Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

Real Talk About Classroom Management - Book Cover

Look Inside

Share:

Bestseller!

Real Talk About Classroom Management

50 Best Practices That Work and Show You Believe in Your Students

By: Serena Pariser

This handy guide offers 50 proven best practices for managing today’s classroom, complete with just-in-time tools and relatable teacher-to-teacher anecdotes and advice.

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781544317755
Published By: Corwin
Series: Corwin Teaching Essentials
Year: 2018
Page Count: 296
Publication date: February 13, 2018

Price: $29.95

Select Format:

BUY FROM HERE

For Instructors

This book is not available as an inspection copy. For more information contact your local sales representative.

Description

Learn From a teacher who’s been through it all! Real talk about thriving and learning in the classroom

When most educators think of K-12 classroom management, we traditionally focus on ways to keep students quiet, well behaved, and on task. In order to better prepare them for the realities of today’s world, we should instead think of classroom management as preparing students to work collaboratively, form their own thoughts and opinions, stay independently motivated, and listen to their classmates. In the interconnected 21st century, classroom management is about building students up, not breaking them down.

With those changes in mind, this handy guide offers 50 proven best practices for managing today’s classroom in a user-friendly format, complete with just-in-time tools and relatable teacher-to-teacher anecdotes and advice. Culled from years of real-world classroom experience, this book will give you the tips and tricks you need to succeed all school year long, including

Making the pivotal first weeks of school count
Forming positive relationships with your students
Inspiring creativity and maintaining discipline through curriculum and instruction
Utilizing other adults (parents, teachers, and administrators) as resources
Wowing your students with “spins” and making a lasting emotional impact
Keeping yourself sane, from maintaining work-life balance to managing professional relationships

This book delivers the mission-critical information every teacher needs to effectively manage the classroom, and prepare students with the social skills and communication tools they’ll need to succeed in today’s world.

Key features

The subtitle says it all: 50 Strategies That Work--Even at 3p on Friday. In this book, teachers will find:

Relatable, humorous, real-life stories from an award winning teacher who knows what it's like to struggle with classroom management
Ideas to win over even the toughest kids in your class
Super practical tools such as:
- Scripts for parent conferences
- Scripts for disciplining with respect
- Creative, rigorous and engaging Common Core aligned project ideas
- Educational rewards and freebies for the classroom and school
- Graphic organizers and cheat sheets for balancing your life
- Coteaching checklist/cheat sheet
- Guest speaker ideas and resources for the classroom
- Finding your teaching strengths
- Performance Barriers mini reference sheet to pinpoint why a student is not completing work and intervention strategy that corresponds
- Groupwork guide
- Replicable behavior contracts
- Classroom routine and structure tips and guide

Author(s)

Serena Pariser

Serena Pariser, M.A., has twelve years classroom experience in public and charter schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. She has taught in some of the most challenging school settings from coast to coast. In addition to her extensive experience in urban school settings, she also has experience in affluent schools, and has truly seen all sides of education. Most of her full time teaching experience is at the middle school level, although she has experience in high school and elementary school settings. She earned her master's degree in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. She has been a teacher, teacher coach, curriculum designer, and has held leadership positions in school settings. Serena was humbled to be recognized as Teacher of the Year at Gompers Preparatory Academy.

She has been invited to present at three consecutive Character Matters conferences at University of San Diego about integrating character education into the Common Core curriculum. Furthermore, she co-presented at the 2015 UCSD Diving Deep: Common Core and NGSS conference. Serena was a three-year member of the advisory board at the Character Education Resource Center at University of San Diego. She later transitioned into the role of an assistant to the Character Education Resource Center and then to Lead Administrator to the 2017 21^st Annual Character Matters Conference, that brings together administrators and teachers from all over the country. In addition, Serena was selected to be a National Evaluator for Schools of Character, where she evaluated elementary schools’ character education programs and determined if they were eligible to be a National School of Character.

In addition to her educational work in the United States, Serena has expanded her educational knowledge around the globe. She coached teachers and modeled best practices and engagement strategies in Kathmandu, Nepal and also taught in rural parts of Turkey. Serena was selected as a U.S. Ambassador with Fulbright Distinguished Teachers Award, which gave her an opportunity to coach teachers in Botswana on engagement strategies, smart technology uses, and best practices in the classroom.

Serena has a national audience of educators on social media and her website at www.serenapariser.com, where she writes educational articles for teachers around the country and globe. She currently works as Assistant Director of Field Experience at University of San Diego, where she has a broader influence on new teachers entering the profession. She also instructs a seminar class for new teachers.

Table of Contents

Prelude

Acknowledgments

About the Author

My First Year

Part 1. First Weeks of School

Best Practice #1: Make Day 1 About the Students

Best Practice #2: Get Respect—and Fast

Best Practice #3: Set Your Routine and Structures Early—and Keep Them!

Best Practice #4: Speak Student

Best Practice #5: Create Purposeful Seating Charts

Part 2. Forming Positive Relationships With Your Students

Best Practice #6: Use Your Power for Good, Not Evil

Best Practice #7: Let Students Make Mistakes Without Feeling Like Failures

Best Practice #8: Win Over the Tough Kids

Best Practice #9: Become a Teacher Detective

Best Practice #10: Spread Positivity With Your Words and Tone

Best Practice #11: Focus on the Positive and Create Positive Students

Best Practice #12: Understand the Student Known to Others as the “Bad Kid”

Best Practice #13: Reward Students

Best Practice #14: Learn the Power of Behavior Contracts

Part 3. Curriculum and Instruction

Best Practice #15: Get Your Students Engaged: Make Learning Fun and Make It Transferable

Best Practice #16: Research, Read, Use

Best Practice #17: Pick Up the Pace

Best Practice #18: Use Arm’s Length Voice

Best Practice #19: Be One or Two Steps Ahead of the Class

Best Practice #20: Keep Everything Contextualized and Do Projects!

Best Practice #21: Challenge and Support Students

Best Practice #22: Take Risks in Your Lessons

Best Practice #23: Know How to Prepare for When You Just Can’t Be There

Best Practice #24: Use Creative Discipline

Best Practice #25: Vary Levels of Noise in the Classroom

Best Practice #26: Make Groupwork Work

Best Practice #27: Let Their Creative Juices Flow

Best Practice #28: Teach to Every Different Type of Learner

Best Practice #29: Have NO Doubts, But Be Prepared to Have (Just a Few) Lessons Flop

Part 4. Other Adults as Resources

Best Practice #30: Learn How to Win Over Parents

Best Practice #31: Know How to Make Coteaching Work

Best Practice #32: Be a Sponge

Best Practice #33: Find a Mentor

Best Practice #34: Watch and Learn

Best Practice #35: Instead of Talking, Listen With Your Mind

Best Practice #36: Be Proactive: Get and Keep Administration on Your Side

Part 5. Spins That Will Wow Your Students

Best Practice #37: Get Guest Speakers Into Your Classroom

Best Practice #38: Give Students Power and a Voice

Best Practice #39: Show Your Students You Care

Best Practice #40: Laugh Together and You Will Learn Together

Best Practice #41: Give Gifts

Best Practice #42: Be the Teacher They Never Had

Best Practice #43: Know That Kids Notice the Small Things

Best Practice #44: Get Students to Behave When You’re Covering Classes

Best Practice #45: Surprise!

Part 6. Keeping Yourself Sane

Best Practice #46: Balance Your Life

Best Practice #47: Know How to Handle the Difficult Parent Meetings

Best Practice #48: Keep it Balanced: Give and Take Equally

Best Practice #49: Be Responsive and Prioritize

Best Practice #50: Be Mindful With Your Coworkers

Widening Our Lens: A Global Perspective on Classroom Management

Handy To-Go List of 50 Teaching Dos and Don’ts

The End—of the Beginning

Real Advice: Teacher to Teacher

Bibliography and References

Index

Reviews

"This book offers real world problems and solutions. Many teachers, especially those who don’t make it to the 5-year mark, don’t understand why teaching is so difficult. They don’t know the right questions to ask or changes to make. This is a down-to-earth, well-written, enjoyable read that would be beneficial to all teachers."

Lyneille Meza, Director of Data & Assessment
Denton Independent School District, Denton, TX

"With unique, compassionate, and insightful resources like this, based on years of solid teaching experience, there is real hope for the future of education. Whereas many educators only want to showcase their successes, Pariser warmly shares both her successes and failures. In doing this, she cultivates a more comprehensive understanding of best practices while helping educators. A lovely bonus is that you'll also get to enjoy some hilarious classroom anecdotes that are relatable to any teacher. And since she bares herself for the benefit of the reader, you might also find yourself tearing up at the lengths Pariser went through to truly empower her students.

Pariser helps educators cultivate strong student leaders via positive classroom communities. Her book is rich with entertaining action points for virtually every type of educational setting. With educational experience that ranges from teacher of the year, to university program instructor to teaching teachers in Botswana via her Fulbright Scholarship program, Pariser's book has something for everyone."

Andrew Rossillo, Content Writer, Editor, and Manager
Content Chameleon Services

“This is a “how to book” for teachers who have a growth mindset and want to become the best teacher possible. Serena Pariser shares her wisdom and experience in a helpful and reflective way to make us all better educators. This book will help you become the teacher every student deserves!”

Cindy Corlett, Middle School Administrator
Cimarron Middle School

“This book gives lots of teacher tips and practical ideas for teachers and future teachers. I also enjoy that readers have an opportunity to reflect on what they read after each section. This would give my students the opportunity to practice 'reflection' and reflecting on readings.”

Natalie Young, Ed. D.
Professor at Northern Illinois University