School Wellness Wheel: A Framework Addressing Trauma, Culture, and Mastery to Raise Student Achievement

Your school can evolve to address trauma, promote well-being, and elevate learning. The School Wellness Wheel by Mike Ruyle, Libby Child, and Nancy Dome will show you how. Backed by educational, psychological, and medical research, the resource introduces a growth-focused framework for supporting students' cognitive, social, and emotional needs. Each chapter contains vignettes, examples, and advice from educators who are actively engaged in transforming their schools into centers of healing and resilience.

• Learn how to develop resilience-centered schools that promote healing and higher levels of wellness and learning.
• Discover and grow the three components of the school wellness wheel: (1) mastery-based learning, (2) trauma-responsive schooling, and (3) culturally responsive teaching.
• Acquire research-based practices to foster a culture of mastery and ownership and build positive teacher-student relationships.
• Understand the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences on students' cognitive, social, and emotional growth.
• Study how an educator's self-regulation is related to students' self-regulation.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: The School Wellness Wheel and Culture
Chapter 2: Culture of Adult Ownership, Expertise, and Professionalism
Chapter 3: Culture of Mastery
Chapter 4: Culture of Learning
Chapter 5: Culture of Connection
Chapter 6: Culture of Empowerment
Chapter 7: Culture of Humanity
References and Resources
Index

Mike Ruyle, EdD, has served as a classroom teacher, athletic coach, school principal, alternative program director, university professor, and educational advisor for over thirty years. He led the creation and implementation of personalized, competency-based schools in Montana and California, and is a recognized authority in the areas of assessment practice, mindfulness in classrooms, social justice, and healing-centered schooling. Mike's leadership experience and dynamic presentation style have made him a sought-after national and international speaker for numerous schools, districts, state agencies, and conferences.

Mike is the author of the book Leading the Evolution: How to Make Personalized Competency-Based Education a Reality, as well as a coauthor of Cultivating Mindfulness in the Classroom, The New Art and Science of Classroom Assessment, and Professional Learning Communities at Work and High Reliability Schools: Cultures of Continuous Learning.

Mike earned bachelor’s degrees in history and English from the University of San Francisco, as well as master's and doctoral degrees in educational leadership from Montana State University. To learn more about Mike's work, follow @MikeRuyle on Twitter.

Libby Child has spent over twenty-seven years in education, as a high school special education teacher, a special education program coordinator, and an educational advisor for the Montana Office of Public Instruction in the areas of inclusive education, secondary transition practices for students with special needs, paraeducator development, and co-teaching. Her career has been deeply rooted in the belief that every student deserves an education with dignity and the best possible opportunity to learn and achieve at his or her greatest capacity.

Libby holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from Carroll College and a master's degree in educational leadership from Montana State University.

Nancy Dome, EdD, has been supporting children to overcome institutional and systemic barriers and developing educators for over twenty years. Starting her career as a child care worker, she has worked through the ranks as a classroom teacher, teacher leader, college professor, and cofounder of Epoch Education.

Nancy provides current, accessible, and transformational professional development for educators and students on the topics of equity, critical race theory, and culturally relevant teaching and learning to support the development of the necessary cultural competencies needed to effectively respond to our ever-diversifying world. She also co-created the RIR protocol, which provides concrete steps to practice interrupting dysfunctional systems and negative behavior through compassionate dialogue using the steps of recognize it, interrupt it, and repair it. Nancy earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in curriculum and instruction at United States International University, and her doctorate in technology and learning at Alliant International University.