Resources

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Videos

Brené Brown
Daring Classrooms
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A daring classroom is a place where teachers have the courage to be vulnerable, so that students can do the same. Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and learning. As a teacher, Brown says, “you can create a culture of courage in your classroom if you are willing to be vulnerable. That may be the only space a child has to take the armor off his or her heart. But one thing that will kill it faster than anything else, the one betrayal of vulnerability, is shame.”

Valor Collegiate School
How One Nashville Public School is Transforming Education
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Valor Collegiate Academies, based in Nashville, is showing that social emotional learning (SEL) and academic success go hand in hand. The consistently top-ranked school uses Circle, a structured methodology where students and teachers build trust with face-to-face dialogue, to help create an optimal environment for learning. 

Simon Sinek
How Great Leaders Inspire Action

In this viral TED video, Simon Sinek says most organizations and leaders start by explaining “What” they do. But Simon says that exceptional organizations and leaders start instead with “Why.” As examples, he cites Apple, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Wright brothers.

Sydney Chaffee
​How Teachers Can Help Kids Find Their Political Voices

Social justice belongs in our schools, says educator Sydney Chaffee. In a bold talk, she shows how teaching students to engage in activism helps them build important academic and life skills -- and asks us to rethink how we can use education to help kids find their voices. "Teaching will always be a political act," Chaffee says. "We can't be afraid of our students' power. Their power will help them make tomorrow better."

Articles and Resources

There's More to Life than Being Happy
Emily Esfahani Smith | The Atlantic, January 2013

A New Focus on Purpose-Based Learning
Ross Wehner | Independent School, Spring 2018

How about Creating Schools with More Purpose than Test Scores and Letter Grades?
Folwell Dunbar | The Lens, August 2018

A Guide to Unlocking Purpose
Unlocking Purpose for a Healthy Life
​An Incomplete Manifesto for Purpose
Richard Leider

Books

Man's Search for Meaning
Victor Frankl (see also this Teaching Guide)

The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling In Life
Dr. William Damon

Life on Purpose: How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything
Victor Strecher

The Power of Purpose: Find Meaning, Live Longer, Better
Richard Leider

The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters
Emily Esfahani Smith ​

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If you have any other resources that you find to be useful, please submit them to Shayna Cooke: [email protected]