Teaching the Whole Teen

Rachel Poliner is an educational consultant specializing in whole student approaches and change management. Her work has focused on school climate, instructional, and structural reforms: K-12 social and emotional learning, middle and high school advisory programs, high school redesign, and improving faculty climate. Her in-depth approach spans classroom and school-wide structures, practices and programs, curriculum, staff development, district policies and systems, and coaching administrators, teams and teacher leaders. She is an author of The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools, and curricula, chapters, and articles on personalization, social-emotional learning, resiliency, dialogue, and conflict resolution. Poliner has consulted with public and independent schools in New England and across the U.S.; has been a teacher, educational organization director, and a faculty member for master’s degree candidates in conflict resolution education and peaceable schools.Rachel Poliner can be contacted at RachelPoliner@LeadersAndLearners.orgJeffrey Benson has worked in almost every school context in over forty years of experience in the field of education: as a teacher in elementary, middle, and high schools; as an instructor in undergraduate and graduate programs; as an administrator in day and residential schools. He has studied and worked side by side with national leaders in the fields of special education, learning theory, trauma and addiction, school reform, adult development, and conflict resolution. He has been a consultant to public and independent schools, mentored teachers and principals in varied school settings, and has written on many school-based issues. He is the author of Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most, and 10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools. The core of Jeffrey Benson’s work is in understanding how people learn, the starting point for everything that schools should do.Jeffrey Benson can be contacted at JeffreyBenson@LeadersAndLearners.org

• AcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorsIntroductionPart I. Seeing the Whole TeenChapter 1. The Whole Teen Comes Into the SchoolChapter 2. The Whole Teen Comes Into a Dominant CulturePart II. Everyday PracticesChapter 3. Connecting to Adults and Peers, Not Just to AcademicsChapter 4. Creating a Culture of Shared Responsibility, Not Just ObeyingChapter 5. Learning Collaboratively, Not Just NearbyChapter 6. Communicating Effectively, Not Just Mumbling, Exploding, Avoiding, or TextingChapter 7. Managing Work and Developing a Work Ethic, Not Just Passing or CrammingChapter 8. Developing Emotional Skillfulness Proactively, Not Just ReactivelyChapter 9. Becoming More Independent, Not Just AloneChapter 10. Connecting Lessons to Life, Not Just to TestsPart III. The Whole School Surrounds the Whole TeenChapter 11. Leaders Set the Tone for Themselves and OthersChapter 12. Schoolwide Structures, Practices, and Policies That Support the Whole TeenChapter 13. Faculty Culture That Supports the Whole TeenChapter 14. The Novice Teacher Comes Into the SchoolAppendix: Formats and Facilitation ToolsReferencesIndex

"Teaching the Whole Teen is an insightful, hopeful, and very practical resource for teachers, parents and schools. The book stays rooted in the day-to-day practice of teaching the whole teen, and it articulates in very doable ways suggestions for how to better support teenagers in their development. It’s accessible, inspiring, and a valuable read for all educators."