Better Than Carrots Or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management

Authors: Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

Is this book phenomenal? YES!
Do I recommend you have your own copy? YES!
Did I love it so much that I made a slideshow of everything in it? OH YES!

I cannot stress how much this book changed the way I dealt with students struggling with behavior. I created lanyard cards to help in my conversations with students so that I’d have a quick reference for how I wanted to respond to kids after reading this book.

I know that restorative practices have a lot of fire behind it at this time and I do want to stress that restorative practices doesn’t replace positive and negative consequences, and other tools you use with your classroom management. It’s another tool to use for classroom management.

Here’s something that needs to be said: If a student threatens, becomes destructive or violent, CALL FOR HELP! That student is dysregulated to a point where anything you learn in this book will not be helpful. What needs to happen at this point is that you keep yourself and the rest of your class safe and get admin or an appropriate staff member to deal with that student.

With that being said, this book is everything you can do before reaching dysregulation as a general education classroom teacher. This is the restorative training that you haven’t received! In my experience as a teacher over the last few years, districts and schools say “Use restorative practices;” however, there is not even an email telling us more about the effective use of restorative practices. That’s why you need this book!

Honestly, truly, madly, deeply, YOU, YOUR STUDENTS, AND YOUR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS BOOK!