A valuable guide to helping teachers reawaken their passion and prioritize their emotional health.
Offering practical advice and exercises, this manual aims to inspire educators to rekindle their spark.
Nearly three times more likely to experience depression than other working adults, modern educators are besieged by evolving expectations and limited time, Veny asserts. The result is an exodus of qualified teachers from the field, with those remaining in the classroom feeling unseen and sometimes unsafe. But sharing his own story of a childhood mental health crisis and examples of students whose potentials were protected by teachers, the author encourages educators to not give up on their classrooms or themselves. Veny provides a wealth of empowering resources, guiding educators back from the brink of burnout and examining a host of relevant topics. Covered in this work are such diverse subjects as finding your “Why,” having mental health conversations, and dealing with the feeling you have “failed” a student. And while the book contains traditional reminders about a balanced diet and adequate sleep, concepts like the “Covey Time Management Matrix,” “Coping Ahead,” and “Worry Time” will introduce readers to new, intriguing strategies for managing key issues. In addition to delivering helpful skill-building activities dedicated to filling “your cup,” each chapter is accompanied by a song selected by the author. From Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” to Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” this free Spotify soundtrack offers a multisensory approach to the lessons presented. It is important to note that serious—and potentially triggering—topics, such as self-harm and suicide, are occasionally discussed, illustrating the challenges faced by modern youths and the teachers who protect them. But the work’s overall tone is optimistic, and professionals of all backgrounds can benefit from the positive, useful advice. Stripping away the complexity surrounding self-care, Veny notes that by creating a detailed plan to manage time and stress and reducing negative influences, emotional wellness and professional excellence can flow freely in educators’ lives.
A valuable guide to helping teachers reawaken their passion and prioritize their emotional health.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798985087864
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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