Presents a guide to the PeaceJam Foundation, combining profiles of Nobel Peace Laureates who have joined the PeaceJam Foundation in their Global Call to Action, tales from youth members around the world, and tips on how readers can get involved.

Based on the highly acclaimed PeaceJam program?an educational action plan built around the spirit, skills, and wisdom of Nobel Peace laureates?this is a practical and motivational guide that will inspire a generation of peacemakers. PeaceJam traces the lives of five American teens who, by applying the skills and techniques from the PeaceJam program and developing personal relationships with Nobel Peace laureates such as the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, begin to sense their own potential for greatness. Discover Why People Are Talking About PeaceJam "PeaceJam is about youth learning to do a better job than we did?you have the opportunity to show us up and get it right! I am confident that you will?go for it!" ?Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Winner "These stories of Rudy, Jes, Richard, Shannon, and Shelby give us all an opportunity to reflect on the truth of hope." ?Rigoberta MenchÚ Tum, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Winner "Young, cool, and edgy?you go, PeaceJam!" ?An drei Codrescu, National Public Radio "PeaceJam will help thousands of young people to gain a greater understanding about the world and about themselves, therefore helping them to have a better way of life, which is an extremely important task." ?The Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Winner "Anyone who wants to understand the building blocks of peace must read this book!" ?Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Winner "Parents and students, teachers and school leaders, and anyone who cares about youth and our future will benefit from reading PeaceJam." ?Dr. Kate Cumbo, Colorado Department of Education

Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement analyzes the psychological, social, and academic phenomena comprising engagement, framing it as critical to learning and development. Drawing on positive psychology, flow studies, and theories of motivation, the book conceptualizes engagement as a learning experience, explaining how it occurs (or not) and how schools can adapt to maximize it among adolescents. Examples of empirically supported environments promoting engagement are provided, representing alternative high schools, Montessori schools, and extracurricular programs. The book identifies key innovations including community-school partnerships, technology-supported learning, and the potential for engaging learning opportunities during an expanded school day. Among the topics covered: Engagement as a primary framework for understanding educational and motivational outcomes. Measuring the malleability, complexity, multidimensionality, and sources of engagement. The relationship between engagement and achievement. Supporting and challenging: the instructor’s role in promoting engagement. Engagement within and beyond core academic subjects. Technological innovations on the engagement horizon. Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology; social work; educational psychology; positive psychology; family studies; and teaching/teacher education.

This dynamic book provides powerful ideas to guide pedagogy and a curriculum model for helping students connect with issues in their lives while meeting standards. Vivid portraits of K12 classrooms illustrate how teachers used a human rights framework to engage students in critical inquiry of relevant social issues, such as immigration rights, religious tolerance, racial equality, countering the effects of poverty, and respect for people with disabilities. The book shows how a group of teachers worked together to develop a critical content framework using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Chapters highlight lively classroom and community action projects.

Learn how to nurture and cultivate kindness, compassion, and love in ourselves and others in this “very joyous and deeply spiritual” (Betty Williams, Noble Peace Laureate) guidebook from the “dedicated student of the Dalai Lama” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu), Tibetan freedom fighter, and Grammy-nominated musician. In Nawang Khechog’s view, one of the wonders of being human is that we can choose to nurture and cultivate kindness, compassion, and love. These precious values are the foundation of true happiness and are at the core of humanity’s possibility of peaceful coexistence with one another and with our environment. Based on his years as a monk studying Buddhist philosophy and meditation with the Dalai Lama, as well as his own highly regarded kindness workshops, Awakening Kindness details the many ways we can enrich our lives by simply being kind to each other and ourselves. Nawang shares a range of simple meditations, mantras, and practices that are easy to incorporate even into the busiest of lives. Covering the underlying philosophies of many cultures and religions, and touching on everything from human nature as it’s portrayed in film to scientific support of our limitless capacity for love and compassion, Awakening Kindness takes you on a life-changing journey that shows that we all can take part in creating a culture of kindness. “Anyone who picks up this book and is receptive to its message will immediately enjoy the many benefits of living in this simple and sacred way” (Richard J. Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Óscar Arias Sánchez was awarded the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the civil unrest raging in several Central American countries at that time.

Leading thinkers from a range of disciplines discuss the compatibility of power and care, in conversation with the Dalai Lama. For more than thirty years, the Dalai Lama has been in dialogue with thinkers from a range of disciplines, helping to support pathways for knowledge to increase human wellbeing and compassion. These conversations, which began as private meetings, are now part of the Mind & Life Institute and Mind & Life Europe. This book documents a recent Mind & Life Institute dialogue with the Dalai Lama and others on two fundamental forces: power and care—power over and care for others in human societies. The notion of power is essentially neutral; power can be used to benefit others or to harm them, to build or to destroy. Care, on the other hand, is not a neutral force; it aims at increasing the wellbeing of others. Power and care are not incompatible: power, imbued with care, can achieve more than a powerless motivation to care; power, without the intention to benefit others, can be ruthless. The contributors—who include such celebrated figures as Frans B. M. de Waal, Olafur Eliasson, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, and Jody Williams—discuss topics including the interaction of power and care among our closest relatives, the chimpanzees; the effect of meditation and mental training practices on the brain; the role of religion in promoting peace and compassion; and the new field of Caring Economics. Contributors Paul Collier, Brother Thierry-Marie Courau, Frans B. M. de Waal, Olafur Eliasson, Scilla Elworthy, Alexandra M. Freund, Tenzin Gyatso (His Holiness the Dalai Lama), Markus Heinrichs, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Frédéric Laloux, Alaa Murabit, Matthieu Ricard, Johan Rockström, Richard Schwartz, Tania Singer, Dennis J. Snower, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, Theo Sowa, Pauline Tangiora, Jody Williams