Totally Positive Teaching

A Five-Stage Approach to Energizing Students and Teachers

Discipline problems, limited resources, crowded classrooms. Teachers face many issues each day that can wear down their love of education. How can they stay focused and energized day in and day out? In Totally Positive Teaching, Joseph Ciaccio shares an approach that transformed him from a burned-out veteran teacher struggling joylessly through each day to a professional who has fun with his students, guiding them to success while enjoying the teaching process. The conviction that people can adopt a new attitude is at the heart of Ciaccio’s Totally Positive Approach. When teachers enter the classroom with an upbeat attitude supported by constructive teaching techniques, they can build trusting partnerships with students. Ciaccio describes five techniques for creating a daily positive learning experience that nurtures student achievement: • Devising activities to meet the mutual needs of student and teacher • Changing personal counterproductive feelings • Responding to behavior problems with self-discipline • Helping underachievers become self-motivated • Developing instructional strategies to keep students engaged Ciaccio provides plenty of examples to illustrate how these techniques actually work in the classroom. He also includes dozens of strategies and tips for introducing the Totally Positive Approach and making it take hold in your own work. When teachers use the Totally Positive Approach, students gain confidence, take control of their lives, and feel that they belong. Just as important, teachers enjoy enormous professional and personal growth, seeing with new clarity how their own attitudes and actions help shape the next generation. Totally Positive Teaching is an inspirational guide to approaching each school day with new energy, insight, and satisfaction.