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So Why Should I Read This Book?
I believe there are a number of good reasons why you should read this book, with the most important reason being that you should find the content helpful if you work directly (or aspire to work directly) with young children or adolescents in a classroom setting. Letās face itāanyone who works with kids in schools knows firsthand the rewards and challenges (the proverbial roller-coaster ride of emotions with the highs and lows) that we can experience in our classrooms daily. Teachers have personal understanding of these shared experiences, whether it be big hugs or big tears from a kindergartener, high-fives for a job well done or sneers over assigned work from a middle-schooler, or a smile for your effort in providing support or a look of āwhat are looking atā from a junior who earned a poor grade on a project or test. If truth in advertising were provided to aspiring teachers, the statement āTeaching can be simultaneously exhilarating and hazardous to your health and is not recommended for the faint of heart.ā would be visibly posted on the walls at all teacher preparatory institutions. The professional expectation to effectively teach all students becomes even more daunting with increasing demands for academic student performance, as primarily measured through high-stakes testing, along with (what at least feels like at times) the publicly posted bullās-eye or ākick meā sign that we as teachers collectively wear on our backs in the eyes of some factions within our society, as evidenced through various school reform initiatives in tandem with increased public scrutiny in teacher performance evaluations (not that the notion of utilizing more functional measures is not a laudable idea; rather, the idea can unfortunately be lost as a result of political agendas). Furthermore, the challenge of teaching is complex given the increasing array of needs presented by students in our classrooms, especially when you consider that prevalent research suggests that perhaps as many as one out of every five students in our schools today may have, at some point in time, exhibited some level of emotional or behavioral impairment. It is with a firsthand understanding of this societal context that I set out to write the second edition to this book, with the primary goal continuing to be to provide my fellow teachers with a helpful, user-friendly resource to guide the establishment of a healthy classroom environment for student learning. The bottom line is that teachers have historically been, and continue to be, the single most important external catalyst outside of the family for students achieving academic, social, and emotional learning outcomes. By this I do not mean that any teacher, regardless of how great he or she may be, can accomplish such outcomes alone. Rather, I simply mean that when we look at the many external factors and resources that are provided in schools today that influence student learning, the quality of any given studentās teacher is the single most important factor. I believe you will find this book, which in reality is somewhat akin to a SparkNotes version, or connecting the dots of what I call āfoundational classroom management procedures,ā valuable whether you are an aspiring middle or high school teacher or a veteran of more than 20 years in a primary classroom. You should find these procedures useful regardless of the age of your students as well as the presence of things outside of your control as a teacher, including issues of poverty, the presence or absence of family and community support, or identified student disabilities. Simply stated, I do not want to waste your time in reading (or my time in writing) the second edition of this book for its own sake. The initial edition of The Teacherās Pocket Guide for Effective Classroom Management highlighted effective classroom management procedures. Given this, why reinvent the wheel? This second edition is again written in a conversational tone as was the first edition, using first-person language, which I have used in workshops and in-service training with thousands of classroom teachers throughout my teaching career. The practices and approaches described in this second edition continue to be based in the literature on classroom management and therefore reflect evidence-based practice. However, various enhancements have been added to this second edition that both are consistent with the preventative orientation of the first edition and further frame the application of the practices described throughout this book within the context of what has come to be described as a multitiered systems of support (MTSS) framework in the form of schoolwide positive behavior intervention and support (SWPBIS). Although increasing numbers of schools are implementing positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS) with varying degrees of fidelity, there remains a large number of school systems, for whatever their reasons, that have not (as of yet) fully adopted this approach in their local schools. In light of this reality, I have provided guidance in this second edition for teachers who find themselves working within schools that have formally adopted and are utilizing a PBIS approach as well as for educators who are teaching within more traditional school settings. I have also provided a list of recommended resources for you in the References and Resources for Further Reading of this second edition should you desire to have access to the expansive base of literature that supports the practices that I have incorporated into these chapters. I am optimistic that you will find this book, as was the case with the first edition, to be an easy read in terms of concepts and practices. Although each chapter can stand alone, I encourage you to look at the approaches highlighted in this book as a composite (or in total) because the practices described create what I propose to be an overall picture (or gestalt, so to speak) for effective classroom management. In other words, the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts, especially if those parts are viewed in isolation from one another. Furthermore, it is unlikely that you will find any one aspect of preventative practice highlighted to be, in and of itself, a panacea, silver bullet, or Holy Grail in terms of classroom management. Rather, the principles of practices described, when implemented in concert with one another, will help you establish and/or maintain a healthy learning environment (i.e., classroom climate) that will in its own way help you create a healthy balance between prevention and early and efficient intervention as it pertains to student behavior in your classroom.
As has been noted by many, as teachers we not only touch the future, but we also help create it as a result of our endeavors with our students. Our shared mission is to help our students learn and grow in a manner that enables each child to develop both academic as well as social and emotional (behavioral) competence. Given that you are reading this now, it is very likely that you already have an appreciation for the fact that student growth and learning involves a lot of things. One way in which I think about growth and learning is based on my experiences in preservice and graduate-level training of educators. In teacher preparation, we view growth and learning in students (current and future teachers) as relevant to their acquisition of the necessary knowledge, skills, and professional dispositionsāor professionalismāto be effective teachers. I believe that knowledge, skills, and personal dispositions are relevant for students from preschool through the 12th grade. In particular, I suggest that as teachers we are important brokers of student growth in that we help our students learn problem-solving skills that lend themselves to both academic-intellectual and social-emotional situations. Helping our students become responsible contributing citizens as adults is a tall order, and as teachers what we do and how we do it have a direct impact on how our students grow and learn. Along these same lines, I would argue that the center of the learning process in our schools today continues to be the classroomāeach individual classroomāand the level of achievement continues to be directly related to the degree of healthy mentoring relationships that is established between the classroom teacher and his or her students. Establishing an effective learning community within your classroom requires certain features to be present. The primary focus in Chapters 1 through 7 is to clearly 1) describe each of those preventative features, 2) help you see the interconnectedness of these preventative features, and 3) provide you with some guidance in approaches you can use to establish these preventative features holistically within your respective classroom setting. I will address each of these three areas of emphasis in Chapters 1 through 7 within the context of schools implementing PBIS as well as more traditional school settings. In Chapter 8 I will provide you with clear guidance on a continuum of time-efficient forms of early intervention that you can apply in your classroom if/when student misbehavior (behavioral error) occurs. Although reactive in nature, these forms of redirection procedures will be described within the context of preventative classroom management that, when implemented consistently in concert with your preventative approaches, can be effective and help you maximize your use of instructional time. Building on the prior chapters, Chapter 9 will provide you with easily understandable practices that you can use in the event that a particular student (or small group of students) fails to sufficiently respond to your use of the practices presented in Chapters 1 through 8. This chapter will provide specific descriptions along with illustrations of additional practices that you should find useful in working with such a student (or small group of students), who requires additional layers (or levels) of PBIS. These practices will, as well, be framed for use by teachers in both schools implementing PBIS and more traditional schools. In Chapter 10 I will help you address the question āSo what if everything I have tried is still not sufficiently working?ā In this chapter I will help orient you toward what is considered more individualized student-intensive approaches that should prove valuable in addressing the needs of students who require additional, layered PBIS. Of greatest value to you as a teacher, in this chapter, is practical guidance I will provide you with as to the array of support structures that you will likely need to access in order to realistically meet the needs of such a student while also continuing to meet the needs of all your other students. In the final chapter in this book I will provide you with guidance on how to pull everything together as described in previous chapters in a manner that is feasible and sustainable within your classroom.
I appreciate the time you are taking to read this book. We can all relate to (at least on occasion) feeling as though our time has been wasted on doing things that just donāt seem to add up when it comes to making a difference with our students. I know firsthand that there is nothing more frustrating than to feel as though my time has been wasted on some task or activity that someone else has required me to do and that just does not seem to be directly connected to helping me better help my students. Time is an increasingly scarce commodity for all of usāin fact, I would argue the most precious commodity. As such, I thank you for your investment of time in reading this book and (most important) your time and energy in applying these principles of practice within your classroom.