Happy Kids Don't Punch You in the Face
A Guide to Eliminating Aggressive Behavior in School
- Ben Springer - Totem PD
Take a positive approach to behavior intervention for results that work—and last!
When there’s a nuclear meltdown happening in your classroom, you don’t have a second to think. This book is your trusted guide on what to do in the heat of the moment, and how you can decrease the chances of incidents happening in the first place. Its field-tested strategies integrate principles of behavioral intervention with the best practices of positive psychology—a fresh, effective response that respects the tough realities you face every day.
Happy Kids takes a student-centered approach to behavior, emphasizing optimism and student happiness without sugarcoating the realities of managing your students. Inside you’ll find:
- Ready-to-use tools and guidelines
- Practical guidance developed from the author’s extensive experience training educators
- Solutions that work now and support each student’s future well-being
- A deliberate focus at the classroom, building, and system level
Whether you’re a teacher, school counselor, psychologist, or administrator, Happy Kids has the guidance you need to manage behavior, ensure safety for all, and bring peace back to the classroom and school.
Free resources
Engage The Rage: 5 Essential Components to Engaging Aggressive Students
"Most of you reading this have never met me in person or seen my picture. I have an enormous forehead. Once, while teaching a small group of at-risk teens, a clever student actually informed me that I possess a fivehead. Like I said, clever."
Read more from Ben Springer, author of Happy Kids Don't Punch You in the Face, on Corwin Connect.
"Happy Kids gives much needed advice for educators in the trenches who are dealing with aggressive and disturbed students on a daily basis. This book has relevant examples, vignettes, cases, background information concerning behavior analysis and much more. The beauty of this book is that it explains the need, the goal, the desired outcome, and goes back to give the step by step to use these techniques in the classroom. Moreover, Ben Springer's use of humorous personal anecdotes and organization make this a breeze to read and understand."
In Happy Kids, Dr. Springer draws from his years of experience working with students with challenging behaviours to help teachers and school leaders understand how they can do just that. Rooted in the principles of applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and the RICH theory of happiness, the happy kids formula is a tool that reminds us that when students have access to resources and intimacy, feel competent about themselves, and are healthy, they are more likely to be happy, which will drastically decrease their levels of aggression. I literally loved everything about this book and cannot stop talking about whenever I overhear a conversation about a challenging student.