Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut Down Than Ever—And What We Can Do About It

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 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 • 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-beingPlus, 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, Nonfiction

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2020

Reviews

[Izabel | izreadsthings · Rating 4 out of 5]

It all boils down to relationships! Very idealistic and a little long but overall good insight & a great public speaker

[Lauren Langford · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will take me a long time to process all the beautiful wisdom in this book but I can say without hesitation that if you work with young people and their families in any capacity then you should read it.

While this book does touch on all the colloquialisms you’d expect to hear, it is unique in the sense that it goes much deeper into each of them than any other story and it looks at each one of them through the lens of teachers leading, students following, and the relationship between them as the most important thing to foster an environment with optimal conditions for growth.

Another thing that I loved about this book is that is gives you permission to do and be all the things that society has taught us are not professional, appropriate, proper, or even important. Students and their families need to see the real you, they need everything to be at least a little bit about play, students need to see you expressing your emotions and being vulnerable in a healthy way so they know what that looks like, and the arts should be incorporated into every facet of education because they connect us in all subjects to the human experience.

If you are struggling with your own engagement as an educator, this book might speak to you in a way that others have fallen short. You are the leader, you are empowered to lead, and you should lead from the heart first.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

'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 a perspective into something even greater - the minds, emotions, and behaviours of students.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all about relationships!!

[Danika Dool · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for school, then heard Hannah Beach in person. This has seriously informed a lot of my current teaching practice and given me added confidence that this generation will not be doomed.