Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom

I have found this classroom behavior management to be very befeficial and extremely logical for today's teachers. We need all the help we can get, and this system helps our students even more.

I really enjoy the L&L model for classroom management. However, the priciples can seem overwhelming if you try to do them all at once. Follow the writers' advice and just try implementing them one at a time. Just implementing two of the strategies has made my classroom management much better.
Some reviewers mentioned that they found the techniques in L&L to be cold and manipulative. There definitely is some "tough love" in here, and if you try to apply these techniques without TRUE empathy, that is, if you really don't care about the students, you could come off as sarcastic and condescending. Even I couldn't pull off a couple of the things they suggest, like being really sad for a student who's talking in class. I have to admit, I'm usually not feeling sad for a student at that moment... more like really ticked. But the basic ideas of remaining calm, never yelling, and forming quality relationships with your students are strong. Those who think these methods are cold obviously missed all the stuff about how important it is to care about your students and be interested in their lives. As the authors say, kids behave for teachers they love. All the stuff that seems cold and manipulative to you won't seem that way if you're surrounding them with love the rest of the time.

This book is an excellent resource for newbie teachers looking to improve their classroom management/student performance skills. The book is easy to follow and gives great examples. I have also taken a class on the skills discussed in this book, but for the money I think the book is all you need. Highly recommended.

I haven't finished reading this book and I already have a ton of new ideas. The premise is that you establish a relationship with your students where they can choose for themselves how to behave properly in the classroom. We must be fair with our consequences, hearty in praise, and rather than making demands, we must teach students to make good decisions. They won't have someone to make demands of them their whole lives. Highly recommend it, especially for nervous soon-to-be teachers.

Like all educational theories this book is another way for teachers to do classroom management. It does and can work, but it can be a bit harsh toward some students if followed exactly. I would recommend reading it but with an eye toward integrating the ideas that seem "logical" to you and your individual classroom situation.