Big results come from small steps. If you think you don’t have time for mindfulness, think again. This handbook, named a Best Courageous Book of 2014 by The Center for Courage and Renewal, was written with school leaders in mind—your responsibilities, your stress, and your schedule. When you add mindfulness into your day, bit by bit, you’ll become a more effective leader and a more positive force for your staff and students. With the help of this inspirational yet practical guide, you’ll start fitting pieces of practice into your busy home and work life, whether you are sitting in your office or walking down the hall. Features include Real-life profiles of mindful school leaders Practice exercises to try right away Guidance so you know if you are "doing it right" Hard-to-find resources, including mindfulness apps Mindful school leaders are better at managing meetings, responding creatively to complex situations, and achieving resilience at work and at home. Take the first steps to transform your life—and your school. "This inspiring book makes a strong case for school leaders to include mindfulness in their personal and professional lives. Based on solid research and enhanced by compelling examples of real people, it shows how school leaders can feel more grounded, connected, clear and focused. Mindfulness makes leaders more effective with relatively little effort, but be advised that the benefits can be contagious, transforming your school from the inside out." Christopher Germer, Clinical Instructor Harvard Medical School "In The Mindful School Leader, Brown and Olson offer with remarkable clarity and depth a thorough introduction to the practice of meditation, the science behind its benefits, and many firsthand accounts of lives and work situations transformed through this practice. Although this book was written for those in leadership roles in education, it will be inspiring for anyone interested in understanding their own minds and finding more ease in life and work." Joseph Goldstein, Co-Founder Insight Meditation Society

Where are we now? Where are we going? : preparing our students for an uncertain future / Patricia A. Jennings, Anthony A. DeMauro, and Polina P. Mischenko -- A selective review of mindfulness training programs for children and adolescents in school settings / Rebecca N. Baelen, Michael V. Esposito, and Brian M. Galla -- Turn and listen : strengthening compassion and leadership in the adult community in schools / Pamela Seigle, Chip Wood, and Lisa Sankowski -- Modeling mindfulness : principal leadership and development for personal and organizational growth / Eleanor Drago-Severson and Jessica Blum-DeStefano -- Embodied teacher mindfulness in the classroom : the calm, clear, kind framework / Cynthia Taylor, Patricia A. Jennings, Alexis Harris, Deborah L. Schussler, and Robert W. Roeser -- Cultivating passion for practicing and teaching mindfulness : a multiple-case study of compassionate school project teachers / Polina P. Mischenko and Patricia A. Jennings -- The school counselor : change agent and collaborator for holistic student well-being / Rebecca L. Tadlock-Marlo and Meghan Damler -- Creating mindful and compassionate schools : including parents as partners / J. Douglas Coatsworth, Melissa Ward George, and Aimee Kleisner Walker -- Finding peace in chaos : mindfully prepared public school teachers / Richard C. Brown and Elizabeth Grassi -- Being in school transformation : toward equity and social justice / Velma L. Cobb.

This is a book clearly written by an educator who knows mindfulness in schools from the inside. The strongest evidence for this is that Hawkins never gets carried away. He recognises that mindfulness is not a panacea, that to implement it successfully in schools is a slow and steady process, and that above all it must begin with the teachers themselves. But Hawkins also recognises how transformative mindfulness can be, having experienced it so profoundly himself as an educator in many different contexts. His anecdotes give it plenty of colour (my favourite is ‘Billy and the Mosquito’), whilst the practical guidance – Chapter 7 on implementation for example – makes it of tremendous practical value. - Richard Burnett, Co-founder and Director, Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) Former school teacher turned mindfulness consultant Kevin Hawkins truly understands the joys of teaching and the desire to make a real difference in the lives of students, as well as the challenges and risks of burnout that most teachers experience on a daily basis. With this guide to mindful practice, teachers new and experienced can learn how to use mindfulness in their own professional and personal lives as well as how to incorporate it in their teaching to support student wellbeing. Combining theory with practice and illustrated with real life stories, this guide will show readers: what mindfulness is the research and scientific evidence behind it how changing the way you approach situations can transform the way you feel how to manage stress, and look after yourself how teaching mindfully can help your students what mindfulness can do for the culture in your school Packed full of DIY exercises, activities to use in the classroom and links to resources and further reading, this inspiring book will support experienced and new teachers to maintain a healthy work-life balance and thrive as a teaching professional. FOR EVEN MORE FROM KEVIN: Take a look at A Little Guide to Mindfulness - a free eBook we created with Kevin for teachers and trainees. And don′t miss out on his two must-read blogs How Well Are We? An Education System Under Stress and Exam time...take a breath! Effective Affective Skills in Action

This inspiring book reveals the invisible inner landscapes of how educators teach children from a variety of backgrounds to meet the challenging expectations of todays standards without sacrificing support for their developmental needs or their diverse ways of learning. Featuring images of possibility from an urban school, it describes effective, child-centered teaching in pre-K through fifth grade. Each image is analyzed for the educational decisions that took place to make the experience effective, including the planning involved, the classroom environment and routines that supported it, how standards were addressed, how the teacher assessed student learning to shape instruction, and the impact on students. This practical resource is a must-read for pre- and in-service teachers and anyone committed to helping inner-city children succeed in school and beyond.

Generate systemic change with practical methods for designing professional development experiences that result in a high level of transfer into the classroom and sustainable improvement.

Noting that thinking processes cannot be separated from educational content, this two-volume collection aims to define the profound changes in educational thought during the 20th century, as well as to present examples of how these changes are embodied in excellent schools and other learning communities. Volume one is divided in three sections. The first section provides the background for thought-centered schools and probes their potential, examining both barriers to restructuring and major paradigm shifts already occurring in the schools. Section two calls for substantive school renewal and redesign from the inside out, addressing policy formation at the national, community, and school levels. Section three dictates transformational change for schools, that is, curricular reconceptualization that goes beyond the cognitive and into the metacognitive realm, in which the uses, applications and creative transfer of learning become the most significant outcomes. Volume two also presents three sections. The first delineates the theoretical basis for instructional methodologies that highlight cognitive skills and strategies, outlines cognitive strategies to foster thoughtful classrooms, and presents two scenarios depicting future school models. The second section introduces cooperative learning as a means for developing intellectual skills, indicating that problem-solving and critical-thinking skills can be experienced, practiced, analyzed, and applied in collaborative settings. The final section begins with a reassessment of student assessment methods, elaborates on methods and models for assessing, and provides a strategic plan for tracking students' transfer of learning. Each of the 51 articles includes references. (AA)

INTEGRATING ACADEMIC UNITS trains teachers to develop effective integrated and interdisciplinary units in order to afford their students with a meaningful learning experience. The text further provides teachers with the tools to develop long term plans, to utilize teaching team approaches, to involve parents, and to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated and interdisciplinary unit. Using real classroom examples, the authors give clear steps that can be adapted to diverse settings in order to teach critical thinking skills to their students.