The purpose of this book is to start an important dialogue about college education. I will make the case for why I believe 70% of college students should drop out. The concept of giving our trust to the educational system without accountability has not worked. I believe it’s time to ask serious questions: - Why do we go to college in the first place? - Who should go to college and who shouldn’t? - Can I succeed and do great things without college? - Why do tuition and textbooks cost as much as they do? - Have colleges simply become a big business (with tax-free status)? - Are the subjects taught in college sufficient for life or do we need an upgrade? Let me clarify something, this is NOT a book that declares that higher education is a terrible thing. Many professions require it, but I believe education can and does take place in many forms. As a college dropout and an autodidact, I’ve read over 1,200 books in the last 15 years and believe there are many paths we can take to get educated and do great things. Fair Warning: You may have passionate feelings about the points in this book. Regardless of how strong you feel one way or another, my desired outcome is to start a broad dialogue so we can process the issues – together. Ready?

    Gallagher grapples with provocative questions—Can we train our focus? What’s different about the way creative people pay attention? Why do we often zero in on the wrong factors when making big decisions, like where to move?—driving us to reconsider what we think we know about attention. Gallagher looks beyond sound bites on our proliferating BlackBerries and the increased incidence of ADD in children to the discoveries of neuroscience and psychology and the wisdom of home truths, profoundly altering and expanding the contemporary conversation on attention and its power. Science’s major contribution to the study of attention has been the discovery that its basic mechanism is an either/or process of selection. That we focus may be a biological necessity— research now proves we can process only a little information at a time, or about 173 billion bits over an average life—but the good news is that we have much more control over our focus than we think, which gives us a remarkable yet underappreciated capacity to influence our experience. As suggested by the expression “pay attention,” this cognitive currency is a finite resource that we must learn to spend wisely. In Rapt, Gallagher introduces us to a diverse cast of characters—artists and ranchers, birders and scientists—who have learned to do just that and whose stories are profound lessons in the art of living the interested life. No matter what your quotient of wealth, looks, brains, or fame, increasing your satisfaction means focusing more on what really interests you and less on what doesn’t. In asserting its groundbreaking thesis—the wise investment of your attention is the single most important thing you can do to improve your well-being—Rapt yields fresh insights into the nature of reality and what it means to be fully alive.

    UDL is a framework for inclusive education that aims to lower barriers to learning and optimize each individual's opportunity to learn. Novak shows how to use the UDL Guidelines to plan lessons, choose materials, assess learning, and improve instructional practice. Novak discusses key concepts such as scaffolding, vocabulary-building, and using student feedback to inform instruction. She also provides tips on recruiting students as partners in the teaching process, engaging their interest in how they learn. UDL Now! is a fun and effective Monday-morning playbook for great teaching.

    The Friels examine the seven most ineffective and self-defeating behaviors that parents display again and again. Working from the ideas that even small changes can have big results, the authors give parents concrete steps they can take to end these behaviors and improve the quality of their parenting. Whether you're contemplating starting a family, have children who haven't entered school yet, are struggling with rebellious teenagers, or are empty-nesters wondering how to be better parents to your grown children, you can't afford not to read this book. With the same clarity and concrete examples that have sold over 350,000 copies of their books, the Friels offer readers forty years of combined experience as practicing psychologists, and fifty years of combined experience as blended-family parents. The material in "The 7 Worst Things Parents Can Do" has been field-tested in the authors' own household, with hundreds of their clients, and with thousands of their workshop and Clearlife Clinic participants. It will cause immediate changes in your behavior, in your child's behavior and will improve the lives you share together.

    Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing. People just don’t see the big idea - and it’s keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem.The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems.Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium. You will learn to:• Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems.• Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience. • Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media. The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.

    Between their children’s educational needs; their roles as spouse, parent, and more; and their own individual desires and goals, these mothers and fathers struggle to accomplish all that must be done. In Help for the Harried Homeschooler, experienced homeschooler, author, and mother of four Christine Field offers sound advice for parents who want not only to achieve homeschooling success but also to reach a balance in their lives.

    Instead, we find that the wealthiest societies of the world have become depressed, anxious, sleep deprived, and overmedicated.Max Strom, author of A Life Worth Breathing and global teacher of personal transformation, reveals that we each have internal, human technology capable of empowering our lives and leading us to deeper levels of happiness. In his new book, There Is No App for Happiness, Strom illustrates three imperatives to take back control of our lives.Imperative One: Self-study. Overcoming our negative presets.Imperative Two: Live as if your time and your lifespan were the same thing.Imperative Three: Learn a daily regimen that heals and empowers you, and practice it one hour a day.Learn that joy and fulfillment require us to be active participants and that we should not strive for a virtual life—but a life truly lived. There Is No App for Happiness will propel you into a new and more meaningful experience of living.

    Every educator faces constraints—from budget restrictions to predetermined curriculum to “one-size-fits-all” mandatory assessments. The question is, how can you, as a teacher or administrator, ensure that regulations and limitations don’t impede authentic learning?In Innovate Inside the Box, George Couros and Katie Novak provide informed insight on creating purposeful learning opportunities for all students. By combining the power of the Innovator's Mindset and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), they empower educators to create opportunities that will benefit every learner. Couros and Novak show you how to . . . Leverage the Core of Innovative Teaching and Learning with a focus on developing meaningful relationships. Develop the 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset in your students—and yourself. Use UDL to proactively design learning experiences that foster voice and choice while addressing barriers that impede learning. Create learner-driven, evidence-informed learning experiences that provide all students with options and choices to maximize success. “If you’re looking to bring creativity to student learning amid all the constraints educators face, this is the book for you.”—Daniel Pink, author of Drive“No one articulates a more compelling, a more urgent, or a more motivating vision of education—for both teachers and their students—than George Couros. No one articulates how that vision can be reached—for every student and teacher—more daringly, more practically, and more inclusively, than Katie Novak. Having them together in one book not only helps us reimagine the goals and practices of education, it reminds us of why we ever wanted to be teachers at all.”—David Rose, PhD, CAST's cofounder and chief education officer, emeritus“An incredible book! Innovate Inside the Box speaks to educators who are the change agents in their sphere of influence.”—Sarah Thomas, PhD, founder of EduMatch“George and Katie's combined talents as spectacular storytellers drive this book. You will feel like you are flying through it and then realize how deeply you are learning.”—Loui Lord Nelson, PhD, author of Design and Deliver, and podcast host of UDL in 15 Minutes

    The book includes numerous stories about the way circles have been used in many diverse situations, discussion on the use of proactive, responsive and staff circles, and an overview of restorative practices, with particular emphasis on its relationship to circle processes.

    The text begins with basic skills related to personal experience and then carefully progresses to the more sophisticated reasoning skills required for abstract, academic contexts. Thinking Critically introduces students to the cognitive process while teaching them to develop their higher-order thinking and language abilities. A number of distinctive characteristics make the text an effective tool for both instructors and students. Exercises, discussion topics, and writing assignments encourage active participation, stimulating students to critically examine their own and others' thinking.

    Their job is long, lonely, and hard, yet there is limited support and no formal training. As a result, carers suffer frequent damage to their physical and mental health. Though carers by definition are anything but "selfish pigs," they are also liable to feelings of guilt that are often brought on by fatigue and isolation. This guide is designed to provide support for carers of every variety and air commonly ignored topics that arise when providing care. Humorous and uplifting in tone, this is the perfect resource for coming to terms with caring for someone in the grip of a debilitating disease.

    With compassion, humor, insight, and practical wisdom born of firsthand experience, Galit Breen makes a compelling case for online decency. What would happen if parents and kids everywhere could read these 10 simple rules of conduct, learn them by heart, and live by them each and every time they log in? The world would change dramatically--and for the good of us all."--Katrina Kenison, author of Mitten Strings for God and The Gift of an Ordinary DayIf kindness wins, accountability rules. The need for this mantra is never clearer than when scrolling through posts and comments online.Approximately four out of ten kids (42 percent) have experienced cyberbullying. When we were young, our bullies weren't usually strangers. They were the kids who passed mean notes about us in class, the ones who didn't let us sit at their table during lunch, and the ones who tripped us in the hallway or embarrassed us in gym class. Cyberbullying isn't all that different from the playground bullying of our youth and nightmares. But with social media, our bullies have nonstop access to us--and our kids. In fact, we're often "friends" with our bullies online.When freelance writer Galit Breen's kids hinted that they'd like to post, tweet, and share photos on Instagram, Breen took a look at social media as a mom and as a teacher and quickly realized that there's a ridiculous amount of kindness terrain to teach and explain to kids―and some adults―before letting them loose online. So she took to her pen and wrote a how-to book for parents who are tackling this issue with their kids.Kindness Wins covers ten habits to directly teach kids as they're learning how to be kind online. Each section is written in Breen's trademark parent-to-parent-over-coffee style and concludes with resources for further reading, discussion starters, and bulleted takeaways. She ends the book with two contracts―one to share with peers and one to share with kids. Just like we needed to teach our children how to walk, swim, and throw a ball, we need to teach them how to maneuver kindly online. This book will help you do just that.

    For many, home values are still too low and unemployment is still too high. Others have prospered despite the ups and downs. In Clark Howard's Living Large for the Long Haul, the renowned broadcaster examines our new paradigm through the eyes of those whose financial portfolios have beaten the odds, and those whose economic situation has gone off course. Through these fascinating personal accounts, listeners will uncover amazing opportunities and smart decisions, finding advantages in bleak times for lasting payoffs in the long run.

    

    But that’s hard to do when you, your boss or your team are still trying to replicate the way you work at the office, enduring an endless series of video calls while pretending that yes, everyone is wearing pants.Remote, Inc. shows you a new approach, based on the mindset and habits of people who flourish while working outside the office some or all of the time.  These are the folks who manage to get even more done at home, even though you know they’ve got kids or dogs underfoot and somehow fit in a daily run at lunchtime. Their secret? They think like a “business of one.” That’s how productivity experts Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel describe the mindset that lets people thrive when they’re working remotely, whether working from home full-time or spending a few days each week in the office. You can follow their lead by embracing the work habits and independence of an entrepreneur – while also tapping into the benefits of collegiality and online collaboration.Remote, Inc. maps out the principles that drive this entrepreneurial approach, and translates them into the specific habits and tools that make remote work productive and enjoyable. It shows you how to:Focus on goals and results instead of the 9-to-5 scheduleWow your managers by treating them like valued clientsBeat information overload with a system that prioritizes the most important emails and messages   Make online meetings purposeful, focused and engaging Learn to love your colleagues again by building great relationships through online collaborationPlan for success in a world in which many professionals will work remotelyJust as important as making you a professional powerhouse, Remote Inc. will help you find a balance between work from home, and life at home.