Cultivating a Classroom of Calm: How to Promote Student Engagement and Self-Regulation

Transform your chaotic classroom environment into a classroom of calm by fostering community, trust, and self-reflection.

Calm is a choice. The key to a calm classroom isn't students who are obedient or quiet but students who feel empowered and safe. It starts with you as the teacher and your ability to foster an environment that supports emotional awareness, psychological safety and belonging, and connected relationships.

In Cultivating a Classroom of Calm, mindfulness coach and former principal Meredith McNerney will help you promote student engagement and self-regulation using strategies grounded in neuroscience research. The book provides all the tools you need to

• Discern the characteristics of a truly calm environment.
• Explore the four dimensions of engagement.
• Discover how trauma often affects students.
• Balance empathy with accountability in the classroom.
• Develop practices to regulate emotions and stress.

As you explore how the brain can learn to make calm and responsible decisions, the book will guide you in building a personalized plan to cultivate calm for your students and yourself.

When you understand your own basic emotional and relational needs, you can instill your own calmness and help your students learn how to do the same, cultivating a classroom environment in which every learner can grow.

Meredith McNerney is a former principal, speaker, author, and teacher. She formerly served as the principal of a Title I school of nearly 900 students in Montgomery County, Maryland. Before taking over in 2016, her school was among the lowest performing across 134 elementary schools in the district. Under her leadership, her school was ranked as a 4-star school according to the Maryland School Report Card, most notably due to student achievement and growth data. She is currently in a doctoral program at Northeastern University, where she studies the mental health of Black and Brown educators. Meredith lives in Ijamsville, Maryland, with her husband Mark, who is a middle school teacher, and two children, Danielle and Kaitlyn. Visit her website at www.choosecalm.com.