You've Got to Reach Them to Teach Them: Hard Facts about the Soft Skills of Student Engagement

Navigate the hot topic of student engagement with a true expert. The author explores the many factors involved in bringing out the best in students, such as relationships, emotions, environment, and expectations. Become empowered to demand an authentic joy for learning in your classroom. Real-life notes from the field, detailed discussions, practical strategies, and space for reflection complete this essential guide to student engagement.

Benefits:

• Gain practical strategies for increasing student engagement and achievement.
• Learn how to create a safe environment that nurtures confidence.
• Find a chapter on cultural awareness by Dr. Bonnie Davis of Educating for Change.

Contents:
Introduction: Engagement
Chapter 1: Relationships
Chapter 2: Emotion
Chapter 3: Environment
Chapter 4: Motivation
Chapter 5: Fun
Chapter 6: Confidence
Chapter 7: Attitudes
Chapter 8: Cultural Awareness
Chapter 9: Expectations
Chapter 10: The Engagement Toolbox
Chapter 11: Creativity
Chapter 12: Soft Skills

Mary Kim Schreck is a consultant, coach, and author. She serves as an education consultant for districts across America as well as for the National Writing Project and the National Education Association. Mary Kim also works as a cadre member for Dr. Bonnie Davis Educating for Change. She has published a professional development book, Transformers: Creative Teachers for the 21st Century (2009), and four books of poetry. She has served as editor of Missouri Teachers Write and written articles for national and state education journals. During her thirty-six years as a classroom teacher, Mary Kim taught in a variety of settings. She taught at an all-girls private academy, a small 270-student rural school that served grades 6 through 12, and a public school of over 4,000 students in three grades on a split-shift schedule. She also spent years tutoring for the St. Louis (Missouri) Special School District. She later taught classes at Brown s Business College and served as a literacy coach at Vashon High School, an inner-city school in St. Louis. Most of her teaching career was spent in the Francis Howell School District in St. Charles County, Missouri, a rural school district that was forced to transform into a suburban district within a few years. Mary Kim has taught hundreds of teachers through various workshops, presentations, and consulting opportunities. She has been an instructor for the Literacy Academies, a partnership program between the Missouri National Writing Project and the Missouri state department of education, and for the Beginning Teachers Assistance Program offered through the Missouri National Education Association. Mary Kim lives with her husband, Bernard, at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.