Lesson Planning

This user-friendly resource is a practical, easy-to-read exploration of the best classroom practice in grades 3 to 8. It promotes the creation of a learning community that fosters higher-order thinking skills and accommodates the needs of different learning styles. Teachers will find the support, strategies, and tools they need to build skills in reading, writing, and research. The new ideas and frameworks in this book will help teachers challenge students to work independently. A wealth of reproducible pages explore a full range of techniques for working with language - Venn diagrams, scaffolding, data charts, concept maps, and peer assessment forms, to name just a few.

With over 50 years of experience in education, Alisa H. Braddy and Denise White have compiled this essential toolkit for teachers of any subject or level to inject life into their instruction. Suited for teachers, administrators, or instructional coaches, this perfect on-hand resource creates lessons that bring agency and critical thinking to students' learning.

The 36 lessons are: conveniently organized into grade-level bands; grounded in science education research; designed to encourage learning across disciplines, promote real-world problem-solving skills, introduce children to STEM careers, and serve all students equally well; and connected to all elements of the Next Generation Science Standards.

The belief that physical activity plays a pivotal role in the public health of our nation's children is no longer a minority opinion, but rather, a steadfast belief. The health benefits associated with leading an active healthy lifestyle are well documented, yet America's youth remain inactive and overweight, if not obese. Data suggests that about 25 million adolescents are pushing the scales towards obesity. Close to half of American youth do not participate regularly in physical activity and many kids report no participation in activity during an average week. There is an abundance of empirical research findings illustrating how regular physical activity provides an array of physiological health benefits, but what is frequently overlooked is the link between movement and the enhanced cognition of children. Brain research suggests that increasing movement time has the potential to foster academic performance simultaneously, positively influencing the health of our nation's children. Empirical evidence from leading scientists' reveal strong associations between the cerebellum and memory, spatial perception, language attention, emotion, non-verbal cues and the decision making ability among children who are active while learning content in the classroom. Regular physical activity combined with teaching traditional elementary school curricula has also been found to improve concentration, along with reading and mathematic performance and academic achievement measured by standardised tests. Furthermore, positive benefits linked to using movement as a re-inforcer to enhance learning by decreasing behavioural episodes of children suffering from ADD and ADHD has also been found. The current emphasis on performance pedagogy and standardised testing related to No Child Left Behind has caused many States and school districts to reduce physical education offerings, and in some instances reduce the amount of daily recess time to increase classroom contact hours to boost test scores. What most teachers and principals often ignore is that teaching current elementary school curricula (i.e., Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies) with movement can improve academic performance and achievement while improving the wellness of future generations of children. Active Education: Lessons for Integrating Physical Activity with Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies provides teachers with standard-based activities to teach required elementary school curricula with movement to make teaching and learning more enjoyable!

A compendium of straightforward techniques on how to accentuate the positive and redirect the negative, increasing productivity at work and at home. What do your people at work and your spouse and kids at home have in common with a five-ton killer whale? Probably a whole lot more than you think, according to top business consultant and mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard and his coauthors from SeaWorld. In this moving and inspirational new book, Blanchard explains that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. He shows how using the techniques of animal trainers -- specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld -- can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home. When gruff business manager and family man Wes Kingsley visited SeaWorld, he marveled at the ability of the trainers to get these huge killer whales, among the most feared predators in the ocean, to perform amazing acrobatic leaps and dives. Later, talking to the chief trainer, he learned their techniques of building trust, accentuating the positive, and redirecting negative behavior -- all of which make these extraordinary performances possible. Kingsley took a hard look at his own often accusatory management style and recognized how some of his shortcomings as a manager, spouse, and father actually diminish trust and damage relationships. He began to see the difference between "GOTcha" (catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale Done!" (catching people doing things right). In Whale Done!, Ken Blanchard shows how to make accentuating the positive and redirecting the negative the best tools to increase productivity, instead of creating situations that demoralize people. These techniques are remarkably easy to master and can be applied equally well at home, allowing readers to become better parents and more committed spouses in their happier and more successful personal lives.