Scan barcode
allison_sirovy's review against another edition
5.0
Highly recommend this book for teachers of all grade levels. The book gives specific and practical ways to help teachers provide positive and restorative practices in their classrooms.
drbatfcc's review against another edition
4.0
Restorative practices - this book takes a school-wide approach
mpettit's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I read this as part of a book study at my school. Lots of great ideas that can implemented immediately by individual classroom teachers and larger ideas that would take a systematic culture shift.
bookish_manda's review against another edition
5.0
Better Than Carrots or Sticks is a book on classroom management and the use of positive and restorative practices. This book is full of good strategies that teachers can use to build student-teacher and student-student relationships in the classroom, and the authors use many student examples to illustrate these strategies. The information is organized well and written so that it is easily understood.
I read this book as part of a book study for my school district's professional development course offerings. I appreciate the new perspective that Smith, Fisher, and Frey present in regards to positive and restorative practices versus punitive practices. This information reminds me of the famous saying "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime". As teachers (and parents) we should strive to help our students develop the social skills to flourish in society. That means that instead of hurting them academically by suspending them we show grace and help the students discover a better way to respond to an event or situation.
If you are an educator, I highly recommend you read this book. Even if you don't agree with the author's on everything you will surely find something that you could implement in your classroom.
I read this book as part of a book study for my school district's professional development course offerings. I appreciate the new perspective that Smith, Fisher, and Frey present in regards to positive and restorative practices versus punitive practices. This information reminds me of the famous saying "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime". As teachers (and parents) we should strive to help our students develop the social skills to flourish in society. That means that instead of hurting them academically by suspending them we show grace and help the students discover a better way to respond to an event or situation.
If you are an educator, I highly recommend you read this book. Even if you don't agree with the author's on everything you will surely find something that you could implement in your classroom.
paperbacksandpines's review against another edition
3.0
If you are looking for either an introduction to restorative practices or a refresher course on best practices, this is the book for you. If you are looking for more intermediate fare, look elsewhere.
The authors made so many great points, I wanted to take this book to work, hold it up while shaking it, and shout, "See? Offering rewards all of the time is not helping our kids!" We are entering a new era in the classroom and today's students are not the same learners we were. Teachers are having to scramble to rework their entire approach to teaching, including adding character education which was formerly taught by parents at home (and still taught by some).
The authors make great points. Although this book is geared toward K-12 students, I felt that several of these techniques could not be accomplished at the elementary level, particularly in the primary grades. The success of these techniques are also heavily influenced the school, location, and parent involvement as well.
I agreed with most of the points made in the book. There were, however, a few points I either disagreed with or didn't see how they could work in my workplace. One of the assertions made by the authors was that the classroom teacher shouldn't be facilitating the peacemaking circle but rather another adult trained in the practices should. I don't know where these authors work but I've never worked in a school that had extra staff members that are on-call waiting to lead a class discussion on appropriately interacting with others. Another declaration that the authors continually made was that schools shouldn't be punitive but restorative. I don't disagree with that in theory but there are so many instances of students destroying items or hurting others in ways that can't be restored. I can't think of any logical solutions to righting these wrongs and the authors don't touch on this at all (if they did, they would offer solutions for high schoolers which would be useless for elementary schoolers).
Overall, I found many helpful tips in this book.
The authors made so many great points, I wanted to take this book to work, hold it up while shaking it, and shout, "See? Offering rewards all of the time is not helping our kids!" We are entering a new era in the classroom and today's students are not the same learners we were. Teachers are having to scramble to rework their entire approach to teaching, including adding character education which was formerly taught by parents at home (and still taught by some).
The authors make great points. Although this book is geared toward K-12 students, I felt that several of these techniques could not be accomplished at the elementary level, particularly in the primary grades. The success of these techniques are also heavily influenced the school, location, and parent involvement as well.
I agreed with most of the points made in the book. There were, however, a few points I either disagreed with or didn't see how they could work in my workplace. One of the assertions made by the authors was that the classroom teacher shouldn't be facilitating the peacemaking circle but rather another adult trained in the practices should. I don't know where these authors work but I've never worked in a school that had extra staff members that are on-call waiting to lead a class discussion on appropriately interacting with others. Another declaration that the authors continually made was that schools shouldn't be punitive but restorative. I don't disagree with that in theory but there are so many instances of students destroying items or hurting others in ways that can't be restored. I can't think of any logical solutions to righting these wrongs and the authors don't touch on this at all (if they did, they would offer solutions for high schoolers which would be useless for elementary schoolers).
Overall, I found many helpful tips in this book.
yesididbringabook's review against another edition
5.0
This book was an easy read and didn’t get too bogged down in pedagogy/theory. There were a lot of actionable steps, even if you’re not ready to go all the way.
kb_208's review against another edition
3.0
During my grad program we learned a bit about restorative justice ideas and practices. This book has a lot of great information and examples on the topic. My main problem with this isn't with the book or the information, but more on implementing it. It seems like you could, with a lot of work with you classes, implement many of these ideas within your classroom, but if your school and school district uses traditional punitive practices, it's going to be very difficult to uphold this system and to see an improvement in student behavior. Currently I am a substitute teacher, so I can't imagine too much of this happening very well for me, especially in schools where not much of these ideas are used.
The book does do a good job at laying out the steps to follow for each type of situation you may run in to as a teacher. It shows you the way to do classroom circles, offender-defender dialogue, and some of the more serious stuff that may involve law enforcement or social workers. It's great stuff, but you really need the support of the whole school, and I would say the whole school district. If kids can become acquainted with this method in elementary school, it would be a great benefit to them as they get older.
The book does do a good job at laying out the steps to follow for each type of situation you may run in to as a teacher. It shows you the way to do classroom circles, offender-defender dialogue, and some of the more serious stuff that may involve law enforcement or social workers. It's great stuff, but you really need the support of the whole school, and I would say the whole school district. If kids can become acquainted with this method in elementary school, it would be a great benefit to them as they get older.