Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Creating a Dynamic Classroom

Serena Pariser is the best-selling author of several professional books for educators, including Real Talk About Classroom Management: 50 Best Practices That Work and Show You Believe in Your Students (Corwin, 2018) and Real Talk About Time Management: 35 Best Practices for Educators (Corwin, 2020). She is a coauthor of Five to Thrive: Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Creating a Dynamic Classroom (Corwin, 2022) and It Starts in the Classroom: Character Education for a Better Tomorrow (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).  Serena taught English language arts for many years, primarily in San Diego, California, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has experience working with most grades in a variety of school settings across the spectrum, from underresourced urban public schools to affluent private schools. Serena was honored as Teacher of the Year at Gompers Preparatory Academy, located in San Diego.  She served as assistant director of field experience at the University of San Diego, where she taught graduate and undergraduate classes for teachers in training. In addition, Serena was selected to be a national evaluator for Schools of Character. A Fulbright scholar, Serena coaches educators across the United States and around the globe, from California to Kathmandu. Her passions include progressive classroom management best practices, bringing curriculum to life, time management for teachers, and weaving character education into the curriculum.  In her spare time, Serena travels and loves to experience the world for weeks at a time with just a backpack strapped to her back and a smile on her face.  Serena’s website can be found at www.serenapariser.com, where she writes educational articles that are enjoyed by a large audience of teachers. She is most active on social media on X @SerenaPariser and maintains a blog at www.serenapariser.com, where she writes articles for educators. She can also be directly contacted at serena.pariser@gmail.com. Dr. Victoria Lentfer is an education instructor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  She teaches classroom management and middle level courses.  She is an educational consultant and founder of the CALM Classroom Management Program, which is a comprehensive behavior management and teacher leader program that provides communication models to guide teachers and students to an inclusive and productive classroom.  She has more than 20 years of experience of providing instructional support and teaching at both the middle and high school urban districts, and extensive work with incarcerated youth.  Victoria has also been a Trailblazer Leader and keynote speaker for the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE).

Introduction
Chapter 1: How Do I Build an Affirming Classroom Community?
Chapter 2: How Do I Keep Students at the Center?
Chapter 3: How Can I Design Effective, Fun, and Engaging Learning for Students?
Chapter 4: How Can I Make Assessments Work for Me and My Students?
Chapter 5: What Are the Things I Need to Know.. But Are Rarely Discussed in a Teacher Training Program?
References