Responsive School Discipline: Essentials for Elementary School Leaders

Bring positive behavior to your school through strong, consistent, and positive discipline. Two experienced administrators offer practical strategies for building a safe, calm, and respectful school climate—strategies based on deep respect for children and for staff. See how to: •Establish signals that get children's quick, quiet attention anytime and anywhere in school •Craft school rules that children take seriously—even cherish •Create peaceful recesses, lunchtimes, hallways, and bus rides •Give staff techniques for teaching and reinforcing expected behavior •Help children with especially challenging behaviors avoid discipline problems •Give staff methods for quickly restoring positive behavior when a discipline problem comes up •Involve parents in improving school discipline Each chapter targets one key discipline issue and starts with a checklist of action steps. For comprehensive discipline reform, go through the chapters in order. For help with a particular challenge, go right to the chapter you need.

Chip Wood has been an elementary school teacher, principal, district curriculum director, and teacher educator during his forty-year career in education. In 1981, he co-founded Northeast Foundation for Children, the developer of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching. His other books include Time to Teach, Time to Learn: Changing the Pace of School and Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14.Babs Freeman-Loftis taught elementary physical education for fourteen years before moving into administration as an assistant principal for nine years. She is a Responsive Classroom Consultant and co-author of the handbook The Responsive Classroom Assessment.