1st Edition
10 Keys to Student Empowerment Unlocking the Hero in Each Child
Discover how to work alongside your students to unlock their potential.
This powerful book reveals 10 keys to creating a classroom where your students can take ownership of their learning and become heroes in their own lives. You’ll learn how to build relationships, support, strength, willpower, soft skills, service, agency, curiosity, innovation, and productive failure. Each key is illustrated in a narrative format, designed with tips and notes to help you make practical changes immediately.
By the end of the book, you’ll have the foundational pieces you need to create a student-powered classroom where students can learn about themselves, fail forward, and gain courage to face challenges head on.
Preface: Why Unlock Heroes?
Key One: Relationships
Key Two: Support
Key Three: Strength
Key Four: Willpower
Key Five: Soft Skills
Key Six: Service
Key Seven: Agency
Key Eight: Curiosity
Key Nine: Innovation
Key Ten: Failure
Afterword: Hope
Biography
Cathleen Beachboard (@cathleenbeachbd) has served as an instructional coach, professional developer, and speaker. She currently serves as the Lead Mentor and English Department head for her school, and was the Region Four representative for Virginia modeling the Strategic Instructional Model.
Marynn Dause (@DauseClause) is a National Board-certified teacher with eight years’ experience teaching English Language Arts and related topics. She serves as President Elect of the Virginia Association of Teachers of English; prior to that she served five years on the advisory board for the Virginia Student Councils’ Association.
"The best teachers help their students find their own purpose in learning. 10 Keys for Student Empowerment shares resources to help teachers create a classroom culture of courage, innovation, and goal setting that models that problems are just opportunities." — Todd Whitaker, Professor, Department of Educational Leadership, University of Missouri
"10 Keys to Student Empowerment is the field-guide we need to make empowering our learners as practical and doable as possible. I dare you to read this book and not come away with something you can use in the classroom tomorrow!" — A.J. Juliani, Author of Empower and The PBL Playbook
"The world needs more heroes! Educators Cathleen Beachboard and Marynn Dause have authored an inspirational work that will take you on a heroic journey. Their sincere words sketch an epic resource to build student relationships to the next level in the schoolhouse. As I read this book, I found myself inspired by the keys shared to compel students to take positive action and change the world." — Sean Gaillard, Principal, Moore Magnet Elementary School
"This book offers a clear and useful roadmap for any educator wishing to empower the students they teach and lead, offering specific, practical keys to unlocking the obstacles we face in our classrooms. Too often we hear about what we should be doing in our classrooms; this wonderful book takes us a step further by showing readers how they can actually accomplish it and incorporates student voice throughout the book to remind us of our why. This book should be required reading for anyone in the education profession." — Jeffrey Zoul, Author, Speaker, Leadership Coach, and President of ConnectEDD
"In this engaging and highly personal account, Cathleen Beachboard and Marynn Dause share stories and provide ten specific ‘keys’ to overcome behaviors that plague classrooms and hamper students. . . . The book is a quick read on interpersonal dynamics and is sure to help anyone – student or adult – who could use a ‘pep talk’ on troublesome issues from losing weight, to gaining respect from peers, to overcoming depression, to being an effective mentor, to achieving a life dream." — Ann Lewin-Benham, Author/Educator
