Twenty Helpful Attitudes for the Start of School

The start of school is more than just moving desks and trying to figure out how to cover the curriculum. Because we teachers create the climate in our classrooms, it is up to us to make sure that we adopt constructive attitudes to make the first few weeks of school run more smoothly for everyone. Here are twenty of the easiest and most productive positive attitudes than can help your school year get off to a great start.

1. Plan as much of your day as you can. Taking control of how you spend your time at school will ease your stress levels.
2. You do not have to be the world’s best teacher all the time. You just have to be a very good one. 
3. 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. 
4. You don’t have to know all the answers. 
5. Problems can move you forward when you choose to work to solve them. Don’t just react to problems; use them to your advantage.
6. Make room for more emotional energy. Ask for help when you have a problem. 
7. Believe in yourself. You know what you’re doing. When you have doubts, follow the advice in the previous bullet.
8. It’s not a problem, it’s a challenge. Sometimes it can be a very big challenge, though.
9. Don’t underestimate your students. They are capable of much more than you think they are.
10. Avoid negative people. Better yet, try not to be one of those negative people you are supposed to avoid.
11. Small strategic steps will often succeed where misguided leaps fail. Slow and steady...
12. Never forget why you became a teacher. Write it down and put it where you can see it every day.
13. It’s your classroom. Own it. What happens there is up to you.
14.  Being optimistic doesn’t mean that you don’t have problems. A positive attitude means that you are working on a solution.
15. Make sure you have something fun to look forward to. Better yet, make sure your students have something fun to look forward to.
16. You don’t teach a class. You teach complex, living, breathing people.
17. Cherish your students. Even the worst-behaved ones have redeeming qualities. 
18. Carpe Diem! When a teachable moment comes along, TEACH!
19. Small attitude changes often create bigger patterns of success. 
20. Be deliberate in your actions. Think before you speak. Think before you act. You will save yourself a great deal of trouble.

Turning Around Poor Study Habits

Are your students’ study habits causing you headaches? While it’s only half way through the school year for most of us, the bad habits that were only mildly concerning in early September are really beginning to become worrisome. Whether it’s procrastination, not writing down homework assignments, distractions, or “I did it, but I left it at home,” poor study habits consume way too much time and create way too many negative conversations.

               I know. I kept count.

               I decided that for one week, I would carry an index card and make an unobtrusive little hashmark whenever I felt that an interaction with a student was the result of poor study habits. For example, I made a little mark when I asked a student about sloppy work, gave another student with a missing planner a sheet of paper to record the assignment, insisted that everyone clip papers into binders instead of stuffing them in back packs, or held a conference with students who had not studied for a quiz. All the result of not-so-great study habits. All part of what teachers do all the time. All negative.

               On day two of my action research plan, I stopped. My index card was covered with hashmarks. To make matters worse, I only counted the comments that I made when I was face-to-face with students. I didn’t count emails to and from students and to and from their parents and guardians.

                I wasn’t hateful or even stern with my students. But these interactions are not exactly the way I want to talk with students. I like a positive classroom. I like to work with students, not confront them.

               Like every other teacher, I don’t have spare time in class to waste on frivolous matters. I do know, however, that my student’ issues with their study skills are demanding time and energy—either in a negative way or in a more positive, productive, constructive way.

               I keep lists of study skills on hand. I post them electronically for my students and I give them paper copies. Obviously, this tactic was not working. So, instead of a huge list, I narrowed it to the ones that are most crucial for my students at this point the school year. We are taking one study skill a day and weaving it into just about everything we do. Below is the list that I think will work with my students if I am ever going to move them toward taking responsibility for their own work.

               Instead of confrontations, we have conversations. It’s a shared experience instead of another adult imposing tedious and unwelcome rules. While study skills are and will always be a work in progress for my students, at least now we are working together in a positive way. Instead of being exasperated at their weaknesses, I can focus on what my students are doing correctly about managing their study skills.

 

 

1. Make a list of your goals and the reasons you want to do well in school. This will help you stay on track when you are tempted not to give your best effort.
2. Focus your attention in class and while you are studying. Concentration is an acquired skill; make it yours.
3. Be an active learner when you study your notes. Don’t just look them over; underline or circle key points.
4. When you have to read a selection and then answer questions about it, read the questions first so that you can read the selection with purpose.
5. Use your class time wisely. You won’t have to spend as much time later if you learn the material in class.
6. Take the time to do your work correctly the first time so that you don’t have to redo it.
7. Always label your work and your notes with the date, subject, and page number so that you can find information quickly when you need to review.
8. When you pack up at the end of a class, don’t just shove papers into your book bag or notebook. Spend thirty seconds stowing your work in an organized way so that you can find it quickly.
9. Pack your book bag at night and leave it by the door so that all you have to do is grab it on your way out in the morning.
10. When you find that your locker, book bag, or notebooks are getting messy, take a few minutes to clean them out. Staying organized is an important part of being an efficient student.
11. Homework isn’t something you should do when you have the time. It’s something you must do.
12. Write down your homework assignments so that you won’t have to waste time phoning around to find out what they are or worrying about whether you did the right ones.
13. Allow enough time to study. For example, if you have homework in three subjects on the same night, you will need to spend more time than on the nights when you have homework in only one subject.
14. Review your class notes before you start your homework. A quick review will refresh your memory and make doing homework much easier.
15. Set aside a set amount of time each night to study. If you don’t have any written assignments, read or review your notes for an upcoming test.

Verbal Immediacy Creates Positive Classroom Relationships

Here's an excerpt from the book I've been working on lately--a third edition of The First-Year Teacher's Survivial Guide. I wrote this because I am struck over and over by the knack that excellent teachers have for using verbal immediacy to connect with their students. What we say to our students has more power than we can possibly imagine. It's not always easy to remember that when a student is defiant or silly or determined to hinder others from learning, but well worth the effort

 

"The words you use when you speak with your students are one of the most important ways you have of creating a strong bond with them. Kind words spoken in a gentle voice make it much easier for your students to connect with you. If you say something unkind to a student, it will hurt even more than an insult from a peer because it is from someone the student should be able to count on. Using language to create verbal immediacy is one of the best tools that you can have to create a positive relationship with students.

            There are very few rules about how you should speak to your students. The age and maturity level of your students will guide how you speak. For example, it is usually a serious offense for a teacher in an elementary classroom to tell students to shut up. In a high school classroom, this phrase is not as serious; it is merely rude. You should avoid using it, however, because there are more effective ways to ask students to stop talking.

            The one language mistake you should never make is to swear when you are with your students. When you do this, you cross the line of what is acceptable and what is not. If you are ever tempted to swear around your students, remember that teachers have been fired for swearing at students.

            If a word slips out, you should immediately apologize to your students, let them know that you are embarrassed, apologize again, and then continue with instruction. After your class is over, you should speak with a supervisor and explain your side of the situation as soon as you can and certainly, before your supervisor hears about it from an angry parent or guardian.

            While swear words are clearly not something you should say around students, there are other language issues you should also pay attention to. Make sure your own words are ones that help your students and do not hurt them. Never make negative or insulting remarks about any student’s

• Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Family
• Friends
• Nationality
• Clothing
• Neighborhood
• Body size
• Sexual orientation
• Disabilities
• Age
• Appearance

            You should also make a point of using “I” messages whenever you can. “I” messages are statements that use words such as I, we, us, or our instead of you. For example, instead of the harsh, “You’d better pay attention,” a teacher can say, “I’d like for you to pay attention now.” “You’re too noisy" becomes “We all need to be quiet so that everyone can hear,” and “You’re doing that all wrong!” can become “I think I can help you with that.”

            With these simple changes, the statements are no longer accusatory, harsh in tone, or insulting. The language points out a problem but does not put anyone on the defensive. “I” messages work because they state a problem without blaming the student. This, in turn, creates a focus on a solution and not on an error the child has made."

Want to Motivate Students? Make Success Attainable

It only makes sense. If students do not believe that they can be successful, why should they even try? One of the most important actions that we can do as teachers is to make sure that our students know that they can succeed at the tasks we ask them to complete. Sometimes the roadblocks to accomplishments are ones that are easy to manage, while others may require a bit more time and effort on our part.

            No matter what the obstacle is, though, teachers who want the best for their students will make school success something that is achievable for all students. Here are some actions that you can take to help students feel that their success in your class is something that is within their reach.

• Teach students to pay attention when you are giving directions. Good listening skills and the ability to understand and follow directions will enable students to proceed with confidence because they will have a clear idea of what to do and how to do it correctly.
• Offer plenty of models, samples, and examples of finished products so that students know what their own work should be. If you also offer examples of incorrectly done work, your students will also be aware of the mistakes that they need to avoid.
• Offer detailed rubrics when you make assignments so that students are aware of the criteria for success.
• When you make assignments, be sure to discuss the best study skills and time management tips that will allow students to make good choices when they begin working. Teachers who take the time to help students figure out the most efficient ways to do their work make it easy for students to do well.
• Even if students are not officially working together on a project, provide opportunities for them to consult each other or periodically check each other’s work. Allowing them to do this often clears up mistakes before they become permanent ones.
• Make sure students know how to seek help from you while they are in class or even after class. Making yourself available at appropriate times to help students can really make a difference for those students who may be struggling with an assignment.
• Break down larger projects into smaller increments with specific mini-due dates so that students are not overwhelmed.
• When you are working with student formative assessments, take the time to offer specific encouragement instead of just praise or error catching.
• Check to be certain that all of your students have the resources they need to do their work. If a project calls for online research, for example, students will need access to a computer and printer. Even something as insignificant as the lack of a pencil can make it difficult for students to do their work well.
• Be prepared to allow students who need extra time to complete an assignment to have that time. Be flexible and work together with them to determine an acceptable deadline. Sometimes just a bit of extra time is all that students need to really do a good job on an assignment.
• Use the electronic resources available to you to share information and notes about class on a classroom blog or Website. Be careful to keep your postings about such important information as homework, classwork, grades, and other requirements updated regularly.
• Appeal to your students’ learning style preferences whenever you can so that they can access the material as easily as possible.
• Offer assignments that allow students to present their work in different modalities so that they will be motivated to work well. Vary the types of finished products you require whenever you can, also. Allowing students to have a choice in the type of final product they need to produce will encourage them to work to completion.
• Show students how to take good notes for your class and how to maintain an organized notebook. Keeping up with notes and papers  is an important skill that can make it easier for students to succeed. Experienced teachers know all too well the frustration of watching students search overstuffed book bags for missing papers.
• Design assignments so that the difficulty level of the work begins with items that are easy to manage and then progresses in complexity. This encourages student confidence and willingness to persist at completing the assignment.
• Provide appropriate enrichment and remediation opportunities as often as you can. Both offer students a chance to improve skills and develop knowledge.
• Make frequent checks of student progress so that students are aware of what they need to do to succeed.
• Encourage students to reflect on and self-assess their own work. Students who engage in metacognition about their assignments and work habits tend to be more successful than those who do not.

How to Cope with An Overcrowded Classroom

My classes are overcrowded. Just like thousands of other educators, I teach in a school district struggling with tough choices when it comes to budget matters. The result? There are lots of student names on my rosters...lots and lots of names.

Too many students packed into a room designed for a much smaller class presents some serious challenges. Like other teachers, I struggle with managing the paperwork load. I work hard to figure out ways to return graded papers with meaningful comments in a timely fashion. I work hard to figure out ways to manage the traffic flow so that my students can work with their classmates and I don't have to leap over book bags in the aisles. I work hard at classroom management so no one gets lost in the crowd. I work hard to make sure that an overcrowded classroom is just a challenge and not a detriment. If you are in the same situation, here are some tips for managing an overcrowded class that I have found useful in my own practice.

An Excerpt from Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher

“In the recent past, many teachers have had to cope with classes that were just slightly above the recommended size for the grade and subject. However, today’s widespread and severe budget cuts have made critically overcrowded classrooms that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. As inevitable as overcrowded classes may be, the discipline problems associated with them are not. Overcrowded classes can be managed successfully by those teachers who meet the unique challenges they present.

Even though we know that smaller classes are the preferred option for our students, a positive discipline climate and a pleasant learning environment are possible in overcrowded classes. The following strategies can start you on the way to successfully managing the problems of overcrowded classes.

·  Even if you are not easily intimidated, confronting a large group of students who have been crammed into a classroom designed for a much smaller group can be more than a little discouraging. Unless you immediately assume a strong leadership role, you will be so outnumbered by your students that they will be in charge of the class, not you.

·         The room arrangement is very important in overcrowded classes. Make sure you have enough desks. Move all equipment that you don’t need to use right away to storage and do whatever else you can to further reduce the claustrophobic effects of clutter in the room.

·   Pay careful attention to traffic patterns and student movement. Try to reduce this as much as possible. Teach your students to dispose of trash at the end of class and to sharpen pencils only at the start of class.

·         An overcrowded class requires more monitoring than a smaller one. Teach your students that they are to place their book bags under their desks rather than in the aisle to make movement easier.

·   A seating chart is an absolute must in an overcrowded class if you want to reduce the amount of off-task behavior. A structured environment will reduce the number of problems you will face.

·         Prepare yourself for the noise level. A large class can be a noisy class if you don’t establish some guidelines early in the year with your students to help them control the noise level.

·   Be extremely organized and a model of efficiency for your students who could be tempted to use overcrowding as an excuse not to do their best. Keep your personal space in good order and insist that your students leave their area tidy at the end of class. Encourage them to check to make sure their classmates don’t leave personal belongings behind when class is over.

·  It is important for you to avoid confusion and the discipline problems caused by failure to return papers promptly. Although it takes longer to grade papers for a large class, your students may feel lost in the crowd if you allow papers to pile up before you give them the feedback that all students need in order to stay focused on learning during class.

·    Routines are very important in a large class. Establish and teach them early in the term. Students should be able to predict what they are supposed to do in your class even though there are many students in the room.

·  Allow no horseplay. Even though you may be inclined to allow students some leeway in playing around, this is not a good idea when there are too many students in the room. Horseplay in a crowd is wasted time as well as dangerous. Stop it at the first sign it is about to begin.

·         Be especially careful in a crowded class to prevent the cheating that can happen because students have to sit close together. Provide a cover sheet and monitor carefully to prevent problems.

·  Enlist your students in a sense of togetherness and encourage a spirit of cooperation in solving the problems caused by an overcrowded class. A sense of humor and a positive attitude on your part will set a pleasant tone for your students to model.

·  It is important for you to speak with every student each day. Greeting them at the door is a good beginning to solving the problems of having to keep in touch with many students. Make a point to let your students know that you are aware of them as people, not just as faces in a crowd.

·         Creating permanent teams of study buddies is a good way to give students a sense of togetherness and connectedness in the midst of the larger group. When students have a few partners to turn to for help and support, they will feel like a part of the class instead of being just one of many.

·  Courtesy to each other and to you is especially important in a large class. Teach the importance of courtesy to the students in a large class and insist that they treat everyone with politeness. A large courteous class is much better and easier to deal with than a small rude one.

·  Your attitude is the most important factor in coping successfully with the demands of a large class. It’s not the number of students occupying seats in the room, but the careful planning, interesting lessons, and sincere effort to connect with each student each day that will determine the success or failure of the discipline climate in a class.

Problem 5: Are You Wasting Valuable Class Time?

Scenario: You have too much curriculum and too little useful class time with students. Not only are you required to cover enormous amounts of information, but you are expected to do so in ways that ensure that all students are engaged and able to master the material. You feel as if you just do not have enough time in each class to get ever thing done. To make matters worse, although other teachers complain about the lack of time, they seem to be covering the material with greater speed and more success.

Your Goals:

• To eliminate the ways that you personally waste class time

• To eliminate the ways that your students waste class time

• To figure out ways to cover material so that your students master it quickly

Some commonsense suggestions for using school time wisely:

1. Have all handouts and other learning materials prepared before class so that students do not have to miss instructional time waiting for materials.
2. Check to make sure that all equipment is in good working order before class.
3. Be flexible. Interruptions happen. Things do not always go as planned.
4. Don’t allow small misbehaviors to continue or escalate.
5. Raise your students’ awareness of how they use class time. Be open in discussing what went well and what did not in class.
6. Hold students accountable for how well they use the time that they are in class. Promote self-discipline and time management.
7. Establish and follow a routine for the start and ending of class so that students use every minute that they are with you.
8. Delegate as much as you can. Students are often eager to help and can be surprisingly good at managing classroom chores.
9. Don’t ever call roll out loud. Use a seating chart and look around the room as students are working.
10. Try to photocopy extra copies of handouts for those students who lost theirs or who left them at home.
11. Make sure students know the rationale for studying a particular topic. This will encourage them to stay on track.
12. Prevent as many interruptions as you can.
13. If a misbehaving student has caused a disruption, do your best to keep the disruption small so that valuable class time is protected.
14. Establish routines for predictable interruptions.
15. Know what to do in a fire drill. Students should be able to exit the building and return in a timely fashion and with a minimum loss of class time.
16. Give students a long-term project (sometimes called an anchor assignment) to work on if they finish an assignment early.
17. If you place students in study teams, often they will work more efficiently together than they would if they were working alone.
18. Set time limits for completing tasks within a class period. This will encourage students to work toward a goal.
19. Have students pick up handouts and other materials as they enter the room rather than waste time tediously passing back papers.
20. Give students checklists of assignments so that they can work on a series of assignments rather than having to check in with you after each step.
21. Ask students to stop every now and then and share questions or what they have learned with classmates.
22. Make sure that the activities you plan to cover the curriculum will meet the learning needs of your students.
23. Be sure that your students know that you are the person who will decide when class will end—not a bell. This will ensure that they work productively and not fall into disorder near the end of class.
24. Monitor constantly so that your students stay on task.
25. Don’t waste time assuming that you students will all learn at the same rate. Assess your students’ readiness levels and differentiate accordingly.
26. Stay on topic. Resist the temptation to be drawn off topic during a lesson.
27. Overplan. Overplan. Overplan.  Always have a backup plan.
28. Make learning to follow directions a focus point until your students have mastered this important skill. Students who know what to do and how to do it will not be as likely to waste time as those students who are not sure what to do.
29. Create and then enforce a reasonable policy concerning how your students may leave the room. Students who lollygag in the hallways during class are not learning anything.
30. Reduce the distractions that may be drawing your students’ attention away from a lesson.
31. If an upcoming event is causing distractions and subsequent misuse of class time, then make use of student interest in that event. Channel energy when you can instead of opposing students.
32. Pace lessons so that there is another assignment waiting for students who finish early.
33. Assign an appropriate amount of work. Students should not waste time practicing what they already have mastered.
34. Realize that students of all ages can have trouble changing from one activity to another. Plan effective transitions between assignments.
35. Teach to an objective. Focused instruction will be much more efficient than merely covering material.
36. Use formative assessments to determine your students’ readiness for a particular unit of study.
37. Use signal words to call students to order, direct their attention, or change tasks. This will save time by making sure that students know what to do.
38. Use exit tickets to ask students to reflect on how well they used their time in class. This will help raise their awareness of the importance of making every minute count.
39. Display inspirational posters and reminders to help students use time wisely.
40. Use the small blocks of time that are available to you and your students. Often the time at the beginning and ending of class is the most productive time for student retention of knowledge. Take advantage of this and pack those few minutes with interesting activities.

Problem 4: Your Handouts Could Be Snooze-Inducing, Ineffective, Time-Wasting Exercises in Futility

In recent years, handouts and worksheets have undergone much well-deserved criticism for their mind-numbing effects on classrooms filled with students who deserve more than a dull exercise in filling in blanks.
 
Even though there are some dreadful handouts out there, not every handout is bad. In fact, engaging, well-thought-out handouts are a useful way to practice, review, encourage critical thinking, enhance creativity, and help students assume responsibility for their own learning.
 
Designing handouts that will help your students learn instead of just scribbling wannabe answers as fast as possible takes a bit of effort and a little bit of time. The payoff in student engagement and learning is well worth the trouble, however.

·    Thoroughly proofread every handout you create for grammatical, factual, and typographical errors. If you want your students to take care with the neatness and accuracy of their work, then you need to model that behavior when you create handouts for them.

·    Keep the appearance of any worksheet uncluttered and readable. Use no more than three different fonts on a page. (Three fonts may even be a bit much for some students.)

·    Check to make sure that the font size is large enough for everyone to follow.

·    Take care that the page breaks don’t make it difficult for students to keep on track when answering a question that begins on one page and ends on another.

·    Pay attention to format and spacing. If students are expected to write on the handout, allow plenty of room and provide lines for them to do so.

·    Number each page so that students will be able to stay focused as they work through the handout.

·    Provide space for students to head their papers with their name, the date, and the class or subject. Many teachers neglect to do this and then complain when students forget to put their names on their papers.

·    Use text features such as clip art, text boxes, or underlining to emphasize important information.

·    Label each handout with a distinctive title or other type of label so that students can find it quickly when searching through their binders.

·    Make all directions easy to find. Use a bold font and place them right before the assignments they refer to.

·    All directions should be very, very easy to follow. Step-by-step directions written in clear, brief sentences are easier for students to read and understand than jumbled, complicated ones.

·    Some teachers have found that estimating the approximate length of time that each section should take to complete tends to make a longer handout less intimidating. Doing this together at the beginning of the assignment teaches students valuable time management skills and is a friendly and encouraging way for you and your students to collaborate.

·    Consider writing directions in the form of a checklist to accompany a handout if the handout is lengthy. You should still include directions for each part of the handout, but a separate checklist will make it even easier for students to know what to do and how to do it well.

·    Don’t neglect to provide examples or brief models with directions.

·    Allow students options when it would be appropriate. Even something as simple as asking students to choose between doing the even or the odd questions in a section of a handout would add interest and relieve potential tedium.

·    If you are going to grade an assignment, help students focus by including point values.

·    Build student confidence by adding encouraging notes, hints, reminders, and bits of advice. You could even ask for their advice as you go over the directions before students begin working.

·    To capture attention and build community, refer to their interests, past or upcoming class events, and use their names in positive ways (always only positive ways!) in examples or questions.

·    If you require students to maintain a notebook, make this task easier by punching holes in handouts before you pass them out.

·    Be careful not to waste paper. Maximize the way you prepare a page by using print preview, creating narrow margins where appropriate, and using both sides of the paper.

·    Vary the types of questions that you ask students to do. If you include open-ended, higher-level thinking skills in the various types of assignments that you ask students to complete while working on a handout, then you will find your students more likely to be engaged and learning.

·    Consider adding a question or two at the end of a handout asking students to reflect upon what they have learned and what they may still be confused about.

 

 

Finding Meaning in What We Do

One of the hallmarks of a dedicated teacher is the almost unshakable belief that teachers can change the world. We want to believe that what we do is meaningful. That what do we does make a difference.

Some days, though, it’s easy to be so caught up in the papers to be graded, the assessments to be created, and the emails to be answered that we can lose sight of the meaningfulness of our work. And lately, the hateful tone of so many pundits who are not classroom teachers, but who are quick to tell us what we are doing wrong, wrong, wrong is discouraging and degrading. The result? Burnout.

Burnout is different from the insistent plea, “But I don’t want to go to school today!” that is the morning mantra for teachers everywhere. Burnout is a pervasive sense that there is not much point to what we do. Certainly, the negative aspects of our work outweigh the positives for teachers who are going through burnout.

One of the surest ways to combat the sense of despair that accompanies burnout is to reconsider what having a meaningful career looks like when you teach. What does it mean when we say we make a difference?

Teachers who stop kids from picking on each other, being rude, and making fun of classmates protect students who are powerless to defend themselves. We stop bullies from winning. We empower kids when we tell them to talk to an adult if they have a problem; and we empower them when we praise them for the right things. We empower them over and over when we use our adult power to stop bullies.

We make a difference when we show kids how to be lifelong learners. We make it okay to be curious. We take them to the library to check out books and show them how to read and write and think and work together. We make it cool to be a nerd in a tough world.

For all teachers, and especially those of us who teach the children of poverty, we find meaning in the way that we try to guide our students to a better life. Few veteran teachers have not known the despair that comes when we realize that even our most (seemingly) ordinary students can struggle with terrible home situations—an ill family member, an alcoholic parent, or a guardian who has been out of work for too long, just to name a few. For these kids, teachers are a touchstone of normalcy in a rotten world. We show our students how having an education can make a life far more comfortable and easy than a life of ignorance.

We offer comfort and guidance to those students whose lives are chaotic and dysfunctional for whatever reason. We can soothe the edges for those kids and guide them to cope, to make good choices, to succeed somewhere. We give them the encouragement that the rest of the world does not.

We show our students how to read, to write, to think, to have a life of the mind. Without us, many students would not possess any of these crucial skills. When we show students how to read and write, we give them safe passage in the big world.

Finally, perhaps the most important gift that we give students is the one that is most frequently reciprocated; we teach students to believe in themselves. Whenever you doubt that teaching is a meaningful profession, consider that you spend your days encouraging young people to take charge of their lives and to make gigantic leaps of faith—all dependent on the belief that we have instilled in them that the future is theirs for the taking.

HOW TO PRESERVE YOUR STUDENTS’ DIGNITY

Students are particularly sensitive people. They spend their lives in a push-me-pull-me world longing to be independent and part of the crowd at the same time. Whatever sets them apart from their peers in a negative way can be exquisitely painful.


With this extraordinary sensitivity in mind, it is easy to see how quickly an unintentionally demeaning word or deed can wound our students’ fragile pride. The dilemma for educators is that we have to correct our students’ behavior while protecting their self-image at the same time. While this is not always an easy task, it is one that is vital to the cooperative relationship that should exist between teacher and student. In the two lists below you will find advice on what you should be careful to do and what you should be careful not to do help preserve your students’ dignity.

To preserve a student’s dignity, be careful to

• Take the student’s concerns seriously

• Use a kind voice when talking with the student

• Be as patient and understanding as possible

• Listen carefully to your student

• Try to be as fair as possible when delivering a reprimand

• Ask sufficient questions to be sure that you have an understanding of the incident

• Work to resolve problems and not just punish the student

• Assure the student that you believe that the misbehavior will not happen again

• Make every effort to see the entire child and not be affected by brief moment of bad judgment

To preserve a student’s dignity, be careful not to

• Call a student a name, even in jest

• Compare one student to another

• Reprimand a student in front of the class if at all avoidable

• Allow a confrontation to build in front of others

• Ignore a student who needs your attention

• Raise your voice

• Be sarcastic or insulting in an attempt to have the student learn from a mistake