Inspire Change in Students' Lives
Preparing Youth to Thrive: Promising Practices in Social and Emotional Learning. This downloadable guide profiles afterschool programs with a track record of fostering social-emotional learning skills among at-risk adolescents. The guide (created by the Susan Crown Exchange and David Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality) highlights innovative practices for strengthening emotion management, empathy, teamwork, initiative, responsibility, and problem solving. The accompanying website has tools, sample activities, and stories centered on SEL skills.
"Women Make History" Sample Lesson. Inspire students by introducing them to change agents throughout history: Visit the Civil Rights Teaching Project to download a 45- to 90-minute lesson on the role of women in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The lesson includes 36 biographies of women who played key roles in the movement and steps for hosting a simulated meeting with each woman, plus a list of resources about women who've changed history.
Unlocking Opportunities. This online learning module, launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in London and John Moores University in Liverpool, United Kingdom, helps schools make a difference for children with disabilities. Videos, case studies, and examples show how educators can provide reasonable accommodations for kids with disabilities and ensure that their rights are respected.
Teaching for Change's 2016 Summer Reading List highlights titles by and about people of color. In addition to many books for children of all ages, the list includes books for adults on education, social justice, and how to teach for change.
CHOICES Program. Choices helps students get excited about social studies by exploring contested international issues. Freebies include tools (graphic organizers, assessments, and so on) to use with role plays tied to international issues; a learning module that introduces administrators to the Choices approach; and a place online where teachers can talk with others who've used this approach.
Inspire Change in Your School
School Leadership in Action Videos. Visit the Wallace Foundation's website for a collection of videos in which great principals share what they did to improve teaching in their schools. Each 12-minute video focuses on one of five essential practices of effective principals, including "cultivating leadership in others." For instance, Serapha Cruz of the Bronx School of Young Leaders tells how she led a school with high teacher turnover.
Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap to Teacher Leadership that Works. This report by the Aspen Institute and Leading Educators, geared to administrators, outlines key phases of building an effective teacher leadership system, including steps and missteps. It highlights innovative programs—of schools, districts, charter management organizations, and states—that are building great teacher leadership systems.
Steps to Creating a Teacher-Powered School is a step-by-step guide to creating a school (or department) run by teacher teams, who make all decisions on curriculum, hiring, and budgets. Created by the Teacher-Powered Schools Initiative, the guide outlines five steps of designing such a school. The Teacher-Powered Schools website links to books, videos, and an online community of colleagues interested in teacher-run schools.
National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools. This national research and development center at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College develops new processes to scale up effective practices in high schools—and guides districts in using such practices within their own circumstances.
Inspire Change Within the Profession
Creating Sustainable Teacher Career Pathways: A 21st Century Imperative. This document, by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year and the Center for Educator Learning & Effectiveness at Pearson, looks at what the U.S. teaching profession can learn from other professions and systems in other countries. The report suggests ways the profession should evolve to meet the career expectations of those now entering teaching and describes longstanding and new models that create structures for teachers' career advancement.
Great to Influential: Teacher Leaders' Roles in Supporting Instruction, a paper published by the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders and National Network of State Teachers of the Year, makes the case for how districts and schools can promote hybrid teacher leader roles, create models for distributed leadership, and increase new teachers' exposure to established teacher leaders.
Edconnectr is a virtual community connected to the Department of Education's Teach to Lead initiative where educators who want to lead and spark change can share ideas and resources.
Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a national nonprofit whose mission is "to connect, ready, and mobilize teacher leaders to transform our schools." The Center sponsors the CTQ Collaboratory, "a virtual home for teacher collaboration." Membership is free. The website includes information on teacher-powered schools and structured teacher leadership roles.
The Teacher's Edition, the U.S. Department of Education's weekly bulletin, describes itself as "a newsletter celebrating teaching and leading." The online newsletter contains links to other websites and news articles representing examples of the numerous education reference materials currently available to teachers and the public.
Grants and Sources of Free Materials for Change
The Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (I<SUPSCRPT>3</SUPSCRPT>) funds multiyear projects by local education agencies and nonprofits who partner with those agencies to expand practices that improve student achievement, close achievement gaps, and decrease high school dropout rates. DOE accepts pre-applications in spring of each year, and invites applicants that pass this stage to submit full applications.
Learning & Leadership Grants through the National Education Association Foundation support public school teachers, public school professionals, and educators in public higher education institutions. Grants fund high-quality professional development experiences for either individuals or groups. Applications are accepted year-round. Applicants must be NEA members.
