Making a Difference in the Classroom: Strategies that Connect with Students

This book is about the energy, substance, hope, and determination that excellent teachers bring to the rhythm of classrooms every day, year in and year out. Balli offers experiences and important lessons about teaching and classroom life at all grade levels, illuminating the perspective of both teachers and students. Knitting teacher and student voices together, this book inspires practicing teachers and those who are learning to teach, with universal insights drawn from elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. Making a Difference in the Classroom is organized into three parts, focusing first on teacher-student relationships, then on how excellent teachers finesse the substance and action of classrooms, and finally on the inestimable worth of teachers as diverse individuals with unique talents to offer as gifts for students to unwrap and experience day after day.

This book offers experiences and important lessons about teaching and classroom life at all grade levels, illuminating the perspective of both teachers and students. Knitting teacher and student voices together, this book inspires practicing teachers and those who are learning to teach, with universal insights drawn from elementary school, middle school, high school, and college.

Sandra J. Balli is associate professor of education at La Sierra University where she teaches courses in middle school methods, advanced instructional models, and qualitative research. She earned a PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of Missouri-Columbia.