"Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management" Book Study (Summer, 2025)

* This course is worth either 15 continuing education contact hours (CECH) or one graduate credit. 

In Better Than Carrots or Sticks, longtime educators and best-selling authors Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey provide a practical blueprint for creating a cooperative and respectful classroom climate in which students and teachers work through behavioral issues together. After a comprehensive overview of the roots of the restorative practices movement in schools, the authors explain how to

• Establish procedures and expectations for student behavior that encourage the development of positive interpersonal skills;

• Develop a non-confrontational rapport with even the most challenging students; and

• Implement conflict resolution strategies that prioritize relationship building and mutual understanding over finger-pointing and retribution.

Rewards and punishments may help to maintain order in the short term, but they're at best superficially effective and at worst counterproductive. This book will prepare teachers at all levels to ensure that their classrooms are welcoming, enriching, and constructive environments built on collective respect and focused on student achievement.

Book: Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management by Smith, Fisher, and Frey 

                    ISBN-10: 1416620621

                    ISBN-13: 978-1416620624