How can we do school differently? Mokysha Benford, Ed.D., seeks to answer that question and others in this deeply personal collection of vignettes highlighting the lessons she's learned in various roles at school-ranging from substitute teaching to building principal. She explores the myriad problems that show up at school on any given day. These issues go far beyond teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, and many educators have no clue how to deal with them. For instance, how do you handle students throwing desks and chairs, running out of school and into traffic, elementary school children engaging in sexual acts, and helping fifth-grade students pass an assessment when they don't know the alphabet? There are no easy answers, but success begins by focusing on more than academic subjects and giving freely of yourself on Any Given Monday.

Few problems in education are as pressing as the severe crisis in urban schools. Though educators have tried a wide range of remedies, dismal results persist. This is especially true for low-income youth of color, who drop out of school—and into incarceration—at extremely high rates. The dual calamity of underachievement in schools and violence in many communities across the country is often met with blame and cynicism, and with a host of hurtful and unproductive quick fixes: blaming educators, pitting schools against each other, turning solely to the private sector, and ratcheting up the pressure on teachers and students. But real change will not be possible until we shift our focus from finding fault to developing partnerships, from documenting problems to discovering solutions. Learning to Liberate does just that by presenting true and compelling community-based approaches to school reform. Drawing on over three years of ethnographic research, Vajra Watson explores the complicated process of reaching and teaching today's students. She reveals how four nontraditional educators successfully empower young people who have repeatedly been left behind. Using portraiture, a methodology rooted in vivid storytelling, Watson analyzes each educator's specific teaching tactics. Uncovering four distinct pedagogies—of communication, community, compassion, and commitment—she then pulls together their key strategies to create a theoretically grounded framework that is both useful and effective. A poignant, insightful, and practical analysis, Learning to Liberate is a timely resource for all educators and youth-serving practitioners who are committed to transforming "at-risk" youth into "at-promise" individuals who put their agency and potential into action in their schools and neighborhoods.

Through trials and hardships, Anne Clark shares of her journey that led her to where she is today.

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers’ careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers’ voices are essential for understanding teachers’ lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers’ lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers’ lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

Education: it's touched all of us in some way. Whether you were the student who sought attention with the pranks you pulled or the one who sat quietly in the back of the room hoping you didn't get called on??.Or whether you were the teacher who struggled to maintain order in your classroom, tirelessly managing the prankster and the disengaged learner, Memoirs of An Urban Educator: Tales From the Hood is for you.These vignettes capture the experiences of the urban classroom and provide insights that could transform our public educational system. A quality education for every student, no matter their race, ethnicity, or learning disability, can be achieved. But first, urban educators must understand how to create a culture and community within the classroom where every student can thrive. Memoirs of An Urban Educator: Tales From the Hood will invite you into the classrooms of inner-city schools, and enlighten you from both the student's and teacher's perspective, so that education can touch you anew. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????

This volume brings together leading scholars in urban education to focus on inner city matters, specifically as they relate to educational research, theory, policy, and practice. Each chapter provides perspectives on the history and evolving nature of urban education, the current education landscape, and helps chart an all-important direction for future work and needs. The Handbook addresses seven areas that capture the breadth and depth of available knowledge in urban education: (1) Psychology, Health and Human Development, (2) Sociological Perspectives, (3) Families and Communities, (4) Teacher Education and Special Education, (5) Leadership, Administration and Leaders, (6) Curriculum & Instruction, and (7) Policy and Reform.

Maintaining that urban teaching and learning is characterized by many contradictions, this work proposes that there is a wide range of social, cultural, psychological, and pedagogical knowledge urban educators must possess in order to engage in effective and transformative practice. It is necessary for those teaching in urban schools to be scholar-practitioners, rather than bureaucrats who can only follow rather than analyze, understand, and create. Ten major sections cover the myriad issues of urban education as it exists today.