With all the multi tiered interventions, assessment software, aligned textbooks, digital content, and scripted curriculum available to the field, some might question if the role of the teacher is significant in today’s schools. Does it really matter who is leading the classroom? The answer to this question is a resounding YES!

Many people have been instrumental in the motivation of this book. The authors would like to thank past and present coworkers, Mary (for all the help making this book worth reading!), Maddie, Alex, Luba, Luda, Tya, Kristen, Tony, Vinnie, and Lucie, and the rest of the Tkatchov/Korostil family, Dave Pollnow, Meagan, Mark, and Parker Pollnow/Murphy, John, and Mary Louise Kraynak and family, Geri and...

Quality teaching is the key to student achievement. Although there are many new resources available to schools, research shows that the individual teacher’s skills are still essential to student success. John Hattie compiled over 800 meta-analyses in his book, Visible Learning, and found that of all of the variables researchers study that impact the classroom, teachers...

Other qualities of exemplar teachers include the following:

Effective classroom management is only one part of being a successful teacher. Content area knowledge (mathematics, English, social studies) is also important, but so is knowing exactly what is supposed to be taught to the students and when they are supposed to know it. This is called having a guaranteed and viable curriculum. A guaranteed and viable curriculum is a plan of...

In one of the author’s first year of student teaching, a visiting teacher looked at the roster and proclaimed, “Watch out for Levi. That kid is a pain and should just get expelled already.” Thankfully the author did not heed the advice. Although Levi was difficult, with extra time and effort they built a good rapport; Levi learned the material and succeeded in the class.

School improvement is an ongoing goal that affects every school in the nation, no matter what label or status applies. Every school is continually trying to do better than it did the year before. One way to ensure that learning and improvement efforts will continue is by creating and maintaining a healthy school climate. Research shows a direct link between a school’s success and the...

If students are not present in class, it is very difficult for them to learn what is being taught. The more a student is absent, the more he/she falls behind, and the more difficult it is for the teacher to help the student “catch up.” Poor attendance creates gaps and a lack of continuity in a child’s learning, and it increases the chances that the child will eventually drop out...

An average student in the United States spends around 179 days in school, but how much of that time is actually spent learning? This has been a question of interest for decades. A 1983 study showed that only 60 percent of the school day was spent on instruction and that girls spent more time engaged in learning than boys (Rossmiller, 1983). A few years later another study presented scarier...

The amount of external engagement a child receives during the day can be staggering: cell phones, text messaging, Tweets, social media, Google+, vines, Snapchat, FaceTime, Skype, Instagram, streaming video, streaming music, video games, etc. The average teen sends close to 1,000 texts a month, with this number being even higher for girls between the ages of 15 and 17 (Pew Research Center, 2015)....

Developmental psychologist Howard Gardner changed approaches to teaching and learning in the 1980s with his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner defines intelligence as “the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings” (Gardner & Hatch, 1989). In other cultural settings, settings outside of school, forms of intelligence...

Students are continually faced with new information. How do they make sense of this information and, more importantly, connect the new learning to their understanding of the world? The National Research Council identified three key findings about how new learning takes place based on studies in human development, neuroscience, and psychology (National Research Council, 1999):

There is a direct correlation between poverty and illiteracy. Per the Literacy Project Foundation, three out of four people on welfare cannot read. Fifty percent of unemployed individuals between 16 and 21 years of age are not considered literate. On the flip side, as the literacy rate doubles, so does the per capita income.

Just as the authors of this book believe that every teacher is responsible for vocabulary instruction, they also believe that every teacher is responsible for writing instruction. It is hard to find a class in which a student isn’t writing something, and if a student is writing, it is the job of the educator to help the student be successful. Humans need a means of communication, and when...

Margaret Heritage, considered one of the most prominent experts in assessment, uses the analogy of a patient’s visit to the doctor to describe assessment. The doctor gathers data by asking probing questions of the patient, and the patient gives the doctor feedback in the responses and the results of the examination. The doctor is assessing the situation to figure out the best course of...

Year in and year out, dreaded end-of-year math and language arts exams stand as the supreme fear of many students who aren’t testing at grade level. In 2015, 28 percent of twelfth graders remained at a below basic reading level, the lowest of four reading levels, and that figure did not include those who already dropped out due to poor literary skills (NAEP, 2015). For some students, exams...

Professional athletes Stephen Curry and Rory McIlroy, although on top of their sports professions, employ coaches to improve their success rate. Coaches in the field of education also improve success rate. Unfortunately, in many schools, when professional development is provided, no additional support is available. Whether the professional development opportunity is a one-day workshop or an...

As educators, professional development (PD) is not only a necessary requirement for continuing certification, but also necessary for continuing to grow and improve as a teacher.

Research has shown that when teachers work together and learn from each other, they improve their craft by linking research to practice and uniting pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge (NCTE, 2010). Because of the demonstrated benefits, teachers are more often asked to present to their colleagues on professional development days or after returning from a conference. Whether presenting for a...

We have spent 17 chapters discussing ways to ensure every teacher is prepared to help every student succeed in school. In closing, we would like to provide a quick cheat sheet of suggestions to keep students motivated in class, some of which have already been introduced within the book and are being emphasized again due to their importance (many of the best practices that have been...

Shelly Pollnow received her EdD in Policy and Administration from Arizona State University, her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction and Elementary Education from Arizona State University, and her BS in Business Administration from Grand Canyon University. She has spent over 20 years of her education career in Arizona teaching diverse learners in Grades 1 through 6 as an inclusion classroom...