Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

The Power of We

Creating Positive and Collaborative Classroom Communities

By: Ron Nash, Shane Safir

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781943920266
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2023
Page Count: 160
Publication date: August 03, 2023

Available As:

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

Students have an endless capacity of positive energy that can be harnessed into deeper understanding. This notion lies at the heart of The Power of We.

Through a powerful combination of first-hand stories and expert research, author Ron Nash recounts his awakening to the truth that engaging students starts by involving them as active participants in their own learning. By tracing his steps from a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, first-time teacher to a renowned education expert with four decades of experience, Ron Nash's first-person narrative springs to life as humorous tales lead to eye-opening realizations of classroom techniques that:

Encourage face-to-face conversations among students rather than reliance on technology
Put students first to create effective, dynamic classroom communities
Embrace the mistakes and use them to build advantage
Learn to narrow your focus to achieve big results
Help make a habit of being and staying positive by monitoring one's own daily energy levels
Extend a hand in the classroom to find the energy necessary to make instructional changes

By reassessing one's own understanding of the traditional model of teach, learn, test, educators can then leverage these strategies and tools to forge their own paths in helping students learn through true reflection of their classroom experiences.

Author(s)

Ron Nash

Shane Safir

Shane Safir has worked at every level of the education system for the past 25 years, with an unwavering commitment to racial justice and deep learning. After teaching in San Francisco and Oakland, California and engaging in community organizing to launch a new public high school, Shane became the founding principal of June Jordan School for Equity (JJSE), an innovative national model identified by scholar and policy leader Linda Darling-Hammond as having “beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students of color.” For over a decade, Shane has provided equity-centered leadership coaching, systems transformation support, and professional learning for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S. and Canada. She writes for Edutopia, Ed Week, Educational Leadership magazine and is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass: 2017). Shane is thrilled to co-author this book with Dr. Jamila Dugan, a long-time collaborator who conducted foundational research for The Listening Leader and facilitates equity workshops with Shane, as well as Carrie Wilson, a colleague whose groundbreaking program for teacher-driven inquiry centers street data in the pursuit of equity.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

The View From the Balcony

We and Us

Through Lines

1. Learning As a Consequence of Thinking

Chief Loan Officer, Too

Attitude Check

Talking Is Thinking (Wait, What?)

A Tale of Two Conferences

That Was Then; This Is Then

Roles, Role Models, and Routines

Kids Have Some Explaining to Do

Cool Down

Rock On

2. A Place for Face-to-Face Interaction

Developing Listening Skills

Begin With Pairs

The Pause That Reenergizes

Structured Brainstorming

Persist, Persist, Persist

Dialogue Is Content

Out Into the World

Hard and Essential Work

Mike Madden and the Halls of History

Inside the Outside Games

Cool Down

Rock On

3. We and Us

Consider Changing the Paradigm

Build Empathy With Regular Interaction

The Importance of Modeling

Stop, Look, and Listen

Nurture Engagement on the Part of Students

Seek to Be Clearly Understood

Employ Motivation Accelerants

Encourage Digital Citizenship

Names and Relationships

Winter Doldrums

Consistency, Congruence, and Credibility

School-Wide Commitments to Learning Communities

Cool Down

Rock On

4. To Laugh and Play, Perchance to Move

Getting Up to Business

Facilitating Movement in Classrooms

One District's Commitment

Laugh and the Kids Laugh With You

Time to Play and Tinker, Too

In-Place Energy Boosters

The Classroom and I Are Ready, Now What About the Kids?

Cool Down

Rock On

5. In Praise of Foibles

Fear Itself

A Safe Place to Make Mistakes

Mistakes as Opportunities

What We Don't Know Can Help Us

Zone of Proximal Development

Extrinsic Rewards as Energy Killers

Feedback Is a Two-Way Street

Cool Down

Rock On

6. Play Small Ball

Small Ball in the Schoolhouse

Process Before Content

Method or Madness

Play Small Ball With Journals

In-House Improvement Efforts

Cool Down

Rock On

7. Monitor Your Energy Level

Seek Sources of Positive Energy

Manage Energy, Not Time

Just Walk That Way

Work on Working Relationships

Not Everything Is Planned and That's OK

Teacher Dynamism

Humor, Health, Exercise, and Nutrition

Harness the Power of Exercise

Start the Day Right

Cool Down

Rock On

8. Go Where the Fruit Is

Congenial and Collegial

How We View and Handle Change

Keep Their Questions Coming

Students and Teachers as Partners in Learning

Identify and Employ Accelerants

Invest in Their Time

Feedback

Try Something

The Power of We

References

Index

Other Titles in: Student Engagement & Motivation | Teaching Strategies for Diverse Students | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

Available As:

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.