Susan Brooks-Young

Based on the popular book Pathways to Well-Being, this guide offers practical ideas to help educators reduce stress and enhance their well-being. All of us, especially educators, influence those around us — in our schools, our communities and, ultimately, throughout the world. When we work toward supporting well-being for ourselves and others, our lives are enriched immensely. With this mindset as a jumping-off point, this guide discusses how applying six key elements — gratitude, positivity, focus, empathy, kindness and movement — can help you find the balance you need in your life and work. The guide includes: Suggested positive practices and habits to incorporate into your daily life. Ideas for how to share what you learn to improve the lives of those around you. Tips and insights on how to use technology in positive, healthy ways to enhance, rather than hinder, your daily life. “Questions for Reflection” that challenge you to take what you’ve read and make it your own. QR codes linking to additional resources, including articles, books and websites. Connections to the Educators and Education Leaders sections of the ISTE Standards. Through the resources and activities in this guide, you’ll discover practical steps to enrich your life, while supporting the well-being of others. (ISTE Jump Start Guide, 8.5" x 11", 3 laminated panels, 6 pages) Audience: Elementary and secondary educators; education leaders

The Media-Savvy Middle School Classroom is a practical guide for teachers of Grades 5-8 who want to help their students achieve mastery of media literacy skills. Today’s fake news, alternative facts, and digital manipulations are compromising the critical thinking and well-being of middle grade learners already going through significant personal changes. This actionable book prepares teachers to help their students become informed consumers of online resources. Spanning correct source use, personal versus expert opinions, deliberate disinformation, social media, and more, these ready-to-use activities can be integrated directly into existing language arts and mathematics lesson plans.

The Media-Savvy Middle School Classroom is a practical guide for teachers of Grades 5-8 who want to help their students achieve mastery of media literacy skills. Today’s fake news, alternative facts, and digital manipulations are compromising the critical thinking and well-being of middle grade learners already going through significant personal changes. This actionable book prepares teachers to help their students become informed consumers of online resources. Spanning correct source use, personal versus expert opinions, deliberate disinformation, social media, and more, these ready-to-use activities can be integrated directly into existing language arts and mathematics lesson plans.

We all want lives filled with balance, ease, and contentment--but how do we get there? In Pathways to Well-Being, authors Susan Brooks-Young and Sara Armstrong share steps to increasing well-being and discuss how six elements—gratitude, positivity, focus, empathy, kindness, and movement—impact daily life. All of us, especially educators, influence those around us—in our schools, in our communities, and ultimately throughout the world. When we work toward supporting well-being for ourselves and others, our lives are enriched immensely. Technology has made so many advances in recent years that it’s hard to keep up. Devices can record our heartbeats, steps, and calories; alert us when someone is on our front porch; and much more. However, unintended consequences of being so connected can affect our well-being. By becoming more conscious of the influence technology tools have in our lives, we can change our practices and move toward a more balanced, healthy existence. In this book, the authors provide suggestions for how to address the unexpected consequences of technology use and increase positive connections, which ultimately lead to enhanced well-being.

Until now, the conversation around mobile devices in schools has been divided into two camps: those favoring 1:1 plans, in which each student is assigned a school-provided laptop or tablet, and supporters of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives that shift the responsibility for providing and maintaining classroom mobile technology to students and their parents. In reality, argues classroom technology expert Susan Brooks-Young, it's a hybrid model of 1:1 and BYOD that best meets the needs of students, teachers, and schools.A Better Approach to Mobile Devices offers school and district leaders concise, practical advice on how to set up a hybrid mobile technology program or shift an existing 1:1 or BYOD program to the more flexible, cost-effective, equitable, and learning-focused hybrid approach. Drawing on current research and her own extensive experience, Brooks-Young makes the case for hybrid initiatives and then explores the five keys to successful implementation: connection to the curriculum, infrastructure and support, training and professional development, budget, and policies and procedures. The book closes with a checklist of action steps associated with each of the keys, giving administrators and their planning teams a clear path forward.