Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times Review

21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times
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First off, thanks to the authors for writing a book that is applicable to teaching and learning. I've read 6 other books on 21st century skills topics and none have come close to providing models, examples, etc. on teaching and learning. In this book the authors spend less time detailing the changes in our world that are bringing an emphasis on "21st century skills" back to the forefront and more time on defining the skills and a learning framework to be used by educators in assisting students acquisition of these skills. The text details each "21st century skill" with descriptors of what students should be able to do. For educators, this is paramount in designing performance tasks and/or evaluating student performance tasks as actually being a "21st century skill." The authors then provide a learning framework or the "the project learning bicycle" and finish up with good descriptors of system changes to promote the implementation of their ideas. To sum up my thoughts, this is a book written for educational practitioners.
Dee W. Hartt, Ed. D.


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The Greatest Depression Of All Time: Will America Survive This Time & What Can You Do About It Review

The Greatest Depression Of All Time: Will America Survive This Time and What Can You Do About It
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I, like the other readers of this book, have come away a little scared about the future of the US and of the world. Where once, the US was one of the only countries that mattered, it is now evident that was happens in the US, unfortunately, DOES NOT STAY IN THE US.
Reading this book has been an eye opener. Basically, The Greatest Depression of all Time details the fact that the economy and the whole financial world is like a pendulum of sorts - and that history is doomed to repeat itself - we are headed for a depression.
This book is very interesting to read and I found myself shaking my head at some of the bits. Yes, the government is hugely responsible for the state of the economy - but we are also to blame. While the government was feeding us more and more borrowed money - we accepted it gladly and proceeded to get ourselves even more in debt. This book tells us that we simply played a role (guinea pigs???) the one that we were supposed to play in order to create and set up the future great depression.
Well written and quite interesting to read this book pulls no punches - I just hope that, in the end, its wrong.

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A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future Review

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
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A Whole New Mind $16.47 US, is a 2005 release from Daniel H. Pink that covers creative thinking and other aspects of success. Ostensibly geared toward career pros, this non-fiction title analyzes transitions in society as America migrates from an Information Age to a Conceptual Age economy. The text in Dan's book is not academic -- instead it is more biographical, intuitive, observational, and playful. His book is a real triple threat of content, style, and visual presentation.
Word to the wise -- you are in for a slightly different book here -- right of the bat, the author walks us through the procedure of having his brain scanned as part of a project conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington D.C. This unorthodox introduction (with four photo illustrations) is welcomed by the reader, as it gives the chapter an introspective quality. Pink shares this experience to illustrate normal brain function -- to note a few misconceptions about the way the brain divides work -- and then posits that while most people integrate both left and right brain activity, R-Directed Thinking will increasingly be relied upon in the future, by people that want to succeed in business or life.
Here is the crux of what Pink is trying to relay. America is currently organized around a cadre of accountants, doctors, engineers, executives and lawyers. These "knowledge workers" excel at the ability to acquire and marry facts to data, and these abilities are typically accrued through a series of standardized tests such as the PSAT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT and MCAT. (As an aside, Bush's test-happy Department of Education only serves to increase the number of L-Directed Thinkers, providing corporations cheap labor in abundance.) Pink asserts this regime of L-Directed Thinking in America is diminishing due to three factors: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.
Our guide Dan conjectures -- that in this age of Abundance -- appealing only to functional, logical, and rational requirements is not enough. Design, empathy, play, and other "soft" aptitudes have become the focal point for individuals and companies that want to stand out above the others in a crowded marketplace. Look no further than Apple's design-triumph, the physically appealing and emotionally compelling iPod, for quick confirmation of this notion!
Looking at trends, Pink concludes outsourcing of white-collar jobs (knowledge work) to nations in Asia will have profound "long term effects" on the economic well-being of Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. Just as factory jobs flowed out of the country during the eighties, globalization of white-collar jobs will soon follow. Consequently, most Americans will need to come up with a new skill set that is not abundant overseas.
Even if Pink is wrong, and Abundance and Asia aren't transforming America, rest assured that Automation is. In long paragraphs, Pink cites specific examples of how Computer Programming, Law, and Medicine have been radically altered by technology. You'll notice this trend in even simpler venues (like self-checkout at supermarket and department store chains) throughout the US. Implication of Pink's research? Transaction based jobs may soon start declining.
Now here are a few key items worthy of consideration -- when it comes to your present or future career track -- according to Dan. Can computers do it faster? Can overseas labor do it cheaper? Are your skills in demand? Are your skills overly abundant?
Eventually we'll all have to find new jobs, Pink theorizes. The Agricultural Age and Industrial Age have fallen away, and the Information Age is fading fast. We're hurtling into the Conceptual Age, where the majority of jobs will be held by people that create something, or by people that are capable of empathizing with others. Most of these jobs will require care, humor, imagination, ingenuity, instinct, joyfulness, personal rapport, or social dexterity.
Writer Pink explains High Concept, High Touch, avenues of growth that are likely to appear, delves into the importance of gaining an MBA or MFA, and then compares the differences between IQ and Emotional Intelligence in rough metaphor. He then closes Part One with two pages of observation on the baby boomer generation, and their newfound gravitation toward meaning and transcendence, and away from the allure of wealth.
Most of A Whole New Mind actually resides in Part Two, wherein Mr. Pink delineates a complex theory of the "six senses" that one could harvest to build a whole new mind. In Dan's worldview, Design is an asset above function. Story is an asset above argument. Symphony is an asset above focus. Empathy is an asset above logic. Play is an asset above seriousness, and Meaning is an asset above accumulation. After an extensive essay about each of these six components, Pink includes a "portfolio" of exercises (further reading, tools, and websites) that one could call upon to enhance this mindset, all being useful.
In the interest of keeping this review at one thousand words I've concentrated on the first half of the book -- since that is the framework that the book is built around. I will allow you the pleasure of reading the majority of part two on your own, but I'll lightly sketch some factoids that I enjoyed in the "portfolios" accompanying Dan's groupings.

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Time-Saving Tips for Teachers Review

Time-Saving Tips for Teachers
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You have other things to do, and should not have to re-create the wheel. There was much of my 25 years of teaching that was used in this way, and a book like this early on in my career would have helped me save literally hundreds of hours per year.
You should make sure that your library has this work, and it is made available to teachers. One hour with this book will literally pay you back with 100 hours of saved time.
This is an excellent resource, but as a secondary school teacher some of the material will NEVER apply to me. However, there were other items of interest that I should attend to, but do not. The book literally had shortcuts and efficiencies listed for things that I do not do, but should do. In this sense, this book was a very welcomed, and surprising resource.
Some of the reproducible masters were not completely consistent with my school, but they gave me ideas and a beginning. It did not take me long to whip up my own work, and I must confess that this book gave me the idea. Again, more efficiencies, and a savings of more time.
I would think that if you are an elementary school teacher, this work should apply to your everyday with even more applicability than mine. I need to discuss this with my sister, as she teaches elementary.
The mathematics of efficiency was something which I agreed with, and it hammered home the idea that there is a job, and it is certainly possible to get this done quickly.For perfectionists, the first chapter is for you, and I hope that the words will release you from your self-imposed prisons, and give you thousands of hours of your life back to you.
So many teachers are intensely motivated, and spend considerable time at their respective tasks. This book will quite literally give you more and more of your life back to you, and your family. It has taken me many years to discover this fact, and I do not want you to take a decade or two, arriving at this rather simple conclusion. This book will take you from that realization to the fullness of a life, coupled with the teaching.
Maybe you don't need to read every chapter, nor study it intently, but I assure you that with only one hour of inspection, you will save a ton ot time.


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Filled with ideas and resources to help with conferencing, planning, assessing, filing, absences, and more!


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Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time Review

Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time
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Are you looking for a great book on Coaching? Check out Evocative Coaching by Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran. It's the best book on coaching I've ever read.
Evocative Coaching, Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time, was written to help those who coach teachers understand some of the challenges these dedicated individuals face and how to coach them to achieve a higher level of professional performance and job satisfaction.
You don't have to be a teacher's coach to appreciate the valuable information that fills this book. Evocative Coaching reminds us what coaching is all about and provides us with new, very usable, techniques to enhance our clients' coaching experience. Evocative Coaching techniques work with any coaching specialty and the information in the book can be especially helpful to those coaches who plan to pursue IAC accreditation.
Bob Tschannen-Moran is the President of Life Trek Coaching International, the founder of the Center for School Transformation and the 2010 President of the International Association of Coaching.
Megan Tschannen-Moran, Ph.D. is professor of Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership at the College of William and Mary School of Education.


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There?s a lot of conversation about how to make schools better. Unfortunately, the nature of those conversations often makes things worse. Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time maps out a way to change that. By taking a teacher-centered, no-fault, strengths-based approach to performance improvement, the Evocative Coaching model generates the motivation and movement that enables teachers and schools to achieve desired outcomes and enhance quality of life. Viewed as a dynamic dance, the model is choreographed in four steps ? Story, Empathy, Inquiry, Design ? which are each laid out in its own chapter with powerful illustrative materials and end-of-chapter discussion questions to prompt further reflection.
Bringing together the best research and wisdom in educational leadership and professional coaching, authors Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran have developed a simple yet profound way of facilitating new conversations in schools through Story Listening, Expressing Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Design Thinking. It?s an iterative process that moves beyond old ways of thinking, doing, and being. It?s an inspirational process that reinvigorates the passion for making schools better, one conversation at a time.
This happens when coaches:
give teachers our full, undivided attention;
accept and meet teachers where they are right now, without making them wrong;
ask and trust teachers to take charge of their own learning and growth;
make sure teachers are talking more than we are;
enable teachers to appreciate the positive value of their own experiences;
harness the strengths teachers have to meet challenges and overcome obstacles;
reframe difficulties and challenges as opportunities to learn and grow;
invite teachers to discover possibilities and find answers for themselves;
dialogue with teachers regarding their higher purpose for teaching;
uncover teachers? natural impulse to engage with colleagues and students;
assist teachers to draw up a personal blueprint for professional mastery;
support teachers in brainstorming and trying new ways of doing things;
maintain an upbeat, energetic, and positive attitude at all times;
collaborate with teachers to design and conduct appropriate learning experiments;
enable teachers to build supportive environments and teams;
use humor to lighten the load; and
inspire and challenge teachers to go beyond what they would do alone.

Each chapter provides a research-based theory to support the strategies presented, and includes specific suggestions and anecdotes. The Evocative Coaching model makes coaching enjoyable by getting people to focus on what they do best, and it invites larger, more integral conversations so that people talk about their work in the context of other things they care about. Resting on strong, evidence-based practices, the Evocative Coaching model offers educators the help they need to meet the challenges of increased accountability and expectations. This model can also be used effectively by coaches and leaders in other organizational contexts.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: What Is Evocative Coaching?
Chapter 2: Coaching Presence
Loop I: The No-Fault Turn
Chapter 3: Story Listening
Chapter 4: Expressing Empathy
Loop II: The Strengths-Building Turn
Chapter 5: Appreciative Inquiry
Chapter 6: Design Thinking
Chapter 7: Aligning Environments
Chapter 8: Coaching Conversations
Chapter 9: The Reflective Coach

To learn more about Evocative Coaching and to sign up for the Evocative Coach Training Program, visit www.SchoolTransformation.com.

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It Sure Beats Working: 29 Quirky Stories and Practical Business Lessons for The First-Time, Mid-Life, Solo Professional Review

It Sure Beats Working: 29 Quirky Stories and Practical Business Lessons for The First-Time, Mid-Life, Solo Professional
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This may be the first of it's kind. Katz draws on his personal successful experience as a solo professional while adding the type of humor that makes you laugh but also makes a point. Each "quirky story" educates and motivates in very practical and useful ways. If you aren't one yet, this just may be the book to get you thinking about taking the leap.

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Clearly written and experience-based, this quirky book overflows with practical insights, and is a must read for anyone taking a first step in starting a solo business. Part roadmap, part inspiration and laced with wit and authenticity throughout, Katz shares his own story as a first-time, mid-life, solo professional.

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