The Decisive Element

Foreword by Jaz Ampaw-Farr. Forget data. Forget league tables. Forget the national curriculum. Teachers are the true weather gods in education. The default outlook in schools at present, however, seems to be 'gloom'. Our schools' staff are under relentless pressure, and their ever-increasing workloads can make it easy to forget about the humans they work with. So what can teachers do to bring back the sunny weather and make pupils' school lives more joyous? Gary, Mick and Chris believe that the answer lies in harnessing the power of praise and positivity. In The Decisive Element they offer an uplifting antidote to the anxiety by sharing praise focused techniques that will help teachers and school leaders create an ethos of enthusiasm: one that reduces stress, fuels ambition and builds confidence for staff and pupils alike. Crammed full of sound research, fresh ideas and top tips, this manifesto for positive mindsets celebrates the value of meaningful, impactful praise and shines a light on the myriad ways positivity can be unleashed to spark pupils' motivation and natural curiosity for learning. The book draws upon the authors' vast experience and anecdotal insights to provide sage guidance on how to create a self-sustaining positive climate for learning, and contains a wealth of practical strategies to ramp up the feel-good factor in the school setting so that staff and pupils can feed off each other's enthusiasm. It also flips the script on the stresses and strains of modern schooling by offering a more light-hearted perspective on teachers' and pupils' day-to-day interactions encouraging school staff to be proud of what they do and empowering them to make an even bigger difference in the lives of the young people in their care. Suitable for anyone lucky enough to work in education or with children. The quoted text on the cover of this title has been extracted from Ginott, H. (1972), Teacher and Child: A Book for parents and teachers (NY: Macmillan), p. 15. The Decisive Element has been named the Bronze Winner in the education category of the 2018 INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

Teacher and child psychologist Haim Ginott came to the 'frightening conclusion' that it was he, as the teacher, who was the decisive element in the classroom: 'It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.' The default setting in British education seems to be 'gloom'. Schools are under relentless pressure and the data-driven league table culture means that we often forget about the humans we work wil. So what can teachers do to make pupils' school lives more joyous? Toward, Malton and Henley believe that the answer lies in harnessing the tools of praise and positivity so that the school setting becomes an environment in which all can thrive - from pupils to cleaners, and from head teacher to teaching assistants.

In this exciting and thought-provoking book, military historian Geoffrey Regan has selected fifty of the most decisive battles of world history. As the author explains, the decisiveness of these battles lies not only in the completeness of victory or defeat for either side, but also in the longer-term impact they have had on the course of history. The scope of the book is majestic. It starts with Salamis, where the Greeks put an end to Persian attempts to overwhelm their country. Other battles of the Ancient World include Zama, where Carthaginian power was finally crushed; Actium, which ushered in the Rome of the emperors; and Adrianople, which first demonstrated the potential of the mounted warrior to defeat the legions of Rome. Moving onto the Medieval World, famous battlessuch as Hastings and the fall of Constantinople - are set beside less well-known but equally crucial encounters such as Lechfeld and Ain Jalut. Then there are the great conflicts of the colonial age, from Plassey to Quebec, and battles such as Saratoga and Sedan that witnessed the birth of nations. From the present century, key engagements of the World Wars - including the Marne, Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad - are featured, as are more recent conflicts whose reverberations are still very much with us - Dien Bien Phu, the Six Days War, and Operation Desert Storm. Geoffrey Regan not only examines the strategic context and long-term outcome of each battle, but also vividly brings to life the course of the fighting, the commanders and participants, and the significance of innovations in weaponry. Numerous maps help to explain tactics and strategy, while the many illustrations add a further dramatic dimension to this stimulating book.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

"In the 1990s, Yugoslavia, which had once been a role model for development, became a symbol for state collapse, external intervention and post-war reconstruction. Today the region has two international protectorates, contested states and borders, severe ethnic polarisation and minority concerns. In this first in-depth critical analysis of international administration, aid and reconstruction policies in Kosovo, Jens Stilhoff Sorensen argues that the region must be analysed as a whole, and that the process of state collapse and recent changes in aid policy must be interpreted in connection to the wider transformation of the global political economy and world order. He examines the shifting inter- and intracommunity relations, the emergence of a 'political economy' of conflict, and of informal clientelist arrangements in Serbia and Kosovo and provides a framework for interpreting the collapse of the Yugoslav state, the emergence of ethnic conflict and shadow economies, and the character of western aid and intervention. Western governments and agencies have built policies on conceptions and assumptions for which there is no genuine historical or contemporary economic, social or political basis in the region. As the author persuasively argues, this discrepancy has exacerbated and cemented problems in the region and provided further complications that are likely to remain for years to come." -- Back cover.

The manual describes the general strategy for the U.S. Marines but it is beneficial for not only every Marine to read but concepts on leadership can be gathered to lead a business to a family. If you want to see what make Marines so effective this book is a good place to start.

This volume brings together key findings of the long-term research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ (Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University). Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in different religious environments and historical periods, in particular in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past. Contrary to standard theories of modernisation, which tend to regard religious individualisation as a specifically modern or early modern as well as an essentially Western or Christian phenomenon, the chapters reveal processes of religious individualisation in a large variety of non-Western and pre-modern scenarios. Furthermore, the volume challenges prevalent views that regard religions primarily as collective phenomena and provides nuanced perspectives on the appropriation of religious agency, the pluralisation of religious options, dynamics of de-traditionalisation and privatisation, the development of elaborated notions of the self, the facilitation of religious deviance, and on the notion of dividuality.