Book cover: "Beyond Control: Heart-Centered Classroom Climate and Discipline by Alan Bandstra." The title is written on a classroom chalkboard. Empty desks and chairs face the board. A paper wad and paper airplane fly across the room.

Beyond Control: Heart-Centered Classroom Climate and Discipline

How do you work with the attitudes that drive classroom behavior? Beyond Control offers helpful advice.

A man in a green polo shirt instructs two women, one with long dark hair and the other with glasses, in front of computers in an office setting.
Cartoon of a smiling man with glasses, wearing shorts and sandals, standing in front of lockers in a school hallway, pointing and laughing.

Illustrated with insight and humor by Joe Hox

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A cartoon classroom with students and a teacher, illustrating the expression "elephant in the room." An annoyed teacher peers out from behind an elephant perched on the teacher's podium, creating a humorous and surreal scene.

In Beyond Control, you will discover . . .

  • Practical, faith-based responses to challenging behaviors and the dispositions that feed them

  • Steps for restoring positive relationships and learner interest among resistant children

  • Realistic strategies for showing grace while encouraging young people to accept responsibility for their behavior

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Part 1: Classroom Climate and the Christian Teacher

1 — The Climate Connection

2 — Control Issues

3 — Outlook Overhauls

Part II: Heart-Centered Teaching

4 — Getting Personal

5 — Cultivating Community

6 — Confronting the Beasts

Part III: Heart-Centered Discipline

7 — Guiding With Grace

8 — Stubborn Patience

9 — Calm Authority

10 — One to One

11 — Uprooting Unkindness

12 — Taming the Elephant

13 — Hope and a Future

Classroom chalkboard with the title "Beyond Control" and the subtitle "Heart-Centered Classroom, Climate and Discipline". Desks and chairs are visible in front of the board.

Click to download a free sample portion of Beyond Control.

Free download:

Chapter-by-chapter discussion questions for . . .

  • professional development

  • teacher education courses

  • book clubs

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Click to download questions for reflection and discussion.

Classroom blackboard with the title 'Beyond Control' and subtitle 'Heart-Centered Classroom Climate and Discipline' by Alan Bandstra, with empty desks in front.

“A must-read for new teachers and a best-read for experienced teachers.”

David Bouwkamp, Hudsonville Public Schools, Hudsonville, Michigan

“Humbly honest and insightful.”

Lisa Mouw, Instructor of education, Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa

“Here is a book that challenges the long-standing dominance of behaviorism and offers a practical, Christian alternative.”

John Van Dyk, professor of education and philosophy emeritus, Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa

Author

Alan Bandstra serves as a middle school math and science teacher at Sioux Center Christian School. Long fascinated by peer influence in classrooms, he has studied group dynamics from the angles of scriptural teaching and empirical research. Alan’s relatable stories draw from behavior situations he has encountered as an educator, teacher mentor, youth ministry volunteer, and dad. During summer breaks, Alan rejuvenates by loading his tools into the back of “Methuselah” (a rusty 1956 school bus) and working on home-repair projects for neighbors in his community.

Alan Bandstra, with glasses and a beard, dressed in a dark blue button-up shirt, leans on the side of his yellow vintage school bus in a grassy outdoor setting.