About the Book
Teaching Kids to Thrive, by Debbie Thompson Silver & Dedra Stafford
The strategies, activities, and tools in Teaching Kids to Thrive provide parents and educators the resources to develop any students' mindfulness, self-efficacy, and empathy. The integration of Social and Emotional Learning, or Thrive skills, as supported by a growing number of studies, boosts student achievement, builds positive personal attitudes, and enhances shared interactions.
"This book explores the importance of resilience, empathy, persistence and skills related to active listening to creating the mindset that will nurture and accelerate the continuous-improvement process."
--Ron Nash, Author/Consultant
Ron Nash and Associates, Inc., Virginia Beach, VA
The Wonder Wall, by Peter Gamwell & Jane Daly
Sometimes our attempts to foster creativity can stifle it. The Wonder Wall offers a fresh perspective on how to nurture creativity, innovation, leadership, and engagement. With a wealth of examples from education and across industry, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to help create learning cultures that make the extraordinary happen.
"Read Wonder Wall and you will be swept along into doing things that engage all students and teachers. You will even get ideas about how to evaluate creativity. The timing is perfect. Go beyond skills and knowledge, light the sparks that lead to learning."
--Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus
OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Releasing Leadership Brilliance, by Simon T. Bailey & Marceta F/ Reilly
How do you successfully move your school or district from mediocrity to brilliance? Drawing on their expertise in business and education, the authors provide a simple, sustainable framework that will help you overcome educational inertia to reach new heights of achievement by using your personal brilliance, encouraging smart risks, designing potent changes, and more.
"I'm glad someone took the time to study the Breakthrough Schools and clarify their secrets to success. I encourage leaders everywhere to use the text to inspire new thinking and powerful actions. Love the organizer for addressing leadership as well as the case studies and exercises."
--Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director
Learning Forward
About the Author :
Simon T. Bailey teaches influencers how to improve themselves and change the world. As an executive advisor, career mentor, and keynote speaker, he doesn't take people where they want to go; he guides them by providing strategic steps to where they need to go. He inspires through relevant stories and thought-provoking, evidence-based research, breaking through the motivational paradigm that causes individuals to stretch and produce results. His wisdom and expertise enabled an Orlando-based health care system to be acquired and a division of a hospitality company to be ranked No. 1 for customer service by Expedia.com.
An experience with Simon goes beyond feel-good content to real-life deliverables that impact lives. He connects with any audience on many levels with a relevant message that resonates. He has 28 years of business experience with six different companies and is the former sales director for the world-renowned Disney Institute based at Walt Disney World Resort(R). Since leaving Disney, he has spoken to more than 1,000 organizations on six continents. Speaker Magazine cited him as one of the top twenty five "hot speakers" shaping the profession.
Simon has authored seven books including Release Your Brilliance, which is published by HarperCollins and ranked No. 17 of the top 100 books being read by corporate America, according to 800CEORead.com. His newest book Shift Your Brilliance: Harness the Power of You, Inc. is receiving rave reviews and tangible results. He is a regular columnist for American City Business Journal, which is read by 11 million unique readers in 43 markets throughout the United States. He has shared his expertise at Microsoft, The Conference Board, Cigna, WalMart, Chevron, Mass Mutual, and Cargill.
Simon holds a master's degree from Faith Christian University and was inducted as an honorary member of the University of Central Florida Golden Key Honor Society. He is a graduate of the Rollins College Executive Management Certificate Program, one of the top 25 best private graduate business schools in the United States. He resides in Windermere, Florida, with his wife and two children.
Dr. Debbie Silver is a humorist, consultant, and retired educator with over thirty years of experience as a classroom teacher, staff development facilitator, and university professor. As a classroom teacher, Debbie won numerous awards, including the 1990 Louisiana Teacher of the Year award. She speaks worldwide on issues involving education and is a passionate advocate for students and teachers.
Debbie wrote the best-selling books, Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers and Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8. She co-wrote the best-selling Teaching Kids to Thrive. In 1990, Debbie Pace and Lawrence Silver merged their families of 3 boys (Debbie) and 2 boys (Lawrence) as they married and eventually both earned their doctorate degrees (to form a "pair-a-docs"). They currently reside in Melissa, TX.
One of the nation's most popular keynote speakers and professional development presenters, Debbie has given presentations around the world (including 49 states [Hey, Delaware, let's talk!], Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Africa, and Asia), helping audiences to interact with students on a more meaningful level.
While inspiring educators to enjoy the job they once loved, she reminds them of how important they are in the lives of children, their families, and the world. Through her writing and her speaking she makes essential points while sharing poignant stories and lots of laughs.
Born in Liverpool, England, Peter is the co-author, with Jane Daly, of The Wonder Wall: Leading Creative Schools and Organizations in an Age of Complexity, 2017, Corwin, foreword by Sir Ken Robinson; and Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer: Innovative Pedagogies for Cultivating Every Student's Potential, April, 2022, Corwin, fore-word by Yong Zhao.
An insightful, entertaining, and knowledgeable speaker, presenter, and consultant, Peter brings decades of academic research, experience, and insightful knowledge, gleaned from his award-winning career as a teacher and administrator at all levels of the education system. Through his presentations, workshops, books, YouTube channel, and website, he explores learning, leadership, and innovation and their impact on individual and organizational health and culture. Peter has worked across Canada and throughout many parts of the world, showing students, educators, administrators, schools, districts, com-panies, and policy makers how to foster that vibrancy in their own organizations.
Through the course of his work and research, Peter has captured the voices of hundreds of students and adults alike, video clips that provide unique and insightful glimpses into the lived world of our classrooms, schools, and organizations. These clips also provide criti-cal insight as to how we might imagine our learning cultures in a way that reawakens the brilliance that lies in all of us, with a central focus on individual, group, and organizational well-being. An adjunct professor with the University of Ottawa, Peter has been the recipient of many awards throughout his forty-year career. In 2013, he was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Ontario Public Supervisory Officers' Association for the work he led in Learning, Leadership and Creativity with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. In 2015, he was awarded the Global Distinguished Leadership Award by the Alberta Teachers' Association.
In 2020, he cofounded the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity, @CNIC, which holds monthly IdeaJams on a wide range of topics--and which evoke lots of lively interactive conversation.
