Rethinking Classroom Management : Strategies for Prevention, Intervention, and Problem Solving

"As a teacher and principal, I have found Pat Belvel and Maya Marcia Jordan′s prevention and intervention framework to be the single most important resource to help teachers become consciously competent about their classroom management strategies and the positive effects they have on students."
Debbie Textor, Principal
Lincoln Elementary School
Cupertino, CA

"Traditional classroom management strategies do not encourage the development of basic social skills. Rethinking Classroom Management is a desperately needed guide for educators about how to re-examine our own belief systems and change the way we attempt to manage and control students′ behavior. Every teacher should read and apply the ideas in this great resource."
Martha Kaufeldt
Author, Begin With the Brain: Orchestrating the Learner-Centered Classroom 

Tomorrow′s leaders will be reflections of today′s teachers. The ideal classroom consists of positive relationships between teacher and students producing an environment resulting of beneficial, mutual fulfillment. In this empowering book, Patricia Sequeira Belvel and Maya Marcia Jordan demonstrate successful methods to achieve harmony, while transforming managerial teachers into leaders in the classroom. Educators are enlightened by classroom and personal "connections," enabling the teacher to be immersed in real-life classroom situations and encouraging readers to create meaningful connections from their personal experiences.

Key topics that help guide readers through this transformation are:

• Intrinsic motivation and personal beliefs and values as aids to making the shift from manager to leader
• Prevention strategies creating a caring community of learners
• Temporary intervention techniques that effectively differentiate between discipline and punishment
• Problem-solving strategies to help the student take initiative in creating constructive solutions for all

Rethinking Classroom Management is an innovative guide that illustrates an approach which has been used by successful educators for years, enabling teachers to evolve effectively into leaders and to create classrooms where students are more self-managing, and demonstrate mutual respect, self-esteem, and responsibility.

Patricia Sequeira Belvel is a mother, teacher, educational consultant, and leadership coach for teachers and families. As founder and president of Training & Consulting Institute, Inc., Belvel′s mission is to promote leadership skills that will impact and shift management strategies from those that rely on the motivation of reward and punishment to those that invite internal control. She has been leading classroom leadership and family leadership workshops for the past 30 years, encouraging educators to initiate and support a learning environment (both at home and at school) that invites young people to become responsible, caring, peaceful leaders. She is well known for her compassionate, no-blame approach in working with teachers and students. Currently, she contracts with school districts and individual school sites to support teachers′ use of these strategies in their classrooms. She is also an adjunct faculty member, lecturer, and supervisor of student teachers at San Jose State University in California. Educators from many cultures and dis­tricts endorse her work because of the positive impact of the workshop and follow-up coaching sessions for both students and teachers. She holds a BA from Holy Names University in Oakland, California, and an MA from the University of Santa Clara, California. You can contact Pat through her Web site at www.trngedu.com.