Successful Middle School Adult Advocates

Author: Brooklyn Raney

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Non-Member: $24.99Your price

Item #: 1442
Publisher: AMLE
Page Count: 144
ISBN: 978-1-56090-100-6
Published: 11/7/2024

This book is for anyone and everyone who cares about middle grades students. It is about one-to-one relationships as much as it is about programs and policies that support those one-to-one relationships. For use by individuals and school teams, this book provides research-backed explanations for what it means to be an advocate for middle grades students, how to earn the trust of adolescents, and how to establish healthy boundaries to protect youth and you.

A companion guide to The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, this text includes helpful language for communicating what it means to be an adult advocate at school to everyone invested in the growth and development of your middle grades students. Readers will find research and real-world stories, theoretical frameworks and implementable strategies. Whether you are a district-level leader, a teacher, a school counselor, a paraprofessional, an advisor, or a coach, and whether you are a veteran educator, or a novice, this book offers tips and tools for setting up healthy spaces, strengthening teams and communities, and ensuring that every student in your care can name at least one adult advocate at school.

Readers are guided through this journey by the book’s three parts:

• Part 1 lays the foundation by exploring why relationships matter at school and how adults can foster academic engagement and growth while also supporting social and emotional development.
• Part 2 establishes the qualities of an adult advocate at school, including how to make oneself accessible and provide care while maintaining healthy boundaries.
• Part 3 concludes with practical advice on how to assess adult-student connections, design experiences that promote belonging and trust, and set and communicate expectations.

About the Author

Dr. Brooklyn Raney is a research-practitioner specializing in the intersection of student perception, teacher sustainability, and parent expectation as it relates to an ethic of care in schools. As a teacher and administrator with a decade of experience, Brooklyn came to see that, with the right skill set, adult advocates could have a profound impact on student outcomes. After leading an initiative at her own school to provide this critical professional development to staff, Brooklyn founded One Trusted Adult to support other educators in fostering positive climates and connections at school and creating impactful advisory and student leadership programs. Her first book, One Trusted Adult: How to Build Strong Connections & Healthy Boundaries with Young People, is the result of more than five years spent conducting research and speaking and facilitating workshops with educators, parents, and youth-serving professionals around the world. Brooklyn holds a BA from Colgate University, an MA in Educational Theater from New York University, and an MS and EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, with her husband, son, and two adventurous goldendoodles named Tuukka and Larry Bird.

Praise for The Successful Middle School Adult Advocates

Middle school is a transformative time in students’ lives, and relationships with supportive adults at school are critical to their success and well-being. In Successful Middle School Adult Advocates Dr. Brooklyn Raney provides a powerful framework for creating meaningful connections between students and the adults who guide them. This book is a must read for educators and leaders committed to connecting with and advocating for young adolescents.
Lisa Damour, PhD
Author of Untangled, Under Pressure, and The Emotional Lives of Teenagers

Every student deserves and needs an adult advocate to help guide their academic and personal development. Dr. Brooklyn Raney's newest addition to AMLE's The Successful Middle School series guides educators through the process of ensuring an adult advocate for each child. Carefully detailing why students need adult advocates, what adult advocacy entails, and how to successfully implement opportunities for students to have adult advocates, Dr. Raney provides practical advice and support to help any middle school looking to implement, improve, or evaluate the use of adult advocates.
Laurie Barron, Ed.D.
Author of The Successful Middle School a Place to Belong and Become and We Belong: 50 Strategies to Create Community and Revolutionize Classroom Management

James Comer once said, “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” Enter The SMS Adult Advocate. Rainy perfectly outlines how to build relationships and establish trust in order to foster academic engagement and growth. Identifying qualities, roles, and characteristics of adult advocates can be sometimes be challenging, Rainy lays out a road map that guides adult advocates through the ABCs of being accessible, boundaried, and caring and how to provide modes of care that meet the needs of all students. As the perfect companion to The SMS Advisory, this book will help schools, teams, and advisors understand the why, what, and how needed to ensure “every student’s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate.
Todd Brist, Ed.D.
Author of The Successful Middle School Advisory