The text answers two fundamental behaviour management questions: "What actually works"?, and "How can I learn to do that "?
The book contains a unique and simple way of implementing behaviour skills. The reader takes a look into the minds and motivations of misbehaviing youngsters and is guided to learn, use and perfect proven behaviour insights, strategies and skills.
Click here to go directly to the ACER online shop and order it. or Here to read the book flyer (pdf). $AU24.95 in Australia, US$32.68 all other countries. Plus postage.
"All I do is slip on my 'coat'. It keeps me safe, it gives me that extra confidence. When I face a situation in class - students playing up - I just slip out a skill from on of the many pockets in my coat and I deal with it. I manage the situation and the behaviour, and everyone can get on with their work". Ian Butler, Teacher from St. Francis Xavier Regional Catholic College, Beaconsfield, Victoria, Australia.
"Dear Jenny, I have just completed reading your book, "Coat of Many Pockets" and found it inspirational & in line with the culture we would like to facilitate in the school". Jennifer Rendall, Principal at Middle Park Primary School in Melbourne.
"I would like to let you know that I have begun using your book and it has made me a much calmer person in the classroom, and I feel like I have gained some control over myself and the students. Thankyou so much for writing a book that actually gives you specific strategies for specific areas of need! I have also been recommending it colleagues and I hope to attend more of your workshops in the future". Irit Rozenfeld, Classroom Music Teacher.
By TLN Melbourne, the Teacher Learning Network
A busking magician has a trick in every of pocket. To earn a dollar they have to entertain and amuse the uncertain, the cynical, the disinterested, the passer-by, the sceptic and the all too eager child in intetoctlons the front row. Sound familiar to all the teacher readers? Where do you get one of those coats?
One possibility is Jenny Mackay's publication, Coat of Many Pockets: Managing Classroom Interactions. Those of you who have attended one of Jenny's courses at the TLN will be familiar with jenny and her work. A long term teacher at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Great Britain, South Africa, USA and Australia, she now works as a consultant and lectures part time in teacher accreditation and professional development with Deakin University.
This is no `one trick wonder' for controlling a group of unruly middle year adolescents. Over an extensive teaching career, Jenny has developed a structured framework to enable teachers to manage the relationships and the learning process in their classrooms. Jenny labels it the "Interactive Management Process" and guides teachers in the skilful management of classroom interactions.
Teachers learn to be aware of the impact of their responses on student behaviour. Using a workshop format, jenny leads teachers through the process of managing themselves and increasing their repertoire of responses to the students. The book is detailed and structured and the content tried, tested and proven. Jenny does acknowledge, however, that behaviour management is not easy: She says, "Stay with it, because some students who enter your class may have been behaving in an unacceptable fashion for some years ...(students) behave in a certain way because it works for them."
In the book, Jenny has a unique way of encouraging teachers to reflect on their own approaches, techniques and methodologies. She has developed Teacher- Friendly behaviour Support (TFBS). This occurs in the form of `transcripts' of theoretical staffroom conversations that are used in the book to illustrate how teachers can support each other in the development of positive classroom interactions. One chapter of the book is given over to a full-length conversation to show how an open friendly constructive and informative discussion is facilitated. It is good reading for all teachers wanting to build their behaviour management skills and will be valuable to those experienced teachers needing to become mentors.
This is a dense book and not easily read in a single sitting, but that is not its purpose: This book is designed as a pocket book for teachers; one that is within a teacher's immediate reach and that will become well worn through extensive use.
It is structured with `To Do' activities, summaries, quick easy tips and focus points to remember. It is both a handbook and a survival guide.
........More soon!