Creating a Safe and Friendly School: Articles by Elementary School Teachers.

CREATING A SAFE AND FRIENDLY SCHOOL: Articles by Elementary School Teachers. Turner Falls, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, 2006. 128pp. $16.00. In lieu of the terrible and frightening accounts of school shootings and other incidents of school violence in recent years, it is refreshing to read articles written by teachers, principals, and counselors sharing successful efforts to teach students responsive behaviors towards themselves and others. These 17 articles detail activities, projects, and individual classroom practices that have worked to educate children about self-control, patience, and understanding. "Children learn best when their classrooms are places where they feel safe, known, and valued, places that free them to learn" (p. 1).

The Northeast Foundation for Children is a nonprofit organization founded in 1981, directed by educators with the mission of promoting safe and positive education environments. The foundation also publishes the Responsive Classroom newsletter (in which all the articles in the text were originally published).

The text is divided into six sections: The Bus; Hallways and Bathrooms; Recess and Lunch; Special Area Classrooms; Building Community; and Taking the Rules School-Wide. Each section illustrates specific practices utilized in schools and classrooms that help make those areas safe and welcoming places. The articles in each section are written for any teacher, administrator, counselor, or parent interested in gaining ideas about how to develop or improve the school environment. The reader may find that some strategies fit perfectly into their school community while others may need modification; nevertheless, there will be practical implications for all readers. This book fills the reader with hope and functional plans for making this goal a reality. Reviewed by Aileen Socarras Machado, 1st-grade teacher/assistant school director and Ph. D. student at Barry University, Miami Shores, FL