The Onward Workbook - by Elena Aguilar (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An empowering journey that keeps great teachers in the classroom

The Onward Workbook is a collection of tools and strategies that help teachers banish the burnout and cultivate true resilience. Keyed to the framework presented in Onward, this companion piece augments the text with practical exercises, coaching, and step-by-step walkthroughs of beneficial practices. Deep introspection allows you to verbalize your feelings, name your challenges, and identify the tools you have and the tools you need--from there, you'll explore each of the 12 Key Habits and learn how to put them into practice every day.

In cultivating resilience within yourself and your teaching practice, you improve your health, your outlook, and your relationships while building an environment in which every child succeeds. This workbook takes you on a journey of specific self-discovery that changes your perspective, renews your confidence, and empowers you to make the much-needed changes that allow you to continue inspiring young minds.

• Dig deeper within to discover what you're truly made of
• Decode complex emotions, body language, and nonverbal communications
• Challenge your beliefs, build community, and navigate difficult interactions
• Learn more, feel more, play more, and practice effective self-care

Resiliency is an underrated skill--one that can make all the difference in our schools. Challenges will always arise, but it is your response that dictates the outcome. Can you think of a more important lesson for your students? When some 70 percent of teachers quit within their first five years, it is clear that changes must be made. The Onward Workbook equips you to make the changes that you can, and flourish into the future.

While this book can be used by individuals, it is also designed so that groups, teams, departments, or an entire staff can take up the learning together. There are specific suggestions in the workbook for using this with a group, and educators will reap even more reward from discussing the practices and experiences with colleagues.

From the Back Cover

PRACTICAL EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES FOR BECOMING A RESILIENT EDUCATOR

This hands-on workbook is the companion to Elena Aguilar's extraordinary book Onward. It explores in-depth the 12 habits that are essential for building and developing resilience in educators. The Onward Workbook is the must-have resource for cultivating resilience, filled with over 365 exercises that draw on the author's extensive research in emotional resilience, psychology, systems thinking, change management, and on her 12 years of coaching educators.

The Onward Workbook is your personal resource for cultivating resilience and becoming the educator of your dreams. The workbook has a variety of empowering stories and activities that introduce each of the 12 habits as well as activities that offer a guide to reflect on the habits explored. The exercises offer a better understanding of Onward's four-part conceptual framework that rests on the key components of resilience and how it is developed.

The exercises described are tried and tested and have proven to boost educator abilities to build community, become more mindful, take better care of themselves, focus on the positive, cultivate compassion, become ongoing learners, develop creativity, accept change, celebrate gratitude, and much more.

About the Author

ELENA AGUILAR is the founder and president of Bright Morning Consulting, an educational consulting group that works around the world supporting educators to meet the needs of children. She is the author of The Art of Coaching and The Art of Coaching Teams and has also been a longtime contributor to Edutopia and EdWeek.