Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction Part I. Seeing the Whole Teen Chapter 1. The Whole Teen Comes Into the School Chapter 2. The Whole Teen Comes Into a Dominant Culture Part II. Everyday Practices Chapter 3. Connecting to Adults and Peers, Not Just to Academics Chapter 4. Creating a Culture of Shared Responsibility, Not Just Obeying Chapter 5. Learning Collaboratively, Not Just Nearby Chapter 6. Communicating Effectively, Not Just Mumbling, Exploding, Avoiding, or Texting Chapter 7. Managing Work and Developing a Work Ethic, Not Just Passing or Cramming Chapter 8. Developing Emotional Skillfulness Proactively, Not Just Reactively Chapter 9. Becoming More Independent, Not Just Alone Chapter 10. Connecting Lessons to Life, Not Just to Tests Part III. The Whole School Surrounds the Whole Teen Chapter 11. Leaders Set the Tone for Themselves and Others Chapter 12. Schoolwide Structures, Practices, and Policies That Support the Whole Teen Chapter 13. Faculty Culture That Supports the Whole Teen Chapter 14. The Novice Teacher Comes Into the School Appendix: Formats and Facilitation Tools References Index
This book offers an overview of resilience, draws on connections to diverse schools, and includes explorations and examples from everyday classroom practices that will improve teaching and learning while fostering resilience. By practising the methods covered in this book the authors have seen increased attendance, graduation, and teacher retention rates as well as decreased discipline and special education referrals.
Rachel Poliner is an educational consultant specializing in whole student approaches and change management. Her work has focused on school climate, instructional, and structural reforms: K-12 social and emotional learning, middle and high school advisory programs, high school redesign, and improving faculty climate. Her in-depth approach spans classroom and school-wide structures, practices and programs, curriculum, staff development, district policies and systems, and coaching administrators, teams and teacher leaders. She is an author of The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools, and curricula, chapters, and articles on personalization, social-emotional learning, resiliency, dialogue, and conflict resolution. Poliner has consulted with public and independent schools in New England and across the U.S.; has been a teacher, educational organization director, and a faculty member for master's degree candidates in conflict resolution education and peaceable schools. Rachel Poliner can be contacted at RachelPoliner@LeadersAndLearners.org Jeffrey Benson has worked in almost every school context in over forty years of experience in the field of education: as a teacher in elementary, middle, and high schools; as an instructor in undergraduate and graduate programs; as an administrator in day and residential schools. He has studied and worked side by side with national leaders in the fields of special education, learning theory, trauma and addiction, school reform, adult development, and conflict resolution. He has been a consultant to public and independent schools, mentored teachers and principals in varied school settings, and has written on many school-based issues. He is the author of Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most, and 10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools. The core of Jeffrey Benson's work is in understanding how people learn, the starting point for everything that schools should do. Jeffrey Benson can be contacted at JeffreyBenson@LeadersAndLearners.org