The Kid Calming Toolkit
Relational Strategies for Elementary School Leaders and the Educators they Support
by Jonathan Wheatley

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Are you an elementary school leader, teacher, or support worker who would like to learn successful ways to help children when the rubber hits the road? In his last few years as an elementary school principal, Jon Wheatley saw a growing number of children with challenging behaviors entering his school, and many well-intentioned educators who were unsure of how to best support them. This led him to write The Kid Calming Toolkit, a practical guide to help educators more skillfully talk and work with children. This clear and comprehensive resource explains how to better calm children’s challenging behaviors, build skills, and create solutions. The book’s approaches are effective, teacher tested, and research based. Find out why a relationship-first teaching philosophy is critical for elementary school students. Discover what attachment, brain, and behavioral research say about how to best support children. Learn a range of teaching and support strategies to more effectively calm kids, reduce conflict, and improve learning. The Kid Calming Toolkit will help educators better understand: • why relationships matter more than discipline • how behavior is more about skills than choices • the myth of escalating consequences • why kids become what they believe • the biology behind behavior • how to use a range of HELP intervention and support strategies, and more Addressing challenging student behavior is a stressful and difficult task. Educators can better help children, and make their school a happier place, by including more relational approaches to build trust, rapport, and skills.

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Jon Wheatley has spent his entire 35-year career directly teaching and supporting children. He has experienced every role within a K-7 school system, spent time in high schools, and led the district’s Indigenous Education Department. He spent twenty years as a principal leading in both tough inner-city contexts and more “well to do” school communities. What he learned along the way made him a better educator and person. He now teaches other educators how to harness the power within a relationship first philosophy to better talk and work with children. For more information about this author and book go to: THEKIDCALMINGTOOLKIT.CA

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Contributors

Author

Jonathan Wheatley