Beyond the Behavior Contract: A Practical Approach to Dealing with Challenging Student Behaviors

It seems each year we are faced in dealing with more and more students who are displaying ever increasing levels of anger, anxiety, and complex behavioral issues. Why are these children so angry? So anxious? Exhibiting so many challenging behaviors? How do we deal with students when they are annoyed, frustrated, anxious or destructive? What works and perhaps, just as importantly, what does not? In this informative book we will attempt to look at the context that seems to foster these student’s behaviors. Additionally, we will take a step back and look at how to practically deal with the many factors that support or positively modify these behaviors in a productive and practical fashion. Then, and most importantly, we will look at real-world and simple tools that can be used immediately to decrease the incidents of tantrums, diminish worry, destructiveness, and angry behaviors within the school setting. How to foster communication with parents for a more positive outcome as well as what we can do as an educational system to support these vulnerable youths. The goal of this book is to supplement and enrich your existing tools with others you can quickly implement when working with these students during their most challenging states.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Chapter 1: The Home: Understanding Behavior from the Context of the Home Chapter 2: The Parents: It All Starts Here Chapter 3: The School: The Framework for the Future Chapter 4: The Teacher: That’s You…You Are What Makes It All Work! Chapter 5: The Student: It All Boils Down to the Customer Conclusion Appendix About the Author

About the Author :
Brett J. Novick has a master’s degree in family therapy and post graduate certifications in school social work as well as educational leadership, He is an adjunct instructor at Rutgers University. Mr. Novick is the author of Parents and Teachers Working Together and has had published numerous national and international articles as well as received several awards for his work in education, administration, counseling, social work, and human rights.

Review :
Successful schools are not built on large budgets and great programs. Rather, they are built on teacher-student relationships. No one knows this better than Brett Novick. Mr. Novick eloquently and concisely describes best practices that reinforce this basic concept of building relationships with students that foster a connectedness to their schools. It all starts with a greater understanding of the student so that targeted behavior modifications can work. Relationships has to be a part of our new three 'R's'. Brett Novick understands this non-negotiable as the foundation for learning. Brett Novick both clearly and systematically unearths the why behind the behaviors in Beyond the Behavior Contract: A Practical Approach to Dealing with Challenging Student Behaviors. This text successfully brings Maslow’s Hierarchical Needs Pyramid into the 21st Century in a more focused 3-dimensional framework covering life domains of a student-beginning with their home-life, their time in school and ultimately to their larger connection to community life. Brett provides the reader with important knowledge with the goal to successful prepare the whole student for success throughout life! Bravo Brett!!! Brett’s unique approach to infusing classroom management while observing the slightest deviation from social norms in our children is thought-provoking. This book not only takes the reader through basic identification of issues to address, but also introduces us to the fine intricacies of daily stressors student’s face on an endless pace. Teachers need more training or resources to turn to or use when the student’s needs surface and are identified – the needs not related to scholastics. Each chapter has an interesting vignette to reinforce the concept needing to be understood. Brett’s down-to-earth semantics makes it easy to comprehend and follow along; even if you’re not a teacher or clinician. This book takes us into the classroom through the eyes of a clinician who happens to genuinely care about not only the adults in the child’s life, but the children in the adult’s lives. “Teaching in the midst of chaos” – that’s how one of my colleagues describes what it’s like to be a teacher nowadays. Our educational system is strained from lack of funding and pressures to do more with less. Parents often don’t understand or empathize with teachers, and many homes are characterized by norms that are inconsistent with school expectations. Teachers and school administrators tend to have different priorities, and teachers often feel unsupported by their district governance. In the midst of these tensions, how are teachers supposed to cover a curriculum? Novick, an experienced education and mental health professional, has many practical suggestions to help educator navigate this difficult terrain. He not only explains the nature of varying influences teachers must reconcile, but also provides many pragmatic techniques to help teachers address many classroom problems. This concise volume should be on the shelf of all teachers who wonder how to do their jobs during these challenging times.