As educators our mission goes beyond just educating students; we strive to understand and support them in every aspect of their learning journey. One of those areas being, behavior. The hardest part about working with challenging behavior is that there never is one 'right' approach to tackling behavior. Behavior is so unique and student-specific, it takes understanding behavior on a deeper level to really grasp how we can support each student's specific behavioral needs. To equip ourselves with the knowledge and strategies needed to address these challenges effectively, let's dive into my 5 recommended summer reads to help you start to shift and change what you believe about behavior as well as what strategies to support those behavioral needs!
The A-Z of Trauma Informed Teaching by Sarah Naish, Anne Oakley, Hannah O'Brien, Sair Penna, Daniel Thrower
I love this book and how creatively it is set up! Part one is all about uncovering and diving deep into what really is trauma-informed teaching and how we use it to create an inclusive classroom. Part two dives into the 'A to Z' of behaviors from aggression, elopement, self-injury, sleeping and non-compliance! Each behavior engages in reflective questions to process through and looks beyond the surface level as well as specific strategies for each behavior. I continue to recommend this book to teachers working with challenging behavior and often reference it myself when developing behavior plans. This would be a great book for elementary or middle school educators as well as students with higher levels of support or multi-disability needs.
"These Kids Are Out of Control": Why We Must Reimagine "Classroom Management" for Equity by H. Richard Milner, Heather B. (Bossert) Cunningham, Lori Delale-O′Connor, Erika Gold Kestenberg
This book is a shift away from a traditional 'behavior' book and really dives deep into the equitable lens of how we shift our classrooms to create safe, affirming, and student-centered learning spaces where students feel connected and want to be engaged over acting out due to their inability to find their voice in the room. The book looks at classroom management from a different lens of not just 'managing' students, but thinking about how we as the educators can make the shift to have our classroom fit our student's needs. Be ready to dive into some self-reflection while you read this! This would be a great book for a secondary teacher who wants to dive into a trauma-informed, equitable approach in their classroom.
Behaviour: The Lost Modules by Jen Foster
I started following Jen from @goodmorningmsfosterltd on instagram years ago! Talk about a powerhouse of knowledge and passion helping you to rework your own perspective on challenging student behavior, and how to shift the way you interact and engage with students. She uses brain-based research, psychology and parenting strategies to make working with challenging student behavior seem feasible. She has also created a training platform to help you tackle challenging behavior and support student needs! This book would be great for an elementary educator who wants to focus on behavioral strategies their first year of teaching!
Connection Over Compliance: Rewiring our Perceptions of Discipline by Lori L Desautels
Just the title alone will make you want to read this book! Dr. Lori is an inspiration in the educational neuroscience world and continues to remind us why understanding our own brains and a child's brains is important to understand how we interact and support students through crisis. Dr. Lori continues to remind us why the traditional discipline methods are continuing to not meet our student's needs, and how we can shift into a new world of discipline through co-regulation, relational touch points, as well as brain and body aligned interventions. I love following along with Dr. Lori on her instagram page @lori.desautels as she works in classrooms with educators and students helping to reimagine discipline and build community. This would be a great book for those interested in brain-science around behavior and how to start to make intentional shifts towards a trauma-informed approach.
It′s Never Just About The Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management by Claire English
This book has been released yet, but it will be here soon! I know it is going to be so good I had to pre-order it. Another instagram follow for years now and I have loved watching the content, philosophy and perspective Claire continues to share. She gets into that really deep and emotional level surrounding behavior and builds teachers up with the tools and strategies they need to support and respond to challenging student behavior. She takes a concept surrounding behavior and dives 10 feet deep. Along with her instagram page and book, her podcast offers such insightful and relatable strategies that I ensure to tune in weekly to give them a listen. She has also developed her own training courses to support you and your classroom. This would be a great book for any educator! She has a unique focus in the secondary world which helps to lend her perspective well into that area.
Education is a continual state of learning and reflecting! I hope you are able to find a book that helps to meet your needs and dives deeper into giving you the strategies and tools you need to tackle the new school year with a fresh perspective.
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