctions to one of mutual trust and support informed by a commitment to students and a dedication to working and learning together. Book features: A rubric for PLCs to measure their progress on a continuum. Organizational structures, human resources, and protocols required to empower PLCs. Stories from schools of PLC breakthroughs and best PLC practices. An “Innovation Configuration Map,” or master plan, for moving a PLC to progressively higher levels. A framework for developing a teaching profession that is more self-regulating and more highly valued by society.

Cochran-Smith and her research team argue that it is time for teacher educators to reclaim accountability. They critique major accountability initiatives, exposing the lack of evidence behind these policies and the negative impact they have on teacher education. They also offer an achievable alternative based on a commitment to equity and democracy.

Annotation Goldstein (education, U. of Texas, Austin) offers this text in an effort to reestablish "caring" in teaching and in teacher education, with an urge to move away from the "gentle smiles and warm hugs" view toward one that sees caring as an integral part of the teacher- learning process and teacher education programs. Coverage includes conceptual, theoretical and empirical interpretations of caring which provide a framework for a moral and intellectual relation view of caring; educating teachers to understand and be committed to this concept of caring teaching; and possibilities for developing teacher education programs which demonstrate for preservice teachers the pedagogical power of the moral and intellectual relation view of caring. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Effective classroom management is the key to truly inclusive education Teachers who excel at classroom management have students who are more engaged, less disruptive, and more likely to achieve academically. What can you do to confront behavior challenges, both in-person and virtually, and set your classroom on a positive course? Reclaim Your Challenging Classroom guides new and veteran teachers alike in developing effective classroom management techniques, with a particular focus on students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Addressing six interrelated topics—student perceptions of you as teacher, room arrangement, classroom expectations, consequences to encourage appropriate behavior, student lesson engagement, and classroom community—this step-by-step guide empowers teachers to create a positive and effective learning environment that is grounded in the student-teacher relationship. Each chapter includes: • Vignettes inspired by real classrooms and students • Ideas and techniques for successfully addressing common problems • A "What Research Tells Us" feature that relates current research findings to the effective management of inclusive classrooms • Self-assessment inventories linked to each topic, plus more than 50 activities to guide teachers in applying key concepts and strategies in their own classroom Now is the time to alter the course of your classroom! Effective, relationship-based behavior management keeps students on track and makes your classroom a better place to teach and to learn.

This rich collection of readings is in effect an assertion that all English teachers can and should be engaged in classroom research.

Inviting teachers back to the role of reflective advocates for thoughtful reading instruction, this book presents theory and pedagogical possibilities to reclaim and build upon the knowledge base that was growing when government mandates, scripted commercial programs, and high stakes tests took over as the dominant agenda for reading instruction in U.S. public schools. Focusing on literacy learners’ and their teachers’ lives as literate souls, it examines how the teaching of reading can be reclaimed via an intensive reconsideration of five pillars as central to the teaching and learning of reading: learning, teaching, curriculum, language, and sociocultural contexts. Reclaiming Reading articulates the knowledge base that was marginalized or disrupted by legislated and policy intrusions into classrooms and provides practical examples for taking good reading instruction out of the cracks and moving it back to the center of the classroom. Explaining what happens in readers’ minds as they read and how teachers can design practices to support that process, this book encourages teachers to initiate pedagogy that will help them begin or return to the stance of reflective, knowledgeable, professional decision-makers.