Life Skills

Randy Ross has over 50 years of experience as a writer, teacher, administrator, coach, and facilitator of dialogue and professional learning. She has worked with community, school, district, and state education leaders for nearly 30 years.

Erica Battle, an education expert with Life Changes in Progress Educational Consulting, has supported thousands of educators nationwide. She has held various roles in education, such as classroom teacher, instructional specialist, teacher mentor, and director of response to intervention, specializing in literacy.

Mark Anthony Gooden, PhD, is a Christian Johnson Endeavor professor of education leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Gooden has spent over two decades in higher education developing and teaching courses in culturally responsive leadership, race, law, and research methods.

Dr. Dawn Brooks DeCosta, EdD, is a distinguished educator and leader, currently serving as the deputy superintendent for Harlem Community School District 5. She is a renowned advocate for culturally responsive teaching and social-emotional learning.

Engage your students in monitoring, understanding, and improving their behavior using the Tools Not Rules® (TNR) approach. By limiting isolation, shame, and judgment from the choices students make, this approach allows students to honestly assess and effectively regulate their behaviors. With helpful strategies and thoughtful language, teachers using TNR can create a welcoming and encouraging environment for students to learn, improve, and excel.

Does your school community discuss student success but overlook student wellness and belonging? Resilient has the answer. With practical tools and a flexible framework, educators can change their environment and teaching practices to better support students’ social, emotional, and mental health.

Equipped with 25 essential practices, educators can use this guide to reinvigorate their ELA classrooms. These strategies cultivate engagement and independent learning, helping students strengthen literary analysis of texts, pursue inquiries, and cultivate their voice as readers and writers.

Discover how to use research-based mindfulness practices to help improve your students’ social and emotional wellness as they learn and grow.

Designed as a guide to school reform, this resource outlines a series of ten small-scale changes powerful enough to make a lasting impact. Promote K–12 student growth through research-based instructional strategies, performance-based assessments, and social-emotional learning (SEL).

Tracey A. Hulen is an elementary and middle school mathematics and SEL specialist who has experience leading two professional learning communities in Fairfax County, Virginia, to Model PLC status.