November 2013 Featured Resources
Stratosphere
Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge
by Michael Fullan
Stratosphere is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of education. Fullan’s earlier works have made him an icon in the field of education, but this is the best stuff he has ever written. In Stratosphere, he merges his expertise in the processes of education change with a deep understanding of the new technologies to present a powerful plan for rethinking and reinventing education in America. – Brendan Kelly, Professor Emeritus, U of T
The Ten-Minute Inservice
40 Quick Training Sessions that Build Teacher Effectiveness
by Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux
All school leaders want to help their teachers become more effective – but most administrators have too much to do and not enough time to do it. The Ten-Minute Inservice shows you how to enhance both teach and learning in the most efficient and effective way possible.
This step-by-step guide helps principals and staff developers improve teacher school-wide through weekly ten-minute inservices. These forty high-impact inservices – which can be incorporated seamlessly into staff meetings or offered as stand-alone training – cover a range of topics, from handling challenging behaviour and motivating students to engaging parents and making lessons meaningful. Each inservice includes helpful tips on how to introduce the topic, sample scripts to follow, and implementation activities to ensure that the lessons learned really stick. Also included is free access to downloadable pdf’s and PowerPoint slides of key material from the book to save you time and make your workshops even more effective.
Shifting the Monkey
The Art of Protecting Good People from Liars, Criers and Other Slackers
by Todd Whitaker
Everyone has roles, responsibilities and problems to deal with in the workplace. Some people, however, have mastered the art of shifting those “monkeys” onto the backs of others. They claim they don’t know how to solve a problem, they don’t have time, they complain, they perform poorly, they find any and every way to avoid the work and pass the buck. Instead, hardworking, loyal employees who care about results end up shouldering those burdens. The slackers get just what they want – less work – while the best employees become alienated and overworked. Monkeys are such a problem in some businesses that they even get shifted from employees to customers.