The Flourishing Principal

The Flourishing Principal
Author: Kathleen Adams
Publisher: R&L Education
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2013-06-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1475802978

The work of a school principal is a blend of nonstop demands, heart-opening connections, near-constant stress, passionate commitment, and a merry jumble of projects that flop or flourish. It’s easy to forget that the principal’s own health and harmony are among the things that also need attention. In this innovative workbook, you’ll be expertly guided through The Flourishing Principals. Eight strengths-based, solution-focused strategies for self-renewal are designed to support principals like you. You’ll connect with core values, find and sustain healthy balance, acknowledge current reality, and set clear intentions. You’ll rediscover innate creativity, refresh healthy communication skills, focus on self-care, and call upon guiding wisdom. You’ll flourish! More than 70 well-crafted writing prompts guide you to self-renewal. Each is illustrated with the voice of a flourishing principal who has embodied these strategies. A facilitator’s guide featuring a step-by-step curriculum prepares you to lead a writing group with peers.

Perspectives on Flourishing in Schools

Perspectives on Flourishing in Schools
Author: Sabre Cherkowski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2018-08-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1498579434

This book provides perspectives and insights across the educational system for how we might move toward living out this wish in all schools. The chapters provide perspectives on fundamental questions that have been guiding recent research on wellbeing in schools: How do school communities flourish together? How does supporting educator wellbeing connect to teaching, learning, leading in schools? What characteristics, qualities and strategies support the wellbeing of the whole school community? This book is unique in that it answers these questions from the perspectives of teachers, students, administrators in K-12 schools, as well as from university and the wider community. Importantly, these chapters provide a repertoire of varied answers to the question that underpins this shift in research toward a positive organizational perspective: How can we leverage what works well to grow more, to instill in each community member a sense of their value and capacity to contribute? These chapters serve as examples, invitations, and inspiration for readers to notice in their own contexts ways they can grow wellbeing through a focused attention on building appreciative, strengths-based, positive approaches to teaching, learning, and leading in all schools.

The Flourishing Teacher

The Flourishing Teacher
Author: Christina Bieber Lake
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0830853944

Drawing on more than twenty years of teaching experience, Christina Bieber Lake helps you rediscover your passion for the teaching profession. Creatively structured around the typical rhythms of the academic calendar, this book offers refreshing and practiced advice about how to flourish in the midst of the teaching life.

Flourishing in Ministry

Flourishing in Ministry
Author: Matt Bloom
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2019-10-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1538118971

Pastoral work can be stressful, tough, demanding, sometimes misunderstood, and often underappreciated and underpaid. Ministers devote themselves to caring for their congregations, often at the expense of caring for themselves. Studies consistently show that physical health among clergy is significantly worse than among adults who are not in ministry. Flourishing in Ministry offers clergy and those who support them practical advice for not just surviving this grueling profession, but thriving in it. Matt Bloom, director of the Flourishing in Ministry project, shares groundbreaking research from more than a decade of study. Flourishing in Ministry project draws on more than five thousand surveys and three hundred in-depth interviews with clergy across denominations, ages, races, genders, and years of practice in ministry. It distills this deep research into easily understandable stages of flourishing that can be practiced at any stage in ministry or ministry formation.

Mathematics for Human Flourishing

Mathematics for Human Flourishing
Author: Francis Su
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0300237138

"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.

Positive Leadership for Flourishing Schools

Positive Leadership for Flourishing Schools
Author: Keith Douglas Walker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2021
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781648023859

Most educators will agree that they would love to see each student and staff member in schools flourish. Furthermore, it would be great to see entire communities experience the transformative power of circumstances that feature happy and vibrant learning. However, what does it mean to experience flourishing in schools? What is the role of positive leadership in this process? What can we learn from inquiring into the positive emotional and social aspects of the work of school leaders? Building on our research on flourishing in schools, this book highlights the stories and perspectives of educators and school leaders at all levels of the school system and demonstrate the intricacies of how positive leadership contributes to well-being in schools and encourages flourishing in these schools. This book aligns with a growing shift in psychology and organizational studies to frame research using phenomena and constructs such as resilience, compassion, hope, efficacy, self-determination and meaningfulness at work and in other areas of life. Research findings from the disciplines of both positive psychology and positive organization studies bring these positive research intelligences into the field of education to study what works in school leadership practices, what goes well, what supports growth, and what brings vitality to people in school organizations. Research in positive psychology contends that attending to the strengths, positive outlooks, habits and mental models, as opposed to a deficit-oriented perspective, is beneficial to increasing subjective well-being, by increasing resilience, vitality, and happiness and decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression. How we imagine leading, teaching and learning in schools are implicated in these understandings and help us to contemplate the benefits of focus positive leadership in school organizations. Powerful insights into human inquiry and positive psychology are gained through qualitative study and most of the chapters of this book are grounded in such research. Importantly, chapters in this book provide a varied repertoire of answers to the question that underpins this shift in research toward a positive organizational perspective: How does positive leadership leverage what works well to instill in each community member a sense of their value and capacity to contribute, encourage wellbeing for all and create school contexts of flourishing? This edited collection provides many examples, invitations, and inspiration for readers to notice in their own contexts in ways that encourage them to shift and grow through moving toward appreciative, strengths-based, positive approaches to teaching, learning, and, especially, leading in all school contexts.

Inside the Schoolhouse

Inside the Schoolhouse
Author: John Gratto
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2021-05-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1475855699

The issues addressed in this easy to read book address the most common issues faced by new or veteran principals such as: attributes of successful principals, leading instructional improvement, crafting a school improvement plan, overcoming resistance from naysayers, leading effective teams, creating conditions for the success of teachers, motivating unmotivated staff, increasing the attendance of students, handling disciplinary issues to help students become self-managed, communication strategies to build respect for the school, maximizing the use of time, and handling conflict productively. It also contains a chapter entitled, “Friendly Advice” with prudent advice for school leaders in any stage of their career. The proven strategies in each chapter are based upon bedrock principles—unassailable values that will help principals ground their actions in student-centered, achievement-oriented, relationship-filled leadership. In short, Inside the Schoolhouse is a compendium of dozens of practical, proven strategies to enable principals to flourish in their highly important roles.

Leadership for Flourishing in Educational Contexts

Leadership for Flourishing in Educational Contexts
Author: Benjamin Kutsyuruba
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2021-12-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1773382853

Featuring voices from academics, practitioners, school system leaders, school administrators, and graduate students from across Canada and abroad, this unique edited collection offers conceptual discussions and empirical examples of leadership for flourishing in a variety of educational contexts. This volume affirms that by fostering positive leadership, striving for well-being, and encouraging flourishing for all, significant benefits and new potentials will be felt throughout the learning communities. Grounded in theoretical approaches of positive leadership, positive psychology, and positive organizational scholarship, the accounts from K–12, post-secondary, and professional contexts explore the impacts and influences of leadership at all levels of education. Editors and chapter authors describe their research findings and first-hand experiences of supporting educators and school leaders in learning how to grow their agentic role for fostering well-being among all members of the community. The book is divided into three sections: stories of school-level flourishing, stories of personal professional flourishing, and stories of the impacts and influences of positive leadership in various educational contexts. Engaging and practical, this book encourages readers to reflect on the topics through discussion questions and to apply the learning to their own educational and organizational settings. This positively oriented volume will be invaluable for students of educational leadership, education administration, and organizational studies in education, in North America and beyond. FEATURES: - Chapters include pedagogical features such as concluding thoughts and discussion questions that bridge K–12 and higher education and reflect on education as a whole - Offers an approach to educational leadership that emphasizes the well-being of both educators and students - Features the voices of academics and school leaders from across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia

Flourishing in the Early Years

Flourishing in the Early Years
Author: Zenna Kingdon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2016-12-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317555058

If young children are to flourish and become happy, confident and motivated learners, they need to develop in an environment that gives them the opportunities and freedom to play and learn, along with the support of parents and practitioners who are flourishing themselves. This invaluable text looks at the conditions that enable all those engaged in the early years sector to flourish, covering themes such as the outdoor environment, the curriculum, parent partnership, equality and ethical practice. Divided into three sections, each part covers: Concepts: A consideration of how flourishing is framed by political, historical and policy frameworks. Practices: Exploring the issues that early years practitioners are faced with when engaging with parents and multi-agent professionals within their setting. Futures: Examining some of the long-term issues that may need to be revisited on a regular basis to enable continual and flourishing development to occur. With key points and reflective tasks, this book will be valuable reading to all students and practitioners working in the early childhood education and care sector who want to ensure that the children in their care are given the best possible start in life.

Growing and Flourishing

Growing and Flourishing
Author: Stephen Spencer
Publisher: SCM Press
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2019-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0334057345

What is genuine church growth? Is it, at heart, the numerical growth of regular congregations or are there other dimensions and, if so, what are they? How can we learn from other contexts in order to properly inform our understanding of what we mean by church growth? Mara is one of the most marginalised regions in Tanzania, which in turn is a country in the most marginalised continent on the planet, and yet, Spencer argues, the church in the region has exhibited remarkable growth. Looking beyond the usual dimensions of church growth discourse, Stephen Spencer weaves in his own experience in Tanzania, finding in that wholly different context an approach to church growth which might entirely change the discourse in the global north.