Positive Discipline in the Classroom: Developing Mutual Respect, Cooperation, and Responsibility in Your Classroom

I was introduced to an earlier edition of this book two years ago, partially tried it with primary students, and had moderate success. When I was alerted to this edition, I was impressed by the well-defined almost cookbook style way that the program can be implemented. Most busy teachers need to be given srtaight-forward directions and this book fits that bill. Then there were several building blocks that were changed for the better from the 2nd edition. This book has revived my faith in the ability to create a classroom climate where students will work together to solve problems. I am really looking forward to implementing as much of this philosophy into my classroom as possible.

I use Positive Discipline as one of the texts for my college Classroom Management course and the students love it. Our community is extremely ethnically diverse and this book has helped with many of the racial and ethnic issues that arise. It also provides teachers with a practical "how to" approach to dealing with issues from minor infractions to major disruptive behavior in the classroom and with their own children. Quotes from many teachers-in-training, "It works!"

After reading this book, I new I had some new "tools" to work with in character development for my students. You can "teach" an experienced teacher new tricks. Helping children to be responsible citizens in and out of school is just as valuable as reading and writing lessons. This book was easy to read, and the "how to" was clear. I plan to start the class meetings the first week of school.

The strength of this book is the obvious numerous experience the authors have had with real life situations of the class meeting. Our principal has encouraged the faculty to read this and be ready to implement this in our classes if we so choose. I have held meetings before and did see some good results, but I didn't feel I had the time to do them daily. I think with the support I'll have this time, I'll manage to hold them daily.

As a student teacher, I was very afraid of entering a classroom in which many of the students had been refered to as psychotic animals. I frantically searched for any source I could find to help me learn how to deal with these studetns. My mentor teacher suggested that we read this book, and together we implemented the program as described in Positive Discipline in the Classroom, and I must admit that the animals have metamophisized into controllable students! This book has great ideas, explained in detail, and it really works. I have already reccomended this book to many other people in the teaching profession.