Direct connection with students' unique identities is the key to teaching them.Every student possesses a distinct combination of strengths and insecurities that will not respond to a one-size-fits-all teaching method. Reach Before You Teach shows educators how to form the nurturing, individualized connections that make students feel worthy, fulfilled, and ready to flourish as learners.The book details:Practical, empowering information about how a sense of self comes to be, and what threatens it. Interventions that soften the myriad defenses students develop to protect themselves. How to address the often-overlooked connections between physical, social, and emotional health and classroom performance.