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Reach Before You Teach
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Reach Before You Teach
Ignite Passion and Purpose in Your Classroom



October 2013 | 216 pages | Corwin

Facilitating students’ unique paths towards identity development is the key to teaching young teens.

Students face pressures that undermine the development of a solid sense of self, jeopardizing success in school and in life: Family issues, economic concerns, media influences, social pressures, physical changes, and more influence how students feel about themselves.
When these go unnoticed, even the best teaching methods fall short. Reach Before You Teach shows educators how to form the nurturing, individualized connections that make students feel worthy, fulfilled, and ready to flourish as learners. 

The book details:

  • Practical, empowering information about how a sense of self comes to be, and what threatens it.
  • Interventions that soften the myriad defenses students develop to protect themselves.
  • How to address the often-overlooked connections between physical, social, and emotional health and classroom performance.

Packed with real-life examples and results-delivering exercises, Reach Before You Teach supplies educators with the all-important skills to connect with students so academic and life success feels more attainable.

“In our present education system that seems to be caught up with numbers and standardization, this book is a welcomed read. Education will never improve if we don’t make the social-emotional skills of children our first priority.”
—Peter DeWitt, Principal
Poestenkill Elementary School, NY

“This book is a must-read for all who want to encourage self-awareness and self-reflection during classroom instruction and help students feel more connected, curious, and confident! Students no doubt will achieve emotionally and academically with help from the strategies in this book.”
—Dr. Ann Marie Dargon, Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Westport Community Schools, MA


 
Preface
A Child’s Sense of Self Is of Paramount Concern

 
The Focus and Purpose of This Book

 
This Book Applies to Educators of Teens

 
The Bottom Line

 
 
About the Authors
 
1. The Self
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
What Do We Mean by the Self?

 
The Self in School

 
Social Emotional Learning: Its Importance and How the Self Enables SEL Potential

 
How Does a Sense of Self Contribute to Personal Success and to Society?

 
Steps to Success – For Teaching and for You

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
2. The Development of the Self: Understand and Connect With the Self Behind the Desk
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
Early Attachment and Self Development

 
True Self Versus False Self: The Battle Begins

 
Making Connections

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
3. The Unaware Emotional Self: Soften Defenses to Foster Academic and Personal Growth
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
The Purpose of Defenses

 
The Development of Defenses and How They Inhibit Optimal Learning

 
Common Defense Mechanisms and How They May Manifest in the Classroom

 
How to Manage Defenses Through Interventions That Build the Self

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
4. The Aware Emotional Self: Provide Tools for Emotional Management
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
Emotional Awareness - Knowing Your Temperature

 
Emotional Management – Shutting the Window

 
The Emotional Self in the Classroom

 
The Benefits

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
5. The Cognitive Self: Use Cognitive Understanding to Awaken Potentials
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
Brain Structure and Related Functions

 
Stress on the Brain

 
Neuroplasticity: The Role of Experiences

 
Improving Motivation

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
6. The Social Self: Consolidate the Self in the Social World
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
Set a Positive Social Tone in Your Classroom

 
Top Social Skills

 
Teamwork

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
7. The Physical Self: Support the Physical Self for Optimal Overall Health
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
The Importance of Physical Health

 
Exercise and Health

 
Nutrition and Health

 
Sleep and Health

 
The Mind/Body Connection

 
The Physical Self in the Classroom

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
8. The Self in the School Climate: How to Put the Environment to Work for You
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
What Is School Climate?

 
Personal Principles of Behavior

 
School Wide Policies

 
Parents and the Off-Campus Community

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
9. The Self: Decision-Making, Motivation, and Giving Back
What You Will Learn in This Chapter

 
Where Are We?

 
Where Can We Go From Here?

 
Decision-Making – The Sine Qua Non of Self Skills

 
Motivation

 
Final Interventions

 
Chapter Summary

 
 
References
 
Index

"This book is filled with useful material that will help educators better relate to their students and empower them to reach their full potential."

Steve Reifman, National Board Certified Teacher
Roosevelt Elementary School

"This book is a must for all educators wanting to help students understand their emotional 'Self' and its impact on their academic and future success."

Diane P. Smith, School Counselor Grades 7-12
Smethport Area School District

"With the growing focus on mental health issues in our communities today this book is a much needed publication and very timely.  Thanks to the mental health professionals who worked to make this easily applicable to the school environment and to give school professionals guidance in how to structure our schools so that students develop a strong sense of self."

Dr. Janice Wyatt-Ross, Assistant Principal
Cardinal Valley Elementary

"This book is a must-read for all who want to encourage self-awareness and self-reflection during classroom instruction and help students feel more connected, curious and confident! Students no doubt will achieve emotionally and academically with help from some strategies in this book."

Dr. Ann Marie Dargon, Assistant Superintendent of Schools
Westport Community Schools

"In our present education system that seems to be caught up with numbers and standardization, Prentis’ book is a welcomed read. Education will never improve if we don’t make the social-emotional skills of children our first priority."

Peter DeWitt, Ed.D., Principal and Corwin Author
Poestenkill Elementary School
Key features

The benefits and features of this book include:

  • Details seven straightforward, easy to implement steps to ignite passion and purpose in your classroom.
  • Demonstrates the ethical necessity to reach the whole child and foster his potentials socially, emotionally, physically and, yes, cognitively.
  • Includes a plethora of real life teacher illustrations showing the power and impact of the tools and strategies given.
  • Provides over 50 interventions to reach and connect with each student in your classroom, particularly those students that seem to defy your previous attempts at connection and instruction.
  • Offers techniques and strategies to form authentic connections with students and explains why these connections you create can mean the difference between thriving students and those who drop out.
  • Incorporates opportunities to check in with yourself to develop awareness as to how your habits and views impact your teaching style.
  • Details the functions and structure of the brain and offers ideas on how to share this information with your students.
  • Explains how social emotional skills and focusing on the self will foster 21st century skills.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Front Matter

Chapter One


For instructors

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