Providing individual and group counseling for secondary school students was once a major priority for secondary school counselors. However, many guidance programs have abandoned this role, and counselors have become quasi-administrators who spend most of their time scheduling students for classes, managing mandated testing programs, resolving discipline issues, and advising students on college admissions. Counseling students on personal and well-being issues takes up a very small part of the time. In many school districts, social workers, student assistance counselors, and school psychologists have taken over the counseling duties. Critical issues are now causing school leaders to consider reorganizing school guidance staff so there is a cadre of counselors trained and charged with the mission of providing individual and group counseling for troubled teens. First, the number of troubled teens arriving at the schoolhouse door looking for help has exploded. Second, budget cuts have eliminated or drastically curtailed many of the services of social workers, student assistance counselors, and psychologists. The result? Many once open doors for help are now closed, and schools' counseling services are failing many students, parents, and educators in need of intervention. This book provides a new model in which well-trained counselors can once again regain their historic role in counseling troubled teens, parents, and training staff and students on the front lines to act -- not look the other way -- when they observe a student heading towards the margins of school life.

With budget cuts looming every year, administrators and union leaders find themselves in a never-ending game of promoting how good their school is and why budget cuts will derail their ongoing success. The vehicle they choose for this ongoing self-promotion is what William Fibkins calls the "dazzle" approach, which focuses only on "good news." Overtime administrators and staff often come to believe the positive reviews of the good news process and overlook or abandon those students who don't make good news but instead act out, fail, cause trouble and give the school a bad name. These are the "bad news" kids, and their lives are not newsworthy. This book is about the unintended consequences that can occur when the "good news" process becomes heavily embedded in school life -- a process that creates two different worlds in a school community that often prides itself on fostering unity and belonging. The school media promotions may say "All is well here," but this positive spin belies the divisions that breed isolation and estrangement for both the "good news" and "bad news" kids, which gives rise to class warfare in the school community. In a culture in which some students are valued as more worthy than others, being a more worthy student can have a serious downside that is as risky as being an unworthy student. This book explores these often hidden consequences and what school and community leaders need to do to right this sinking ship - a ship that seems sturdy and well-built to onlookers but is abusing its crew to keep afloat. Some schools operate on a system which uses high achieving students as a commodity to pass school budgets and downplays the cries of troubled students to be included in "their" school. Good news gets headlines while bad news is shifted to the back page or left out, resulting in an "all is well, problem-free" picture of the school.

We know teenagers face many developmental issues as they navigate their path into adult life. They sometimes find themselves heading towards the margins of school life because of academic failure, poor peer relations, acting out behaviors, school and home pressures. Problems that often lead to risky behaviors behavior with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco addictions that in the end only complicate their young lives and offer them little relief. They need help, support, and guidance from caring and experienced adults who can help them redirect their lives. However " help" as it is organized in our large high schools, junior high schools, and middle schools is usually centered on a few overworked guidance counselors, social workers, and school psychologist who are increasingly finding themselves losing staff due to budget cuts. As a result school communities find themselves in a no-win situation in which the needs and problems of teenagers are the rise while the core of designated helpers in the school organization is being decimated or forced to abandon their helping and counseling role to take on administrative duties because of cuts in the administrative staff. This we know It is the new reality in our secondary schools. However there is a glimmer of hope in this dire scenario. It has given rise to the need for caring and experienced teachers to be given the green light to open their doors to kids in need. No, as any wise educator knows ,this is not a new role for teachers who see their role as not only an academic teacher but a personal adviser as well. They are what I call " angel teachers." Educators who care about kids well being. One can find these angel teachers in most secondary schools. They carry on their intervention with students in a quiet, trusting, private manner with little interest in notoriety or stardom. In fact that's why kids in need are attracted to them and lineup outside their door. Kids know these caring teachers can deliver the kind of help they need. Their savvy and know the drill of how help works for kids in need. But the valuable helping role of these angel teachers has often gone unheralded because the designated helpers in the school have been anointed, with that role. But today's circumstances call for change if our schools are to meet the need personal and well being needs of their students. We need to examine the role of these angel teachers and make the case that they are now needed to take a primary role in the schools intervention efforts. This book will explore how they arrive at this role, their skills, how they help kids and how they avoid becoming saviors, self-promoters, and in the helping process for their own self-esteem

Veteran educators are being encouraged to take early retirement in order to create jobs for less-experienced, lower-paid novices. Veteran educators are not alone: early retirement promotions have become the norm for aging workers in America. Consequently, there is a brain-drain of skilled workers at the national, state, and local levels. The early retirement of our most talented veteran educators is leaving our schools without the necessary leadership, hard-earned experience, proven skills, and wisdom to meet the evolving challenges our country faces. Indeed, there are long-term consequences of losing skilled educators while they are in the prime of their professional lives. Addressing these concerns, this book challenges the good news only" theory of early retirement promotions which suggest that veteran educators are no longer needed as they age and that their retirement is the only way schools can survive financially in times of economic uncertainty. This theory contends that everyone involved gets a reward: the novice educators get jobs and the veterans get some cash. This trade is seemingly no problem, until the veteran educators are out the door and the school staff, students, and parents are left without their steady guiding hands. Instead of hastily luring prime educators out the schoolhouse door with planned buyout promotions, schools should offer our most gifted veteran educators career alternatives that will encourage and reward them to remain on board, thereby allowing them to lead novice and mid-career staff, students, parents, and community members. Examining the negative consequences of early retirement promotions on school culture, administrative leadership, teacher and student performance, community reaction, Stopping the Brain Drain of Skilled Veteran Teachers will not only expose some of the major drawbacks of early buyouts of veteran educators, but will also suggest creative career alternative to keep such teachers on board."

This book address a major gap in the current mentoring programs at the secondary level. Staff development resources are often concentrated on helping new teachers be successful in their early school experience. Yes, a good idea, but a limited vision. Meanwhile many veteran teachers go without the mentoring assistance they need to be effective classroom teachers. While a few become mentors themselves, many veteran teachers just settle, slowly giving up, and become at risk of failure, burnout, and thinking only of retirement. This book is a call to school superintendents, building administrators, department chairs, school board members, union leaders, parent leaders, and teacher educators to address the need to provide ongoing mentoring for all teachers.

This book seeks to educate principals, counselors, teachers, coaches, support staff, and students about sexual misconduct, while providing a training model to prepare school staff to avoid sexual misconduct, to encourage school leaders to upgrade their supervision efforts, and to provide needed outreach and intervention before sexual misconduct occurs. To help eliminate sexual misconduct in schools, this book provides step-by-step training procedures that can be used as part of the schools' staff development program to teach educators about the importance of setting boundaries. Real-life case studies documenting inappropriate teacher-student relationships are included. The major focus of this second edition is to alert educators to the effects of unrelenting school reform efforts, which have become a distraction at best and a barrier at worst to dealing with problems such as sexual misconduct. This book provides a roadmap of what needs to be done to restore each educator's mission to being committed to their students' well-being before it is too late.

This book seeks to educate principals, counselors, teachers, coaches, support staff, and students about sexual misconduct, while providing a training model to prepare school staff to avoid sexual misconduct, to encourage school leaders to upgrade their supervision efforts, and to provide needed outreach and intervention before sexual misconduct occurs. To help eliminate sexual misconduct in schools, this book provides step-by-step training procedures that can be used as part of the schools' staff development program to teach educators about the importance of setting boundaries. Real-life case studies documenting inappropriate teacher-student relationships are included. The major focus of this second edition is to alert educators to the effects of unrelenting school reform efforts, which have become a distraction at best and a barrier at worst to dealing with problems such as sexual misconduct. This book provides a roadmap of what needs to be done to restore each educator's mission to being committed to their students' well-being before it is too late.

The Graveyard of School Reform: Why the Resistance to Change and New Ideas explores the critical role resistance plays in defeating valued programs for students, parents, and staff. It is time for education reformers to face the hard truths about the skilled and destructive forces of resisters and to learn that good ideas and calls for change are not enough. Reformers need to learn how to overcome these entrenched forces and muster new skills with the will to win, courage, and the persistence required. Resistance has been given little attention for far too long considering the huge cost and the loss of programs we desperately need. Fibkins argues that reformers often accept defeat when they should be discovering new ways to win. As an education reformer Fibkins has observed far too many necessary programs meet an untimely death due to the naivety of reformers. By reviewing lessons learned from other failed reforms and analyzing successful reforms, Fibkins new book addresses issues and presents doable models for reformers to succeed and deliver what administrators, staff, parents, students, and community members need to make their schools the best they can be.

There is an epidemic of student obesity in America, and educators are ideally situated to identify, intervene, educate, and support overweight students who are headed for long-term illness or premature death. Such an effort will require changes in the way that schools operate. These changes can be implemented with a low-cost budget and by restructuring staff and resources that are currently in place. Fibkins proposes a Circle of Wellness model for schools that includes an intervention effort to promote a health-oriented cafeteria; increased physical activity; healthy levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar; life-skills training groups offered by counselors; outreach to parents; and easy access and referral to community health, mental health, and recreation resources. Teen Obesity will be of interest to administrators, teachers, and parents. To learn more, visit www.williamfibkins.com.

This book is designed as a nuts and bolts guide for school counselors. Fibkins highlights for secondary school counselors the "how's" and "why's" for using group counseling intervention to help the increasing numbers of troubled teenagers. Group counseling intervention is ideally suited to reach many more students than one-on-one counseling, and it offers busy counselors a positive way to maximize their outreach services. This book contains specific steps in developing a successful group program that comes to the aid of troubled teens and, in the process, helps create a school environment where students can learn, teachers can teach, administrators can lead, and parents can learn how to better help their children.

Providing individual and group counseling for secondary school students was once a major priority for secondary school counselors. However, many guidance programs have abandoned this role, and counselors have become quasi-administrators who spend most of their time scheduling students for classes, managing mandated testing programs, resolving discipline issues, and advising students on college admissions. Counseling students on personal and well-being issues takes up a very small part of the time. In many school districts, social workers, student assistance counselors, and school psychologists have taken over the counseling duties. Critical issues are now causing school leaders to consider reorganizing school guidance staff so there is a cadre of counselors trained and charged with the mission of providing individual and group counseling for troubled teens. First, the number of troubled teens arriving at the schoolhouse door looking for help has exploded. Second, budget cuts have eliminated or drastically curtailed many of the services of social workers, student assistance counselors, and psychologists. The result? Many once open doors for help are now closed, and schools' counseling services are failing many students, parents, and educators in need of intervention. This book provides a new model in which well-trained counselors can once again regain their historic role in counseling troubled teens, parents, and training staff and students on the front lines to act -- not look the other way -- when they observe a student heading towards the margins of school life.

Veteran educators are being encouraged to take early retirement in order to create jobs for less-experienced, lower-paid novices. Veteran educators are not alone: early retirement promotions have become the norm for aging workers in America. Consequently, there is a brain-drain of skilled workers at the national, state, and local levels. The early retirement of our most talented veteran educators is leaving our schools without the necessary leadership, hard-earned experience, proven skills, and wisdom to meet the evolving challenges our country faces. Indeed, there are long-term consequences of losing skilled educators while they are in the prime of their professional lives. Addressing these concerns, this book challenges the "good news only" theory of early retirement promotions which suggest that veteran educators are no longer needed as they age and that their retirement is the only way schools can survive financially in times of economic uncertainty. This theory contends that everyone involved gets a reward: the novice educators get jobs and the veterans get some cash. This trade is seemingly no problem, until the veteran educators are out the door and the school staff, students, and parents are left without their steady guiding hands. Instead of hastily luring prime educators out the schoolhouse door with planned buyout promotions, schools should offer our most gifted veteran educators career alternatives that will encourage and reward them to remain on board, thereby allowing them to lead novice and mid-career staff, students, parents, and community members. Examining the negative consequences of early retirement promotions on school culture, administrative leadership, teacher and student performance, community reaction, Stopping the Brain Drain of Skilled Veteran Teachers will not only expose some of the major drawbacks of early buyouts of veteran educators, but will also suggest creative career alternative to keep such teachers on board.

This book address a major gap in the current mentoring programs at the secondary level. Staff development resources are often concentrated on helping new teachers be successful in their early school experience. Yes, a good idea, but a limited vision. Meanwhile many veteran teachers go without the mentoring assistance they need to be effective classroom teachers. While a few become mentors themselves, many veteran teachers just settle, slowly giving up, and become at risk of failure, burnout, and thinking only of retirement. This book is a call to school superintendents, building administrators, department chairs, school board members, union leaders, parent leaders, and teacher educators to address the need to provide ongoing mentoring for all teachers.

There is an epidemic of student obesity in America, and educators are ideally situated to identify, intervene, educate, and support overweight students who are headed for long-term illness or premature death. Such an effort will require changes in the way that schools operate. These changes can be implemented with a low-cost budget and by restructuring staff and resources that are currently in place. Fibkins proposes a Circle of Wellness model for schools that includes an intervention effort to promote a health-oriented cafeteria; increased physical activity; healthy levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar; life-skills training groups offered by counselors; outreach to parents; and easy access and referral to community health, mental health, and recreation resources. Teen Obesity will be of interest to administrators, teachers, and parents. To learn more, visit www.williamfibkins.com.

This guide helps educators gain a better understanding of several issues impacting on teacher-student relationships so that they will be better prepared to help students improve academically and socially. Understanding these issues will help students take their place as contenders in an ever-changing and complex world. The following are the issues that must be addressed in order to help each of our students successfully navigate through the risks and challenges of adolescence and follow their star: 1. Why historically teachers have not utilized their bully pulpit and skills to lead the way in addressing the personal and well-being problems. 2. Why changes in our students' families and communities have now created the need for teachers to be the primary source of intervention for underachieving and failing students. 3. Why school guidance counselors and social workers need to step back from their unattainable role as the primary source of student intervention and shift this role to teachers on the front lines. 4. Why we need to help teachers and administrators improve the quality of teacher-student relations right now and not postpone needed intervention until secondary school enrollment and class size are reduced. 5. How we can proceed to train and expect teachers to better understand how their students learn, develop, and effectively address the non-academic issues that get in the way of learning. An Educator's Guide to Better Understanding the Personal Side of Students' Lives is a road map on how to elevate the teacher's advising role, the most underutilized helping resource in the school, to its rightful place as a source of academic and non-academic help for students. Students need teacher advisers who can help them successfully navigate through the risks of adolescent life. This guide will help. The book includes 36 case studies of high school students that support why it is important for educators to be advisors and mentors. To learn more, visit www.williamfibkins.com.

With budget cuts looming every year, administrators and union leaders find themselves in a never-ending game of promoting how good their school is and why budget cuts will derail their ongoing success. The vehicle they choose for this ongoing self-promotion is what William Fibkins calls the "dazzle" approach, which focuses only on "good news." Overtime administrators and staff often come to believe the positive reviews of the good news process and overlook or abandon those students who don't make good news but instead act out, fail, cause trouble and give the school a bad name. These are the "bad news" kids, and their lives are not newsworthy. This book is about the unintended consequences that can occur when the "good news" process becomes heavily embedded in school life-a process that creates two different worlds in a school community that often prides itself on fostering unity and belonging. The school media promotions may say "All is well here," but this positive spin belies the divisions that breed isolation and estrangement for both the "good news" and "bad news" kids, which gives rise to class warfare in the school community. In a culture in which some students are valued as more worthy than others, being a more worthy student can have a serious downside that is as risky as being an unworthy student. This book explores these often hidden consequences and what school and community leaders need to do to right this sinking ship-a ship that seems sturdy and well-built to onlookers but is abusing its crew to keep afloat. Some schools operate on a system which uses high achieving students as a commodity to pass school budgets and downplays the cries of troubled students to be included in "their" school. Good news gets headlines while bad news is shifted to the back page or left out, resulting in an "all is well, problem-free" picture of the school.

The Graveyard of School Reform: Why the Resistance to Change and New Ideas explores the critical role resistance plays in defeating valued programs for students, parents, and staff. It is time for education reformers to face the hard truths about the skilled and destructive forces of resisters and to learn that good ideas and calls for change are not enough. Reformers need to learn how to overcome these entrenched forces and muster new skills with the will to win, courage, and the persistence required. Resistance has been given little attention for far too long considering the huge cost and the loss of programs we desperately need. Fibkins argues that reformers often accept defeat when they should be discovering new ways to win. As an education reformer Fibkins has observed far too many necessary programs meet an untimely death due to the naivety of reformers. By reviewing lessons learned from other failed reforms and analyzing successful reforms, Fibkins new book addresses issues and presents doable models for reformers to succeed and deliver what administrators, staff, parents, students, and community members need to make their schools the best they can be.