The Owner S Manual For Driving Your Adolescent Brain

A six-time award winner, The Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain is the exciting follow-up to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain! This adolescent brain development story is the perfect growth mindset book for teens. Let's pop open the hood and learn a little about what makes this (human) engine run in this informative puberty book for boys and girls ages 9-14! As a teenager, you think you know everything about your brain... Think again! Every creature experiences adolescence. It's during this time when your brain is in its second decade, that you have the opportunity to blaze your own trail by shaping your brain, building its strengths, and avoiding dangers with the decisions you make. Your brain is an amazing vehicle that will take you through every one of your life's experiences. Wouldn't it be good to have an owner's manual? Packed with the goods on glia and the news about neurons, The Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain is a fantastic read for testing your brain power and understanding it's OK to make mistakes, they'll make you stronger, if you use them as an opportunity to learn. It's all about training your brain to help you become the very best version of yourself! The Owner's Manual for Driving Your Adolescent Brain has received several awards including The Academics' Choice "Smart Book" Award; The PubWest Book Design Gold Award; The Mom's Choice Gold Award; The Moonbeam Silver Award; The Nautilus Silver Award; and The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award. Fuel up your vehicle and let's start the drive to understanding your adolescent brain!

Moody. Reckless. Impractical. Insecure. Distracted. These are all words commonly used to describe adolescents. But what if we recast these traits in a positive light? Teens possess insight, passion, idealism, sensitivity, and creativity in abundance--all qualities that can make a significant positive contribution to society. In this thought-provoking book, Thomas Armstrong looks at the power and promise of the teenage brain from an empathetic, strength-based perspective—and describes what middle and high school educators can do to make the most of their students' potential. Thoroughly grounded in current neuroscience research, the book explains what we know about how the adolescent brain works and proposes eight essential instructional elements that will help students develop the ability to think, make healthy choices, regulate their emotions, handle social conflict, consolidate their identities, and learn enough about the world to move into adulthood with dignity and grace. Armstrong provides practical strategies and real-life examples from schools that illustrate these eight key practices in action. In addition, you'll find a glossary of brain terms, a selection of brain-friendly lesson plans across the content areas, and a list of resources to support and extend the book's ideas and practices. There is a colossal mismatch between how the adolescent brain has evolved over the millennia and the passive, rote learning experiences that are all too common in today's test-obsessed educational climate. See the amazing difference—in school and beyond—when you use the insights from this book to help students tap into the power of their changing brains.

Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond focuses on teaching adolescents within the context of a music classroom, regardless of content area (orchestra, band, choir, or general music). It provides a look at the importance of music courses in the lives of adolescents as they navigate the path between being a child and an adult. As every music student is completely unique, there is no one-size-fits-all prescriptive way of working with this age group. Rather, music educators must approach adolescents with high musical standards and aspirations to learn and achieve within music; a willingness to honor the individuality of each adolescent musician; a sense of structure, but an ability to be flexible; a desire to foster and promote a safe classroom environment where students feel empowered to be themselves and speak openly about what they think and believe; an understanding that music classes are not only safe places where students learn how to become better musicians but also better people through musical experiences focused on humanity and empathy; and a dose of humor, or at least the ability to acknowledge that adolescents are extremely funny whether or not they realize it. In addition, this book encourages pre-service and practicing music educators to mindfully examine and better understand their own teaching practices.

6 SUPER SKILLS to help teens stay focused and reach their goals! Do you sometimes have trouble paying attention in school? Do you lose track of time and deadlines? Do you often feel “scattered” or unorganized? You’re not alone. All teens need a little extra help staying focused—in school and in life. This is especially true if you have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, sensory processing disorders, a mood disorder, or have experienced traumatic brain injury. The good news is that there are skills you can learn to help you stay on track. In this friendly guide, psychologist and ADHD expert Lara Honos-Webb offers six powerful “super skills” to help you pay attention, increase productivity, and get organized so you can achieve your goals and live your best life. These skills include: Focusing on the positive Goal setting Chunking: breaking big goals down into small manageable chunks Motivational enhancement Emotional regulation: dealing with “big” feelings Managing attention Once you learn and practice these skills, you’ll feel empowered to conquer any task—no matter how big. So, why not start learning them today?

In today's schools, students and teachers feel unprecedented—even alarming—levels of stress. How can we create calmer classrooms in which students concentrate better and feel more positive about themselves and others? Author Thomas Armstrong offers a compelling answer in the form of mindfulness, a secular practice he defines as the intentional focus of one's attention on the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. In Mindfulness in the Classroom, Armstrong - Explains how mindfulness affects the structure and function of the brain. - Provides an overview of mindfulness as both a personal practice and a classroom methodology that aligns with such educational models as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). - Shares and explains the extensive research that shows the positive effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. - Describes how to adapt mindfulness for different grade levels, integrate it into regular school subjects, and implement it schoolwide. - Offers guidelines for teaching mindfulness responsibly, without religious overtones. Dozens of observations from teachers, students, researchers, and practitioners provide striking evidence of the power of mindfulness and offer hope to anyone who wants to make classrooms more productive places of learning.

The move toward teaching through inquiry is evident in curriculum documents across the continent. In this book, you’ll find a clear approach for incorporating inquiry into your classroom. Based on current research and solid classroom experience, authors Tina Jagdeo and Lara Jensen examine what inquiry is, then break it down into manageable steps that can be used with any K–12 age group. They explore and explain each step, providing real-life classroom examples. The Bold School model provides a four-step inquiry process as a manageable way to deepen understanding and solve a problem or issue. focuses on the importance of critical, creative and compassionate thinking skills in today’s world. uses provocations to kickstart inquiry and encourage students to wonder. builds a toolkit of strategies for research. encourages divergent thinking to brainstorm ways students can make a difference in local and global contexts. explores a variety of ways to take action. shows administrators how to support teachers to teach through inquiry.

A New York Times Bestseller Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers. Dr. Frances E. Jensen is chair of the department of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician, and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, she is in a unique position to explain to readers the workings of the teen brain. In The Teenage Brain, Dr. Jensen brings to readers the astonishing findings that previously remained buried in academic journals. The root myth scientists believed for years was that the adolescent brain was essentially an adult one, only with fewer miles on it. Over the last decade, however, the scientific community has learned that the teen years encompass vitally important stages of brain development. Samples of some of the most recent findings include: Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily "build" memories. But this heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can become addicted more strongly and for a longer duration than the adult brain. Studies show that girls' brains are a full two years more mature than boys' brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining differences seen in the classroom and in social behavior. Adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought. Recent experimental and human studies show that the occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot impacts later adulthood IQ. Multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities, which may result in habitual short attention in teenagers. Emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than it would affect the adult: stress can have permanent effects on mental health and can to lead to higher risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. Dr. Jensen gathers what we’ve discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making. In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.

Adolescents Are Not Alien Species Just a Misunderstood One This book is a summary of “The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults,” by Frances E. Jensen, MD. This book explores how the adolescent brain functions in learning, multitasking, stress, memory, sleep, addiction, and decision making. It explains why teenagers are not as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought; reveals how multitasking impacts learning ability and concentration, and examines the consequences of stress on mental health during and beyond adolescence. The book dispels many myths about teens and offers practical suggestions for parents, educators, and the legal system to help teenagers navigate their way into adulthood. This book is a must-read for parents, teachers, and others who live or interact with teens. This guide includes: * Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts. * Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth. Value-added from this guide: * Save time * Understand key concepts * Expand your knowledge