Book Study Recordings

Author Dr. Rebecca Stobaugh invites you to engage in an exploration of how to ramp up the cognitive engagement in your classroom. In these interactive sessions, you will experience methods that model strategies to increase the level of critical thinking in your classroom. Subsequently, participants will discuss ways to adapt and implement the ideas. You will leave each session with new ideas that can immediately be used in your classroom, whether you teach online or face to face. Come prepared to learn, participate, and implement!

Recordings of sessions

• Session One
• Session Two

In only 100 days, schools can dramatically increase student achievement, transform faculty morale, and much more. During this book study, Douglas Reeves will guide you in creating your own 100-day action plan. Begin by defining your values and determining your desired results, then discover high-leverage strategies for leading the work. You will also have the opportunity to receive feedback on your plan from the author, as well as from other participants.

Recordings of sessions

• Why 100 Days?
• 100 Day Leadership in Action
• The Culture of the 100-Day Leader

Forty-nine of 50 states currently have policies around moving their state to a competency-based system of learning, recognizing the need to adequately prepare learners for a changing world. Competency is the ability to apply or transfer learning, rather than just the rote memorization of facts. Critical, innovative thinking and problem-solving are crucial components to a strong education, and a focus on capturing evidence of learning anywhere, anytime is crucial—whether in school with teachers or at home, learning can happen. Join Jonathan Vander Els and Brian Stack for a reflective, personalized, and guided book study on their book, Breaking With Tradition: The Shift to Competency-Based Learning in PLCs at Work^®, to learn more about how you can facilitate the move to better meeting the needs of ALL learners in your district, building, or classroom.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview of the Design Principles
• Chapters 2 and 3: PLCs at Work, and Developing Competencies and Essential Standards
• Chapters 4 and 5: Competency-based grading, and a balanced assessment system
• Chapters 6 and 7: Supporting all learners (intervention and extension), and supporting the change process
• Chapter 8: Design Rubrics
• Next steps (readers should self-assess using the revised school design rubric tool)

Research shows that discipline problems are prevalent in public schools and continue to be one of the greatest challenges in education. In Building Bridges, author Dr. Don Parker shows educators how to address this issue head-on. He shares an array of evidence-based strategies to build teacher-student relationships and create a welcoming learning environment that fosters student engagement, motivation, and achievement.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapter 1: Develop the Mindset
• Chapter 7: Use the Back Door
• Chapter 11: Build Students’ Self-Esteem

Maximize student self-efficacy and growth by providing high-quality feedback students can act on. In these interactive sessions, Coaching Your Classroom authors Garnet Hillman and Mandy Stalets will share a fresh perspective on effective classroom feedback for all grade levels and content areas. Explore the parallels between teaching students and coaching athletes, and then learn how to coach every student to success every day. The authors will share how to deliver individualized next steps and support students through the feedback loop in any learning environment. Participants will leave understanding the importance of effective communication in the classroom, the qualities of effective feedback, as well as what a student-centered culture looks like.

Recordings of sessions

• How to create and maintain a culture of learning in the classroom
• Delivery methods that ensure success and coaching for all
• Completing the feedback loop

Communicating an effective message can be a perplexing undertaking. In this book study, you will learn specific communication skills for distance learning, as well as for use in any face-to-face opportunities. If you speak in public, you are a public speaker. Planning and preparing an effective message is the first step to a profound public presence, which is critical in today's fast-paced, technological environment. This session highlights valuable strategies for creating a memorable message, as well as tips and techniques for impressive delivery. Tammy’s varied national and international experiences, combined with expertise in adult learning, provide a skillful foundation of practical approaches, helping both novice and expert speakers gain an advantage. Do you know the skills? Do you have the skills? This book study is a must for anyone seeking to refine or elevate their presence and poise with school boards, parents, and teacher audiences. Make your message meaningful!.

Recordings of sessions

• Book Overview, Adult Learner Characteristics, Presentation Preparation
• Roles & Related Characteristics, Audience Sizes, Solid Intros
• Presenter’s Toolbox, Voice, Visuals & Handouts
• Presentation Tips & Tricks, Dealing With Audience Behaviors, Improving Your Practice Through Feedback

As the global pandemic shut down schools nationwide, school districts across America encouraged teachers to stop grading and to start offering students feedback on their learning. That subtle shift—from a culture of grading to a culture of feedback in schools—could change everything for today’s students. But what does “meaningful feedback” look like in action—and how can classroom teachers make meaningful feedback a more regular part of their pedagogy? That’s a question participants will answer with Solution Tree authors and full-time classroom teachers Bill Ferriter and Paul Cancellieri in this four-part study of their book, Creating a Culture of Feedback.

Recordings of sessions

• Session One: Where am I going?
• Session Two: How am I doing?
• Session Three: What are my next steps?

Dr. Casey Reason has been an innovator in teaching and learning in blended and fully online environments for over 20 years. This three-part book study informs participants regarding the essential elements of virtual learning, including the steps we must take to establish the fundamentals of digital learning, the steps needed in setting up digital learning environments, and finally, strategic approaches to assessment and interventions in digital spaces. Digital and blended-learning environments are providing learners today with unique access points and, if approached strategically, can help achieve the most important outcome of all: outstanding results. Dr. Reason’s recent book, Creating the Anywhere, Anytime Classroom: A Blueprint for Learning Online in Grades K–12 is the basis of this training and is perfectly designed for the needs of digital and blended classrooms today.

Recordings of sessions

• The Fundamentals of Digital Learning
• Setting Up Engaging Digital Learning
• Assessment and Interventions in Digital Spaces

Bring the real world into your classroom or distance-learning experience. Join Ann Kaiser and explore ways to frame project-based learning using the Engineering Design Process. Engage the innovators in your class by connecting curriculum to design challenges and exploring ways in which engineering supports creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. No matter what or who you teach, you will leave these sessions with resources to implement and manage projects and activities suitable for both classroom and online learning. Now more than ever, we need to empower our students to see that every challenge creates opportunities to design a better future.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapters 1 and 4
• Chapters 2 and 3
• Chapters 5 and 6 plus new materials
• Putting It All Together

Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning authors Scott McLeod and Julie Graber invite you to roll up your sleeves and dive into instructional redesign with them. If we want deeper learning, greater student agency, more authentic work, and rich technology infusion, we have to design for them! Participants in this book study will leave with a deeper understanding of the 4 Shifts lesson redesign protocol and numerous tips and strategies for success in their schools.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapters 1 and 2
• Chapters 3 and 5 (pp. 41-45; elementary)
• Chapters 4 and 5 (pp. 45-50; secondary)
• Chapter 6

The HEART! book study will explore five selected chapters of this best-selling title. In session one, participants will delve into how to create a culture of compassion and care in our schools as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Session two will focus on how to live a balanced, high-energy professional life in a time of stress. Session three will illustrate how to understand the PLC life as a soul-filled life. In session four, readers will learn how to connect to their work life as a vocation of contribution. Finally, in session five, readers will learn how to become intimate with their professional work life.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapter Four: Got Compassion? Check!
• Chapter Thirteen: Quadrant II Time Required
• Chapter Sixteen: PLCs: Serving the Greater Good
• Chapter Twenty: What Are Those Black Boxes?
• Chapter Seven: Why Should We Weep?

More than ever, leading districts and schools requires focused, organized, and consistent practices. Strong communication skills, shared collaborative leadership models, and an ability to keep your eye on the student are intentional habits that will take you into this school year feeling confident and strong. Through reflection and personal commitment, you can build your own leadership toolbox ready for any challenge or change. Through this energetic book study, recharge your leadership battery and walk away with a few priorities to tackle first.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapter 1 & Chapter 2
• Chapter 3 & Chapter 4
• Chapter 5 & Chapter 6

What should be done for the children of essential workers? What has COVID-19 taught us about the gaps between home and school? How can we help children succeed despite their family circumstances? Drawing on his inspiring, poignant, and sometimes hilarious memoir of growing up in a working-class community, Andy Hargreaves shares how he was raised by a widowed mother with three jobs, was on welfare, had to figure out how to fit in with the academic elite at school while dealing with the local gang in his neighborhood, and managed to succeed despite an alien high school curriculum. If you, your family, or the kids you teach struggle to “move on up” through education; if you or they have taken on multiple jobs, sacrificed something, burned whole gallons of midnight oil, or left behind a homeland to have a better chance in life, then this book and book club discussion is for you. Moving is not just a memoir of individual grit, defiance, and resilience. It is a testament to the power of public systems to undergird people’s individual efforts.

Recordings of sessions

• Relating to the book personally, emotionally and experientially
• Equity, selection and inclusion
• Practical and strategic implications

During these virtual sessions, author Suzette Lovely will dive deep into the four touchstones of schooling that are universally sustainable and future-focused. Participants will uncover strategies to move from best practices to next practices in an age of robotics, artificial intelligence, and global pandemics. Conversations will lead to actionable ideas that ensure our students are READY for anything!

Recordings of sessions

• Session One
• Session Two
• Session Three
• Session Four

The most important issue facing modern educators is knowing how to identify and adapt to new circumstances, often not of their own choosing. The Riding the Wave book study will explore different strategies for ensuring that teachers at all phases of their careers have the skills necessary to succeed in an era of sudden change in the profession. The one thing that is constant in education is change, and knowing how it impacts the different relationships in a teacher's career is essential. Identifying and strengthening these relationships is the key to successfully riding the wave in the future, instead of being crushed by new waves of change and reform.

Recordings of sessions

• Riding the Wave By Yourself
• Riding the Wave with Your Students
• Riding the Wave with Your Colleagues
• Riding the Wave with Your Administrators
• Riding the Wave with Your Community

Infuse energy back into the practices of your PLC. Explore the authors’ four-stage authentic alignment model, which will take you through the “Why, Eye, How, and Now” of transforming your school’s culture. Through this inspiring guide, you’ll discover how to bridge the gulf between principles and practice, cultivating an empowering environment that is committed to a cycle of continuous improvement.

Recordings of sessions

• WHY (Ken)
• EYE (Tom)
• HOW (Ken)
• NOW (Tom)

Now more than ever, it is crucial that we work to establish healthy habits and routines that allow us to bring our very best selves to those we serve. During these four interactive sessions, Dr. Tina H. Boogren will lead readers through each chapter of the book, in order to help educators of all levels and backgrounds develop personalized self-care plans. Participants will walk away from these sessions feeling inspired, rejuvenated, and empowered.

Recordings of sessions

• Introduction and Chapter One
• Chapter Two and Three
• Chapter Four and Five
• Chapter Six and Seven

Authors LeAnn Nickelsen and Melissa Dickson invite you to explore how to use the “Instructional Cha-Chas” to cut your planning time in half and double the speed of learning for your students. If a student is behind academically, you can get them caught up within one school year using this framework. By examining the plethora of strategies within this book, you will get to pick, choose, and design strategies and tools needed for your classroom situation. You will also have the opportunity to receive feedback on your plan from the authors, as well as from other participants.

Recordings of sessions

• Chapters One and Two
• Chapters Three and Four
• Chapters Five and Six
• Chapters Seven and Eight