Creating Joyful Classrooms: A Positive Response to Testing and Accountability in the Elementary School

Creating Joyful Classrooms is a practical response to the malaise in America’s schools created by high stakes testing, disrespect for the teaching profession, and resources being redirected to charter schools and private school vouchers. Classroom teachers feel helpless and students feel hapless. Joy has left the building. This book offers the antidote to return joy and passion to teaching and learning. Whether a beginning teacher or a seasoned veteran, this book shows the way back to timeless child-centered best practices that engage young children and increase academic achievement. As joyful classrooms multiply, their success will drive out the poisonous rancor of cynicism and despair to become beacons of hope for children everywhere. This book also makes the case for changing the status quo in the elementary school. The standard traditional grade school is failing to meet the needs of children growing up in the information age. Elementary schools must evolve into multi-grade, multi-dimensional safe havens that challenge children academically, while remembering to cherish childhood. Based upon the theory of invitational education, this book provides specific strategies, along with classroom management tools, to create highly engaging classrooms for young children. It also offers inspiring stories of heroic teachers who beat the odds to bring joy back to school. It’s not too late for a better tomorrow.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Bringing joy back to teaching and learning Chapter 2: Introducing Project CHILD: A triangulated teaching model Chapter 3: Getting started to create a joyful classroom Chapter 4: Creating a positive classroom climate Chapter 5: Effective classroom management strategies Chapter 6: 21st century teaching strategies Chapter 7: Stepping outside the box: Successes and challenges Appendix About the Authors

About the Author :
Dr. Sarah Butzin is an award-winning teacher and author. She is creator of the Project CHILD instructional system, founder of the Institute for School Innovation in Tallahassee, FL and has served in numerous leadership positions including Chair of the International Alliance for Invitational Education.

Review :
Establishing effective and consistent classroom procedures are the hallmarks of successful teaching. Creating Joyful Classrooms provides a unique research-based management system, along with specific tools, for using small group multidimensional learning stations in an elementary classroom. I also like the emphasis on creating a positive classroom climate through IE (Invitational Education). IE helps teachers act intentionally to create caring and optimistic classrooms that respect and trust young children to become responsible and independent learners. I highly recommend this book as an additional resource on classroom management for all teachers, whether beginners or veterans. Sarah M. (Sally) Butzin, PhD is a beautiful writer and a major international advocate for children in schools. Her passion for teaching and her devotion to children are unsurpassed. Creating JoyfulClassrooms is a heart-felt expression of her commitment to making schools a more inviting place for people. Creating Joyful Classrooms should be read by every educator who feels beaten down by the constant emphasis on high-stakes testing, zero tolerance, bureaucratic pressures and ruthless accountability. This optimistic book if filled with a zest for teaching and a joyous love for children. Creating Joyful Classrooms truly expresses an openness to positive possibilities in American Education. It is a significant contribution to education. I see this book as a truly useful and amazingly practical resource for college programs preparing future educators. At the heart of it all, Creating Joyful Classrooms, presents the underlying theory of Invitational Education and further offers a compendium of practical ideas for establishing and maintaining effective classroom procedures that guarantee young children are engaged and on-task. Recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers is one of the biggest challenges for any school district. This book is a welcome resource to help create schools full of proud teachers and happy learners. …And teachers who work in joyful classrooms tend to stay engaged in the profession for years to come. The stories are reassuring and inspirational. The recommendations make sense, are based on evidence, will boost learning for all, and clearly cherish childhood. Kudos on an important message at the heart of this book! “Bring back the joy to teaching and learning,” says Dr. Butzin. She reminds us that joyless schools often fail to achieve academic success, either. This is especially true in high poverty schools. Kids flourish in joyful classrooms led by optimistic teachers. The ideas contained in this book will vaccinate our children against the hopelessness robbing them of bright futures. I highly endorse this book as a tremendous resource for any elementary school that is working on transformation from failure to success. My high-needs school has used many of the techniques and strategies described in Creating Joyful Classrooms to dramatically improve academic achievement and win numerous national awards as a turn-around Project CHILD school. As a classroom teacher with Project CHILD, I learned to use the procedures described in the book with my special needs students. Later I moved on to work with teachers around the country who are hungry for practical advice on classroom management procedures that actually work with today's challenging students. I highly recommend this book as a resource that not only explains the underlying theory, but offers specific strategies to create joyful classrooms for all students.