The Mindful School Leader: Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School - Paperback
by Valerie L. Brown (Author), Kirsten L. Olson (Author)
Big results come from small steps.
If you think you don't have time for mindfulness, think again. This handbook, named a Best Courageous Book of 2014 by The Center for Courage and Renewal, was written with school leaders in mind--your responsibilities, your stress, and your schedule. When you add mindfulness into your day, bit by bit, you'll become a more effective leader and a more positive force for your staff and students.
With the help of this inspirational yet practical guide, you'll start fitting pieces of practice into your busy home and work life, whether you are sitting in your office or walking down the hall. Features include
Mindful school leaders are better at managing meetings, responding creatively to complex situations, and achieving resilience at work and at home. Take the first steps to transform your life--and your school.
"This inspiring book makes a strong case for school leaders to include mindfulness in their personal and professional lives. Based on solid research and enhanced by compelling examples of real people, it shows how school leaders can feel more grounded, connected, clear and focused. Mindfulness makes leaders more effective with relatively little effort, but be advised that the benefits can be contagious, transforming your school from the inside out."
Christopher Germer, Clinical Instructor
Harvard Medical School
"In The Mindful School Leader, Brown and Olson offer with remarkable clarity and depth a thorough introduction to the practice of meditation, the science behind its benefits, and many firsthand accounts of lives and work situations transformed through this practice. Although this book was written for those in leadership roles in education, it will be inspiring for anyone interested in understanding their own minds and finding more ease in life and work."
Joseph Goldstein, Co-Founder
Insight Meditation Society
Valerie Brown is a leadership coach, leadership educator, retreat leader and Principal of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, specializing in leadership coaching of school leaders. She trained at the Center for Transformational Leadership, at Georgetown University, the Center for Courage & Renewal and Parker J. Palmer, and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care & Society. Her work and writing point toward powerful transformation through mindful awareness, and her passion is for creating greater trust, authenticity and integrity among people.
A former lawyer-lobbyist for educational institutions and legal organizations, she has worked largely with leaders in many fields.She is the author of The Road that Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel (QuakerBridge Media, 2012), and two pamphlets, published by Pendle Hill a Quaker Retreat Center, where she teaches mindfulness, including Living from the Center: Mindfulness Meditation and Centering for Friends (2010) and The Mindful Quaker (2007). Her latest pamphlet is Heartfulness: Bringing Heart, Mind & Spirit on Retreat & Beyond (Pendle Hill, February 2013). She is the author of an essay on relationships in Together We Are One by Thich Nhat Hanh (Parallax Press 2010). She was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003 and is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher (1999). She is a member of Solebury Monthly Meeting (Quakers). Valerie is a founding member of Old Path Sangha, one of the oldest Buddhist communities in Bucks county, PA, where she lives.Her website is www.leadsmartcoaching.comKirsten Olson is an organizational coach, consultant and writer. A founding member of the Institute for Democratic Education in America http: //www.democraticeducation.org/, an emerging national not-for-profit linking youth and progressive educational activists for educational transformation, she has been an organizational and strategic consultant to the largest school districts in the country, the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and the Coalition for Essential School. The author of Wounded By School Recapturing The Joy In Learning and Standing Up To Old School Culture, one of the top-selling books at Teachers College Press in 2009, and Schools as Colonizers (Verlag 2008), she is an active blogger and popular speaker at transformation-minded educational conferences and events, and also writes for Education Week, Teacher Magazine and Educational Leadership. Kirsten was formerly a visiting professor at Wheaton College, in Norton, MA and at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An experiential retreat leader with two-year facilitator training with Parker Palmer at the Center for Courage and Renewal, she leads professional development retreats on mindfulness for school leaders, self-compassion, and "permissioning" in leadership and social action. Kirsten is a recent graduate of the Center for Transformational Leadership at Georgetown University, and will be joining the adjunct faculty there in Spring 2013. She holds a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an undergraduate degree from Vassar College. Her website is: http: //www.kirstenolson.orgMade with care and unconditionally loved by our customers, this signature bestseller exceeds all expectations.
Made with care and unconditionally loved by our customers, this signature bestseller exceeds all expectations.
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