Positive Discipline Tools for Teachers Book Review

I got this book before the summer started and after I was already out of school for the year.  Positive Discipline Tools for Teachers: Effective Classroom Management for Social, Emotional, and Academic Success by Jane Nelsen Ed.D. was something that seemed interesting for me at work and at home.  I was sadly thinking about stepping down to try to take care of my health and let myself heal so I think that I set this book aside and totally forgot about it.  I can't believe that it took me this long to find it but I was cleaning underneath a side table and found it sitting there.  I looked to see if I wrote the review and sadly saw that I did not.  I was a little disappointed but I guess that happens when you spend the summer having fun with your little one instead of working, everything else took a back seat.

The Positive Discipline method has proved to be an invaluable resource for teachers who want to foster creative problem-solving within their students, giving them the behavioral skills they need to understand and process what they learn. In Positive Discipline Tools for Teachers, you will learn how to successfully incorporate respectful, solution-oriented approaches to ensure a cooperative and productive classroom. Using tools like "Connection Before Correction," "Four Problem-Solving Steps," and "Focusing on Solutions," teachers will be able to focus on student-centered learning, rather than wasting time trying to control their students' behavior. Each tool is specifically tailored for the modern classroom, with examples and positive solutions to each and every roadblock that stands in the way of cooperative learning.

Complete with the most up-to-date research on classroom management and the effectiveness of the Positive Discipline method, this comprehensive guide also includes helpful teacher stories and testimonials from around the world. You will learn how to:

- Model kind and firm leadership in the classroom
- Keep your students involved and intrinsically motivated
- Improve students’ self-regulation
-And more!

I read just about 50 pages before I misplaced this 275 page book so there was still plenty to read.  The basic layout was really easy that each chapter tackled a particular problem and gave real world examples.  Although the stories were sometimes quick and I had trouble connecting to the person having the problem, these examples were often paramount in making the chapter go along smoothly.  Although many had a great message like giving praise for working hard instead of for being smart because kids try harder if you are impressed by their effort.  That is a super hard concept to put into practice because the first thing that always comes to mind is great job or something that isn't supporting the effort the child made to get the task accomplished which is more important then the final result.  There is a lot of information in this book and if you have the time to sit down and read it, I know that you will find tons of ideas on what would help different kids with lots of different problems.  I hope that you check out this book and find something new that you haven't thought about before or reminds you of things that you should do.  There are also funny cartoons at the beginning of each chapter which should bring a smile to your face.  I know that this book certainly made me slow down and think about certain kids, as well as my own upbringing.  I hope that I will remember to use these practices to improve the situation with all kids including my own.

**I received a copy of the book for my review from Blogging for Books but all opinions here are my own and my review was not required.