The Educator's Guide to Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems

by Mark Boynton

What can you do to keep students from fighting in the hallways and acting out in class? When they break the rules, what disciplinary actions can you take to help students behave themselves in the future? You'll find the answers to these questions and many more in this comprehensive, research-based guide to developing a schoolwide discipline system. Preventing discipline problems usually requires less energy than coping with problems after they occur, and a day without discipline problems is certainly more enjoyable for teachers and students alike! With this in mind, Mark and Christine Boynton present a wide variety of prevention strategies that any teacher can use, including advice about their relative appropriateness in different settings and circumstances. Of course, even the most successful preventive measures sometimes can't stop a student from disrupting a lesson or picking on classmates. In those situations, it is crucial to know which interventions are effective and which are counterproductive. This book will help you learn the most appropriate reactions to (and consequences for) student misbehavior, as well as specific strategies for handling oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and anger management issues in students. You'll also find ideas for exploring your school's philosophical beliefs concerning discipline, promoting positive teacher-student relations, and establishing clearly defined parameters of acceptable classroom behavior. Whether you're a K-12 teacher or a school principal, The Educator's Guide to Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems will change the way you approach discipline in your school—for the better!

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development

178 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2005

Reviews

[Audra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written guide with practical applications to running an effective classroom. I appreciated that one of the main tenets of the book is developing relationships with the students. The basis of all effective teachers is getting to know your students and creating relationships. Students will do anything for you if they know that you care.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that tackles some very complicated problems that are plaguing many schools all over the United States in a very rudimentary and fast way. This book tackles many strategies that when used in tandem can create a safe, mutually respectful environment and community, and ultimately will allow all students to drive for success. The things I liked about this book is the fact that much of the book doesn't harp hundreds of pages on the root causes of the issues, but rather provides a strict outline and organization of solutions and strategies that can be used directly in the classroom to immediately begin to turn the culture and climate of your classes around. It also does a great job with strategies of not only that, but of making sure there are opportunities for success from all students as well. The things I do not like about the book – and this is a pretty strong one – is the lack of an ultimate overall solution for schools. This is the thing... A teacher can do all of these strategies in their classroom and have success with their students in an entirely enclosed and lone-wolf manner, but the only way that schools are going to be successful is if they are all implementing a concrete set of rules, everyone is following them and they are easy to follow, and that there is no favoritism, exceptions, or double standards to how they are executed both in the halls of the school, streets of the city, and rooms of the student's home – the words “it takes a village” shows up in this book several times, and it is absolutely true. Everyone in a city is a member of the village, and everyone is responsible to make sure everyone is being the best they can be at all times – and that includes the youth being their best and the adults recognizing manipulation. I am reminded of one of my favorite lines in the book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” where the main character is talking to his father and his father says “you are smarter than I am,” and the little boy denies it, and the father reiterates, “I am more knowledgeable, but you are smarter than me. Kids are always smarter than their parents.” Forgiving my paraphrasing, my point is that we all have a tremendous responsibility as members of a society, and we are not all pulling our weight. This book, teamed up with a full community outreach and civic engagement from the schools to the parents to the businesses and everyone in between could really turn a city around and become something amazing... But everyone is needed. If there is one thing this book really made me think, it is that it is not this easy, and that a teacher can implement these strategies in their classroom, but perhaps they may become – or some have become - exhausted with the responsibilities of having to shoulder everyone else's responsibility in the school, neighborhood, and city as well.

[Jeremy Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because all my teacher-ed. courses teach everything except how to work with students. According to some of my professors, every class is great and I'll never have any problems with any of my students. *sniff sniff* You smell that? It smells like bulls---!

I spent a lot of time this year reading about things I was interested in when it comes to teaching that I wasn't learning from school. This book deals with discipline, classroom management and preventive measures to avoid disciplinary problems. It provided many realistic situations and discussed each in detail and gave advice about how to deal with such issues. Very nice.