Many students arrive at school with unique mixtures of family histories, traumatic experiences, and special needs that test our skills and try our patience. In Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most, veteran educator Jeffrey Benson shows educators the value of tenacity and building connections in teaching the students who most need our help. This essential guide includes Detailed portraits based on real-life students whose serious challenges inhibited their classroom experience-and how they eventually achieved success. Strategies for how to analyze students' challenges and develop individualized plans to help them discover a sense of comfort with learning-with in-depth examples of plans in action. Recommendations for teachers and support team on how to gain skills and support and not lose hope through the ups and downs of the work. Specific advice for administrators on constructing systems and procedures that give all our students the best chance for success. Just as teaching the students who challenge us is among our most frustrating experiences as educators, sticking with students until they finally ""get it"" is among our most rewarding. In Hanging In, you'll find the inspiration and field-tested ideas necessary to create a patient and supportive environment for even the most demanding cases in the classroom.

"Good lesson plans have an almost mysterious power; they declare that all information can be interesting, that every skill acquired broadens our potentials to make a better world, and that all impassioned activity leads to learning. Our best teachers have shown us over and over that life is not a struggle against boredom and compliance; it is a wonder to be apprehended. Every bit of SEL you can integrate into your planning will not only begin to heal the wounds of passivity, racism, and inequity, but also give students an experience today, in your classroom, of that better world." Jeffrey Benson draws from his 40-plus years of experience as a teacher and an administrator to provide explicit, step-by-step guidance on how to incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) into K-12 lesson planning-without imposing a separate SEL curriculum. The book identifies SEL skills in three broad categories: skills for self, interpersonal skills, and skills as a community member. It offers research-based strategies for seamlessly integrating these skills into every section of lesson plans, from introducing a topic in a way that sparks students' interest, to accessing prior knowledge, providing direct instruction, allowing time for experimentation and discovery, using formative assessment, and closing a lesson in a purposeful rather than haphazard manner. In addition to practical advice on lesson planning that can lead to improved student motivation and achievement, Benson offers inspiration, urging both new and veteran teachers to seize every opportunity to develop caring, joyful communities of learners whose experiences and skills can contribute to a better, more equitable world both inside and outside the classroom.

Following on from Jeffrey Benson's first volume of travel diaries, One More for the Road, comes a second instalment, as one of the food and drink world's intrepid voyagers continues on his way. No Half Measures whisks the reader to the luxury resorts of the Indian Ocean, tasting cutting-edge cuisine and fine wines on five continents, and celebrates all the cultural diversity the world still has to offer.As before, Benson gives us both barrels of modern travel experience, the vintage and the vin ordinaire, the sublime and the ridiculous, in generous and richly evocative accounts of journeys among family and friends, wine students and superstar chefs. There are glorious gastronomic moments and glimpses of the splendour of the natural world, as well as comic interludes and the odd despairing grumble, all in the company of our witty and humane chaperone.Fasten your seat-belts: it's going to be a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

This book offers an overview of resilience, draws on connections to diverse schools, and includes explorations and examples from everyday classroom practices that will improve teaching and learning while fostering resilience. By practising the methods covered in this book the authors have seen increased attendance, graduation, and teacher retention rates as well as decreased discipline and special education referrals.

Whether they're the result of a mandate from on high, a crisis that needs addressing, or simply a desire for improvement, change initiatives are a constant in most every school. In this book, veteran teacher, administrator, and consultant Jeffrey Benson provides educators with a proven, practical, and broadly applicable system for implementing new practices methodically and effectively. Topics include: Identifying and communicating a clear and understandable vision of change. Ensuring that all voices in the school are heard and respected during the change process. Thoroughly and thoughtfully collecting, classifying, and analyzing data related to the change initiative. Delegating responsibilities among staff and stakeholders. Replete with checklists, surveys, and worksheets, 10 Steps to Managing Change in Schools is a practical guide for educators determined to seamlessly weave new practices or procedures into the fabric of the school.

Following on from Jeffrey Benson's first volume of travel diaries, One More for the Road, comes a second instalment, as one of the food and drink world's intrepid voyagers continues on his way. No Half Measures whisks the reader to the luxury resorts of the Indian Ocean, tasting cutting-edge cuisine and fine wines on five continents, and celebrates all the cultural diversity the world still has to offer. As before, Benson gives us both barrels of modern travel experience, the vintage and the vin ordinaire, the sublime and the ridiculous, in generous and richly evocative accounts of journeys among family and friends, wine students and superstar chefs. There are glorious gastronomic moments and glimpses of the splendour of the natural world, as well as comic interludes and the odd despairing grumble, all in the company of our witty and humane chaperone. Fasten your seat-belts: it's going to be a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

The O'Rooneys are a family of field mice who live happily in an old biscuit tin, in a place they know as the Wilderness. Here they are free to play, safe from harm. Or so they think. Pugnacious the cat is on the prowl and has the youngest mouse, Rooney O'Rooney, in his sights! Join Rooney on his adventure as he searches for his lost family. Can Avortit, the wisest creature in the Wilderness, and his friends help Rooney find his way home?

At last - a wine writer who makes us laugh One More for the Road sounds like a hedonist's odyssey through the best restaurants, wineries and resorts of the world, and in many ways Jeffrey Benson's diarised globetrotting is exactly that - but how entertaining he makes it all Here is a handbook for the upmarket traveller - where to go, where to avoid, airlines, upgrades, the best seats, the best hotels, the best massage... and of course the best wines to go with the food on offer. Not that Mr Benson is sniffy about spirits and beer; he gives first rate advice on both (he was Executive Traveller of the Year in 1998). After a Lucullan repast on the Loire (Au Plaisir Gourmand) the author remarks that all his best meals have been taken on his own - quel dommage Not even Evelyn Waugh's extravagant descriptions of food in Brideshead Revisited rival this excellent writing, and Mr Benson's witty asides - notably to a teenage Japanese girl in Tokyo - are likewise unforgettable. Every continent is visited in an apparently hectic schedule of flying/lecturing/training staff/tasting - and in one resort 'nosing'. We are reminded that snake and rat are par for the course in Vietnam, and that a Bangkok 'Sandwich' is not something you have with Branston Pickle. And we share with the author some of the best food and wine on earth.