"In Gianna Cassetta's previous books, she discussed the importance of teaching socioemotional skills to children. In this book, Gianna and co-author Margaret Wilson tackles how to cultivate our own socioemotional skills so that we can become better teachers and happier people. She explains the current reality in many classrooms as a gap in our socioemotional competence: "if we aren't self-aware, we can't self-manage very well--we allow fear to block the possibility of connection or compassion, and often find ourselves in us vs. them situations. Whoever we end up against, we put great effort into minimizing their problems and perspectives, and eventually they become invisible to us. They just aren't real enough to deal with." This book will offer teachers reflective activities and models that help them transcend the momentum of fear and focus on connecting to themselves, their colleagues, children's families, and the children in their classroom"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction: How much should we care about each other? -- Difficulty: Juan, "you don't like my child" -- Shift: recognize the impact of your negative feelings -- Difficulty: Willy, a child marked by trauma -- Shift: move from a deficit to an asset-based model -- Difficulty: Carlos, a bad reputation -- Shift: change your internal dialogue -- Shift: change your public conversations -- Shift: change how you speak to children -- Difficulty: Charlotte, feeling out of sync -- Shift: intentionally and continuously foster class community -- Difficulty: Ricardo, giving up before trying -- Shift: provide multiple opportunities to develop competence -- Difficulty: Alfred, trying to control -- Shift: intentionally cultivate students' autonomy -- Shift: collaborate with students -- Conclusion: Looking inward & outward.