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ExSELent Teaching: Classroom strategies to support the social, emotional, and academic growth of students
Feeling overwhelmed with the dynamics of today's schools and classrooms?
Have you been hearing crickets in your class discussions?
Are you constantly redirecting behavior?
Is your classroom feeling stale, disconnected, or inefficient? Are you struggling to support the social and emotional needs of your students? Do you need your spark rekindled or are you just looking to grow as an educator?
Teachers are looking for strategies to support today's students' significant social, emotional, and academic needs while making their classrooms highly engaging, efficient, and effective. This book shares strategies, procedures, and structures that will help teachers do exactly that from a two-time national award-winning educator.
In his 25 years in the classroom, R. Keeth Matheny ("Coach Rudy") has learned many lessons, co-developed strategies and frameworks, and most of all, seen the incredible and heart-warming effects of strong SEL programs. SEL is a research and evidence-based, proactive approach to students' social, emotional, and mental well-being. Strong social and emotional classroom practices impact culture, climate, inclusion, behavior, engagement, and academic achievement. This book is designed to share these lessons, frameworks, and many moving stories of this work. Coach Rudy shares his personal experience along with actionable strategies, frameworks, and tips for classroom teachers and/or administrators. In addition, many of his former students add their authentic voices in deeply inspiring reflections about the impacts of these practices in their lives.
The book is sequenced like the flow of the class, and the concepts in the book will be relevant on multiple levels. While the book, on the surface, may seem to be just about classroom practices, you will also find deep insights into many broad life lessons. Each chapter covers an essential classroom pedagogical approach you can use in any class to grow a truly exSELent classroom. While many of these concepts may not be new to you, the connection to brain science, supporting student growth, and life lessons will likely add much depth and inspiration. Regardless of whether you are a veteran educator or a novice, this book will offer tons of actionable takeaways you can put to use right away for your classroom and your life.
Order now and start your exSELent journey!
What others are
“Coach Rudy has a gift for providing practical strategies that can be easily implemented and will result in powerful outcomes. This book provides practical strategies that will result in powerful outcomes. This book is filled with strategies that will invite positive student connection.”
-Jim Sporleder
Principal Paper Tigers
Author of The Trauma-Informed School
“I have personally observed [Coach Rudy’s] teaching, and this very readable book has the feel of one of his classes, making the SEL ‘teacher moves’ accessible and understandable. I strongly recommend this book to any educator who is committed to strengthening relationships with students in order to increase their effectiveness.”
-Stephen D. Arnold, Vice Chairman, George Lucas Educational Foundation
Coach Rudy has provided the ultimate tool to help teachers connect with students, build positive climate, and integrate SEL. I have used a number of these strategies in my classroom and I know you will find exSELent ones to use in yours.
-Michele Sandoval Villegas
Parkland Pre Engineering Middle School
2020 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year
“Keeth takes his reader on an ‘ounce of prevention’ pedagogi
Have you been hearing crickets in your class discussions?
Are you constantly redirecting behavior?
Is your classroom feeling stale, disconnected, or inefficient? Are you struggling to support the social and emotional needs of your students? Do you need your spark rekindled or are you just looking to grow as an educator?
Teachers are looking for strategies to support today's students' significant social, emotional, and academic needs while making their classrooms highly engaging, efficient, and effective. This book shares strategies, procedures, and structures that will help teachers do exactly that from a two-time national award-winning educator.
In his 25 years in the classroom, R. Keeth Matheny ("Coach Rudy") has learned many lessons, co-developed strategies and frameworks, and most of all, seen the incredible and heart-warming effects of strong SEL programs. SEL is a research and evidence-based, proactive approach to students' social, emotional, and mental well-being. Strong social and emotional classroom practices impact culture, climate, inclusion, behavior, engagement, and academic achievement. This book is designed to share these lessons, frameworks, and many moving stories of this work. Coach Rudy shares his personal experience along with actionable strategies, frameworks, and tips for classroom teachers and/or administrators. In addition, many of his former students add their authentic voices in deeply inspiring reflections about the impacts of these practices in their lives.
The book is sequenced like the flow of the class, and the concepts in the book will be relevant on multiple levels. While the book, on the surface, may seem to be just about classroom practices, you will also find deep insights into many broad life lessons. Each chapter covers an essential classroom pedagogical approach you can use in any class to grow a truly exSELent classroom. While many of these concepts may not be new to you, the connection to brain science, supporting student growth, and life lessons will likely add much depth and inspiration. Regardless of whether you are a veteran educator or a novice, this book will offer tons of actionable takeaways you can put to use right away for your classroom and your life.
Order now and start your exSELent journey!
What others are
“Coach Rudy has a gift for providing practical strategies that can be easily implemented and will result in powerful outcomes. This book provides practical strategies that will result in powerful outcomes. This book is filled with strategies that will invite positive student connection.”
-Jim Sporleder
Principal Paper Tigers
Author of The Trauma-Informed School
“I have personally observed [Coach Rudy’s] teaching, and this very readable book has the feel of one of his classes, making the SEL ‘teacher moves’ accessible and understandable. I strongly recommend this book to any educator who is committed to strengthening relationships with students in order to increase their effectiveness.”
-Stephen D. Arnold, Vice Chairman, George Lucas Educational Foundation
Coach Rudy has provided the ultimate tool to help teachers connect with students, build positive climate, and integrate SEL. I have used a number of these strategies in my classroom and I know you will find exSELent ones to use in yours.
-Michele Sandoval Villegas
Parkland Pre Engineering Middle School
2020 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year
“Keeth takes his reader on an ‘ounce of prevention’ pedagogi
218 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2022
5 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 26, 2022
One Stop Shop for ExSELent SEL Strategies
Teaching SEL in secondary schools has always been seen as a great need and a great struggle at the same time. When to teach it? How to teach it? To whom teach it? Fact is, all students need to learn SEL; all teachers need to be able to model the skills authentically. This, in order for best teaching and learning to happen, no matter the subject. Keeth provides a one stop shop for exSELent SEL strategies in this easily readable, engaging tome. All teachers can find strategies to try and personalize for their own classrooms, from secondary to elementary school.
Teaching SEL in secondary schools has always been seen as a great need and a great struggle at the same time. When to teach it? How to teach it? To whom teach it? Fact is, all students need to learn SEL; all teachers need to be able to model the skills authentically. This, in order for best teaching and learning to happen, no matter the subject. Keeth provides a one stop shop for exSELent SEL strategies in this easily readable, engaging tome. All teachers can find strategies to try and personalize for their own classrooms, from secondary to elementary school.
June 5, 2023
First, if you have an opportunity to do PD with Coach Rudy, take it! Great presentation style and provided a lot of tangible examples that you could immediately implement in your classroom.
At first I was wary of the formatting. Each section was a bit long, but it reflected Coach Rudy's style of putting in stories and examples for each section. Some formatting and chunking could have been improved, but it didn't take away from the great content.
At first I was wary of the formatting. Each section was a bit long, but it reflected Coach Rudy's style of putting in stories and examples for each section. Some formatting and chunking could have been improved, but it didn't take away from the great content.
July 17, 2022
Having taught School Connects SEL Curriculum and trained by Keeth, this book is a wonderful resource for teachers interested in implementing SEL into their classes. Any school wanting to implement school wide SEL should put this book in teachers hands and do a book study.
May 31, 2022
Great stuff about teaching! While it’s often hard to put into practice when also faced with curriculum, I 100% agree with Coach Rudy’s approach to connections over content!
February 22, 2025
Must Read for Every Educator (and Person)
In a super relatable and still empirically defensible way, Coach Rudy (Matheny) delivers easy-to-implement core practices that convert typical classrooms into learning labs with the climate and routines to support the social and emotional skill development of all students. In addition, ExSELent Teaching offers a welcome dose of chicken soup, SEL-style, for the souls of teachers. This book could not be more timely, valuable, and relevant to the needs of students and their teachers today.
In a super relatable and still empirically defensible way, Coach Rudy (Matheny) delivers easy-to-implement core practices that convert typical classrooms into learning labs with the climate and routines to support the social and emotional skill development of all students. In addition, ExSELent Teaching offers a welcome dose of chicken soup, SEL-style, for the souls of teachers. This book could not be more timely, valuable, and relevant to the needs of students and their teachers today.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews