Eight Steps to Classroom Management Success: A Guide for Teachers of Challenging Students

"This is a practical, ready-to-use ′cookbook′ to manage typical classroom misbehaviors. Following the steps results in a win-win situation, with both the teacher and the student saving face and maintaining integrity."
―Marilyn Gonyo, President
Education Assessment Center

"Kapalka presents scenarios of difficult cases that educators often encounter. This is an easy-to-read manual for quick referencing. Keep a copy by your desk."
―Maria Barresi-Devore, Consulting Psychologist

A step-by-step approach to managing your most challenging students!

Every classroom has one or two students with more challenging behavioral issues that often require a significant amount of an educator′s time. For teachers who have already tried an assortment of behavior management strategies without much success, this unique resource presents a focused, cohesive plan of eight specific interventions that are proven to work with students who are defiant, willful, and have limited self-control.

This step-by-step plan, based on separate empirical studies that verified how every step contributes to overall behavior improvement, provides solutions to specific problems that teachers commonly experience. Deliberately sequenced and designed so that each step builds on previous interventions, the techniques include:

• Giving simple instructions
• Using appropriate warnings
• Handling tantrums
• Creating behavioral contracts
• Managing transitions
• Preventing disruptions
• Improving behavior outside the classroom
• Developing effective homework routines

Filled with detailed explanations for accurate implementation to improve the likelihood of success, 8 Steps to Classroom Management Success targets the most common behavior trouble spots and provides the most effective techniques to address each.

George Kapalka is a board-certified clinical psychologist, a licensed mental health counselor, and a certified school psychologist. He holds additional board certifications in child mental health services, learning disabilities, and psychopharmacology. For over 20 years, he is an active clinician who primarily treats children and adolescents with problem behaviors. In addition, he is associate professor of psychological counseling at Monmouth University (a graduate faculty appointment) and is a member of medical staff at Meridian Health Systems where he trains physicians and nurses about the diagnosis and treatment of children with ADHD and other disruptive disorders. Kapalka authored books and dozens of professional publications in psychological, educational, and medical literature. In addition, he has authored or coauthored numerous research presentations at regional, national, and international conferences of psychological, educational, and medical associations. He is an active lecturer, has appeared on television, and has been quoted in news articles in stories pertaining to the development, education, and treatment of children and adolescents.