Teaching Self-Discipline: The Responsive Classroom Guide to Helping Students Dream, Behave, and Achieve in Elementary School

Help students develop the intrinsic motivation to take care of themselves, each other, and their own learning! Readers will learn how to build a solid foundation for positive behavior by investing students in the rules.

The techniques in this book have helped teachers around the world foster essential social-emotional and academic skills in the classroom - creating learning environments where every student can thrive.

Packed with real-life stories from K-5 classrooms, this book includes practical strategies for:

Creating effective rules that strengthen classroom community

Responding to both common and complex misbehaviors

Helping students who struggle with behavior due to trauma or toxic stress

Communicating with parents and building a network of support for students

Earl Hunter II is a fifth grade teacher at Oakwood Elementary School in North Hollywood, California, and a consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools. Earl has almost 30 years' experience educating children, dating back to his time working at his family's daycare center in Los Angeles. He developed a love for Responsive Classroom in his ninth year of teaching when he moved to his second school, Echo Horizon, and has been using the approach for over a decade. Earl is most passionate about making connections with students and colleagues and believes deeply in the power of developing a positive community. Now in his 20th year in the classroom, he aims to inspire, empower, and transform teachers to understand the power and balance of academic, social, and emotional learning for students. When he is not training teachers in Responsive Classroom practices, Earl enjoys spending time with his wife and two teenage children and running their retail vintage clothing business together.

Suzy Ghosh is a second grade teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a Responsive Classroom consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools. She has taught for 19 years with experience in second and third grades. When Suzy was introduced to Responsive Classroom, she saw the positive impact the approach had both on her students and on her teaching, and she quickly became passionate about sharing the approach with other educators. She has contributed articles to the Responsive Classroom website and is excited to be a content contributor for the forthcoming book Teaching Self-Discipline. Suzy lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her one-year-old Labrador and enjoys reading, traveling, practicing yoga, and spending time with friends.

Caitie Meehan has been teaching for almost 15 years and is currently a fourth grade math teacher in Washington, D.C. She has experience teaching in Title I schools and has seen how the benefits of the Responsive Classroom approach reach many different schools and students. Caitie was initially introduced to Responsive Classroom 10 years ago and she continues to see the positive results from building a strong positive community in her classroom. As the community in her room grows, her students feel more comfortable to take academic risks in a socially and emotionally safe place. Caitie holds a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from James Madison University. In her spare time, she visits her family in Virginia Beach whenever she can.

Cory Wade is a certified Responsive Classroom teacher and consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools (CRS). He has a master's degree in education, is pursuing his educational administration license, and has worked as an adjunct professor at North Central University in Minneapolis since 2012. As a teacher in Bloomington Public Schools in Minnesota for 13 years, Cory has experience teaching first, second, and third grade. Upon his first exposure to Responsive Classroom early in his career, Cory quickly developed a passion for the transformative mindset and practices surrounding the approach, and has since traveled nationally and internationally to train educators in adopting a similar focus that supports all students in learning. Cory has witnessed the positive impact the Responsive Classroom approach has had on his students, families, and co-workers through implementation of the core beliefs, principles, and practices.