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Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn examines the question, What happens when, despite our best efforts in the classroom, a student does not learn? A professional learning community creates a school-wide system of interventions that provides all students with additional time and support when they experience difficulty in their learning. The authors describe the systems of interventions, including Adlai E. Stevenson High School's Pyramid of Interventions, created by a high school, a middle school, and two elementary schools. The authors also discuss the logistical barriers these schools faced and their strategies for overcoming them.

This is a rare inside look at an ambitious urban school reform initiative currently underway in a mid-sized American city. The reform, which was supported by one of the largest private donations ever given to a single high school, aims to make high achievement a reality for every student. Poignant, penetrating, and uplifting, this narrative account of the first years of the reform illuminates the difficult choices and challenges involved in educational change. Holly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli help readers come to understand the institutional nature of American secondary education, where almost nothing has changed in the past fifteen years. Many public high schools are large, impersonal places that are more interested in regimentation than achievement. In setting the stage for reform, The Heart of a High School describes some of the factors - high poverty, low expectations, inadequate teacher training, school district bureaucracy, and parental neglect - that challenge efforts to improve urban high schools. This story is important from a national perspective because it encompasses so many perplexing issues in education today: how to define and meet higher academic standards; how to counteract the corrosive effects of urban poverty; and how to help teachers, students, and communities embrace the changing educational requirements of the new world economy.

A compelling self help guide about pancreatic cancer, death of a husband and father, rarely discussed aspects of terminal illness, surviving grief, and giving yourself permission to create a life after loss. Keep Moving, Creating a Life after Loss describes the life before diagnosis, during treatment and after the death of Mike, husband to Holly and father to Christopher and Ryan. Learn how, as a family, they demonstrate the ability to process a devastating loss with their grief and keep moving while honoring his memory. This inspirational self help guide of timely sharing written by Holly Rose Holland includes learning how to live well and appreciate a second chance to live a new life. People who have experienced lifestyle, relationship, and job loss will also benefit. This account of a battle with pancreatic cancer will encourage you to accept grief and continue your life without guilt. Ideas are included to help you plan, prepare and adapt. Readers will benefit from the information that will result. You will cherish memories and benefit from giving yourself permission to keep living life. This is the perfect gift for those who have experienced a heartbreaking loss.

Making Change propels readers into the heart of the most radical school reform initiative our nation has ever witnessed--the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act.

50+ BEAUTIFUL DESIGNS

Troubles in Kentucky school systems.

Good teachers form the foundation of good schools, and improving teachers' skills and knowledge is one of the most important investments of time and money that local, state, and national leaders make in education. Yet with the wide variety of professional development options available, which methods have the most impact on student learning? Research on professional development is scattered throughout subject areas, with its focus ranging from classroom processes and structures to teachers' personal traits. "Research Points" has limited this review to learning opportunities for teachers that are explicitly aimed at increasing student achievement. Studies suggest that the more time teachers spend on professional development, the more significantly they change their practices and that participating in professional learning communities optimizes the time spent on professional development. Changing goals for learning, coupled with shifts in curriculum emphasis and a deeper understanding of teacher learning and student thinking, have led to new findings about the impact of teacher professional development and how best to sharpen teachers' skills and knowledge.

It's raining outside, and you don't want to just stare at the TV. You want activity! This book will keep you entertained for hours. And in the end you won't even mind that it's raining outside: )