Help for Billy: A Beyond Consequences Approach to Helping Challenging Children in the Classroom (Unabridged‪)‬

Teacher Book Club

I read this book for a before school book club (I’m a K-5 teacher) and it had some pieces of really good advice. After about a decade in the field, though, some of the tips were redundant and had me going “well duh” while reading it. Some of the other pieces of advice were things that were either against many schools’ codes of conduct or required teachers to work extra hours outside of their contract. For example, she recommends (in multiple chapters) that the teacher visit “Billy” at his home or at a public park. Generally, only certain school personnel are allowed to so home visits and meeting students outside of school hours feels inappropriate. She also suggests meeting with students during the planning time before the school year and using lunch time to eat with students. This encourages teachers to work outside of the contract hours and, although I see her point about this sort of relationship building making a huge difference for “Billy,” I struggle with giving or taking any advice that could impact work-life balance in this way. Overall, I’d say this book is helpful and the tips should be taken with a grain of salt.