Part Eight of a Series Just for New Teachers

 Some Suggestions for Successful Interventions

One of the most difficult skills to develop as a new teacher is learning to intervene successfully when a student misbehaves. It is very easy to overreact or to react in anger and frustration or to just react without thinking through the end result of what your intervention could cause. The art of intervening effectively when there is a behavior incident takes time and practice and planning. Here are a few suggestions for how to think about making the kind of interventions that will make your classroom a peaceful and productive place for your students and for yourself. 

When a student misbehaves, it helps to think about the choices that you have when you intervene. There are really only two choices that you have once you decide not to ignore the problem and to take action. 

Although you have two choices, it is important to be clear about when you want to act. Here are some easy guidelines to help you think through what to do. 

Here are some of the easiest mistakes to make (and to avoid) when you are enforcing consequences. The one that teachers have reported to me that they find the hardest to avoid is to waiting for a response. Issuing a directive and then waiting impatiently for a student to comply is not helpful. Instead, calmly state the consequence and then turn away--giving the student a moment or two to process the consequence, overcome reluctance, and then comply. 

One of the most effective tools that teachers have in enforcing consequences to to issue a warning. While warnings can be effective, they lose their power if they are overused. 

Finally, one of the most frequently asked questions that teachers asked me in seminars was what to do when students don't seem to care about the consequences that they were given. Here are some questions to ask yourself if this happens in your classroom. 

Part Two of the Series Just for New Teachers

How to Successfully Support Difficult and Challenging Students

 

One of the most common problems faced by beginning teachers is the often perplexing problem of difficult and challenging students. Last week, in Part One, I covered some suggestions for avoiding classroom power struggles. In this part of the series, I want to provide some general suggestions to guide your thinking. 

First, coping successfully with challenging students is not something that can usually be managed in a day or so. Difficult students did not develop their behaviors overnight. Generally, the behaviors that are not appropriate for a classroom setting are ones that students learned over a period of time. With that in mind, you will be more productive and far more likely to help these students if you take a measured, well-planned course of action. Take your time and help your students learn how to be successful rather that just insist on compliance. 

There are all sorts of mistakes that it possible for even the most well-intentioned teacher to make with students who are struggling with school. If you find yourself having to deal with a disruptive student or two, you may want to consider if you have made of of the mistakes in this list below. Of these mistakes, perhaps the most common one is the last one--giving too much attention to students who are causing trouble in class. Instead of reacting in a negative way, ignore as much as you can and find ways to make these students feel that they are part of the class--not on the outside with nothing to lose. 

When you look at this list, do you see your own classroom leadership style? Could you be adding to the problem?

A final thought to help you with this issue is the biggest take away. Instead of being upset and negative and stressed out, adopt the attitude that classroom misbehavior is a problem that can be solved. You are no longer the victim of unruly students, but instead a classroom leader who is willing and capable of helping all students learn to manage their own behavior and succeed in your class. 

In a Slump? Thirty Ways to Energize Your Teaching

Even the most dedicated teacher can fall into a slump from time to time. Certain times of the year—a long winter, the days before an extended holiday, or even the last few weeks before the end of the year—seem to be easy times for anyone to find the daily grind of teaching stresses tedious. When you are aware that this is happening to you, it’s time to take action to make sure that your students learn the material that they need to learn and that you can have the productive classroom environment that you want for your students and for yourself. In the following list, you will find thirty simple ways to replace the negative feelings induced by a teaching slump with the positive energy that can help your students enjoy school as they learn to be successful students.

1.     Spend your energy on large problems first and allot less of your energy for the small ones. Choose to deal with the problems that will give you the greatest benefit right away. 

2.     Make it your goal that every student will leave your class with a positive attitude every day.

3.     Keep things in perspective. Ask yourself if the problems you have today will be important next year.

4.     Change the pace. Try three new activities this week.

5.     Increase the ways that you ask students to respond nonverbally. Instead of shouting from their seats, they can hold up cards or give a thumbs up sign.

6.     Plan to ignore the small stuff.

7.     When a task seems impossible, remind yourself of the teachers who made a difference in your life. You can do the same for your students.

8.     Empower your students by designing assignments that allow for limited student options. Give them innocuous choices such as the even or odd problems, essay topics, group tasks, or the best day to take a test. 

9.     You probably need to model more for your students. Most teachers do. And don’t forget to show them what you don’t want them to do, also.

10.  Ask students to justify their answers on a test to encourage deeper thinking. 

11.  Let your students know what activities lie ahead of them so that they have something to look forward to. Try a little countdown to an exciting event to focus them on the positive.

12.  Encourage independence! Tell your students that they must “See three before me” to find answers to questions.

13.  At the end of a lesson, encourage reflection (and positive attitudes) by asking students to tell you what went well during class. 

14.  Build in wiggle breaks. Even older students need a break now and then. 

15.  When students are engaged in learning new material, periodically ask them to stop and write about these three topics: what they think about the subject so far, what they understand about the subject, and any questions they still may have.

16.  Don’t work against the nature of your students. Make the material compelling by incorporating their interests and goals.

17.  Put some color in your classroom world. Break out the crayons or highlighters to help students pay attention to what’s important in their notes.

18.  Paraphrasing is a helpful gateway to other skills. Put students in pairs and ask them to paraphrase material. Then that pair can share their paraphrase with another pair. 

19.  Avoid problems when students finish work early by having other activities for them to complete. Students with nothing to do will amuse themselves by annoying nearby adults.

20.  Increase the frequency of the positive recognition you give students. 

21.  Display student work. Rewarding students in this way is worth the time it takes to arrange it.

22.  Pose a question of the week that is related to the material you are studying but that students need to research independently. Reward the student with the best answer with a little tangible reward.

23.  Set a concrete goal with your students: 100% on every quiz, everyone on time for a week, all homework complete... Use a bar graph to illustrate their progress.

24.  Graphic organizers are wonderful ways to engage students. Busy students are happy students and happy students make happy teachers.

25.  Use a variety of media to capture your audience--movies, art, wikis, songs, podcasts, television, interactive game sites, magazines, advertisements, cartoons, and slogans are just a few of the ways that you can capture attention.

26.  When they ask, “Why do we have to do this?” be sure to have an excellent answer ready.

27.  Use your student’s competitive instincts to your advantage. Create teams to compete against other teams. Best of all, challenge your students to compete against themselves by working to improve their own best performance.

28.  Work with your students to set personal long- and short-term goals for themselves. They will work harder with a clear focus for their work.

29.  Take photographs of your students. Be thrifty and print them out on paper. Your students just want to see themselves on the classroom wall.

30.  Schedule in some fun every day--for you and for your students. Smile together and misbehavior will decrease.

Help Your Students Learn to Work Well Together

It is necessary for teachers to make it possible for students to work well together—an undertaking requiring diplomacy as well as consistent effort on your part. Social inclusion is such a vital aspect of any student’s life that the effort can often result in beneficial dividends for everyone in the classroom.

One of the most important ways to make sure all students feel that they are valued members of a class is to work to remove the barriers to social acceptance that may exist among them. For example, students could feel excluded because they do not know their classmates. It is a mistake to assume that students know each other well. Even students who have attended school together for several years may not know much about their classmates.

Another barrier may occur because students may live in different neighborhoods. If you teach in a school where students may live at a distance or come from very diverse neighborhoods, it is likely that they have not had many opportunities to interact with each other outside of school.

In addition, students who have not been taught how to behave courteously or who have not learned socially acceptable ways to resolve conflict often struggle to form appropriate relationships with their peers. Helping everyone learn how to interact in an acceptable, courteous manner will take time and consistent effort on your part.

Perhaps the greatest barrier that you will have to help your students overcome is the perception that they may not have much in common with a classmate whom they do not know well. With effort and persistence, you can assist students in learning to recognize their commonalities so that they can learn to accept and support each other. Use the tips in the list that follows to guide you as you work to help students remove the barriers to peer acceptance.

·       Make sure that each student’s strengths are well known to the rest of the class.

·       If a student has an unpleasant history of failure or misbehavior, make it clear that it is time for a fresh start and that you are providing that opportunity.

·       Show your students the correct ways to interact with each other. Teach courtesy. It will not take long before students become aware of the expectations that you have for acceptable behavior. They need plenty of models and monitoring until they have learned to cooperate productively.

·       Let each student shine. Every student should believe that he or she is really your favorite.

·       Be sensitive to the differences that divide your students and to the potential for conflict that those differences can cause. It may take a while until you get to know your students well enough to be aware of the social differences that exist among them, but vigilance on your part will make it easier to help students learn to work together well.

·       Make it a point to recognize students who work well with others. Whenever possible, praise the entire class for its cooperative attitude.

·       Provide opportunities for students to get to know each other. These do not have to take up a great deal of time, but can be done in brief activities scattered throughout the year.

·       Plan enough work for your students to do so that they are focused on instruction and don’t have time to discover their classmates’ negative character traits.

·       Promote tolerance and acceptance with a display of posters, bulletin board displays, and encouraging mottoes.

·       Encourage students to share experiences and personal information about their family, culture, and goals while working with each other.

·       Make it very easy for students to understand class routines and procedures and to follow directions well. Students who know what to do are less likely to make embarrassing mistakes for which they can be teased or excluded later.

·       Be careful that you model appropriate behavior frequently, thereby encouraging your students to do the same.

·       Don’t give in to the temptation of rolling your eyes or losing your patience when a student blunders in front of classmates. Your actions could set that student up for social exclusion later.

Giving Your Class a Positive Label Makes All the Difference

A healthy self-esteem is not handed out at birth—not even to those enviable individuals who were born with such advantages as intelligence, good health, and loving families. The reasons for this are not hard to determine, but the negative effects of a poor self-image can devastate a classroom when challenging students don’t make even the smallest efforts to try to work or behave.  When students regard themselves as capable learners, they act in ways that perpetuate their positive beliefs. They resist the negative effects of peer pressure and learn to develop the social skills that will help them be positive members of class.

Self-confident students are courteous, willing to offer help, tolerant of others, and willing to take risks. Their positive attitudes will make it possible for you to create the inclusive class identity that you want for them. Promoting self-esteem in students is not something that should replace the curriculum; instead, it should be a natural part of the positive approach with all students.

It is also important to remember that in school self-esteem must be based on achievement. It can’t be founded merely on personal qualities; but must be solidly based in the sense of satisfaction that comes from doing a job to the best of one’s ability. Although there are some simple activities that teachers can do to help students see themselves as part of a successful group, the best ways to bolster a healthy self-image are the ones that will appeal most to your students.

Here are some simple suggestions to help create the positive class atmosphere that will allow you to create a positive class identity for your students.   

·       Improve your listening skills; students are acutely sensitive to the nuances of body language. Treat your students as if they are important people in your lives by attending to what they say, even in the frantic press of daily activities.

·       Pay attention to the way you talk to students. Use a pleasant, soft voice. Be friendly as well as firm with them.

·       After a particularly long or difficult unit of study, hold an awards ceremony to celebrate its successful completion.

·       Encourage them through specific praise and encouragement, not just by saying, “Good Job!” no matter what a student does.

·       It is also important to avoid needless negativity with students. For example, instead of saying “Don’t interrupt me,” try saying “I’ll be with you in a minute” if you want to send a more positive message.

·       Offer help to those students who need special help and encouragement. Some students need an extra tutoring session or a bit of extra time with you to become more capable and confident. 

·       At the end of class, ask students to tell you something important that they did well or learned.

·       Hold your students accountable for participation in class. Do not let them sleep, refuse to work, neglect to make up work, forget homework, or ignore what you have assigned for all your other students. Students who opt out of participating in class may be relieved for the moment, but they are not going to feel good about themselves or about your class if you allow this behavior. Other students will also be watching how you handle their difficult classmates, as well. 

·       There is a great deal of personal reward to be found in activities that help others. Involve your students in class activities that are geared to helping other people. Students who tutor each other or younger students, collect money and goods for the needy, participate in an Earth Day clean-up, or are involved in other compassionate and helpful activities will reap tremendous benefits in the form of improved self-esteem.

·       Ask students to describe the most difficult part of a lesson and what they did to overcome that difficult part.

·       Take a no-nonsense approach to how you provide correction for your students, but be gentle. Over and over again, research and common sense both prove that it is the positive actions teachers take with students that promote a productive classroom climate. Students who have teachers who show sincere approval for their actions are more successful than those students whose teachers intimidate them into compliance.

·       Create opportunities for students to reflect upon and recognize the contributions of their classmates after a shared assignment, project, or discussion. Teach the importance of recognizing each other’s accomplishments.

I've (Sorta) Moved! Find My New Blog at Share My Lesson!

Hi Everyone,

After experimenting with various writing schedules, I've finally decided to focus my online writing at the wonderful Share My Lesson site sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers.

If you click on this link: https://sharemylesson.com/blog, you will be redirected to the site where you can find my blog posts as well as others by knowledgeable thought leaders in our profession. Just find the icon about my blog posts and click. Easy and simple. You do not have to belong to AFT to access all the resources offered to educators by Share My Lesson. Joining the group is free and an excellent way to access thousands of lesson plans, communicate with other educators online, and create your own professional development ideas through the wealth of webinars and other opportunities offered by Share My Lesson.

If you are just looking for my work (thanks!), here are some of the topics that you can read about there:

10/15/18: Be Proactive: Maintain Your Work-Life Balance

10/1/18: 11 Teacher Traits: Develop Your Front-of-the-Classroom Persona

9/14/18: What to Expect During the First Grading Period

9/3/18: Setting Your Own Professional Goals

8/20/18: Two Important Document Collections: Your Professional Portfolio and Your Teacher's Daily Binder

8/6/18: Create a Welcoming (and Functional) Classroom on a Budget

7/23 /18:  Developing a Professional Mindset

7/9/18: You've Just Been Hired? Congratulations! Here's What to Do Next

If you need some professional development credit, you can also consider participating in the webinars at Share My Lesson. Here is a link to my latest one: https://sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/how-survive-and-thrive-new-teacher-302970