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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Engage, challenge, and inspire students with work that matters Transformational Literacy, written by a team from EL Education, helps teachers leverage the Common Core instructional shifts—building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction, reading for and writing with evidence, and regular practice with complex text—to engage students in work that matters. Worthy texts and worthy tasks help students see the connection between their hard work as readers and writers and their capacity to contribute to stronger communities and a better world. The stories, examples, and resources that permeate Transformational Literacy come primarily from the more than 150 EL Education schools around the country that support teachers to select, supplement, customize, and create curriculum, and improve instruction. The book also draws on EL Education's open source Common Core English Language Arts curriculum—often cited as one of the finest in the country—and professional development offered to thousands of teachers to implement that curriculum effectively. Transformational Literacy combines the best of what EL Education knows works for kids—purposeful, inquiry-based learning—and the new imperative of the Common Core—higher and deeper expectations for all students. Teach standards through a compelling and purposeful curriculum that prioritizes worthy texts and worthy task Improve students' evidence-based reading, thinking, talking, and writing Support students to develop a new mindset toward the challenge of reading complex texts Transformational Literacy introduces an approach to literacy instruction that will engage, challenge, and inspire student with work that matters.

A critical challenge has emerged— how to make sense of life experiences in the realm of learning. This conundrum is particularly pronounced in the domains of social work and human services education. The call for a paradigm shift is urgent, as the theory of transformational learning contends that hands-on experiences are paramount in the educational landscape. Experiential learning stands as a powerful, proven approach that elevates education by fostering student reflection, critical thinking, service, engagement, and problem-solving. However, the realization of a high-quality experiential or service-learning experience necessitates meticulous planning and intention. It is this critical need that Transformational Learning in Social Work and Human Services Education seeks to address, providing a comprehensive Experiential-Learning Guide filled with pre-planning logistics, resources, and evaluation tools essential for crafting impactful experiential-learning events. Designed for the discerning academic scholar, this book beckons educators and administrators passionate about transformational, experiential, and service learning. Its scope reaches beyond disciplines, offering practical insights for integrating experiential learning into any course. Social Work, Human Service, and Non-Profit Administrators will find invaluable guidance on employing transformational leadership to fortify their programs. The book delves into transformative theory, leadership methodologies, models for experiential and transformational learning, and the nuts and bolts of designing immersive courses. From global experiential learning with a social justice lens to fostering partnerships for community restoration, the book navigates a vast sea of topics, leaving no stone unturned in the quest for educational excellence. Step into the realm of academic transformation and unlock the full potential of experiential learning.

A picture book for all ages from painter Thomas Locker! "Most of all, he thanked the wilderness for teaching him to see in a new way." In Blue Mountains is about the love of nature and the importance of beauty. It tells the story of an artist who sets out to explore wilderness and discovers a new way of seeing. Bewildered at first by the profusion of nature -- There are so many leaves, he could never paint them all! -- Gradually, he learns to see its wholeness and to trust his feelings. As he does so, he embarks on an adventure of learning: about light and shadow, the way color changes through the day, and how looking at nature leads to a new understanding of himself and the world. This illuminated story is set in America's first wilderness, the Kaaterskill Clove in Upstate New York, made famous by the Hudson River School of painters -- many of whose pictures are reflected in this book. Thomas Locker's In Blue Mountains is a personal, deeply moving testament to the power of beauty and art to nurture our children's natural love of the world. Indeed, it can inspire childlike wonder in people of all ages. In Blue Mountains is a wonder-filled book that makes a great gift for both children and adults. It contains 13 full-page, color reproductions of the artist's paintings of Kaaterskill Clove and the beautiful, blue Catskill Mountains.

Teachers at all levels of education will find this book practical and inspiring as they read how other educators have engaged with challenges that reveal different dimensions of gratitude, and how some have discovered its relevance in gaining greater resilience, improved relationships and increased student engagement. In the first comprehensive text ever written that is solely dedicated to the specific relevance of gratitude to the teaching and learning process, Dr Howells pioneers an approach that accounts for both dilemmas and possibilities of gratitude in the midst of teachers’ busy and stressful lives. She takes a contemporary and philosophical view of the notion of gratitude and goes beyond its conceptualisation simply from a religious or positive psychology framework. Exploring real situations with teachers, school leaders, students, parents, academics and pre-service teachers - Gratitude In Education: A Radical View examines many of the complexities encountered when gratitude is applied in a variety of secular educational environments.