Skills For School Success

Grade level: 3, e, p, t.

Grade level: 5, e, i, t.

Seven Skills for School Success Confidence; Curiosity; Intentionality; Self-Control Relating to Others Communication; Cooperation; What do children need to learn first? Their ABCs? Their numbers? As it turns out, the what children need to develop is their social intelligence and emotional intelligence, the essential building blocks for all future learning. Best-selling author Pam Schiller provides information, activities, and experiences that develop the seven skills children need to become successful learners. These include the ability to relate to and play with others, express feelings, and understand how others feel. Strengthen the foundation children need to become successful learners with the seven key components in this practical, easy-to-use book! About the Author Pam Schiller, Ph.D., is a freelance early childhood author and consultant. She is former President of both the Southern Early Childhood Association and the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. She served as head of the Early Childhood Department at the University of Houston, where she also directed the Lab School. Pam is a highly sought-after speaker and writes regularly for early childhood journals, including Child Care Information Exchange and Texas Child Care Quarterly. She is the author of 5 early childhood curriculums, 11 children's books, and more than 30 teacher and parent resource books. Pam lives in Cypress, Texas.

For success in school and life, students need more than proficiency in academic subjects and good scores on tests; those goals should form the floor, not the ceiling, of their education. To truly thrive, students need to develop attributes that aren’t typically measured on standardized tests. In this lively, engaging book by veteran school leader Thomas R. Hoerr, educators will learn how to foster the “Formative Five” success skills that today’s students need, including Empathy: learning to see the world through others’ perspectives. Self-control: cultivating the abilities to focus and delay self-gratification. Integrity: recognizing right from wrong and practicing ethical behavior. Embracing diversity: recognizing and appreciating human differences. Grit: persevering in the face of challenge. When educators engage students in understanding and developing these five skills, they change mindsets and raise expectations for student learning. As an added benefit, they see significant improvements in school and classroom culture. With specific suggestions and strategies, The Formative Five will help teachers, principals, and anyone else who has a stake in education prepare their students—and themselves—for a future in which the only constant will be change.

Successful students and successful employees have something in common: a well-developed skill set that goes beyond book smarts. The skills needed for success in the classroom and on the job can be honed with deliberate effort and the right resources. Academic success skills—note-taking, reading for understanding, preparing for and taking exams, using resources such as advisors and academic coaches, participating in experiential education opportunities—enable students to perform at the level of their academic ability. Soft skills—communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, time management, ability to work on a team, strong work ethic, and professionalism—underpin academic and career success. Leadership—influencing people to achieve common goals—is the key to personal and shared success. Success Skills for High School, College, and Career provides step-by-step guidelines and hands-on exercises to enable students to enhance their academic performance and prepare for future career success. This book helps students construct realistic expectations for achieving success, develop self-awareness, build a future-oriented attitude, and improve their academic success skills, leadership skills, and soft skills. If you want to build skills essential for academic success and career readiness, this book is for you.

This innovative handbook offers special education teachers, career counselors, and parents a comprehensive range of tested techniques and strategies to help youngsters who are blind or visually impaired begin to build the skills they need for successful careers. It introduces specific activities for preparing visually impaired children from preschoolers through middle school for the next level of schooling and to become independent in daily life, confident about their career choices, and skillful on their future jobs.

Offers students in grades six through twelve practical strategies designed to teach them valuable study skills that will help them acquire the knowledge they need to succeed in life.

Designed for busy teachers and other school-based professionals, this book presents step-by-step guidelines for implementing seven highly effective strategies to improve classroom management and instructional delivery. These key low-intensity strategies are grounded in the principles of positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS), and are easy to integrate into routine teaching practice. Chapters discuss exactly how to use each strategy to decrease disruptive behavior and enhance student engagement and achievement. Checklists for success are provided, together with concise reviews of the evidence base and ways to measure outcomes. Illustrative case examples span the full K-12 grade range. Reproducible intervention tools can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. See also Managing Challenging Behaviors in Schools, by Kathleen Lynn Lane et al., which shows how these key strategies fit into a broader framework of prevention and intervention.

Lately, our nation's strategy for improving our schools is mostly limited to "getting tough" with teachers. Blaming teachers for poor outcomes, we spend almost all of our energy trying to control teachers' behavior and school operations. But what if all of this is exactly the opposite of what is needed? What if teachers are the answer and not the problem? What if trusting teachers, and not controlling them, is the key to school success? Examining the experiences of teachers who are already trusted to call the shots, this book answers: What would teachers do if they had the autonomy not just to make classroom decisions, but to collectively--with their colleagues--make the decisions influencing whole school success? Decisions such as school curriculum, how to allocate the school budget, and whom to hire. Teachers with decision-making authority create the schools that many of us profess to want. They individualize learning. Their students are active (not passive) learners who gain academic and life skills. The teachers create school cultures that are the same as those in high-performing organizations. They accept accountability and innovate, and make efficient use of resources. These promising results suggest: it's time to trust teachers.

Praise for Overloaded and Underprepared “Parents, teachers, and administrators are all concerned that America’s kids are stressed out, checked out, or both—but many have no idea where to begin when it comes to solving the problem. That’s why the work of Challenge Success is so urgent. It has created a model for creating change in our schools that is based on research and solid foundational principles like communication, creativity, and compassion. If your community wants to build better schools and a brighter future, this book is the place to start.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind “Challenge Success synthesizes the research on effective school practices and offers concrete tools and strategies that educators and parents can use immediately to make a difference in their communities. By focusing on the day-to-day necessities of a healthy schedule; an engaging, personalized, and rigorous curriculum; and a caring climate, this book is an invaluable resource for school leaders, teachers, parents, and students to help them design learning communities where every student feels a sense of belonging, purpose, and motivation to learn the skills necessary to succeed now and in the future.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “Finally, a book about education and student well-being that is both research-based and eminently readable. With all the worry about student stress and academic engagement, Pope, Brown and Miles gently remind us that there is much we already know about how to create better schools and healthier kids. Citing evidence-based ‘best practices’ gleaned from years of work with schools across the country, they show us what is not working, but more importantly, what we need to do to fix things. Filled with practical suggestions and exercises that can be implemented easily, as well as advice on how to approach long-term change, Overloaded and Underprepared is a clear and compelling roadmap for teachers, school administrators and parents who believe that we owe our children a better education.” —Madeline Levine, co-founder Challenge Success; author of The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children Well “This new book from the leaders behind Challenge Success provides a thorough and balanced exploration of the structural challenges facing students, parents, educators, and administrators in our primary and secondary schools today. The authors’ unique approach of sharing proven strategies that enable students to thrive, while recognizing that the most effective solutions are tailored on a school-by-school basis, makes for a valuable handbook for anyone seeking to better understand the many complex dimensions at work in a successful learning environment.” —John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University