Positive Discipline

Positive Discipline: Tools for Teachers, is an excellent resource for both new and experienced teachers to rethink their classroom management plan. Nelson and Gfroerer provide a well organized, research based plan that includes experiences from real classroom teachers. As someone who recently finished their Masters in Education and looking forward to having my own classroom, I found some of the tips similar to those touched upon in my coursework. Many of these, I scoffed at because of their unrealistic nature. I guess education has changed a ton since I was the student in the desk. Parenting has also changed so as educators we are becoming more responsible for teaching children good behaviors as well as reading and math. I love many aspects of the Positive Discipline approach that places the choice and solution in the hands of the students to help them to become better people not just less annoying in the classroom. The tool with the most impact was the final chapter. The one we as teachers and even parents can forget. Self Care. We talked about this frequently through grad school as we juggled families, jobs and school. As a mother, I learned this the hard way but have found that hour or so I give to myself when everyone has gone to bed goes a long way to my sanity.