All parents want their children to be able to vocalize how they are feeling--to own their emotions, their opinions, their fears, and their views of the world. To achieve this, parents need to be models, showing their kids the importance of honest dialogue and effective listening. But parents don't always feel prepared. As both a teacher and school principal, Meredith Essalat has lived the daily challenges of helping children navigate through their young lives. She has seen the struggles that parents have as they balance longer working hours with the demands of home life. And how it's the teachers who are often caught in the middle. In an effort to stop pointing out each other's flaws--and instead letting kids know they are supported--Meredith offers hard-won pointers, enabling parents, teachers, and students alike to encourage one another while holding everyone accountable for their actions. Combining humor with straightforward, practical advice, the Overly Honest Teacher shows parents how to welcome everyday parenting gracefully. The results will be well-adjusted, positive, enthusiastic young adults ready to work hard and take on the world. And isn't that what we all want for our children?

“When a teacher gives anything other than glowing feedback, it's tough to keep from slipping into a defensive stance. Enter The Overly Honest Teacher...written by seasoned educator and administrator Meredith Essalat, M.Ed. The Overly Honest Teacher is filled with tangible advice from how to best communicate with your children's teachers to how to start your kids' school day off on the right foot.” –Amy Lupold Bair, Founder of Resourceful Mommy Media, LLC All parents want their children to have the tools to vocalize their emotions—to own their opinions, their fears, and their views of the world. But parents don’t always feel prepared to take on the role of model adult. As both a teacher and a school principal, Meredith Essalat has lived the daily challenges of helping children navigate through their young lives. She has seen the struggles that parents have as they balance long working hours with the demands of home life. She sees that it’s the teachers who are often caught in the middle. In an effort to stop pointing out each other's flaws—and instead letting kids know they are supported—Essalat offers hard-won pointers that enable parents, teachers, and students alike to encourage one another with accountability. Combining humor with straightforward, practical advice, The Overly Honest Teacher educates parents on how to embrace everyday parenting gracefully. The results will be well-adjusted, positive, enthusiastic young adults ready to work hard and learn vastly.

Confident Parents, Confident Kids lays out an approach for helping parents—and the kids they love—hone their emotional intelligence so that they can make wise choices, connect and communicate well with others (even when patience is thin), and become socially conscious and confident human beings. How do we raise a happy, confident kid? And how can we be confident that our parenting is preparing our child for success? Our confidence develops from understanding and having a mastery over our emotions (aka emotional intelligence)—and helping our children do the same. Like learning to play a musical instrument, we can fine-tune our ability to skillfully react to those crazy, wonderful, big feelings that naturally arise from our child’s constant growth and changes, moving from chaos to harmony. We want our children to trust that they can conquer any challenge with hard work and persistence; that they can love boundlessly; that they will find their unique sense of purpose; and they will act wisely in a complex world. This book shows you how. With author and educator Jennifer Miller as your supportive guide, you'll learn: the lies we’ve been told about emotions, how they shape our choices, and how we can reshape our parenting decisions in better alignment with our deepest values. how to identify the temperaments your child was born with so you can support those tendencies rather than fight them. how to align your biggest hopes and dreams for your kids with specific skills that can be practiced, along with new research to support those powerful connections. about each age and stage your child goes through and the range of learning opportunities available. how to identify and manage those big emotions (that only the parenting process can bring out in us!) and how to model emotional intelligence for your children. how to deal with the emotions and influences of your choir—the many outside individuals and communities who directly impact your child’s life, including school, the digital world, extended family, neighbors, and friends. Raising confident, centered, happy kids—while feeling the same way about yourself—is possible with Confident Parents, Confident Kids.

The Smart Classroom Management Way is a collection of the very best writing from ten years of Smart Classroom Management (SCM). It isn't, however, simply a random mix of popular articles. It's a comprehensive work that encompasses every principle, theme, and methodology of the SCM approach. The book is laid out across six major areas of classroom management and includes the most pressing issues, problems, and concerns shared by all teachers. The underlying SCM themes of accountability, maturity, independence, personal responsibility, and intrinsic motivation are all there and weave their way throughout the entirety of the book. Together, they form a simple, unique, and sometimes contrarian approach to classroom management that anyone can do. Whether you're an elementary, middle, or high school teacher, The Smart Classroom Management Way will give you the strategies, skills, and know-how to turn any group of students into the motivated, well-behaved class you love teaching.

PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.

"A delightful book. . . . It is readable, convincing, and useful for communicating with children and engaging them in fruitful conversations. I would recommend this book to anyone who has the good fortune to be working with young children." -Marilyn Segal, Director of Academics Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies Nova Southeastern University, FL "Even though strong parent-teacher partnerships benefit children, very little attention is usually given to training teachers to tap into this powerful resource. Kaltman′s practical tips make for a very valuable resource." -Ruth R. Kennedy, Assistant Professor Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Help children develop critical social skills and build positive team relationships with parents! Ensuring children′s healthy social and emotional development is one of the most important-and most challenging-responsibilities for preschool educators and parents. This reader-friendly reference offers 88 tips to tackle the task by focusing on what teachers can do with children and their parents. Help! For Teachers of Young Children provides readers with entertaining stories and practical strategies covering a range of topics, from using discipline as a teaching tool, to helping children learn to communicate, cooperate, and develop self-esteem. The book also addresses the many facets of working effectively with parents, including parent-child separation anxiety. Each tip offers: A short and engaging real-life story Suggestions that teachers can use immediately "Ask Yourself" questions for teachers to think about their classroom practice A "Try This" section at the end of each chapter gives readers even more activity ideas. Preschool teachers are guaranteed to find fresh and fun insights each time they open this resource and its companion volume, More Help! For Teachers of Young Children: 99 Tips to Promote Intellectual Development and Creativity.

This book is a behind-the-scenes look at the world beyond the classroom door. It is an honest, often humorous peek at those things not typically covered during parent-teacher conferences. It's what teachers desperately want to sit down and discuss with parents over coffee; the things we tell our own sisters and friends as they send their little ones off to kindergarten. You'll find insight into everything from the true nature of bullying, to the value of encouraging independence, and it will become your trusted companion as you watch your children learn and grow throughout their education. Candid Classroom is a real conversation about the things teachers wish parents knew, and answers the questions so many parents have.

Hopeful, hilarious musings and serious advice for new teachers from the formerly anonymous blogger behind Love, Teach. Every teacher will tell you the first years are the hardest, and even the most confident of the pack sometimes ask themselves, Am I cut out for this? Kelly Treleaven, the teacher and once-anonymous blogger behind Love, Teach, wants you to know that you're not alone, and that yes, she has cried under her desk, too. Treleaven's blog has become a sensation in the education world, known for its heartfelt, high-spirited dispatches straight from the trenches and its practical advice. In Treleaven's debut book, she gives rookie teachers the advice she wishes she'd had when she started out in a large district in Houston. From logistical questions like how to prep and organize a classroom, to deeper issues like how to build relationships with students, navigate administration, and avoid burnout, Love, Teach is an essential book for anyone working in education today or considering the profession. With raw feeling, humor, and a razor-sharp perspective, Love, Teach supports teachers in their fight for a better future, and helps them celebrate the victories, large and small.

“The Addiction Inoculation is a vital look into best practices parenting. Writing as a teacher, a mother, and, as it happens, a recovering alcoholic, Lahey's stance is so compassionate, her advice so smart, any and all parents will benefit from her hard-won wisdom.” —Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex and Boys & Sex In this supportive, life-saving resource, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure helps parents and educators understand the roots of substance abuse and identify who is most at risk for addiction, and offers practical steps for prevention. Jessica Lahey was born into a family with a long history of alcoholism and drug abuse. Despite her desire to thwart her genetic legacy, she became an alcoholic and didn’t find her way out until her early forties. Jessica has worked as a teacher in substance abuse programs for teens, and was determined to inoculate her two adolescent sons against their most dangerous inheritance. All children, regardless of their genetics, are at some risk for substance abuse. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, teen drug addiction is the nation’s largest preventable and costly health problem. Despite the existence of proven preventive strategies, nine out of ten adults with substance use disorder report they began drinking and taking drugs before age eighteen. The Addiction Inoculation is a comprehensive resource parents and educators can use to prevent substance abuse in children. Based on research in child welfare, psychology, substance abuse, and developmental neuroscience, this essential guide provides evidence-based strategies and practical tools adults need to understand, support, and educate resilient, addiction-resistant children. The guidelines are age-appropriate and actionable—from navigating a child’s risk for addiction, to interpreting signs of early abuse, to advice for broaching difficult conversations with children. The Addiction Inoculation is an empathetic, accessible resource for anyone who plays a vital role in children’s lives—parents, teachers, coaches, or pediatricians—to help them raise kids who will grow up healthy, happy, and addiction-free.

Dr. Seuss’s wonderfully wise Oh, the Places You’ll Go! celebrates all of our special milestones—from graduations to birthdays and beyond! “[A] book that has proved to be popular for graduates of all ages since it was first published.”—The New York Times From soaring to high heights and seeing great sights to being left in a Lurch on a prickle-ly perch, Dr. Seuss addresses life’s ups and downs with his trademark humorous verse and whimsical illustrations. The inspiring and timeless message encourages readers to find the success that lies within, no matter what challenges they face. A perennial favorite for anyone starting a new phase in their life!