Building Transformational Kindness in Schools


Book Description

Being kind in education is about much more than being nice. This unique book shows how transformational kindness needs to be an explicit, essential part of classroom and school culture in order to improve student success. Author Hope E. Wilson offers practical steps for creating a culture of transformational kindness through your approach to classroom management, relationships, assessment, and the content areas. She also demonstrates how to build kindness toward colleagues, parents, and families, and what to do in situations where supervisors are not so supportive. Finally, she describes how you can show more kindness toward yourself, including by giving grace. Throughout this book, you’ll find vignettes about the educators who have influenced their own communities through transformational kindness. You’ll come away feeling inspired and encouraged to imagine a world in which schools are places where kindness and humanity are felt by all.




Teaching Digital Kindness


Book Description

Digital tools have a clear educational purpose, but how do we help students with the darker corners of the web? This book provides timely, much-needed advice for educators on how to teach students to handle the anger and divisiveness that pervades social media and that is impossible to ignore when using tech for other purposes. Author Andrew Marcinek provides strategies we can use to help students with issues such as navigating relationships; understanding digital ethics and norms; returning to a balance with screen time; reclaiming conversation; holding yourself accountable; creating a new digital mindset; and more. Throughout, there are practical features such as Pause and Reflects, Teachable Moments, and classroom activities and lesson plans, so you can easily implement the ideas across content areas and grade levels.




Balancing Care and Excellence in Higher Education


Book Description

We believe the world needs more care. This volume seeks to describe theoretical, empirical, and phenomenological evidence toward creating a higher education environment that values excellence in its teaching, research, and service while at the same time ensuring that those involved in these endeavors are cared for. The primary purpose is to provide a state-of-the-art synthesis of the delicate balance between striving for excellence in higher education while at the same time exhibiting an ethic of care for all stakeholders involved. The second purpose is to honor the work and legacy of Jeffrey W. Cornett who embodied this balance during his long and successful career in higher education. Upon Dr. Cornett’s retirement, it is fitting to visit balance between care and excellence as multiple tensions push and pull on higher education – from innovative ideas, changing funding structures, and the corporatization of higher education. This volume will serve to inform all those invested in faculty development, student learning and administration in higher education from educational researchers, practitioners, and policymakers – with the most up-to-date understandings of how we can simultaneously strive for excellence in higher education and simultaneously ensure that those around us in this shared space are cared for. Contributors are: Carolyne Ali-Khan, Richard Chant, Jeffrey W. Cornett, Daniel L. Dinsmore, Jerry Johnson, Dilek Kayaalp, Wanda Lastrapes, Madalina Tanase, Hope (Bess) E. Wilson and Brian Zoellner.




Creating a Happy School Community


Book Description

"This instructive book looks at schools as safe places where children of all backgrounds and abilities can build strong social and emotional skills and improve attitudes about themselves and others. Showing kindness, accepting differences, learning to resolve conflicts, and expressing gratitude makes school a happy place for both students and teachers"--




Community-based Transformational Learning in Early Childhood Settings


Book Description

This comprehensive, research-based resource illuminates the challenges and benefits of integrating community-based transformational learning (CBTL) experiences of teachers, students, and the community in early childhood settings. Balancing historical context with theoretical underpinnings, ongoing research, and current practice, this multi-authored volume demystifies the praxeology of CBTL. It uses annotated case studies to explore the importance of considering contextual factors (i.e., cultural practices, community health and demographics, and student level) that may influence what early-years students gain from CBTL experiences, and it encourages a community dialogue that is both challenging and affirming to support students' confidence in their own capacity to make a better world for all people. As the first CBTL book specific to early childhood settings, it is key reading for future teachers. It is also of great interest to current educators, administrators, and community organizers who want to help center CBTL as a vital part of early childhood curriculum.




Making a Difference


Book Description

A “thoughtful book that teaches principles of effectiveness to children” from the author of the award-winning Learning to Get Along® social skills series (Sean Covey, bestselling author of The 7 Habits of Happy Kids). Through positive and motivating text, Making a Difference assures children that they are important, and that what they do matters. Boost your child’s confidence and sense of purpose as you read and affirm that their hopeful thoughts, kind words and good choices can make a difference to themselves and others. Making a Difference is a book that can help build social skills and character, teach life lessons to your children, and put them on a pathway to kindness, courtesy, respect, and purpose. Beautiful hand-drawn illustrations accompany Cheri’s purposeful storytelling as she shows us once again how children can help to make the world a better place. Back pages include discussion questions, scenarios, games and role-play activities that help adults reinforce the book’s positive message. “This invaluable resource . . . empowers children to be their best selves and challenges them to make a real world difference every day.” —Mary Jane Weiss, PhD, coauthor of Reaching Out, Joining In




The Magic in the Space Beyond: Transformational case studies from the frontiers of women's leadership


Book Description

Responding to a challenge posed by state and independent schools, Ian and Hilary Wigston launched a unique mentoring programme to transform women's leadership in education. This programme, explored in the 2021 book The Magic in the Space Between, achieved huge success in the UK and led to similar initiatives in North America, Australasia and Africa. This new book, The Magic in the Space Beyond, presents a series of transformational projects produced by aspiring school leaders who were given the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from around the world. Inspired by their world-class mentors, these remarkable women have forged new and innovative pathways for their own development while researching and documenting radical solutions to contemporary issues. These case studies explore the new frontiers that educators and students face every day, including: · How to respond to the god-like nature of social media influencers. · Building a proactive strategy to address neurodiversity. · Addressing post-pandemic mental health. · Developing a playbook to enable student resilience.




Create a Culture of Kindness in Elementary School


Book Description

Increase empathy in the elementary classroom with ready-to-use lessons that teach students positive skills and attitudes. Kids learn better and feel better about themselves in an atmosphere of safety and respect. This book shows you how to help students in grades three through six: Foster kindness, compassion, and empathy Manage anger Prevent conflict Respond to conflict Address name-calling and teasing Deal with bullying Accept differences With mini lessons that span those seven topic areas, you can build community and student relationships in 20 minutes or less per day. The prep work is already done: each of the 126 lessons has a script, and worksheets are available with the downloadable digital content. Included in the book are anger management activities, conflict resolution strategies, and character-building lessons. And with concrete ideas about how to address bullying in the classroom, these lessons help students understand what bullying is and how they can stand up to bullies. Based on a nationwide survey of more than 2,000 students and teachers, this resource can be used alone or as a complement to anti-bullying or character education programs already in place. The digital content in this book includes reproducible handouts, bonus activities, forms for parents, and information on schoolwide responses to bullying.







Compassionate School Practices


Book Description

Already Ready For What Will Come - SEL For A Culture Of Care Is your school prepared to care for all of the students, staff, and families in your community? Sadly, your school might be the only point of care for many. Be already ready--Establish a compassionate cultural foundation for strong relationships and holistic skills to weather stress, trauma, and promote well-being for your entire school population. Help your school or district use available resources to create a compassionate culture of justice and care for all by leaning into this book’s approach to leadership and social emotional learning. Discover a collaborative visioning process to elevate compassion through dialogue, policies, and protocol. Readers will find: Practical strategies for working with parents and communities Activities for the whole school An implementation framework for elementary, middle, and high school Deeper understanding of trauma, ACEs, and mental health concerns Support for teachers’ mental health What not to do – practices that don’t work, and why In-depth case studies and vignettes Read this and usher in transformational and compassionate change that may be the difference in whatever today, tomorrow, or the next day may bring.