The Art of Inquiry: Questioning Strategies for K-6 Classrooms, 2nd Edition. Nancy Lee Cecil & Jeanne Pfeifer, $26.00

Asking questions is one of the most essential functions of teaching. In this book, Nancy Lee Cecil and Jeanne Pfeifer show teachers how to develop both their own questioning skills and those of their students. The authors explain how to model provocative, open-ended questions, and provide many useful teacher- and student-directed questioning strategies. From these strategies, children learn how to ask questions that enable them to construct their own meaning from what they read and experience.

Collaborating with Parents for Early School Success: the Achieving-Behaving-Caring Program. S. McConaughy, P. Kay, J. Welkowitz, K. Hewitt & M. Fitzgerald, $33.50

The Achieving-Behaving-Caring (ABC) Program is an evidence-based approach to addressing the needs of elementary students at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties and promoting successful home-school collaboration. This practical guide demonstrates how classroom teachers and parents can work together to boost individual children's strengths, reduce problems that interfere with learning, and provide class-wide social skills training.

Creating Standards-Based Integrated Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum, Content, Assessment and Instruction, 2nd Edition. Susan Drake, $49.95

A new approach to standards-based curriculum, instruction and assessment that helps educators to identify what students must know, do and be. This new edition offers a framework that allows for multidisciplinary approaches to curriculum integration.

Engaging the DisEngaged.  Beth Critchley Charlton, $24.95

Based on the premise that teachers need to engage with students as more than just pupils, this book illustrates how to help students make connections and care about their work. It offers effective ways to close "the achievement gap," eliminate "the fourth-grade slump," and reach "students at risk." A comprehensive overview of school experiences, the book argues for ways that teachers can change the way they view student learning, and create more successful learning situations. It discusses the importance of acknowledging what unique attributes each person brings to the classroom, and shares poignant moments of unanticipated learning and re-engagement.

Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom. Johanna Riddle, $24.95

Literacy in the twenty-first century means more than reading and writing — are you ready to discover how to update your curriculum to include both digital and print-based media, imagery, online applications, and audio and video, as well as traditional texts?

This timely book suggests curriculum enhancements ranging from low-tech to high-tech, and explains how teachers, even those with limited technology skills, can effectively guide students to proficiency. Each chapter — filled with meaningful and motivating activities — thoughtfully explains how to elevate traditional learning and add new layers to students` reading comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills.

Everybody Wins! Diane Schilling & Terri Akin, $22.95

• Action games • Brain games • Communication games • Cooperative games • Imagination games • Number games • Word games • Sidewalk games • Tag games • Imagination games

A Guide to Curriculum Mapping: Planning, Implementing and Sustaining the Process. Janet Hale, $58.95

While curriculum mapping is recognized as a highly effective method for serving students' ongoing instructional needs and creating systemic change, the means for putting this data-based decision-making process into practice may not always be clearly understood. This in-depth resource speaks to teachers and administrators with varying levels of curriculum-mapping experience and describes how teacher groups drive the process by engaging in collaborative inquiry as they review one another's curriculums for gaps, redundancies, and new learning. The collected data assist in designing month-to-month instructional plans for all grade levels and subjects, resulting in a curriculum that is coherent, consistent, and aligned with standards.

The Highly Engaged Classroom. Robert Marzano & Debra Pickering, $33.50

THE HIGHLY ENGAGED CLASSROOM provides an in-depth understanding of how to generate high levels of attention and engagement as a result of careful planning and execution of specific strategies. This clear, practical guide summarizes key research and then translates it into recommendations for classroom practice, where every teacher can create a classroom environment in which engagement is the norm instead of the exception.

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Alfie Kohn, $18.00

A compelling exposé of homework — how it fails our children, why it’s so widely accepted, and what we can do about it.

In The Homework Myth, Alfie Kohn systematically examines the usual defenses of homework — that it promotes higher achievement, “reinforces” learning, teaches study skills and responsibility. None of these assumptions, he shows, actually passes the test of research, logic, or experience … Kohn’s incisive analysis reveals how a mistrust of children, a set of misconceptions about learning, and a misguided focus on competitiveness have all left our kids with less free time and our families with more conflict. Pointing to parents who have fought back — and schools that have proved educational excellence is possible without homework — Kohn shows how we can rethink what happens during and after school in order to rescue our families and our children’s love of learning.

Is Everybody Ready for Kindergarten? A Tool Kit for Preparing Children and Families. Angèle Sancho Passe, $30.95

Making the transition into kindergarten is a significant and exciting milestone in young children's lives. With proper coordination and planning, it can be a smooth process, benefiting children, families, and schools. This book provides information and practical advice to help you help children and their families prepare for the transition and then successfully begin kindergarten. Helpful activities, reproducible checklists and handouts, and planning templates are included.

Kindergarten Success is designed to help children develop essential skills and knowledge while honouring the play-based learning that is the hallmark of the kindergarten years. Parents and teachers can use this creative and practical book to support language and literacy development, early math and problem-solving skills, science, social studies and creative arts.

Learning at Home PreK-3: Homework Activities that Engage Children and Families. Ann Barbour, $49.95

Because families play a critical role in helping young children develop a strong academic foundation and a love of learning, teachers need to involve caregivers as partners in education and extend learning to the home environment. Learning at Home, PreK–3 helps teachers plan developmentally appropriate, creative homework activities that encourage positive learning experiences and reinforce important home-school connections.

Packed with hundreds of engaging and interesting activities, this resource expands the concept of what constitutes homework and family involvement. These tools and strategies help teachers reach out to families and reinforce learning both in school and at home, ensuring that all students have the chance to achieve and become lifelong learners.

Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children. Rafe Esquith, $18.50

In Lighting Their Fires, educator Rafe Esquith shows that children aren’t born extraordinary; they become that way as a result of parents and teachers who instill values that serve them not just for school, but for the rest of their lives.

Whether he is highlighting the importance of time management or offering a step-by-step discussion of how children can become good decision makers, Esquith shows how parents can equip their kids with all the tools they need to find success and have fun in the process. Using examples from classic films and great books, he stresses the value of sacrifice, the importance of staying true to oneself, and the danger that television can pose to growing young minds. Lighting Their Fires explains not just how to make our children great students, but how to make them thoughtful and honorable people.

Little Big Minds: Teaching Philosophy to Kids. Marietta McCarty, $18.50

Children are no strangers to cruelty and courage, to love and to loss, and in this unique book teacher and educational consultant Marietta McCarty reveals that they are, in fact, natural philosophers … Little Big Minds guides parents and educators in introducing philosophy to K-8 children in order to develop their critical thinking, deepen their appreciation for others, and brace them for the philosophical quandaries that lurk in all of our lives, young or old. Arranged according to themes including prejudice, compassion, and death and featuring the work of philosophers from Plato and Socrates to the Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King Jr., this step-by-step guide to teaching kids how to think philosophically is full of excellent discussion questions, teaching tips, and group exercises.

Living Like a Child: Learn, Live and Teach Creatively. Enrique Feldman, $22.95

With a call to live like a child and teach with meaning, this refreshing book explores holistic and arts-based techniques that will help you support and enhance children's academic and social-emotional development. You will learnt o teach and connect with children in ways that are organic, trusting and empowering. LIVING LIKE A CHILD is divided into three sections, each filled with stories, techniques and support to help you live and teach more creatively:

• Master Teaching Principles facilitates your growth as a teacher.
• Life Learning Techniques contains artistic, play-based practices that enhance children's — and your own — learning, growth and development. Includes activities that incorporate music, affirmation, breathing, visualization, movement and drama.
• Measurable and Immeasurable Results presents data on the effectiveness of the techniques

Motivating Students: 25 Strategies to Light the Fire of Engagement. Carolyn Chapman & Nicole Vagle, $33.50

This practical handbook offers 25 strategies for motivating students to engage in learning. Understand eight types of unmotivated learners and how you can meet their needs with diverse and challenging learning opportunities in a welcoming environment. The authors explore the teacher’s role in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as how to reengage bored or frustrated students by finding the source of disengagement. They also discuss how students not only learn through challenging, appealing, and rewarding experiences, but also continue trying when they can see where they are going and how to get there.

The New Science of Teaching and Learning: Using the Best of Mind, Brain and Education Science in the Classroom. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, $32.95

This book offers a definitive, scientifically grounded guide for better teaching and learning practices. Drawing from thousands of documents and the opinions of recognized experts worldwide, it explains in straight talk the new Mind, Brain, and Education Science—a field that has grown out of the intersection of neuroscience, education, and psychology. This book distinguishes true, applicable neuroscience from the popular “neuromyths” that have gained currency in education. Each instructional guideline presented in the book is accompanied by real-life classroom examples to help teachers envision the direct application of the information in their own schools.

No Contest: the Case against Competition, 20th Anniversary Edition. Alfie Kohn, $18.50

No Contest, which has been stirring up controversy since its publication in 1986, stands as the definitive critique of competition. Drawing from hundreds of studies, Alfie Kohn eloquently argues that our struggle to defeat each other — at work, at school, at play, and at home — turns all of us into losers.

101 Great Classroom Games. Alexis Ludewig, Amy Swan, $23.95 (K-5)

These breeze-to-learn, laugh-inducing games energize the school day by being both fun and educational. Created by award-winning educators, these games painlessly teach your children reading, logic, measuring, listening, science, math, and other subjects. The best part: Games are also ranked for noise levels!

Out Of the Question: Guiding Students To a Deeper Understanding Of What They See, Read, Hear and Do. Sally Godinho & Jeni Wilson, $ 12.95

Asking questions is a pivotal skill in learning how to learn. It helps children to clarify their understanding, and make new connections. This straightforward guide outlines the main purposes behind asking questions. It explores numerous different types of question, and how to use purpose to determine what and how to ask.

In light of recent standards-based and testing movements, the issue of play in childhood has taken on increased meaning for educational professionals and social scientists. This second edition of Play from Birth to Twelve offers comprehensive coverage of what we now know about play, its guiding principles, its dynamics, and its importance in early learning.

The Play's the Thing: Teacher's Roles in Children's Play, 2nd Edition. Elizabeth Jones & Gretchen Reynolds, $27.50

Responding to current debates on the place of play in schools, the authors explain how and why play is a critical part of children's development, as well as the central role adults have to promote it. This classic textbook and popular practitioner resource offers systematic descriptions and analyses of the different roles a teacher adopts to support play, including those of stage manager, mediator, player, scribe, assessor, communicator, and planner. This new edition has been expanded to include significant developments in the broadening landscape of early learning and care, such as assessment, diversity and culture, intentional teaching, inquiry, and the construction of knowledge. New for the 2nd edition:

• Additional theories on the relationship of teachers and children's play, e.g., Vygotsky and the role of imaginary play and Reggio Emilia's image of the competent child.

• Current issues from media content, consumer culture, and environmental concerns.
• Standards and testing in preschool and kindergarten.
• Bridging the cultural gap between home and school.
• Using digital technology to make children's play visible.
• Recent brain development research.

PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects (Grades K-12). Ellen Finkelstein & Pavel Samsonov, $27.95

PowerPoint for Teachers is written for teachers who want to use PowerPoint in the classroom to enhance presentations, teach students how to use the application, and create interactive educational projects.

No matter what your level of expertise, PowerPoint for Teachers gives the step-by-step information needed to introduce PowerPoint into the classroom and offers a great selection of creative projects for students. In addition, this handy resource includes sample customizable presentations and interactive games and activities that are available for free from the companion website.

Understanding is a process, and the most critical key to improving understanding is through asking questions. This timely book shows teachers how to develop a questioning culture among students. Offering students essential survival skills for the complexities of the information age, Q Tasks presents practical strategies that will empower them to become critical thinkers and users of information … By encouraging students to ask their own questions, teachers help students develop the tools they need to cope better not just in school, but outside the classroom and into their adult lives.

Quick & Lively Classroom Activities: Meaningful Ways to Keep Kids Engaged During Transition Time, Downtime or Anytime. Linda Nason McElherne, $39.95 (Grades 3 – 6)

Make the most of every moment in the classroom. These brief, enjoyable activities are perfect for 15- to 20-minute periods during the school day-advisory, homeroom, or between times too short to start something big and too long to waste. Start the day off right, cure the midday blahs, or end on a positive note.

Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher. Judy Willis, $25.95

Author Judy Willis is an author who is both a neurologist and a classroom teacher. In Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning, Dr. Willis combs through brain research and pulls out the information that is most valid and relevant to classroom teaching. Find out how to enhance your students' memory and test-taking abilities and discover ways to captivate and hold students' attention and encourage their participation and progress.

Rethinking Homework: Best Practices that Support Diverse Needs. Cathy Vatterott, $28.95

Rethinking Homework examines the role homework has played in the past and how changes in education theory, schools and family life have all influenced the growing suspicion that there is something fundamentally wrong with homework. Author Cathy Vatterott suggests a shift in the way we look at this controversial topic and illustrates a new paradigm that is supported by what research and educators’ common sense tell us about homework and student learning.

A Room to Learn: Rethinking Classroom Environments. Pamela Evanshen & Janet Faulk, $34.95

Turn classrooms into inspiring learning environments! Based on the latest research about how children learn, this book helps elementary school teachers make their classrooms into creative spaces that facilitate teaching and learning. With "before" and "after" photos of real classrooms, teachers can examine each area and determine their own classroom's need for improvement.

School Climate: Building Safe, Supportive and Engaging Classrooms & School. Jonathan Cohen & Maurice Elias, $12.95

This 6-page, laminated reference guide is designed for educators who are committed to creating a safe, supportive, engaging and helpfully challenging school climate for students in grades K-12.

School Power: Study Skill Strategies for Succeeding in School. Jeanne Shay Schumm, $20.95

This handbook is a lively, inviting introduction to the basic study skills all students need to succeed in school. Step-by-step instructions, practical advice, and insider tips from real students cover every conceivable topic, from how to get organized and create a study space to how to take notes, write papers, prepare speeches, follow directions, set goals, handle long-range assignments, and much more.

Kids and teens learn proven ways to be better readers, spellers, and writers, master new vocabulary, remember what they study, prepare for tests, and conquer test anxiety—and those are just for starters.

The revised and updated edition features new sections on the benefits of using computers, the Internet, and email to help with school projects and research. The exciting graphics and straight-talk style welcome kids in and hold their attention.

Schools for All Kinds of Minds: Boosting Student Success by Embracing Learning Variation. Mary-Dean Barringer, Craig Pohlman & Michele Robinson, $33.95

This book shows how schools can develop expertise in "learning variation" (understanding how different kinds of minds learn) and apply this knowledge to classroom instruction in order to address the chronic learning challenges and achievement gap faced by millions of students. Schools for All Kinds of Minds shows how using what we know about learning variation with a focus on discovering learning strengths, not just deficits, can help schools create plans for success for those students who often find it elusive.

Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire: the Methods and Madness Inside Room 56. Rafe Esquith, $16.50

In a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs, and drugs, there is an exceptional classroom known as Room 56. The fifth graders inside are first-generation immigrants who live in poverty and speak English as a second language. They also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, score in the top one percent on standardized tests, and go on to attend Ivy League universities. Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire is a brilliant and inspiring road map for parents, teachers, and anyone who cares about the future success of our children.

Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom. Rick Ayers & William Ayers, $24.50

This dynamic book explores many of the hotly debated issues that teachers grapple with today.

These stories of courage and resistance will help educators to encourage initiative, to foster imagination, to “teach the taboo”. A powerful look at education at its best — and worst — this is a hands-on manual for anyone looking to evolve as an educator.

Teaching with Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts & More. Kathleen Fitzgibbon, $13.99 Grades 3 and Up

Dozens of easy ideas for using technology to get kids excited about learning.

They Snooze You Lose: the Educator’s Guide to Successful Presentations. Lynell Burmark, $39.95

In today's increasingly visual world, the art of giving presentations is a much-needed talent. They Snooze, You Lose provides a comprehensive guide made especially for teachers and administrators who want to become presentation "stars" in their classrooms, at board meetings, or any time they are in front of an audience. New and seasoned educators alike will benefit.

Contains a bonus DVD with premade slides, a study guide, and reproducible images.

3-Minute Motivators: More than 100 Simple Ways To Reach, Teach, And Achieve More Than Ever Imagined. Kathy Paterson, $24.95

More than just busy work, these short, playful activities will help frazzled teachers to refocus a group, release excess energy, or start class with a bang! Organized around common classroom challenges, the book offers a wide variety of activities that turn potential problems into opportunities, from relaxing activities to stimulate the imagination to lively motivators and activities that mix talk with action to getting involved and working together towards a common goal.

Whole Child Education. John Miller, $22.95

Public education is often viewed as dominated by an emphasis on test scores and narrowly defined parameters of performance and achievement. By contrast, John Miller's Whole Child Education fosters relationships between various forms of thinking, links body and mind, and recognizes the inner life of the child.

Addressing issues of teaching, curriculum, the school, and teacher wellness, Miller presents three basic approaches (transmission, transaction, and transformation) that facilitate a connection with the whole student. Practical examples from teachers who have incorporated Miller's ideas into their own classrooms and descriptions of Toronto's Whole Child School (founded in 2009) illustrate how the 'Whole Curriculum' can be implemented on both the small and large scale. Inspired by the powerful vision of Martin Luther King and his concept of the Beloved Community, Whole Child Education is a vehicle for building community through holistic education.