Hugging Porcupines

Hugging Porcupines: Month-by-Month Strategies to Support Our Most Challenging Students

By Mike Anderson

Book Details

Product Code: 126020

ISBN: 9781416634478

Release Date: May 2026 

Length: 202 pages

Insightful strategies for reaching and teaching our “porcupines”—those students who struggle in school and challenge us most.

We’ve all known students who disrupt class, break the rules, and try our patience. Deep down, we know they’re the ones who actually need extra love and support instead of time-outs or trips to the principal’s office. In Hugging Porcupines, veteran educator Mike Anderson offers practical strategies for supporting these porcupines so they can be as successful as possible, both in school and beyond.

Anderson walks readers month-by-month through the school year, sharing strategies for setting up routines at the start of school, getting back on track after holiday breaks, and finishing strong. He addresses how to

• Develop relationships slowly early on, strengthen them throughout the year, and bring them to a positive conclusion in the spring.
• Maintain, and even build, relationships through effective discipline.
• Connect with porcupines’ families.
• Foster porcupines’ interpersonal skills.
• Facilitate effective problem-solving conferences.
• Support new students when they arrive mid-year.
• Support students’ transition to the next year.

Hugging Porcupines will deepen K–12 teachers’ understanding of why porcupines struggle academically and behaviorally in school and equip them to provide more appropriate support.

Table of contents

Part I. Who Are Our Porcupines?

1. Who Are Our Porcupines?

2. Why Do Porcupines Struggle with Relationships?

3. Why Do Porcupines Resist Learning?

4. Why Do Porcupines Break Rules?

Part II. Hugging Porcupines All Year Long

5. Hugging Porcupines All Year Long

6. The Last Weeks of Summer: July and August

7. The First Weeks of School: August and September

8. The Honeymoon’s Over: September and October

9. The Holiday Season: November and December

10. January Is Re-Month: January

11. The Winter Doldrums: February and March

12. The Beginning of the End of the Year: March and April

13. The Last Weeks of School: May and June

Conclusion: Hugging Porcupines Can Hurt—Do It Anyway

Acknowledgments

References

Index

About the Author

About the author

Mike Anderson has been an educator for many years. A classroom teacher for 15 years, he has also coached swim teams, worked in preschools, and taught university graduate-level classes. In 2004, Anderson was awarded a national Milken Educator Award, and in 2005, he was a finalist for New Hampshire Teacher of the Year.

Now an independent education consultant, Anderson works with schools in rural, urban, and suburban settings throughout the United States and beyond. In 2020, he was awarded the Outstanding Educational Leader Award by NHASCD for his work as a consultant. Anderson is the author of many books about great teaching and learning, including Hugging Porcupines and the bestseller What We Say and How We Say It Matter.