NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This inspiring meditation on kindness from the author of Lincoln in the Bardo is based on his popular commencement address. Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders’s words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the way is an inspiring message from one of today’s most influential and original writers. Praise for Congratulations, by the way “As slender as a psalm, and as heavy.”—The New York Times “The graduating college senior in your life probably just wants money. But if you want to impart some heartfelt, plainspoken wisdom in addition to a check, you can't do much better than [Congratulations, by the way].”—Entertainment Weekly “The loving selflessness that [George Saunders] advises and the interconnectedness that he recognizes couldn’t be purer or simpler—or more challenging.”—Kirkus Reviews “Warm and tender.”—Publishers Weekly

The Fourth Edition of Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas: Enhancing Knowledge in the Disciplines provides readers with the knowledge, motivation, tools, and confidence for integrating literacy in their disciplinary classrooms. Offering an original, literature-based approach to teaching disciplinary literacy, the new edition shares important ways in which teachers of courses in the disciplines can enhance student learning of subject matter and skills while also fostering their growth in the many facets of literacy. Throughout each chapter, Kane provides engaging and creative strategies and activities to make literacy come alive in discipline-specific courses and to encourage students to explore and learn in the classroom. Embedded in each chapter are examples, resources, and strategies to help readers actively engage with and implement literacy practices. These features include Teaching in Action examples by subject area; Activating Prior Knowledge activities to stimulate critical thinking to prepare readers to learn complex theoretical and conceptual material about teaching, learning, and literacy; and end-of-chapter Application Activities to apply field experiences to classroom use. New to the Fourth Edition Every chapter of this new edition is updated to reflect the current approaches, standards, and benchmarks for discipline-specific literacy. Enhanced Companion Website with BookTalks to introduce relevant books in many genres and subjects, encouraging readers to explore the books for themselves and providing a model for BookTalks in their own classrooms. Expanded practical instructional strategies for teaching literacy in math, science, and social studies. Updated to include newly published titles in children’s literature, young adult literature, and nonfiction.

This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013). The book brings together a team of scholars from around the world to explore topics ranging from Saunders’s treatment of work and religion to biopolitics and the limits of the short story form. It also includes an interview with Saunders specially conducted for the volume, and a preliminary bibliography of his published works and critical responses to an expanding and always exciting creative œuvre. Coinciding with the release of the Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), George Saunders: Critical Essays is the first book-length consideration of a major contemporary author’s work. It is essential reading for anyone interested in twenty-first century fiction.

Mindful Teaching and Learning: Developing a Pedagogy of Well-Being features a community of scholar-practitioners from across disciplines, methodologies, and ideological perspectives exploring and examining contexts that support mindful teaching, mindful learning, and a pedagogy of well-being. Collectively, these chapters document and analyze the opportunities and challenges within pedagogical sites and discuss how the disposition of mindfulness can be nurtured and sustained in educational practice and praxis. Bolstered by the positive evidence-based standards emanating from clinical settings, mindfulness based training has spread into a variety of other fields like psychology, healthcare, and more recently, education. Within pedagogical environments, an emergent secular conception of mindfulness, under the auspices of educational psychologists like Langer (1987; 1997), Goleman, (2008), Lantieri (2008), Roeser, Skinner, Beers, and Jennings, (2012), and Schonert-Reichl and Lawlor (2010), is making headway. Consequently, Mindfulness Training (MT) resources have been applied to educational contexts in order to maximize the academic, emotional, physical, and psychological benefits provided by this mind-body approach to well-being. Acknowledging the increasing evidence base for the efficacy of mindfulness interventions as well as the elevated stress levels reported by many educators and their students, this book discusses how mindful practices, praxis, and research can inform and support pedagogy, curriculum, and leadership initiatives in higher education in the twenty-first century. Alongside the multitude of recent studies in the area of Mindfulness, contributors discuss their own experiences using Self-study, Contemplative pedagogy, Living Educational Theory, and Curriculum Inquiry. The content of this book examines ways in which to develop habits of mind and courses of action, as well as a curriculum of study that can support educators as they cultivate competencies for thriving and coping with the modern demands of being a teacher.

This study examines the fiction of contemporary American author George Saunders in terms of how it presents situations applicable to the chief notions of posthumanist ethics and how these conceptions concern nonhuman animals, which are prevalent in his writing. Posthumanist ethics can help us understand what is at play in Saunders’s fiction. Meanwhile, his texts can help us understand what is at stake in posthumanist ethics. This interdisciplinary project may be beneficial both to conceiving new notions of ethics that are more inclusive and, more implicitly, to understanding the relevance of Saunders’s fiction to the current American sociocultural climate.

Can you imagine what it would feel like to never feel any resentment for any wrong done to you, gossip or lie disseminated about you? To respond with full awareness to all situations and people rather than react from your gut? What freedom that would entail! Well, this is just one of the gifts the practice of blessing from the heart, i.e. sending out focused love energy, will do for you. This book, from the bestselling author of The Gentle Art of Blessing, will help you learn to bless all situations and people as you go through the day and add overwhelming joy and presence to your existence.

Wisdom and encouragement from mindfulness, psychology, science, and time-honored traditions. Featuring 50 practical tools to ease anxiety, overwhelm, and stress by recognizing the enduring sense of love and well-being that’s with us regardless of our circumstances. Enlightenment isn’t a lofty and unattainable goal. Real-world enlightenment is always here, and you can find it any time in life’s highs, lows, and everything in-between. Beloved mindfulness teacher, best-selling author, and longtime Buddhist practitioner Susan Kaiser Greenland explores time-honored themes that tap into a sense of love, connection, and well-being that is with us regardless of our circumstances. These universal themes—including Change, Humility, Interdependence, Concentration, Joy, Kindness, and Discernment, among many others—emphasize attitudes and mindsets that lead to emotional and psychological freedom by lessening our reactivity, broadening our perspectives, and deepening our relationships. Kaiser Greenland draws from science, psychology, Buddhism, wisdom traditions, and personal stories to give us a view of “real-world enlightenment”— where we shift from a narrow survival-driven frame of mind to one that is grounded and as vast as the sky. When we cultivate this expansive worldview from the inside out, we become more resilient, and that’s just the beginning. A view as vast as the sky charts the course for kind, resilient people to build a kinder and more resilient world. To help us do this, she offers valuable methods and takeaways that allow you to apply these life-changing universal themes every day. They include: Practical ways to recognize the basic goodness within and around you by tapping into sensory pleasures like music or nature. Robust tools to manage stress and develop attention by focusing on a sight, sound, image, word, or phrase. Catchy slogans that promote emotional balance when you feel overwhelmed, like “right now, I’m okay,” “drop the baggage,” or “don’t play the scene before you get there.” These and other phrases can interrupt spiraling thoughts and move you back into your comfort zone. Accessible meditation methods to experience life with greater equanimity by slowing down your thinking process to heighten awareness of the natural movement of your mind. Time-tested life hacks to care for yourself and others with greater kindness and compassion. Insightful strategies that bring greater ease and effortlessness into your life and relationships by helping you remain flexible and creative, even in challenging situations. And much more.