Introduction to Teaching: Helping Students Learn provides students and instructors with the tools with which they can achieve the many goals of today's Introduction to Education course or its equivalent. The book introduces prospective teachers to the dynamic world of teaching and learning and to the realities of the classroom experience by providing engaging student-focused activities, rich real-life examples, and thoughtful reflective exercises that will encourage students to think critically and to develop their own ideas and personal philosophy of education. This active learning approach enables prospective teachers to develop both a knowledge core about education and the critical tools they will need to meet the challenges they will face as educators in today's fast-paced, highly connected society. By exposing students to the realities of teaching, the book will help students decide if teaching is the right career for them. This text is built around two themes that are central to an exploration of the professional education field: student learning and diverse voices. As students consider a teaching career, it is important that they not lose sight of what is the most fundamental goal of education-to help students learn. The text will encourage students to examine each aspect of education as it relates to student learning. Additionally, as students explore the possibilities in being a teacher, they will begin to develop their own philosophy of education. This text will provide the prospective teacher with opportunities to explore multiple perspectives on a variety of issues of importance to today's teachers, and encourage the reader to develop his or her own personal voice as an educator and to make that voice heard in the educational community.

Critical Service Learning Toolkit offers a strengths-based, interdisciplinary approach to promoting social competence while enhancing emotional and academic skill development. Designed as a user-friendly guide to carrying out successful CSL projects, this Toolkit provides practitioners with step-by-step assistance in planning, implementing, and evaluating Critical Service Learning (CSL) projects in elementary and high schools. CSL trains youth to become active and conscientious citizens through engagement and leadership experiences that meet real needs in the community. This approach is unique in that it places the youth/student at the center of the process. Prioritizing social and emotional learning (SEL) and school engagement, CSL changes the role of the school-based, counseling professional into that of a facilitator who encourages skill-building, reflection, and civic engagement. Cultivating self-awareness, social-consciousness, and critical-thinking skills, brainstorming and community web mapping activities serve as the cornerstone of CSL and allow youth to become comfortable articulating concerns about their communities. By extending learning beyond the classroom and into the community, CSL enhances what is taught throughout the school curriculum, at all levels, and fosters a sense of civic responsibility and social agency.