Rethinking Teaching: Classroom Teachers as Collaborative Leaders in Making Learning Relevant

About the Book

Rethinking Teaching is based upon one very simple idea – teachers teach people. That very simple idea is expressed as “Teachers as Collaborative Leaders.” Teachers wishing to redefine how they work in the classroom must focus on three key ideas:
1) They must build and maintain relationships with and among their students,
2) They must view Content as the foundation for personal learning (not the end product), and
3) When people change (and learn), they get to keep much of what they already know and can do.

Veteran teacher Mickey Kolis provides the background information to implement those three key ideas as well as skills to make them work in the classroom. He also offers a mechanism to manage that change process: a 3 (changes) in 30(days) model.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface
Section 1: Collaborative Leadership Explained /Defined
Chapter 1:Why Collaborative Leadership?
Chapter 2:What is “Teacher as Collaborative Leader?”
Chapter 3:What does “Teacher as Collaborative Leader” look like?
Section 2:To Really Change
Chapter 4:Growth toward “Teacher as Collaborative Leader”
Chapter 5:Dispositions First!
Chapter 6:Decision Points
Chapter 7:Leaderful Actions
Chapter 8:3 Leaderful Actions in 30 Days (3 in 30)
Section 3:Questions First
Chapter 9:Relevant Essential Questions
Chapter 10:5 Relevant Essential Questions for Content Learning and Nurturing Relationships
Chapter 11:Relevant Essential Question 1: Where are we going?
Chapter 12:Relevant Essential Question 2: Where are we at this moment in time?
Chapter 13:Relevant Essential Question 3: How will we know how we are doing?
Chapter 14:Relevant Essential Question 4: How do we get there?
Chapter 15:Relevant Essential Question 5: What have we learned?
Section 4:Getting Concrete
Chapter 16:TCL Template with Explanations
Chapter 17:Template Examples
Chapter 18: Conclusion
Appendix

About the Author :
Mickey Kolis, author of Student Relevance Matters, draws upon his work with public school students, pre-service and professional teachers to talk about some Powerful Ideas that matter in teaching and learning. He would like to thank all the teachers who have shared their powerful ideas about what works in their classroom so that others can benefit from those hard won lessons!

Review :
As a classroom teacher, I have often felt alone, isolated, and overwhelmed. After 12 years in education, I was searching to re-charge my batteries and re-connect to my initial core-beliefs and understandings about my content and my craft. Dr. Kolis' book reaffirmed my basic concepts of teaching and learning by providing a vivid, specific portrait of mastery-teaching and collaborative leadership using clear, precise and concise language and terms. Not only does this book define high-quality teaching and collaborative leadership and set it as goals we should all strive for, it provides the reader with a framework and process to achieve those goals. This book invites educators to become part of the process of revitalizing schooling on the personal, classroom, curricular, building, district, state, and national levels. [Rethinking Teaching] is an easy read that offers a wealth of information on how to be a collaborative leader. It is filled with ideas and stories that mesh into what educators must utilize to best help our lifelong learners. Mickey Kolis emphasizes what we have, what we need and what we will be able to offer in the future (as collaborative leaders). It is no secret that relationships, communication and collaboration with both students and colleagues are at the heart of successful classrooms and schools. Rethinking Teaching: Teachers as Collaborative Leaders in Making Learning Relevant hasprovided me with the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary for becoming a collaborative leader in my building. This book attacks the “systems problem” that we currently have in education by encouraging educators to adopt 3 leaderful actions in 30 days to promote incremental change. The “3 in 30” process has equipped me with the blueprint to begin making changes that will positively impact my students and my school. There are many books about becoming a leader. Dr. Kolis takes the journey in a new direction by making explicit the dynamic between knowing about leadership and acting in leaderful ways – putting thought into action! He challenges us to reexamine what we ask students to learn and why they should learn it using dispositional lenses – and makes a convincing case that linking learning goals, dispositions and human relationships through the lens of leaderful actions can strengthen every facet of our practice. What makes this book different, though, is the emphasis on pragmatic steps for implementing the ideas to become more leaderful. Dr. Kolis provides clear guides and tasks that are developed and tested with the very audience that matters most – our students. If you read this book, you will feel compelled to act – and your students will thank you for it!