Warning: If you are a teacher who believes that kids need to be punished in order to curb their angry misbehavior, this book is not for you.
For the rest of us teachers who struggle daily with trying to teach kids with anger issues, When Hurting Turns to Anger: Helping Students is the book for you.
Dr. Anstine Templeton's mentor Dr. Nick Long taught his graduate students that forewarned is forearmed. That is what using the anger reducing techniques (ART) shared in When Hurting Turns to Anger does for educators, administrators, counselors, and school personnel""it forearms adults from becoming reactive to students' anger.
What is ART? It is a seven-step process that helps students talk about their anger and learn ways to handle strong emotions effectively, before they reach the crisis stage. Therefore, ART can be used with any students, in any school. The theory is students can learn skills to handle their anger productively in school rather than becoming overwhelmed, losing control, and cycling into crises.
Using anger reducing techniques educators learn to
- control their own anger,
- look beyond the students' inappropriate behaviors,
- calm out of control students,
- get students to talk about their problems,
- show students how to create plans of success,
- teach students how to make amends for misbehavior, and
- hold students accountable for following their success plans.
Internalizing the anger reducing techniques, students learn that
- kids have a right to learn,
- kids may not take learning away from others,
- it's okay to feel angry,
- it's not okay to act out anger inappropriately,
- there are many ways to productively deal with anger,
- teachers can teach how to problem solve,
- it's a must to have a plan of success,
- kids must make amends for any hurt they have caused, and
- they will be held responsible for following their success plans.
In an easy to learn process, Rosalyn Anstine Templeton shows how to master anger that frees teachers to teach students self-control, how to use anger effectively to succeed, and ways to make amends.