When I started to write this book, I was 19 years old. I was finishing my sophomore year at UMass Lowell. Even though I had not reached my 20s yet, I had experienced a lot in my college career. I had just finished a Fall Semester of 24 credits (8 classes) while on the Division 1 Track & Field team. I was finishing up the Spring Semester of 27 credits (9 classes) while working full-time at an internship.Flash forward about a year, I am 20 years old and finished my college classes, debt-free, and have been working a full-time upper level role for the past 9 months at one of the top companies in my field.Why am I telling you this? I tell my story to you because I was not the top of my class in high school. I didn't get a perfect score of the SAT. I failed 5 out of the 7 AP tests I took in high school. I'm here to tell you that as soon as you walk off that stage at high school graduation, you are in control. No matter what cards you have been dealt, you have the chance to create your own future.As you read through this book you will get a look into the experiences I had during my college years and how you can change the course of your life using the tips written for you. I wrote this book for you. It does not matter what has happened in the past, your story begins here and now. I wrote this book so that you can take what I have learned and use it to build the life that you want.

An encyclopedia designed especially to meet the needs of elementary, junior high, and high school students.

Learn what a flipped classroom is and why it works, and get the information you need to flip a classroom. You’ll also learn the flipped mastery model, where students learn at their own pace, furthering opportunities for personalized education. This simple concept is easily replicable in any classroom, doesn’t cost much to implement, and helps foster self-directed learning. Once you flip, you won’t want to go back!

When considering inequality, one goal for educators is to enhance critical engagement to allow learners an opportunity to participate in an inquiry process that advances democracy. Service?learning pedagogy offers an opportunity to advance engaged?learning opportunities within higher education. This is particularly important given the power dynamics that are endemic within conversations about education, including the conversations around the Common Core, charter schools, and the privatization of education. Critical inquiry is central to the ethos of service?learning pedagogy, a pedagogy that is built upon community partner participation and active reflection. Within higher education, service?learning offers an important opportunity to enhance practice within the community, allowing students to engage stakeholders and youth which is particularly important given the dramatic inequalities that are endemic in today’s society.

Using children's and young adult literature is a great way to enhance a variety of college classes in fields as varied as biology, computer game development, political science and history. This collection of new essays by educators from a number of disciplines describes how to use such works as Where the Wild Things Are, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Swamp Thing, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter to introduce complex concepts and spark interest in difficult subjects. The contributors describe innovative teaching strategies using dystopian fiction, graphic narratives, fairy tales and mythology. Often overlooked or dismissed by teachers, children's literature can support student learning by raising levels of academic rigor, creativity and critical thinking.