From Behaving to Belonging Book Club

Join Meghan Higle for a Book Club! Participants will recieve 6hrs of ECP credit.

• December 5th from 6pm-7pm via Zoom
• January 16th from 6pm-7pm via Zoom

Participants will spend 4 hours outside of the zoom calls reading the text. Participants will need to order and read half of the book before the first zoom call. From Behaving to Belonging by Julie Causton and Kate Macleod can be found on Amazon, Thrift Books, Barnes & Noble, Good Reads, etc.

Participants will: 1) Utilize discussion and collaboration with peers while reading a new book to further continuing education and knowledge. 2) Gain new understandings for working with children from diverse backgrounds or with ongoing challenging behaviors in the classroom. 3) Create and adopt new activities and teaching methods as well as make physical classroom changes to supplement current strategies in order to support all children in inclusive and loving ways.

Information about the book:

Challenging behavior is one of the most significant issues educators face. Though it may seem radical to use words like love, compassion, and heart when we talk about behavior and discipline, the compassionate and heartfelt words, actions, and strategies teachers employ in the classroom directly shape who students are—and who they will become. But how can teaching from the heart translate into effective supports and practices for students who exhibit challenging behavior?

In From Behaving to Belonging, Julie Causton and Kate MacLeod detail how teachers can shift from a "behavior management" mindset (that punishes students for "bad" behavior or rewards students for "good" or "compliant" behavior) to an approach that supports all students—even the most challenging ones—with kindness, creativity, acceptance, and love.

Causton and MacLeod's approach  * Focuses on students' strengths, gifts, and talents. * Ignites students' creativity and sense of self-worth. * Ensures that students' social, emotional, and academic needs are met. * Prompts teachers to rethink challenging behavior and how they support their students. * Helps teachers identify barriers to student success in the cultural, social, and environmental landscape. * Inspires teachers to reconnect with their core values and beliefs about students and teaching.

We need to transform our classrooms into places of love. To that end, this book represents a paradigm shift from a punitive mindset to a strengths-based, loving approach and encourages the radical act of creating more inclusive and caring schools.