Classroom Management Matters: The Social--Emotional Learning Approach Children Deserve

"We can do better, but expectation alone is not enough. We need answers and examples like the ones Gianna and Brook provide with great insight from research and practice and great compassion for teachers and students. My hope is that this book will become a touchstone for all of us."
―Carmen Fariña, Chancellor of New York City Schools

“Positive, supportive relationships with children help them develop socially and emotionally and help you to effectively manage your classroom,” writes Gianna Cassetta. She shows you an approach to creating that environment that can actually be planned for, taught, and supported from the first day of school―or anytime you want to reset your classroom community.

Gianna has been a teacher and leader, and the classroom management strategy she shares in Classroom Management Matters shifts you away from professionally draining rewards-and-consequences systems that threaten children rather than connect with them. Instead of tips and techniques Gianna presents a plan for explicitly teaching children how to be effective learners and accountable members of the classroom. You’ll quickly learn to:

• know your students better and understand the causes of individuals’ misbehavior
• assess children’s development along a provided social–emotional continuum―just like any other skill you teach
• teach these self-management skills to support a positive classroom and academic growth
• set and maintain boundaries with students
• respond to disruption with effective teaching language.

With reflection questions, classroom examples, and summaries of supporting studies from researcher Brook Sawyer, Classroom Management Matters helps you be a learning leader in the classroom instead of an authority. “I’ll show you detailed strategies that prevent and minimize your difficulties with students,” writes Gianna, “so you can focus on constructive action that will have a lasting, positive impact.”

Carmen Fariña is the Chancellor of New York City schools. She is coauthor with longtime collaborator Laura Kotch of A School Leader’s Guide to Excellence, Updated Edition. Carmen and Laura have in-depth experience helping all schools make the changes they need to achieve excellence. As professional partners they have held numerous roles in the New York City public schools. In addition to her Chancellorship, Carmen was the Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning of the New York City Department of Education, while Laura was its Executive Director of Professional Development and Curriculum. Their vast experiences also include tenures as Superintendent and Deputy of District 15 (a thirty-two-school district) and Region 8 (154 schools), Principal and Staff Developer, college instructors, teacher leaders, and classroom teachers. Currently they work with principals to create structures that improve schoolwide teaching and learning.

Brook Sawyer is coauthor of the new Heinemann title Classroom Management Matters as well as No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices, part of the Not This, But That series.

Brook was a middle school language arts teacher and an elementary guidance counselor and is now an assistant professor in the College of Education at Lehigh University. Her research aims are interdisciplinary and center on promoting the development of young children who have disabilities or who are dual language learners (DLLs). Specifically, her work aims to support the development of preschoolers who are at risk for poor school performance by examining and enhancing the practices of teachers and teachers as well as by enhancing partnerships between educators and parents.

She has published her work in numerous journals, such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Early Intervention, and Journal of Research in Reading. She has presented her work at national and international conferences.

Gianna Cassetta is coauthor of Classroom Management Matters: The Social and Emotional Learning Approach That Children Deserve; No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices; and, The Caring Teacher: Strategies for Working Through Your Own Difficulties with Students.

She began her teaching career in New York City, where she became one of the first 25 National Board Certified Teachers in the state. Her passion for education led her to co-found and lead a public-to-charter conversion school in Harlem, NYC, which outperformed the district it was housed in as well as the city. She helped launch the Office of School Reform and Innovation at Denver Public Schools, where she shepherded aspiring school leaders through a new school application and start-up process, before starting her own school in Far Northeast Denver.

Gianna has led statewide professional development initiatives and consulted nationally. She is a certified Goleman EI Emotional Intelligence Coach and an International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach. Contact her at The Plain Red Horse Coaching and Consulting.