Do you hide the truth from difficult students? Do you give them false praise? In the name of encouragement, most teachers do. But if you want lasting improvement in their behavior, then you have to be brutally honest with them. Difficult students don’t benefit … Read more
Emotional outbursts, temper tantrums, yelling, lashing out. Severe misbehavior like this needs to be dealt with differently than typical rule breaking. How you respond to an aggressive child in the classroom goes a long way toward gaining control of the incident, keeping it from … Read more
This third and final part of this series is about communicating with difficult students in a way that will compel them to behave the way you want them to. But I must warn you. It’s going to be different than you’re used to and … Read more
In How To Turn Around Difficult Students (Part 1), I made the case that teachers struggle with difficult students because their compassion overrides doing what is best for the student. If you haven’t read the article, I encourage you to read it before continuing … Read more
At the start of every school year you drag your finger down your roster, hopeful you won’t see one of the few names that can send shivers down your spine. Every year, it seems, there are a handful of students that have the potential … Read more
Let’s begin this week’s article by looking at a common scenario. You’re leading your students to class after visiting the library one day, and you notice Andrew kicking the heels of the student in front of him. He is clearly doing it on purpose. … Read more
When a teacher seeks help in handling a difficult student, typically one of the first things recommended is a behavior contract. Behavior contracts are popular because they give teachers a definite plan for improving behavior. And where there is a plan, there is hope. … Read more
I wasn’t sure I could do this. One week into my first teaching assignment and I was having second thoughts about my career choice. Although I had been working with kids since my junior year of high school, I had never encountered a child … Read more