Reclaiming Our Students

by Hannah Beach, Tamara Neufeld Strijack

Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever.

Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioural problems, teachers are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly: How can we get them back? Hannah Beach, a celebrated educator and specialist in the field of emotional health, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack, clinical counsellor and academic dean of the acclaimed Neufeld Institute, provide a thoughtful guide to restoring the student-teacher relationship and creating the conditions for change. Reclaiming Our Students empowers teachers with relationship-based strategies to restore their leadership role and build emotional safety in the classroom.

You’ll learn:
• How to build, feed, and protect the student-teacher relationship
• Why children are anxious or bossy, aggressive or checked out, and what you can do to address these behavioural issues at their root
• How you can help students and classes shift their identity as the “problem student” or “bad class”
• Experiential activities for students of all ages that preserve and restore emotional health and well-being

Plus, you’ll find special considerations and information for parents, principals, counsellors, and home educators for building safety and support in the learning environment.

Combining Hannah’s groundbreaking experiential approach to creating emotional health and community in the classroom with the Neufeld Institute’s insightful approach to building relationships and making sense of children, Reclaiming Our Students is required reading for teachers who not only want to understand and overcome daily challenges, but also re-connect to their calling as educators.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2020

About the author

Hannah Beach is an award-winning educator, author, emotional health consultant, and keynote speaker. She is the co-author of the best-selling book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever—and What We Can Do About It, with Tamara Neufeld Strijack, a trauma-informed resource for educators and parents rooted in the relationship-based approach, now being translated into multiple languages internationally (including French, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian and Korean) and has been adopted by school boards across Canada. She was recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017 as one of five featured changemakers in Canada. Her bestselling I Can Dance book series, supporting the emotional health of children through movement, play, and expression, won a 2017 Gold International Moonbeam Children’s Book Award.

Hannah delivers professional development services across the globe, provides emotional health consulting to schools and community based programs, and speaks at conferences about the power of relationship and play. Hannah is an emotional health and play-based learning consultant for Britannica Education, where she develops courses which are facilitated by the Britannica Education team.

Reviews

[Sarah]

This is a difficult time for children in school. We are indeed experiencing an emotional health and behavioural crisis.

This book is extremely accessible to teachers and parents alike. Full of resourceful insights and comes with a free handbook to help guide you through activities in class. Easy to implement without requiring a huge budget. It definitely helps you see behavioural responses in children in a whole new light. Reclaiming our Students is wonderfully focused on the student-teacher experience through experiential activities. A must-read for all educators or those who work with children.

Highly recommend!

[Yenna Marin]

Not at all a bad book, but I do always struggle with educational books that seem to suggest policy and systemic issues can and or should be abated by teachers going above and beyond. I do think this book is a worthwhile read for early career/ elementary teachers and parents as it does offer some tangible advice for those folks.

[Bianca]

Better keep those highlighters and post-its nearby as there are a lot of interesting information about common classroom challenges.

This book walks you through different behaviors by explaining why children act the way they do. It then tells you what you should and shouldn't do in order to help. Let's not forget the true stories and insightful perspectives that are included as well.

I believe that many of these tips and tricks are easy enough to implement in your classroom straight away. Others require shifting the way you teach and think.

It all comes down to having a good relationship with your students and showing them that you are able to be a great leader!

[Brendan]

'Reclaiming Our Students' has not only rekindled my desire to work alongside students again, but reminded me of how meaningful each interaction has the potential to be - both for the child and myself. Whether in the classroom or during play, the importance of cultivating relationships with ALL students in face of the challenges and the rewards is so thoughtfully captured by this book.

The authours reflect deeply from personal and professional experiences. Their insights extend beyond convention and offer practical guidance into the everyday scenarios of the classroom of 2020 and crucially, the relationships within. They share their understandings of the bigger picture, while offering perspective into something even greater - the minds, emotions, and behaviours of students.

[Meaghan McQueary]

I really enjoyed this book for professional development. As a future educator, this book helped shape my thought process for how simple shifts in our attitudes, words, and actions can make an impact on students. Children need strong leaders who connect with them personally in order to grow!

My only critique, which can also be contributed to me going through the book somewhat quickly, was how often it referred to the website of downloadable resources. Don’t get me wrong, free resources are so appreciated, but it almost felt like at the end of every section I had an “advertisement” before moving to the next. Additionally, it was recommended by the authors to not look through the resources until after reading the book in it’s entirety... so why keep sending you toward the reference at every possibility?

[Alyssa Kessler]

An excellent resource for educators - I appreciate the BC/Canadian context and found section three, "Common Challenges" to be very practical. My favourite section was "Identity Shifting," as it was a helpful reminder to me personally and will also inform conversations with my colleagues about our students and school culture. Highly recommend to anyone who works in schools or has children in K-12.

[Cass]

Really good insights. Felt it lost focus a bit towards the end, became a lot of platitudes. I was also really annoyed that the principles and practices were separated into an online handbook- better to put them together within the book!

[Mike Broderick]

A lot of good ideas in a perfect world here. However, school is anything but perfect. Time, different scenarios and many issues at home throw a wrench into all of the best laid plans. This is a book that teachers should read with their reflective thinking on....

[Jess Berry]

Took me a long time to work through but definitely a book I will keep close by. Incredible resource!

[Dani Morrow]

This is a great book!! I read it slowly (but surely) and it’ll be on the shelf for quick reference for years, I’m sure.

[Kristy Illman]

The best professional read I've completed in years. An essential read for anyone in education currently.

[Laura]

After hearing her speak on a PA Day I was excited to read this book. Read it, enjoyed it and highlighted many parts.

[Maggie Gamble]

If you work with kids (of any age), you should read this book.

[Ann]

Some good information; made me question certain of my practices/approaches.

Very heavily oriented towards elementary context. Some tips for teens, but generally limited.

[Ashley W]

This is a great book for teachers. It’s main idea is that connection is huge!! This is a common theme in many teacher books… but I love how this one goes into detail about how to connect with certain kids (bossy kids, aggressive kids, bullies etc). The chapter on bullying was my favourite and I will be re-reading it!!!

[Cassi Foster]

Stupid book for stupid book club at work. Felt like the obvious: parents need to do more to support teachers and their own kids at school.

[Seth]

A self is always becoming.