Teen Leadership

Youth speaker Tom Thelen explores the unwritten code of character, relationships, and leadership that successful teens use to navigate the storms of life and become great leaders.

Every teen can be a leader. That’s because leadership is not just about taking the lead in big ways, but in everyday small things, too. The 21 sessions in this youth leadership curriculum guide teens to explore ethical decision-making, team-building, what it means to be a leader, how to work with others, risk-taking, communication, creative thinking, and more. Choose the sessions that seem best for your class or group, or explore leadership skills through an entire school year. The revised and updated 2nd edition includes the Everyday Leadership Skills & Attitudes (ELSA) inventory, a leadership measurement tool, as well as reproducible handouts, evaluation tools, and exams. Access to digital content includes the reproducible handouts from the book, the student inventory of leadership skills and evaluation tools, and lots of bonus material. Requires use of the student book, Everyday Leadership.

Not long ago, all it took to have a comfortable career was to do well in high school, get a college degree, and find a nice stable job. But the world is changing rapidly, and many of the nice stable jobs have moved to developing countries. Even a college degree is not the sure investment it once was. Good grades are not enough. But there remain endless opportunities for those with real leadership skills - regardless of career choice. Leadership skills are what you need to manage a team, to stand out as an employee, to start a business and to nail that interview. The skills required to inspire and motivate others, to communicate effectively, to take initiative, and to make and execute plans, are as important as a high grade point average (if not more so). But how do you teach these skills to teenagers? Parents, teachers, coaches, scoutmasters, youth counselors and advisors strive to do so every day - but often have limited training on how best to accomplish that goal. This book fills that gap. This is not an academic or theoretical book on youth leadership. It is a relentlessly practical guide on how to effectively guide teens to become leaders. It covers virtually every topic, issue and skill you need to know - and how to teach it. You'll even learn how to teach teen leaders to teach leadership skills to each other, thus helping them become even stronger leaders.

This encyclopedia provides a concise introduction to the mental health topics of greatest concern to adolescents. It offers young readers the information they need to better understand mental disorders and the importance of psychological well-being. Addressing mental illness and prioritizing psychological well-being are important at any age, but the teen years present unique challenges. Hormonal changes, peer pressure, and the demands of school and a busy social life combined with many other factors put adolescents at high risk for mental health problems. Certain disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are particularly prevalent in this age group, as are risky behaviors like substance abuse, self-harm, and distracted driving. Today's teens also face uniquely modern threats to their psychological well-being, such as Internet addiction and social media–induced fear of missing out (FOMO). Yet there are also ample opportunities for adolescents to strengthen their mental health and resiliency through such practices as meditation, activism, and youth leadership. Teen Mental Health: An Encyclopedia of Issues and Solutions is a ready-reference guide to the mental health topics that most affect the lives of American teens in the 21st century. Entries are accessibly written and feature extensive cross-referencing and helpful further reading lists. This volume also offers a collection of recommended resources, including a number of hotlines for teens in crisis.

While some may believe that leaders are born and not made, it is far more likely that a good leader spent years honing the skills he or she would need to direct a group. As this volume shows, there are many opportunities through school and extracurricular activities for students to develop leadership skills that will serve them in any career and throughout their lives. Readers will learn how to clearly communicate a vision, keep members of a group motivated, encourage creativity, manage conflict resolution, and much more.

Student-scientist-teacher interactions provide students with several advantages. They provide opportunities to interact with experts and professionals in the field, give students a chance at meeting a role model that may impact students' career choices, and increase awareness of available career options combined with an understanding of how their skills and interests affect their career decisions. Additionally, it enhances attitudes and interest toward STEM professions for students and grants opportunities to connect with scientists as human beings and see them as "real people," replacing stereotypical perceptions of scientists. Moreover, there are many advantages for the teacher or informal educator when these partnerships are established. For these reasons and more, numerous studies are often conducted involving the partnerships of students, scientists, and teachers. Enhancing Learning Opportunities Through Student, Scientist, and Teacher Partnerships organizes a collection of research on student-scientist-teacher partnerships and presents the models, benefits, implementation, and learning outcomes of these interactions. This book presents a variety of different scientist-student-teacher partnerships with research data to support different learning outcomes in settings like schools, after-school programs, museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, children's museums, space centers, nature centers, and more. This book is ideal for in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in research on beneficial student-scientist-teacher partnerships/models in formal and informal settings.

The library programs featured in this unique collection are those that have been suggested, created, and led by youth with the help and guidance of the supportive adults at their library. Many times, librarians bring ideas to teens in hopes of getting them to buy in and perhaps help them to run programs. In this book, you’ll primarily find a role reversal! Tweens and teens lead the way with whatever adult information, support, and supervision they need to see their proposals through. To accomplish this, the youth are encouraged to create new ideas, are empowered to make decisions, and are given control. Plus, the ideas they bring to life are not just peer-focused. The programs, activities, and events they create and lead can be for children, adults, or even for all ages or mixed audiences, as well as for fellow tweens and teens. In addition to finding a wide array of proven ideas, recommendations, and testimonials from real tweens and teenagers, you will discover helpful advice on using the philosophies behind allowing youth to not only have a say but to take action; testimonials from adults who have worked directly with youth having this level of empowerment; suggestions on getting approval and providing funding and other support for youth ideas; ways to evaluate such youth-led programs; and sample forms, flyers, and other materials that can be adapted.