What happens when students actually choose to learn outside the classroom?
They become independent, lifelong learners, who never need to be told: "do your work." 
It's easy when you say Goodbye to traditional homework
The research is done, the results are in, the debate is over. Kids hate homework, most parents hate homework, and many teachers only assign homework because administrators say it's school policy. Now, traditional homework is being hacked. Learning outside the classroom is being reimagined, and student engagement is better than ever.
A new vision of out-of-school learning
World-renowned author/educator Starr Sackstein has changed how teachers around the world look at traditional grades. Now she's teaming with veteran educator, curriculum director, and national presenter Connie Hamilton to bring you 10 powerful strategies for teachers and parents that promise to inspire independent learning at home, without punishments or low grades.
In Hacking Homework, Sackstein and Hamilton show you how to:
<ul>
<li>Work around the policies and Break Up With Daily Homework</li>
<li>
Teach Organization and Responsibility in Class so it translates to home</li>
<li>Ramp up accountability and time management skills</li>
<li>
Establish positive relationships to motivate learning</li>
<li>Customize Assignments to Meet Student Needs</li>
<li>
Be flexible with timelines</li>
<li>Encourage Students to Play, so they'll want to work</li>
<li>
Support innovation and creativity</li>
<li>Spark Curiosity Before the Lesson</li>
<li>
Make connections that generate interest in learning outside the classroom</li>
<li>Use the Digital Playground and harness social media for learning</li>
<li>
Amplify Student Voice and Incorporate choice in how kids learn at home</li>
<li>Team Up With Families and model instructional strategies for parents</li>
<li>
Display Growth and empower students to track their improvement and display their progress</li>
</ul>
Expert educators love Hacking Homework
"Starr Sackstein and Connie Hamilton have assembled a book full of great answers to the question, 'How can we make homework engaging and meaningful?'" -Doug Fisher &amp; Nancy Frey, authors/presenters
"I hope this book finds its way into the professional library of every classroom teacher and that it is also read carefully by administrators, policymakers and parents." -Ken O'Connor, author/presenter
Are you ready to say Goodbye to traditional homework? Start Hacking Homework today.

Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom (Hack Learning Series)

Education & Teaching

Sackstein, Starr

Hamilton, Connie

Schools & Teaching

Times 10 Publications

Support, celebrate, and grow your best teachers so that they stay in your school and continue to have maximum impact. Burnout and teacher turnover are on the rise, yet we often spend more of our energy on the underperformers. In this powerful book from bestselling authors Todd Whitaker, Connie Hamilton, T.J. Vari, and Joseph Jones, you'll learn why it's crucial to recognize your best teachers, going beyond superficial gestures of appreciation and investing in them in deeper ways. The authors show school leaders how to identify your best teachers and then reveal strategies for supporting them, including recognizing the value-cost of teachers' time; prioritizing appreciation; controlling the narrative; tailoring professional learning; helping teachers grow through peer observations as we as beyond the school; applying data informed feedback; and nurturing self- and collective-efficacy. Each chapter begins with a powerful story, an overview of our blind spots, strategies on what we should invest in, and how to ensure that the whole school profits from your efforts. There's also an Initial Deposits feature that provides a quick, tangible way to get started with each idea. With the helpful models, tips, and tricks in this book, you won't just be inspired to make a change but will be well-equipped to take action. As your best teachers get better-and-better, your students and the entire school culture will benefit!

Invest in Your Best

Whitaker, Todd

Jones, Joseph

Vari, T.J.

Routledge

Invest in Your Best (Eye on Education)

With the right approach, no problem is unsolvable. 
Persistent problems in education―numeracy, reading ability, equity, grading, and teacher retention―can only be solved if we approach them as the crises they are. This practical guide introduces seven mindshifts to help leaders chart an innovative course of school improvement, becoming empowered to not just deal with perennial complex issues, but extinguish them altogether so students and teachers can thrive. Features include: Seven adaptable models for finding solutions to perennial problems Stories highlighting successful implementation of each mindshift Discussions to help match mindshifts to particular problems Technical tips and reflection questions

7 Mindshifts for School Leaders: Finding New Ways to Think About Old Problems

Jones, Joseph M.

Corwin

Strained and Drained: Tools for Overworked Teachers

Strained and Drained recognizes the escalating pressures that teachers face in education and helps them understand the importance of nourishing their own growth and prioritizing self-care while facing the demands of teaching. Tips are provided for teachers to maintain healthy levels of physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual wellness.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

VanderJagt, Dorothy

Exercise & Fitness

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Teaching is not a job, it's a passion. Caring and compassionate educators will stop at nothing to be sure their students have everything they need to flourish. As teaching demands increase, the attention teachers give to their own needs is often sacrificed. The pressures of teaching are forcing educators to choose between what they love to do and their own well-being. The levels of stress are so high that teacher shortages are considered a crisis in the United States. Authors Connie Hamilton and Dorothy VanderJagt share an alternative. They believe it's possible to be a highly effective teacher and focus on yourself. Strained and Drained: Tools for Overworked Teachers describes five areas of wellness and offers realistic and practical ways that teachers can create habits to support each one. You'll find effective ways to take care of YOU, both in and out of the classroom. Wellness is not an isolated activity, it's a way of life and requires a mindset that values and prioritizes it. The strategies you gain from this book will support your physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual health and will put you at your best so you can enjoy what the authors still believe is the most important and rewarding profession on earth.

Do you need to ramp up your classroom questioning techniques?Questions are the driving force of learning in classrooms. Hacking Questions digs into framing, delivering, and maximizing questions in the classroom to keep students engaged in learning.
Known in education circles as the "Questioning Guru," Connie Hamilton shows teachers of all subjects and grades how to:
<ul>
<li>Hear the music: listen for correct answers</li>
<li>Scaffold to trigger student thinking without doing it for them</li>
<li>Kick the IDK bucket to avoid “I don’t know” as the final answer</li>
<li>Punctuate your learning time to end with reflection questions</li>
<li>Spin the throttle to fuel students to ask the questions</li>
<li>Fill your back pocket with engagement questions</li>
<li>Make yourself invisible by establishing student-centered protocols</li>
<li>Be a Pinball Wizard and turn students into facilitators</li>
</ul>
Praise for Connie Hamilton and Hacking Questions
"Connie Hamilton is known by teachers and leaders as the Questioning Guru. She offers minor tweaks and major perspective shifts. You will be a better questioner tomorrow." -Dr. Dorothy VanderJagt, Professional Learning Coordinator
"Connie Hamilton is a world-class presenter with expertise in the art of questioning. She provides a fresh perspective and practical tips on integrating research-based strategies." -Melisa Mulder, Intervention Teacher
"Connie is an incredible driver of change in our focus on classroom questioning as a best practice instructional strategy." -Troy VanderLaan, Middle School Administrator
Answers to your questions about questions
Hacking Questions provides practical solutions to the universal questioning problems that teachers face daily. Find your answers now.
“Look out, Socrates! Here comes Connie Hamilton, the newest innovator of questionology! — Marcia Gutiérrez, High School Educator

Hacking Questions: 11 Answers That Create a Culture of Inquiry in Your Classroom (Hack Learning Series)

Amplify Learner Voice pushes back against traditional assessment and grading practices that continue to be an inequitable endeavor for our nation’s learners; traditional classroom practices continue to sort and label students by characterizing them by "what they need to work on" or ‘lack.'\nIn this book, eight authors and The Core Collaborative’s partner schools reimagine formative assessment through an asset-based, cultural lens to make a greater impact on learning and our shared humanity.\nPresented in an easy-to-read, practical format, with video examples and practical resources throughout, the ‘Amplify Learner Voice Formative Assessment Framework’ identifies and integrates seven culturally responsive and sustaining concepts to shift how educators and learners engage in core formative assessment practices that cultivate conditions where all stakeholders thrive. Cultural Identity: How does the assessment experience support students to understand more about themselves and each other as learners? Asset-Centered Mindset: How can we create conditions for learners to draw and build upon their cultural funds of knowledge when reflecting, self- and peer assessing, collaborating, and practicing towards goals? Dispositional Learning: How do we ensure that students are transferring key habits of learning in and out of school when working towards goals or when faced with challenges? Learning Partnerships: How do positive feedback experiences create conditions to strengthen relational trust, risk-taking, and self-empowerment for all stakeholders? Learner Clarity: How does the assessment design ensure that learners are challenged at all levels of rigor (surface-deep-transfer) across academic, social, and emotional domains? Engagement: How does formative assessment engage students, caregivers, and families personally and collaboratively? Criticality: How do we create conditions for self-empowerment to think critically about equity, power, and inclusion?

Amplify Learner Voice through Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Assessment

Bloomberg, Paul J.

Vandas, Kara

Twyman, Ingrid

Dukes, Vivett

Fairchild, Rachel

Wells, Isaac

Mimi & Todd Press, Inc.

Are you tired of delivering lessons to bored, disengaged learners?\nYou want student engagement and collaboration, but learners struggle with group work. 
In Hacking Group Work, Connie Hamilton offers concrete tips that will: Facilitate multiple groups at different levels and various pacing rates Accommodate lessons to help introverts be more comfortable in social learning tasks Foster productive listening and questioning to elevate student talk Show you how to make kids love learning Develop activities that encourage self-awareness Set up protocols that support interdependence and student ownership of their learning Accurately assess individual student’s content knowledge, group communication and collaboration skills 
If that isn’t enough, Hacking Group Work offers over 60 activities and protocols, complete with step-by-step directions that teachers who teach any grade level can use tomorrow with their students.\nGrab Hacking Group Work today, enjoy student engagement and collaboration like never before, and watch achievement and a love of learning soar.

Hacking Group Work: 11 Ways to Build Student Engagement, Accountability, and Cooperation with Collaborative Teams (Hack Learning Series)

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