The School of Hope

Cathleen Beachboard is a teacher, author, and researcher. She writes and creates content for Edutopia and has been featured by TED-Ed. After adopting five children out of a case of extreme abuse and neglect, she has been on a mission to improve outcomes for those who experience trauma and anxiety. Cathleen has taught middle school English for the past 15 years. She also works as a part-time researcher holding an M.A. in Psychology. Her research focuses on psychological tools schools can use to help students and staff increase psychological hope, resiliency, achievement, and happiness. You can find her on Twitter @Cathleenbeachbd

Chapter 1-H.O.P.E. Makers: Trauma brain, society, and the power of you Chapter 2-Healing: Safety, Coping, and Connections Safety: Trauma, safety, and fostering healing Coping: Strategies and tools to help daily interactions Connections: Building positive relationships and repairing trust Compassion for Colleagues: Building a healing culture of support Chapter 3- Overcoming: Hope and Goals Hope: Using hope scores to foster resilience from setback, trauma, and ACEs Goals: Using The Learning Goal Cycle to build hope and success Compassion for Colleagues: Growing Hopeful Cultures for The Long Game Chapter 4-Planning: Pathways, Belief, and Practicing Pathways: Possibility Blindness and Learning Belief: Using representation, social models, and environments to foster possibility Practicing: Creating and using pathways for problems Compassion for Colleagues: Pathways for problematic organizational practices and lack of support Chapter 5 Energizing: Agency and Motivation Agency: Building agency with willpower strategies Motivation: Infusing intrinsic drive and positive mindsets Compassion for Colleagues: Supporting and motivating each other Chapter 6: The School of H.O.P.E.: Patience, support, and connections for your journey Notes

"Readers will have 7 BILLION reasons to be HOPE-filled and HOPE-makers with tools to influence their students' behavior as well as their future. Cathleen's personal journey toward understanding the power of hope comes alive through her heartfelt storytelling. Her unique perspective as a mom, foster parent, teacher, colleague, and researcher will draw you in as she shares the science of hope and offers valuable tools for the classroom. This book couldn't come at a better time for teachers yearning to help their students develop the mindset and perseverance needed to overcome trauma." -- Helen Barrier "In The School of Hope, author Cathleen Beachboard provides the blueprint for educators to create environments founded on healing by shaping a space that fosters a sense of safety. Teachers can spark hope for students and colleagues despite the challenges and trauma experienced during the pandemic. This book is a must-read for all educators who want to foster school cultures of hope." -- Barbara Bray "This book provides research, anecdotal information, and practical activities and forms to help school staff build HOPE for students and staff who suffer from past or continuing trauma. This book and the movement that it recommends is useful for all levels of educators and greater community members from PreK to collegiate programs. Preservice teachers should have this information in order to prepare for today's students who may have been out of the traditional classroom for months. As a nation, we could be facing the fact that almost every student has encountered some form of trauma due to the COVID pandemic. Many have lost family members, such as grandparents, and will be dealing with fear and grief for some time to come. We know that creating safe and caring classrooms and school communities are the foundations for academic achievement." -- Carrie Jane Carpenter "This book is both inspiring and practical! So many students have faced adversity and this book equips educators to come alongside them, encourage them, increase their resilience, and give them the tools to thrive. However, the incredible impact will not be limited to students. Educators, administrators, and clinicians can all benefit from the wisdom and guidance found here. What a much-needed, timely resource for us all!" -- Holly N. Deemer PhD "This book is absolutely needed, even more so with the increase in mental health issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even pre-pandemic, mental health needs and trauma were raising concerns of educators about how to best meet the increasing needs of our students. This will be a valuable resource for educators. As a principal, I could see it as an ideal faculty book study. " -- Jessica Johnson "Cathleen Beachboard has written a phenomenal book! I hope each of you will learn, as I did, from the exceptional content that will assist educators, students, and their families. One book, one sentence in a book, can cause a ripple effect that carries on for generations to come. Yes, you can make that kind of difference after reading this book and implementing the sensational ideas in it." -- Meredith Johnson "This text marries the important roles of parent and teacher as it describes the strategies and resources we need to help children overcome trauma and navigate their way through difficult situations at home and at school." -- Susan Stone Kessler "Hope is the intangible yet indispensable ingredient students and teachers need to persist and prevail during these challenging times. In this important new book, Cathleen Beachboard explains the psychology of hope and how it can be cultivated in schools. For educators and others seeking to instill optimism despite the challenges we face about the future, this book will be a source of inspiration and a guide for how we can make hope a resource for the students who need it most." -- Pedro A. Noguera, PhD "This book offers a compelling message of H.O.P. E. for educators across all disciplines in moving from an idea to implementation. It's a quick read filled with personal stories and experiences and it is a great time-saving guide for busy educators. Self-care plans and practical strategies for meeting students where they are and assisting them with social and emotional needs create and instill hope within your organization. The School of Hope is one handy tool that will not be stored on a shelf and will enhance the culture and performance of one's organization." -- Debra Paradowski "This book provides educators with strategies that can support students in learning that the negative impact of traumatic experiences doesn't have to control their lives. While teachers may not have backgrounds in developing the social emotional skills of students and colleagues, all teachers are able to ensure a classroom and school environment that nurtures acceptance and hope for all." -- Ernie Rambo "In a world where it is easy to focus on the negative and feel helpless, hope extends its reach for us to take the next step. Cathleen masterfully helps us understand that we have a choice in how we approach the challenges we face and provides real examples of how you can re-ignite your and your students' hope. This is a brilliant read!" -- LaVonna Roth "The School of Hope is an optimistic and hopeful read. It delivers a sense of agency for teachers and school leaders with its many practical pathways and tools for nurturing hope daily both in classrooms and among colleagues. This book offers an ingenious fusion of research on hope with personal and professional stories and analogies. The School of Hope is a book that will not only ensure that hope comes to to students, but also brings hope to its readers about what is possible in schools today and tomorrow." -- Jocelyn Washburn, PhD "The School of Hope is a timely and important book. Near the end of this book, the author claims that 'changing the world, changing school cultures, and changing classrooms starts with hope.' How true! And this book helps us to understand why it is true as well as how we can go about creating the hopeful schools and cultures we need in our society today. I highly recommend this book not only for educators but also for anyone interested in living a hope-filled life and instilling hope within others." -- Jeffrey Zoul, EdD