Tips and Resources #35

Enjoying the abundant benefits of real happiness

Your Child is Watching for This:

How the important things in your life make them feel happiest. Your child may not be aware of this ongoing process, but this information is surely stored in their minds and used as they mature into adulthood. Following the five Tips listed below are product reviews, testimonials or product descriptions as resources for you.

Tip #1: You feel an increased inner sense of self-worth and security.

Learning to Love Yourself: Finding Your Self-Worth . Learning to love yourself is a journey to self worth. According to the author, it is necessary for us to get rid of our toxic self-defeating messages, and choose positive changes. The author shows you new perspectives and guides you to a higher self-worth so that finally you can learn to love yourself.

Maximum Self-Esteem: The Handbook for Reclaiming Your Sense of Self-Worth. I have throughly enjoyed Maximum Self Esteem, and have bought copies for all my children and grandchildren. I think it explains in simple words ideas that we should keep in mind in our everyday lives. It has helped me deal with issues in my life by putting them in perspective,so that they are no longer problems for me. Although people may read this book for different reasons and interpret it differently, I have not met anyone who could not benefit from the ideas it contains.

Tip #2: You demonstrate a value for being supportive to others.

When I Care about Others . PreSchool-Grade 1-A cuddly bear cub is featured in these two purposeful stories. The lesson in When I Care is that children should treat others as they wish to be treated. The book includes some suggestions for promoting empathy. Scared describes situations in which children feel frightened and how comforting by another helps. It also mentions that being scared can protect them against injury-for example, being afraid of a strange growling dog or climbing too high. Each book begins with a note to adults about how to help children with their feelings.

Love-Ability: How to Become Lovable by Caring for Yourself and Others . LoveAbility bridges the gap between selfhelp books and religious texts. From timetested advice from religious and public figures through the ages, the authors have developed practical ways for readers to develop the skills they need to care for self and for others. LoveAbility shows how to make more and better friends and how to be a more loving and lovable friend or partner. Topics include responding to the needs of others, generating conversation, and developing a likable personality, as well as dealing with people who are hard to love, bringing shy individuals out of their shells, and tapping into your own personality strengths to overcome personal weaknesses.

Tip #3: You show a desire to inspire and affirm others.

Affirmations--Your Passport to Happiness. Affirmations--Your Passport to Happiness is a powerhouse of techniques and inspiration for all those wishing to take control of their lives. Filled with practical exercises, inspiring anecdotes/case histories, and easy-to-follow instructions on how to create your hearts desires, this book is guaranteed to motivate individuals to turn their lives around.

Power Thought Cards. A deck of 64 Affirmation cards to help you find your inner strength.

Tip #4: You don’t always need to be right.

10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How To Avoid Them: Simple and Sure Techniques for Gaining Greater Control of Your Life . You, just like everybody else in the world, may be prone to one or many of the ten dumbest mistakes smart people make. Now, Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose DeWolf offer clear, practical advice and concrete techniques to help you combat selfdefeating thinking and gain greater control of your life, work, and personal relationships. Arm yourself with this one right away.

There Are No Mistakes: Becoming Comfortable With Life As It Is, Not As It Should Be . For many years I tried to make my life conform to a lot of shoulds. Not until I got into recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous did I realize just how many 'shoulds' I had been trying to follow. Along my own travels, first through the Twelve Steps and now through my teaching around the world, I have come across many people who walk through the world in comfort. Their lives aren't easy, they have just accepted them and approach them with a certain grace and ease. As I thought about what they had in common, I identified eleven attributes." The eleven attributes cultivated include:1) Know where you came from, 2) Know your story. 3) Accept yourself. 4) Own your pain, hurt, and vulnerability. 5) Laugh at yourself. 6) Find community. 7) Take care of yourself. 8) Give yourself permission to change your mind. 9) Be willing to fall apart and put yourself back together again. 10) Create a tool box. 11) Go with the flow.

Tip #5: You show an inner calm.

The Little Book of Calm . Feeling Stressed? Need some help to regain balance in your life? The Little Book of Calm is full of advice to follow and thoughts to inspire. Open it at any page and you will find a path to inner peace.

Keep Calm and Carry On . Packed full of cheery motivational quotes, proverbs and mantras, Keep Calm and Carry On is an uplifting gift book meant to give you a boost through troubled times. Discovered on a poster created by the British Ministry of Information for British soldiers before World War II, the slogan still manages to strike a chord in our current difficult times.

Tip #6: You show a confidence in yourself.

Unstoppable Confidence: How to Use the Power of NLP to Be More Dynamic and Successful. Imagine having the confidence and courage to go after your goals: a successful career; a rewarding relationship; a richer, fuller life. If you can dream it, you can do it--using the scientific methods of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). Through NLP, author Kent Sayre transformed himself from a painfully shy introvert into one of the nation's most dynamic NLP trainers. He's taught thousands how to break out of their shells and go after their dreams.

The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence .

- Tapping into creative imagination - Clearing the mind of fear, worry, and guilt - The best ways to communicate, and the art of small talk - The simplest ways to get a perspective and set goals - The joys and benefits of being different

Bonus: Benefits to the over-all good of children at large

*Your child is a success story in narrowing the Achievement gap*

The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time In this clarion call, Paige, a former secretary of education (2001–2005) and his sister, a noted educator, pursue two threads of thought: the quest for authentic African-American leadership and the black-white achievement gap. Their argument: while racism and discrimination are still barriers to African American progress, they are no longer the primary barriers; and the black-white achievement gap is the primary civil rights issue of our time. The main obstacle to closing that gap is black leadership culture, which they criticize... for its role in the existence, magnitude, and intractability of the black-white achievement gap.

Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap . For those who truly wish to leave no child behind, the racial achievement gap in literacy is one of the most difficult issues in education today, and nowhere does it manifest itself more perniciously than in the case of black adolescent males.

Approaching the problem from the inside, Alfred Tatum brings together his various experiences as a black male student, middle school teacher working with struggling black male readers, reading specialist in an urban elementary school, and staff developer in classrooms across the nation. His new book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males offers teachers and schools a way to reconceptualize literacy instruction for those who need it most.

*That the High School dropout rate reduces*

STRATEGIES TO HELP SOLVE OUR SCHOOL DROPOUT PROBLEM . This book will help you reduce the number of young adults who leave school without completing a high school program. These successfully proven strategies were identified through research conducted by The National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University.

Reducing the Black Male Dropout Rate. Outlining the 10 most significant reasons behind the high drop-out rate amongst black male students, this guide provides more than 30 solutions towards addressing this national crisis. Revealing that currently close to one half of black males do not graduate from high school, this exploration pursues the causes behind this alarming statistic and looks at many angles of the issue, including poor parental involvement, low expectations from teachers, boredom, negative peer pressure, and lack of positive role models. The solutions presented—including smaller classes, single gender classrooms, relevant Afro-centric curriculums, cooperative learning, motivational speakers, and higher expectations from teachers—are designed to provide prevention strategies for administrators and teachers, as well as empowerment principles for students.

*That endangerment of black males improved*

Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & In Life. Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life offers proven strategies for getting black male students in middle school and high school to value learning, improve their grades, and maintain high standards for themselves. The author shows how simple but powerful measures to instill self-worth in young black males can not only raise these students' achievement, but also profoundly alter their lives for the better.

This book will help you to help students- Reverse the destructive effects of negative influences, whether among peers or in the popular culture; - Surmount adverse conditions at home or in their communities; - Participate in mentorship programs with successful black male adults; and- Take pride in their heritage by learning about great figures and achievements in black history.

Young, Black, and Male in America: An Endangered Species. “While other groups have made economic and social gains in the last twenty-five years, black youths (ages 15-24) are now more likely than they were in 1960 to be unemployed, to be involved in the criminal justice system, to be unwed fathers, and to be victims of homicide or suicide. In this volume, contributors provide in-depth analyses of the economic, social, cultural, and political factors that have contributed to the deteriorating status of black youth, particularly black males.

*That your better educated child makes the wage disparity smaller*

Empowering African-American Males: Teaching, Parenting, and Mentoring Successful Black Males: Workbook. A Ten-Step Approach for Parents and Teachers/Parent, Mentor Workbook) The Empowering African-African Males workbook contains over 50 activities and discussion questions that reinforce the concepts, ideas, and strategies outlined within each of the Chapters in the book: Mission, Vision, Climate & Culture, Curriculum & Content, Instruction, and Assessment. Activities include: Developing your mission, vision, and core values; constructing a "Web of Protection"; understanding student demographics; creating cooperative groups; Team Charter; creating a classroom code of conduct; understanding "The Dozens"; and helping students to set goals and develop college-bound dreams. The Teacher, Parent, and Mentor Workbook provides over 50 activities to support the strategies outlined in the book.

Voices of the Talented Tenth: Values of Young Black Males in Higher Education. Voices of the Talented Tenth elaborates on the premise that in order for young black males to be successful in life they have to possess a high degree of emotional, psychological, and spiritual development. Based on the results of Professor Horne's research, the young black males who were surveyed and interviewed are proving that the mastery of the aforementioned qualities does contribute to their development.

*That better educated children contribute to safer neighborhoods*

Being Safe in Your Neighborhood (Be Safe). The only book designed to make anti-terrorism accessible to everyone, this book is unique. It puts anti-terrorism concepts into everyday language, such as Mr. Melvin's "virus" theory of terrorists, and gives the busy person resources to get more information at their own pace. This book informs the public where to get information on preparing their families for an incident, what to do if an incident occurs, and how to recover from an attack. It includes information on sheltering in place, evacuations, and even tells the reader what to expect from a decontamination process. Keeping Our Neighborhoods Safe addresses what the public needs to do if they are caught in a chemical, biological and radiological events. Reviewed by law enforcement, emergency response agencies, and even elected officials, this book is a "must-own" for any citizen who wants to be prepared for the next incident.

In The Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time . Social history reporting can get dull in the abstract; happily, journalist and family man Lovenheim (Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf) makes a personal project of his investigation into the disappearance of community in suburban American, learning about the residents of his suburban Rochester, N.Y. street by sleeping over at their houses (his impetus was a murder-suicide on the street that helped reveal the extent to which his neighbors remained strangers). Throughout, Lovenheim's writing is genteel and elegantly detailed, revealing much about his subjects-issues of class, relationships, likes and gripes, obsessions and everyday struggles-that would be easy to miss in broad cultural assessments.



My Neighborhood: Places and Faces (All About Me) . I am a preschool teacher, and I ordered this book for my classroom. I hoped it would complement our focus on "Things Around Us: At Home, At School, and In Our Neighborhoods." Unfortunately, I had to return the book because the children would never have sat all the way through it. It was very wordy, and the text was not engaging enough to keep their attention. It also wasn't as inclusive as I had hoped it would be, showing a very diverse neighborhood. I was very disappointed, especially because I have other books by Lisa Bullard that I like very much.

Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood . This classic text addresses one of the most important issues in modern social theory and policy: how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. With the original 1987 publication of Ain’t No Makin’ It Jay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights housing project where we met the “Brothers” and the “Hallway Hangers.” Their story of poverty, race, and defeatism moved readers and challenged ethnic stereotypes. MacLeod’s return eight years later, and the resulting 1995 revision, revealed little improvement in the lives of these men as they struggled in the labor market and crime-ridden underground economy.



Streets of Hope : The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood. -I witnessed much of the transformation described in this book and it is remarkably accurate. This should serve as a guide for community organizers seeking to work in neglected neighborhoods. Too bad Peter Medoff is no longer with us.

-A little too much detail. However, this is an inspiring success story about a community in very bad shape, that turned itself around totally, working "from the inside out". Well known in the field of community development, in my area.

*That better educated children lowers the teenage pregnancy rate*

But I Love Him: Protecting Your Teen Daughter from Controlling, Abusive Dating Relationships. Parents of teen daughters listen up: according to Dr. Jill Murray, more than one in three girls will be involved in an abusive relationship. But I Love Him gets to the heart of this scary topic as painlessly as possible. With so much focus on physical concerns these days, it's not often that such emotional issues are confronted early enough to prevent them from becoming physical as well. Murray's constant theme is "love is a behavior", and in her book she shows not only what some destructive patterns are, but how even young teens can break free. Murray is a counselor and a parent, and she uses many real-life examples throughout the book; while many end positively, the few that don't are impossible to forget. When differences between emotional, sexual, and physical abuse are explained, you'll read stories like "My boyfriend used to shove me around and I'd cry. He'd say to me, 'stop being so dramatic.

Discipline from Birth to Three: How Teen Parents Can Prevent and Deal with Discipline Problems with Babies and Toddlers (Teen Pregnancy and Parenting series) Written specifically for teenage parents, who must blend their own needs as adolescents with the tremendous needs of their children, this book advocates gentle teaching rather than the harsh punishment too often utilized by parents. Teen parents and former teen parents share their viewpoints on such issues as spanking, disciplining a child while living with one's own parents, toilet training, and other topics of concern during a child's first three years.

You're Grounded!: How to Stop Fighting and Make the Teenage Years Easier. “You’re Grounded! is a fascinating window into the lives of today’s teens. I’m amazed at the maturity and balance with which Van Petten depicts the roles of both teens and parents … As a teacher and a parent, I enjoyed the glimpse into the lives of today’s teens. The insights Vanessa shares will help me in understanding my students and give me tools to build better communication in the classroom and at home.” —Nancy Kuechle, Middle School teacher and mother