Classroom Management Trilogy

The Complete Classroom Management Trilogy: A Cat in the Doghouse, ENVoY, and A Healthy Classroom

A Cat in the Doghouse

It’s time to transform your classroom into a more humane society

With A Cat in the Doghouse, the last in Michael Grinder’s Classroom Management trilogy, he proves again why he’s the go-to person in learning how to deal with the difficult and at-risk children in our classrooms today.

In this book, Michael uses the analogy of our beloved household pets — cats and dogs — so that we can easily understand what motivates all of our students. The techniques and tools he shares will transform your classroom into a more humane society.

Years ago, as a classroom teacher, Michael discovered our “dog” students love the routine of a traditional classroom, while our “cat” students – who love tension and risk – tend to be disruptive when they are bored.

Management by power just doesn’t work with our hard-to-reach (cat) students. With A Cat in the Doghouse, you will learn what does work to create a happier, safer classroom.

“Michael Grinder has given us the management skills needed to successfully reach the hard-to-reach students — we have to reach them to teach them.” –Pearl Nitsche, Educational Consultant

ENVoY: Your Personal Guide to Classroom Management

What is the ENVoY program?

ENVoY is a vehicle to shift educators from seeing themselves as bastions of Power to instruments of Influence. When used by cadres of instructors within a school, this material brings out the professional strengths of all the members involved. We need to elevate ourselves from within… we need systems which enable us to profit from the wealth of abilities that lie in insular classrooms. It is only through sharing and supporting processes that the collective wisdom of the staff emerges.

What is the ENVoY book?

This is Michael’s best-selling book for teachers about classroom management techniques. Widely used in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. This book is a collection of 31 techniques that teachers use. By becoming aware of them, the teacher can use the techniques on the days when he or she most needs them. Chapter 1 is a summary of the seven best techniques of all 31. The 31 skills are presented in forms that the individual teacher can fill out on him- or herself, and these same forms are re-written as peer observation competency sheets. This allows for peer coaching – the single fastest way to increase professional growth. Chapters 2-5: The book also includes 24 other essential skills, many of them refinements of the Seven Gems. The techniques are mostly non-verbal, and, in spite of their importance, are rarely taught in teacher preparation programs.

What people are saying about the ENVoY Program

Dr. Robert Garmston, Co-director of Institute for Intelligent Behavior

“The heart of Michael Grinder’s book is chock-full of practical and eloquent non-verbal classroom management techniques. A tantalizing treasure trove. I believe with this book to guide my study, I could acquire his discriminating eye for detail and refine my sense of timing.”

Robert Dilts, NLP University

“Michael offers an effective collection of tactics for the teacher. ENVoY is a welcome breath of fresh air.”

Kaze Gadway, Program Director, Gadway Training Institute

“After 25 years of teaching in cross-cultural situations, including East Africa, I am amazed at how respectful, simple and effective Michael Grinder’s approach is.”

Diane McIntosh, Resident coach at Molalla School District

“Teachers love the opportunity to understand what they often do intuitive well…so now they can do it daily. The whole school’s enthusiasm has gone to a new plateau.”

Marilyn Ewing, Teacher and coordinator of Conflict Management, Ithaca, NY

“ENVoY is brim full of win-win techniques that work effectively in racially and culturally mixed schools.”

Michael’s classic educational work is ENVoY. It is designed for every teacher because it is the science of classroom management.

A Healthy Classroom

Michael’s classic educational work is ENVoY. It is designed for every teacher because it is the science of classroom management. A Healthy Classroom is the art of classroom management.

While ENVoY is a collection of 31 strategies that the teacher applies either when interacting with an individual student or the class as a whole, A Healthy Classroom is designed to help us understand the hardest management situations the teacher faces – when the teacher has to grapple with both the individual and the class at the same time. While teaching the entire class, the teacher often has to quickly assess what to do with an individual student who is inappropriate. Just as troublesome is the situation when the teacher is reprimanding an individual student and the whole class is watching. A Healthy Classroom tackles these group dynamic situations with insight and practical axioms.

The first four chapters are written for the first four months of a school year. They are:

September

• Class formation
• The six indications of class formation
• The four techniques to accelerate it
• The changing role of the teacher

October

• Reading a class
• Recognizing and utilizing leaders
• The difference between positive and negative leaders
• Reading a class by peripherally watching the barometers
• The essential role of liaisons in the classroom
• How to determine the values of the class, and which students to promote who will add any missing values

November

• Stages of Irritability
• How to respond when the class is irritated with a student
• When to ignore inappropriate behaviors
• When to save and protect individual students
• Why not to counsel a bully
• Methods for increasing and decreasing the status of a given student

December

• Seasons of the school year
• How each student’s identification with the rest of the class changes
• How to accurately interpret collective voice volumes
• How to know on the chaotic days if you are a contributing cause
• When to expect the “giggles” and what to do about them
• Strategies to affect seasonal ebbs and flows of your own and the class’s energy

The fifth chapter is the high point of the book. It is basically a checklist of the indicators and benefits of a healthy classroom. Central to the concept of utilizing group dynamics in the classroom is the concept of stereotyping. It is a phenomenon that can’t be prevented, but there are ways to direct this innate occurrence so that positive benefits are gained. A must read for ambitious teachers and administrators who realize that outstanding teachers have a right and need to professionally grow.