Acton Academy: The one-room schoolhouse for the twenty-first century Seeking a 21st century education for their children, Laura and Jeff Sandefer jumped off the track of conventional school and created a new model for learning. They created Acton Academy as a better school where learning is made practical and meaningful and where students begin a lifelong Hero's Journey to discover their true potential. Using the Socratic method, elements of the Montessori approach and state-of-the-art online instruction, Acton guides students toward independence and self-motivation, helping them find the courage to grow into the person they were meant to be. Soon, other parents wanted to start their own Acton Academies, and less than a decade from the seven founding students' first Socratic discussion, Acton has spread around the world. ​Courage to Grow is the Sandefer family's personal quest for their own children's education and happiness. Their story also contains a path for other parents who want to give their children the freedom to take ownership of their own education and to start their own school. The treasure at the end is much larger than Laura ever expected--a quickly growing network of dedicated, curious young people and parents who are not afraid to set them free.

Here is Barbara Crafton at her best—funny, warm, direct, honest, and vulnerable—on aging. “I think growing older is both funny and sad, but mostly it just makes me grateful to be alive and able to reflect. I have been an Episcopal priest for 33 years and have had extensive experience in ministering with the elderly. Now, I am growing old myself. I hate it when people are ashamed of being old. We should be proud!” she proclaims. Join her in this celebration of life!

An entertaining and engaging read that will help you find the courage you need to grow personally. Expect to see a change in the way you think and in what you do when it comes to your personal dreams and aspirations. After all, being tall isn't a matter of feet or inches. It's a matter of having the courage and belief that comes from thinking taller.

"This book is for teachers who have good days and bad -- and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life." - Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction] Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students? In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

This unusual self-help book about surviving grief offers the reader comfort and inspiration. Each of us will face some loss, sorrow and disappointment in our lives, and The Courage to Grieve provides the specific help we need to enable us to face our grief fully and to recover and grow from the experience. Although the book emphasizes the response to the death of a loved one, The Courage to Grieve can help with every kind of loss and grief. Judy Tatelbaum gives us a fresh look at understanding grief, showing us that grief is a natural, inevitable human experience, including all the unexpected, intense and uncomfortable emotions like sorrow, guilt, loneliness, resentment, confusion, or even the temporary loss of the will to live. The emphasis is to clarify and offer help, and the tone is spiritual, optimistic, creative and easy to understand. Judy Tatelbaum provides excellent advice on how to help oneself and others get through the immediate experience of death and the grief that follows, as well as how to understand the special grief of children. Particularly useful are the techniques for completing or "finishing" grief--counteracting the popular misconception that grief never ends. The Courage to Grieve shows us how to live life with the ultimate courage: not fearing death. This book is about so much more than death and grieving it is about life and joy and growth.

The Courage to Grow: Leading with Intentionality shows educational leaders how to design and carry out a leadership professional development plan. It is a guide that allows leaders to construct their own learning to measure knowledge, assess growth, and improve performance. This training manual is for theteacher leader, beginning principal, practicing principal, assistant principal, department chair, district office administrator, aspiring leadership candidate, and professor of principal preparation. Chapters begin with a section called Learning with Intentionality, as defined as an intense energy or desire to grow exponentially, followed by a personal application of Caring with Intentionality. Chapters 2 – 7 include a leadership self-assessment utilizing the ISLLC Standards and conclude with growth activities. Depending on their leadership roles, the readers can select activities best suited to grow performance from present realities to ideal conditions for learning. The reader is then encouraged to design a personal Action Plan that takes into account knowledge from each chapter, strategies for growing performance with intentionality, and self-assessment results. Finally, each chapter includes websites, resources, and activities to improve leadership.

In this enjoyable and informative book, authors Lofgren and Bhola challenge women to list the top three friends they'd call if their lives suddenly fell apart, thereby pointing out that many women may not have the friends they want when they need them the most. Each author had her own profound experience that awakened her to the importance of female friends. Together they spent three years interviewing women about how they build and nurture their friendship circles, and exploring how and why friends contribute so richly to our lives. Their findings and stories will help women realize that friendships are as important to well-being as good health and sound finances-and should never be left to chance. In fact, according to studies: When women hang out with friends, their bodies release the hormone oxytocin, which combats stress and creates calm. Having friends reduces the risk of physical health issues and allows us to more easily recover after the death of a partner. And, women with friends are 26 percent less likely to develop dementia. Knowing the importance of friendship, however, may not always drive women to make or nurture friendships, even though doing so would ensure they have a safety net of women they can rely on when life is good or when all hell breaks loose. But who doesn't fear being alone or lonely when they move, divorce, change jobs, retire, face an empty nest, or suffer the loss of a partner or dear friend? That's why the authors encourage women to be intentional about nurturing a safety net of friends to fill unspeakable voids, provide certainty in uncertain times, and offer a safeguard of love and support. Packed with fun and inspiring stories and suggestions, the book covers everything from ways to keep virtual friendships alive to getting over and moving beyond friendship irritants and breakdowns. Women I Want to Grow Old With will guide and inspire women of all ages to breathe new life and excitement into our relationships by seeing female friends as "intention holders"-women who encircle us with love and support. These are women we love to laugh with and occasionally stir up trouble with! They serve as thought partners, voices of reason, and devil's advocates. They let us down and, once in a while, infuriate us. We forgive and so do they. These "women we keep on speed dial" literally and figuratively stand by our sides, cheering us on or helping us carry our burdens as we cross yet another finish line. And if we're lucky enough, no matter our age, we'll find women we want to grow old with!