Gianna Cassetta

The Social and Emotional Core of Equity Leadership: A Guide for Driving Change in Schools is a practical guide for educational leaders committed to creating inclusive schools where all students feel a sense of belonging. Challenging traditional approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL), this book argues that adult SEL must be rooted in equity and justice, not compliance or neutrality. Through vivid case studies, research-informed frameworks, and a structured reflection tool, readers explore how inner work (like identity reflection, emotional self-awareness, and bias interruption) must fuel outer work (like policy change, community engagement, and institutional redress). Organized around five core SEL domains, the book offers concrete strategies for making equity actionable, particularly in moments of resistance, controversy, or discomfort. Written for principals, district leaders, and school leadership teams, this book is ideal for those navigating real-world pressures while striving to lead with clarity and conscience. Whether you're rethinking discipline systems, addressing bias in dress codes, or responding to exclusion that flies under the radar, this book helps you lead more skilfully and justly.

Painful truth: there are just some students that you don't immediately connect with, and fear you never will. You have reasons and the teacher who had that student last year probably did, too. But what happens to students when they pass through school unliked? And is it possible for us to move beyond our initial feelings to better relationships with all students? Cassetta and Wilson have a challenge to all of us: as professionals who have chosen to work with young people, it's our responsibility to find a way to care about every student, especially the ones who feel the hardest to like. Students can't learn from people who don't like them or who they don't like. If we teach, strong student-teacher relationships have to be one of our top priorities. With a clear eye on the realities of teaching, The Caring Teacher lays out specific strategies to build and improve even our most challenging relationships. Acknowledging teachers' daily struggles, Cassetta and Wilson offer a variety of ways--from mindset shifts to small strategies--to improve all student relationships. These strategies can help us intentionally foster competence, relatedness, and autonomy in every student, giving them us the capacity to see their strengths and cultivate their roles as vital parts of our classroom communities. The Caring Teaching is an invitation to look inward for reflection, and outward for connection. An invitation to try. Not just for the students who conform to our expectations, but for the ones who don't. The ones who most need us to be better.

"We can do better, but expectation alone is not enough. We need answers and examples like the ones Gianna and Brook provide with great insight from research and practice and great compassion for teachers and students. My hope is that this book will become a touchstone for all of us." --Carmen Fari a, Chancellor of New York City Schools "Positive, supportive relationships with children help them develop socially and emotionally and help you to effectively manage your classroom," writes Gianna Cassetta. She shows you an approach to creating that environment that can actually be planned for, taught, and supported from the first day of school--or anytime you want to reset your classroom community. Gianna has been a teacher and leader, and the classroom management strategy she shares in Classroom Management Matters shifts you away from professionally draining rewards-and-consequences systems that threaten children rather than connect with them. Instead of tips and techniques Gianna presents a plan for explicitly teaching children how to be effective learners and accountable members of the classroom. You'll quickly learn to: know your students better and understand the causes of individuals' misbehavior assess children's development along a provided social-emotional continuum--just like any other skill you teach teach these self-management skills to support a positive classroom and academic growth set and maintain boundaries with students respond to disruption with effective teaching language. With reflection questions, classroom examples, and summaries of supporting studies from researcher Brook Sawyer, Classroom Management Matters helps you be a learning leader in the classroom instead of an authority. "I'll show you detailed strategies that prevent and minimize your difficulties with students," writes Gianna, "so you can focus on constructive action that will have a lasting, positive impact."