Stenhouse Newslinks
October 11, 2005
C O N T E N T S
1) Bullying in all its forms
2) Author Conversations: Debbie Miller & Kathy Collins
3) PD Corner: Opening conversations about teaching and learning
4) Chat with Rick Wormeli
5) Educational research that's in your face
6) Teaching for Deep Comprehension is now available
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1) Bullying in all its forms
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"When kids get on the bus early in the morning and are immediately
humiliated and degraded, that has a particularly destructive
resonance...it's difficult to reset the climate at school to be
welcoming for a student who has just spent 45 minutes being
harassed."
--Stephen Wessler, director of the Center for the Prevention of
Hate Violence at the University of Southern Maine
The current issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine features an
article on bullying that highlights one district's anti-bullying
efforts, including a district-wide kickoff event, pairing older
students with younger students, and the signing of anti-bullying
pledges:
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/features.jsp?ar=608
"Stop Bullying Now!" is a campaign sponsored by the U.S. Health
Resources and Services Administration. The campaign's Web site has
an animated story featuring a cast of young people who deal with
bullies in the classrooms, hallways, and grounds of a middle
school, and provides tools to for handling individual bullying
problems and creating bullying prevention programs:
http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp?area=main
A new book by Canadian educator Les Parsons examines all aspects
of the bullying culture in schools, including interactions between
teachers, principals, and parents, as well as students. Bullied
Teacher, Bullied Student is a practical guide for creating and
enforcing an anti-bullying policy that combats bullying in all its
forms.
You can browse this new book in its entirety here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/8190.asp?r=n77
Bullied Teacher, Bullied Student: How to Recognize the Bullying
Culture in Your School and What to Do About It
Les Parsons * 96 pp/paper * $18.00 * Available now
http://www.stenhouse.com/8190.asp?r=n77
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2) Author Conversations: Debbie Miller & Kathy Collins
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Debbie Miller and Kathy Collins share their impressions of each
other's books in the first clip of a three-part video, just added
to our Author Conversations page:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/authorconversations.htm
Browse these authors' books and videos by following the links
below.
*by Debbie Miller*
*NEW* The Joy of Conferring: One-on-One with Young Readers
2 30-minute VHS tapes or 1 75-minute DVD + viewing guide
Available in late October * $195.00
DVD (with bonus footage): http://www.stenhouse.com/0427.asp?r=n77
VHS: http://www.stenhouse.com/0423.asp?r=n77
Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades
208 pp/paper with full-color insert * $22.50
http://www.stenhouse.com/0307.asp?r=n77
Happy Reading! Creating a Predictable Structure for Joyful
Teaching and Learning
3 30-minute VHS tapes + viewing guide * $295.00
http://www.stenhouse.com/0357.asp?r=n77
*by Kathy Collins*
Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom
296 pp/paper * $22.50
http://www.stenhouse.com/0373.asp?r=n77
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3) PD Corner: Opening conversations about teaching and learning
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*October Quote of the Month*
"Anybody who accepts mediocrity--in school, on the job, in life--
is a person who compromises, and when the leader compromises, the
whole organization compromises.
--Charles Knight
In Creating "Good" Schools, the Forum for Youth Investment has
developed a handy tool for teachers, school leaders, parents, and
students to use in objectively assessing any school environment.
The observation, evidence, and questions section in each part of
the guide provide a wealth of material for discussions after the
assessment is completed. A PDF download of the 62-page guide is
available here:
http://www.forumfyi.org/Files/ObsDiscTool.pdf
In a fascinating research study including students as researchers,
the Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE) set out to assess the quality
of relationships among faculty and students. Their warts-and-all
findings are chronicled in an issue of the BPE's newsletter, and
they also provide practical tools like student surveys for
teachers (link to PDF file):
http://www.bpe.org/pubs/focus/Focus%20HS%2010-04.pdf
In their book, Mentoring Across Boundaries, Jean Boreen and Donna
Niday consider barriers to productive conversations between
mentors and novices, and provide advice for overcoming them. You
can read the first chapter of the book here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0377.asp?r=n77
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4) Chat with Rick Wormeli
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"In middle school, we can still make a difference in students'
lives...we see humanity in raw form as students are taking on the
larger world and creating their own identity. Emotions are close
to the surface. Students are hopeful and deeply interested in
learning. They bluntly question every decision we make as well as
every societal protocol, often pushing us to examine our own
stereotypes, prejudices, and convictions."
In a recent "Wire Side Chat" with Education World, Stenhouse
author Rick Wormeli discusses the challenges and rewards of
teaching in the middle grades, and some of the keys to success:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat153.shtml
For more information about Rick's books, including sample
chapters, follow these links:
Day One and Beyond: Practical Matters for New Middle-Level
Teachers * 208 pp/paper * $21.00
http://www.stenhouse.com/0355.asp?r=n77
Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level
Teacher * 264 pp/paper * $23.00
http://www.stenhouse.com/0328.asp?r=n77
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5) Educational research that's in your face
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Love him or hate him, Jay Greene makes waves that propagate
through the mass media, shaping the views of the general public.
This Ed Week profile highlights the P.R. value of bypassing peer
review, as Greene does with much of his educational research:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/10/13/07jaygreene.h24.html
(Free registration required; if you are not already a registered
user, click on the "Register now" link at the bottom of the login
page.)
Greene discusses many of the "educational myths" from his new
book--touching on issues such as school choice, spending, class
size, and teacher pay--in this recent U.S. News interview:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/articles/050922/22education.htm
Bill Ferriter of the Teacher Leaders Network takes on one of Jay
Greene's assumptions--that teachers work an average of 36.5
hours/week:
http://www.teacherleaders.org/diaries04_05/other/BF11.html
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6) Teaching for Deep Comprehension is now available
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Teaching for Deep Comprehension, the new book by Linda Dorn and
Carla Soffos, has been released. Those who pre-ordered should
receive their copies within the next week. We have just posted a
video clip from the 85-minute DVD that is included with the book.
View the clip and also browse the entire text here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0403.asp?r=n77
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Prices are subject to change without notice
