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About Teaching Alive!

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Teaching Alive! is based on four decades of inquiry by CREDE researchers. Our findings have taught us how to create effective learning environments in which all students can succeed. The Teaching Alive! professional development program gives educators the tools to create these environments in the classroom.

Teaching Alive! is based on the best practices of master teachers who have worked with a wide range of students from around the country. Teaching Alive! is compatible with all quality curriculum, including those approved by the California and New Mexico Departments of Education.

Teaching Alive!’s program is based on three modules: Assisting Academic Achievement, Leadership, and Reaching Out. The program focuses on the classroom but includes units for all those who are vital to students’ success — teachers, school administrators, and families and communities.

The methods taught in Teaching Alive! are effective for all students, especially those with diverse linguistic, cultural, racial, geographic, and economic backgrounds. These methods transform classrooms from the traditional “cemetery model” of learning — students sitting passively in rows, being ministered to by their teacher — to a model that literally brings teaching alive, making instructive active, engaging, and challenging.

Teaching Alive! is based on five basic principles found in all successful academic programs — the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy:

• Teachers and Students Producing Together
• Developing Language Skills across all Curriculum
• Connecting Lessons to Students' Lives
• Engaging Students with Challenging Lessons
• Emphasizing Dialogue over Lecture

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