CONNECTIONS: Welcome To Our Blog
Greetings Friends!
This is our very first ConnectEDD Newsletter and we wanted to briefly tell you about who we are, what we do, and what is new with the work we do.
Since 2015, ConnectEDD has worked to transform education by empowering educators to become better-equipped to teach, learn, and lead. What started as a small company led by Jimmy Casas and Jeff Zoul and designed to provide professional learning events for educators has grown to include a variety of services to help teachers and administrators address essential challenges. ConnectEDD offers instructional and leadership coaching, professional development workshops focusing on a variety of educational topics, a roster of nationally-recognized educator associates who possess hands-on knowledge and experience, educational conferences custom-designed to meet the specific needs of schools, districts, and state/national organizations, and ongoing, personalized support, both virtually and onsite.
This year, we expanded our work to include publishing services. As we launch the publishing branch of our company, we also want to launch a regular newsletter. We hope that both the books we publish and our newsletter will provide busy educators with resources consisting of practical information on a wide variety of teaching, learning, and leadership topics. Please visit us online at connectedd.org to keep up with our publications and resources.
Moving forward, we will send a newsletter biweekly. Each newsletter will include a short blog post on some aspect of teaching and learning along with a variety of other features, including the ones you will see throughout this inaugural edition. For now, thank you for connecting with us and please let us know if we can help in any way; Cheers!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“Teaching is not rocket science. It is, in fact, far more complex and demanding work than rocket science.”
- Richard Elmore
DAILY INSPIRATION EDUCATOR
Please let us know about an inspiring educator you think we should highlight in a future newsletter by completing this brief form!
WHAT'S NEW?
Action Guides for Culturize and Live Your Excellence!
Written to accompany Jimmy Casas’'s bestselling books, these action guides can be used by facilitators and participants in workshops, webinars, book study groups, and other professional development events. These guides feature strategies and activities that will help teachers and leaders apply concepts from Culturize and Live Your Excellence to their own classroom or school. Each Action Guide chapter includes: Reflections, Critical Concepts, Questions to Consider, Writing to Reflect, Team Activities, and Putting It to Work components. Check out more here!
EYES ON CULTURE:
Multiply Excellence In Your School by Emily Paschall
In this new book, Emily Paschall supplies the recipe for success in today’s schools. School culture is the hidden curriculum that drives a school forward or backward, and when strong relationships and relentless passion are at its root, this is when excellence multiplies. This book is filled with a wide range of authentic stories and lessons, as well as tangible takeaways that will culturize your classroom, school, and community. Emily provides you with the necessary tools to not only live your own excellence, but to multiply excellence in others. In this book, you will learn:
How to use your lived experiences to help someone else
How to unlock the key to connecting with all kids, even those who seem unreachable
How to build partnerships with families so that they desire to work with you
How to make difficult conversations not so difficult
How to help every student, parent, and colleague achieve excellence
May the words in this book fill you with the joyful reminder of why you went into education in the first place—for KIDS!
COMING SOON
Pause. Breathe. Flourish: Living Your Best Life as an Educator by William D. Parker
In this book, Parker explores the habits, practices, and mindset necessary for growth as both an educator and a person. This book is grounded in the belief that when you invest in better care of yourself, you can better serve and lead others. Applying those insights is the challenge. Each chapter begins with a mental image and unpacks specific areas for cultivating personal or professional growth. Chapters end with reflection questions to help you take immediate actions for thoughtful application and improved outcomes. Do yourself a favor, and read ahead to pause, breathe, and flourish!
TAKE FIVE
Chats to Check Out: #LearnLAP - Mondays at 7:00 pm CST on Twitter. In #LearnLAP, discover practical strategies for creating a student-led classroom where students are actively involved in their learning!
Podcasts to Ponder: One of our favorite podcasts is Better Leaders, Better Schools hosted by Danny Bauer and featuring conversations with leadership experts from within and outside education. Learn more here
Blogs that Make Us Better: Cult of Pedagogy is the brainchild of Jennifer Gonzalez who has posted amazing educational insights and tips since 2013. Each post falls into one of three categories: The Craft (fine-tuning the art of teaching), Go Deep (digging into the theory and thinking behind our practice), and Teacher Soul (posts about the raw emotions of teaching).
Schools that Rock: Epworth Elementary School is one of five elementary schools in the Western Dubuque (Iowa) Community School District. Epworth Elementary is a Preschool through 5th Grade building serving approximately 380 students. One thing that makes Epworth a School that Rocks is the high value they place on people. Positive relationships with students, colleagues, and families are of the utmost importance at Epworth, where staff members believe in genuine communication, while providing a welcoming atmosphere focused on teamwork, growth, and FUN. Epworth Elementary School is truly a special place. To learn more about Epworth Elementary School, connect with Principal Dan Butler on Twitter (Do you know a School that Rocks and deserves recognition? Please let us know so we can highlight them in a future newsletter by completing this brief form!)
Eyes On Culture: We believe that culture is a true difference maker in any classroom, school, district, or organization. As a result, we focus much of the work we do on creating and maintaining positive and productive cultures. We define culture as: The norms, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, values, traditions, celebrations, and myths that comprise any group of people working together. Or, as Roland Barth once said, “It’s simply the way we do things around here.” Because we think culture is such an impactful component of schools and classrooms, many of our books focus on this important variable, including our latest release, Eyes On Culture: Multiply Excellence In Your School by Emily Paschall. In our next newsletter, look for more from Emily and her book about school and classroom culture. In the meantime, check out this image of Culture Builders vs Culture Killers. What else would you add to each list? Feel free to share your thoughts via Twitter: @ConnectEDDBooks We would love to hear from you!
