Intentional teaching begins with focused observations and systematic documentation of children's learning and development. This book is filled with tools and techniques designed to help early childhood educators purposefully observe children, create portfolios with rich documentation, and plan curriculum that supports every child. Discussion questions, observation practice exercises, and reflection assignments are included, as well as DVD with classroom vignettes showcasing observation techniques. Gaye Gronlund is an early childhood education consultant who trains early childhood educators across the country. Marlyn James is an education and early childhood professor.

Essential leadership moves for supporting instructional coaching in your school Strong leadership is essential in any successful instructional coaching effort. Leading Student-Centered Coaching provides principals and district leaders with the background, practices, and tools required for leading coaching efforts that have a profound and positive impact on student and teacher learning. Filled with practical ideas that school leaders can easily apply to their own school settings, this book includes: Tools and techniques for preparing a school for coaching, launching a coaching culture, and supporting coaches Leadership Moves sections that provide strategies for building principal and coach partnerships Richly detailed Lessons from the Field, based on the authors’ real-life experiences, that illustrate principal and coach collaboration Recommendations for coaches to use as they strive to increase their impact With a focus on the critical role of school leadership, this action-oriented guide provides the key ingredients for ensuring the success of school-based coaching initiatives. "Sweeney and Mausbach explore the necessary ingredients to a successful instructional coach partnership between the principal and the coaches. This is a must-read for building leadership teams implementing an instructional coach program" —Timothy S. Grieves, Chief Administrator Northwest Area Education Agency, IA "This book synthesized the work necessary of school leaders when working with the coach. As a principal who was a student-centered coach, this book has shown me how I can tweak the skills I learned and apply them with a leadership lens." —Kelly Neylon, Principal Meadowview School, Woodridge IL

Developmental milestones mark the significant progress children make throughout their early years. This Redleaf Quick Guide includes descriptions of the typical physical, social, emotional, language, and cognitive milestones that infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary-age children reach. It also includes strategies for observing, recording, and communicating milestones to families.

The research of the last decade has demonstrated that ecosystems and human systems are influenced by multiple factors, including climate, land use, and the by-products of resource use. Understanding the net impact of a suite of simultaneously occurring environmental changes is essential for developing effective response strategies. Using case studies on drought and a wide range of atmosphere-ecosystem interactions, a workshop was held in September 2005 to gather different perspectives on multiple stress scenarios. The overarching lesson of the workshop is that society will require new and improved strategies for coping with multiple stresses and their impacts on natural socioeconomic systems. Improved communication among stakeholders; increased observations (especially at regional scales); improved model and information systems; and increased infrastructure to provide better environmental monitoring, vulnerability assessment, and response analysis are all important parts of moving toward better understanding of and response to situations involving multiple stresses. During the workshop, seven near-term opportunities for research and infrastructure that could help advance understanding of multiple stresses were also identified.

Searching for Dark Matter with Cosmic Gamma Rays summarizes the evidence for dark matter and what we can learn about its particle nature using cosmic gamma rays. It has almost been 100 years since Fritz Zwicky first detected hints that most of the matter in the Universe that doesn't directly emit or reflect light. Since then, the observational evidence for dark matter has continued to grow. Dark matter may be a new kind of particle that is governed by physics beyond our Standard Model of particle physics. In many models, dark matter annihilation or decay produces gamma rays. There are a variety of instruments observing the gamma-ray sky from tens of MeV to hundreds of TeV. Some make deep, focused observations of small regions, while others provide coverage of the entire sky. Each experiment offers complementary sensitivity to dark matter searches in a variety of target sizes, locations, and dark matter mass scales. We review results from recent gamma-ray experiments including anomalies some have attributed to dark matter. We also discuss how our gamma-ray observations complement other dark matter searches and the prospects for future experiments.

Now in its second edition, Speech and Language Therapy: the decision-making process when working with children reveals how recent research and changes in health and education services have affected the decision-making process in the assessment and management of children with speech and language problems. With individual chapters written by experts in their field, this book: Illustrates how the decisions made by practitioners may vary within different work settings Shows how these decisions may need to be adapted when working with specific client groups Explores how such decisions are part of effective evidence-based practice Offers an overview of the skills required by the developing professional Provides insight into working as a newly qualified therapist in the current job market. Rigorously underpinned with current research and revised legislation, this is an important textbook for speech and language therapy students, potential students and specialist teachers in training. Speech and Language Therapy: the decision-making process when working with children will also be relevant to newly qualified therapists, therapists returning to the profession, specialist teachers and Special Educational Needs Coordinators.