Let’s make the “next normal” a “better normal”
If ever there was a time for our heroic school leadership to persevere, it’s now. Because now, well over one year since the pandemic stretched the resilience and reserves of our school systems, it’s time to “rebound.” It’s time to leverage this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reboot teaching and learning as we know it so that we amplify the effective practices from the past while leveraging the so many recent lessons learned.
This is where Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith, and John Hattie, coauthors of The Distance Learning Playbook series, are ideally equipped to serve as your collaborators.
Inside Leading the Rebound: 20+ Must-Dos to Restart Teaching and Learning, you’ll find immediate actions, mindsets, and approaches to take if we’re to reimagine and improve our schools and school systems. Step by step, you’ll discover explicit guidance on how to:
- Take care of yourself
- Take stock and find the path
- Rebuild teacher agency
- Rebuild collective teacher efficacy
- Foreground social and emotional learning
- Change the learning loss narrative
- Guide teacher clarity
- Ensure instructional excellence
- Use assessments for a range of purposes
- Design and implement interventions
- Win back parent-teacher relationships
- Establish restorative practices
- Avoid stealing the conflict
- Enhance teacher-student and student-student interactions
- Develop early warning systems for attendance, behavior, and course completion
- Confront cognitive challenges to learning
- Ensure equitable and restorative grading
- Enhance PLCs
- Provide empathetic feedback
- Host honest performance conversations
- Maintain your social presence
- Future-proof teachers and students
What’s more, Leading the Rebound is backed up with all kinds of resources—including VISIBLE LEARNING® research, sample planning tools, and other essential tips and strategies—to provide you with a start-to-finish roadmap for navigating this absolutely critical next leg in our journey toward a “better normal.”
Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College having been an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit, an Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE, as well as a Christa McAuliffe award for excellence in teacher education. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design as well as books, such as PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, Building Equity, and The Distance Learning Playbook.
Nancy Frey, Ph.D., is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. She has been a special education teacher, reading specialist, and administrator in public schools. Nancy has engaged in Professional Learning Communities as a member and in designing schoolwide systems to improve teaching and learning for all students. She has published numerous books, including The Teacher Clarity Playbook and The Distance Learning Playbook.
Dominique Smith is a social worker, school administrator, mentor, national trainer for the International Institute on Restorative Practices, member of ASCD’s FIT Teaching (Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching®) Cadre and Corwin’s Visible Learning for Literacy Cadre. He is passionate about creating school cultures that honor students and build their confidence and competence. He is the winner of the National School Safety Award from the School Safety Advocacy Council. Dominique’s major area of research and instruction focuses on restorative practices, classroom management, growth mindset, and the culture of achievement. He earned his master’s degree in social work from the University of Southern California and is a doctoral student in educational leadership at San Diego State University.
John Hattie, Ph.D., is an award-winning education researcher and best-selling author with nearly 30 years of experience examining what works best in student learning and achievement. His research, better known as Visible Learning, is a culmination of nearly 30 years synthesizing more than 1,500 meta-analyses comprising more than 90,000 studies involving over 300 million students around the world. He has presented and keynoted in over 350 international conferences and has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to education. His notable publications include Visible Learning, Visible Learning for Teachers, Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn, Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12, and, most recently, 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning.