If Einstein Ran the Schools

If Einstein Ran the Schools
Author: Thomas Armstrong Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-10-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1440869782

Many world-class thinkers and creators have been concerned about the state of education in the United States. Discover their thoughts on how children really learn and what teachers must do to optimally tap children's latent abilities. During the last three decades, education reformers have pushed standardized testing and policies like No Child Left Behind and Common Core to improve test scores and proficiency in basic skills. However, during this period that author Thomas Armstrong calls the "miseducation of America," a number of troubling trends have surfaced, including a decrease in creative thinking scores among children in kindergarten through third grade. Rather than focus on what's wrong with the education system that has produced these outcomes, Armstrong lays out what creative thinkers know about how children should be educated. In an extended thought experiment, he asks what would happen if we turned the reins of educational policy over, not to the politicians and educational bureaucrats, but to eminent thinkers and creators like Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson, Doris Lessing, Jane Goodall, and other seminal culture-builders. What might they say about the best way to educate a child? If Einstein Ran the Schools suggests that the answers to this intriguing question should guide future efforts to reform our nation's schools.

The Power of Simple

The Power of Simple
Author: Kyle Wagner
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781532769016

While the world has propelled itself in the 21st Century with new technology, innovation, and ways of doing things, our schools are having a hard time catching up. Schools still shuffle hundreds of students daily to classrooms with inflexible learning spaces, an outdated curriculum, and work disconnected from the real world. What if as an educator you had the power to change that? What if you could transform student learning and still have time to cover your standards? What if someone who has made radical changes in education provided you with five simple strategies that you could implement in your school tomorrow? The power of SIMPLE The power of SIMPLE will inspire you to make those changes by documenting Kyle Wagner's entire journey in creating Futures Academy- a school that changes the way we educate. It is a school that adapts schedules every week depending on the learning experience; has students presenting regularly to experts in the field; and integrates learning around students exploring their passions and creating work of value in the real world. This book will empower you to create your own vision for school and provide simple and practical strategies to make that vision come to life. You will no longer be paralyzed by fear, but empowered by the fact that you can create real change, and it's not that hard.

Reclaiming Education

Reclaiming Education
Author: Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
Publisher: Focus on the Family
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1684286093

Are you satisfied that your children’s current educational environment is bringing out their best potential? In a world where traditional education systems make little or no accommodation for individual learning styles (such as auditory or visual learning), and they’re failing to teach even the basics, it’s time for parents to take charge of their children’s education. In Reclaiming Education, parents are equipped with practical and immediately useful tools to work in partnership with their children to identify and develop their learning styles and strengths. If you want to help learners build the kind of confidence that inspires lifelong learning, get them involved in the solutions for their own success. In this book, both parents and children can learn how to Identify learning style strengthsDevelop strategies for adapting to less than ideal circumstancesDesign an effective study space environment that’s tailored to your child’s needsMotivate even the most resistant learners A great faith-based parenting resource for anyone who feels like the traditional education system has failed their children, and for anyone interested in homeschooling or simply helping their children to succeed in any type of school setting. Say goodbye to a one-size-fits-all education and unlock your child's full learning potential.

Inconvenient Parenting

Inconvenient Parenting
Author: Melissa Hannigan
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2023-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802473288

Hope and help for shaping Christ-honoring future generations. Families are like little churches. They are meant to be places of discipleship, worship, and rest—places where we can fine tune the gifts God’s given us so we can bless the world. They can be full of surprises and joy. But family life can also be heartbreaking and downright discouraging. Trained counselor and mother Melissa Hannigan knows how hard it is to cast and keep a vision of rich family life. How do we cultivate a family culture that’s vibrant and encouraging—a refuge amidst life’s storms? Melissa is passionate about helping families build healthy, strong, God-honoring homes. In Inconvenient Parenting, she shares twelve qualities that are the key ingredients to that desired end: Wisdom — Wonder — Vitality — Sensitivity — Flexibility —Curiosity — Creativity — Imagination — Inventiveness — Playfulness — Humor — Joy Melissa shows us why, though inconvenient at times, it’s necessary to encourage and infuse these traits in our children and reveals how we can unknowingly discourage these qualities. Each chapter concludes with practical activities, book recommendations, and discussion questions to help parents immediately apply the principles discussed. Become more connected to God and one another through the rich wisdom and help offered in Inconvenient Parenting.

Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius

Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius
Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: Tarcher
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1991
Genre: Activity programs in education
ISBN: 9780874776089

Baby-boomer parents with nearly 26 million children and more on the way--are looking for new and creative ways to help their youngsters develop and achieve their full potential. They want practical ideas for activities to do at home and authoritative advice on how to get the most out of their children's schools. Illustrations throughout.

Awakening Genius in the Classroom

Awakening Genius in the Classroom
Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: ASCD
Total Pages: 99
Release: 1998
Genre: Cognitive styles
ISBN: 0871203022

Armstrong argues that genius comes in many different forms and that too often we overlook or even "shut down" that genius in students.

If Einstein Ran the Schools

If Einstein Ran the Schools
Author: Thomas Armstrong Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2019-10-11
Genre: Education
ISBN:

Many world-class thinkers and creators have been concerned about the state of education in the United States. Discover their thoughts on how children really learn and what teachers must do to optimally tap children's latent abilities. During the last three decades, education reformers have pushed standardized testing and policies like No Child Left Behind and Common Core to improve test scores and proficiency in basic skills. However, during this period that author Thomas Armstrong calls the "miseducation of America," a number of troubling trends have surfaced, including a decrease in creative thinking scores among children in kindergarten through third grade. Rather than focus on what's wrong with the education system that has produced these outcomes, Armstrong lays out what creative thinkers know about how children should be educated. In an extended thought experiment, he asks what would happen if we turned the reins of educational policy over, not to the politicians and educational bureaucrats, but to eminent thinkers and creators like Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson, Doris Lessing, Jane Goodall, and other seminal culture-builders. What might they say about the best way to educate a child? If Einstein Ran the Schools suggests that the answers to this intriguing question should guide future efforts to reform our nation's schools.

The Best Schools

The Best Schools
Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: ASCD
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2006-11-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1416615121

Educators, politicians, parents, and even students are consumed with speaking the language of academic achievement. Yet something is missing in the current focus on accountability, standardized testing, and adequate yearly progress. If schools continue to focus the conversation on rigor and accountability and ignore more human elements of education, many students may miss out on opportunities to discover the richness of individual exploration that schools can foster. In The Best Schools, Armstrong urges educators to leave narrow definitions of learning behind and return to the great thinkers of the past 100 years—Montessori, Piaget, Freud, Steiner, Erikson, Dewey, Elkind, Gardner—and to the language of human development and the whole child. The Best Schools highlights examples of educational programs that are honoring students' differences, using developmentally appropriate practices, and promoting a humane approach to education that includes the following elements: * An emphasis on play for early childhood learning. * Theme- and project-based learning for elementary school students. * Active learning that recognizes the social, emotional, and cognitive needs of adolescents in middle schools. * Mentoring, apprenticeships, and cooperative education for high school students. Educators in "the best schools" recognize the differences in the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual worlds of students of different ages. This book will help educators reflect on how to help each student reach his or her true potential, how to inspire each child and adolescent to discover an inner passion to learn, and how to honor the unique journey of each individual through life.

Neurodiversity in the Classroom

Neurodiversity in the Classroom
Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: ASCD
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2012
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1416614834

This book by best-selling author Thomas Armstrong offers classroom strategies for ensuring the academic success of students in five special-needs categories: learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, intellectual disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders.

Mindfulness in the Classroom

Mindfulness in the Classroom
Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: ASCD
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2019-07-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1416627960

In today's schools, students and teachers feel unprecedented—even alarming—levels of stress. How can we create calmer classrooms in which students concentrate better and feel more positive about themselves and others? Author Thomas Armstrong offers a compelling answer in the form of mindfulness, a secular practice he defines as the intentional focus of one's attention on the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. In Mindfulness in the Classroom, Armstrong - Explains how mindfulness affects the structure and function of the brain. - Provides an overview of mindfulness as both a personal practice and a classroom methodology that aligns with such educational models as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). - Shares and explains the extensive research that shows the positive effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. - Describes how to adapt mindfulness for different grade levels, integrate it into regular school subjects, and implement it schoolwide. - Offers guidelines for teaching mindfulness responsibly, without religious overtones. Dozens of observations from teachers, students, researchers, and practitioners provide striking evidence of the power of mindfulness and offer hope to anyone who wants to make classrooms more productive places of learning.