Watch out for that one!

Watch Out For That One: A response to "Giving ‘Trouble’ a Second Chance" (Jan S. Gephardt, Teaching Tolerance, March 8, 2012)

One of the things that comes with the territory in working with the more difficult kinds of students is the reputation issue. Often, unless they fall out of the clear blue sky, you get a lot of advance warning with these guys.

At a minimum, you can expect that there's a thick file with their name on it, sitting somewhere in a file cabinet in some administrator's office. Usually there's also an IEP in that file. Their previous teachers see you in the hall and often say something along the lines of "Oh, you have so-and-so? Thank GOD he's out of my class, have fun with him!" Or they have the student too, and want to commiserate: "He was terrible this morning, and I had to write him a referral. Can you believe the way kids act these days?" Sometimes the warning comes from the students themselves: "Oh man, Mrs. Q, you gotta watch out for him, he's always in trouble." And a lot of time they even announce themselves: "Yeah, I hate school." "I usually don't get along well with teachers." "I get in trouble a lot." "I sometimes have anger issues." etc. (These, by the way, are all code, for "I have a less than successful history with school.")

Over the years, I’ve learned not to believe everything (or sometimes anything) I’m told. Sometimes not even if it comes from the horse's mouth. Sometimes even the paperwork lies: I've read IEPs of incoming students that said they were mentally retarded (when they clearly weren't). I usually ignore the history, and stick with the here and now.

Here's my standard spiel that I give to newish students (when they show signs of wanting to do historical re-enactment in my classroom): In this room, I only care about the here-and-now. In there here-and-now, you're here, now, in my classroom. I don't know you yet. You don't know me yet. We've got the rest of the year to figure all that stuff out. For now, let's just get on with the business of (insert subject here).

The main way to move forward from "here comes trouble" to a positive classroom experience with a difficult student is by making sure you get the student to get with the program as fast as possible, and teaching them how to substitute positive recognition for negative recognition (they're really good at the latter, but usually have little to no experience with the former).

Here's some of the tips for getting through 180 days with a difficult student:

Recognize that a lot of the iffy behavior is really driven by low self-esteem. The student may compensate for low self-esteem in a variety of ways that will drive you nuts, but at the core of all the overt behaviors, there is a scared kid who isn't too sure of himself. Statements like these: "That's dumb!" "I don't want to do it." "This class is stupid." are usually code for "I don't think I can do this, but I don't want to ask for help."

Usually the way I deal with this is to quickly pull the student aside and have a private conversation. Usually the content of the private conversation is, "It's okay to feel that way--you don't have to like X, but you still gotta do it," then I usually get them started working until I'm sure they can do it on their own. Basically I trick them into relaxing and letting me show them how to do the work, by acknowledging their feelings. It works pretty good most of the time.

Have an open-door policy. Make your classroom as inviting and accessible as possible. Depending on your situation, keep your classroom open at non-class times so students can come talk to you--or just have a space away from the crowd. A lot of the time, "difficult" students want a place where they can feel safe/accepted, and as much noise as they may make about "hating class", these students are often the very ones you may have to kick out at the end of the day. Just spending time with students during non-teaching times (before/after school, during lunch) opens doors for them to interact with you in ways that may be very different than they tend to do in front of the rest of the class. You don't have to do anything during this time, usually just "being there" is enough.

I had a student whose behavior in class was completely unacceptable, and he had more social and emotional problems than you usually see in an entire class, but during his free time, he always wanted to come in the room and sit quietly by himself. Usually he wanted to draw. Sometimes he would even show me his drawings. I never understood why he wanted to spend so much time in my room, but I almost never kicked him out unless I was leaving for the day.

The student will have bad days. No matter how good things are some of the time, you will have rough days. Learn to take the bad with the good. Keep in mind that it's usually not about you. School, after all, is a learning process, and some days will look better than others. Looking at the big picture helps. Remind yourself of how far they've come in whatever time you've been working together.

When a student has a bad day, I make a point of talking to them about it privately, afterwards, as soon as they're calm enough to talk to me. Usually with some probing, they'll tell me what's going on. Usually if you give a student a few minutes of their time to talk about whatever is bothering them (even if it's you), they'll get over it a lot faster. Figure out what restitution is required, then start fresh. Go back to work if possible. The next time you see them, treat them like nothing ever happened. Emphasize that each day is a new day, and that we all screw up once in awhile.

Don't expect perfection, but encourage enthusiasm. Especially if your subject is not their strength area, encourage them to give it a fair chance. Sell the aspects of your subject that relate to the things they care about (make sure you know what they care about). Praise ANY signs of progress. Sometimes completion is a goal in and of itself.

Have a sense of humor. "Difficult" students sometimes have the best sense of humor, and humor is one of a diplomat's greatest tools for defusing tense situations. Laughter is a good thing for any classroom, and helps people let down their guard, and be more real.

One of the most misunderstood types of students (who often tend to labelled as troublemakers) are the extremely bright/gifted students. You know the expression, "too smart for your own good"? That's these guys: the work's too easy for them, they get bored, don't know what to do with themselves, and tend to get in trouble. They usually come equipped with a "smart mouth" and like to talk back and argue. In fact, they're so good at it, that you find yourself thinking they are missing their calling as lawyers. They usually drive teachers nuts, especially teachers who are prone to feeling insecure, or who have a strong need to be "right" about everything.

The main the thing to know about these kinds of students is their social skills are often a lot weaker than their academic skills. So they often say/do rude and arrogant things without necessarily realizing how they are perceived by others. Think of it as a valuable opportunity to do some social skills training on tact along with your regular teaching.

In general, the things that help with this type of student are differentiated instructional strategies. Make sure most of their work is self-paced (these kinds of students HATE being held back by others). If you do a lot of direct instruction, you may need to create a self-service learning option for these students, because they will be dying of boredom waiting for everyone else. Also, make sure the curriculum/materials are challenging enough for the student. You may need to substitute harder reading materials on the same topic, or use the same texts, but create harder kinds of questions. Try to have extension activities on whatever topics your teaching--most of these kinds of students like extra-credit work, and will do as much of it as you can provide. Basically put, the more interesting and challenging your class is, the better the student will probably behave. However, if you teach a remedial class, and you have a student you are sure is incorrectly placed, feel free to recommend that they be transferred to a more challenging course.

The thing that helps the most, probably, when working with the most difficult students, is to realize that kids behave the way they do for a reason. Often the reason is not something that you, the teacher, has a lot of control over, but there are ways to work more productively with almost any type of student. "Kids don’t make trouble “for no reason,” no matter how much it may seem so." The onus is on you to figure out what the reason is, and what if anything, you can do about it. Often it doesn't take anything real elaborate: usually a combination of relationship building and cultivating a sense of purpose is quite effective.

Jan's parting words are, "Granted, we can’t reach them all. I have failed spectacularly in some cases, as have all caring teachers. But sometimes it really pays to keep an open mind about our troublemakers, and give them another chance."

You just never know when you might make a real difference for someone. You might be the person who turns someone's life around. Even when you can't, if you follow the adage: "Do no harm", you will know that no matter what the outcome is, you haven't done anything to damage the student any further.

Fifty to Zero, stepping off the treadmill of teaching for awhile

It's truly bizarre to go from full-time teaching to stay-at-home mom.

To go from working about 50 hours a week to zero,

To go from the constant classroom noise and bustle of teenagers,

To the near silence of a day spent with a non-verbal child,

To go from structured days, to open-ended eternity,

To go from papers and pencils, to toys and blocks,

To go from the daily commute, to daily walks,

To go from homework, to house cleaning,

To go from test grading, to story reading,

To go from grumpy teenagers to whiny toddlers…oh, so maybe that one has stayed about the same.

Charles Ames Park

Since we now live right by the Clackamas River, one of our new routines is going for a walk through Charles Ames/Cross Park in Gladstone. It's a really nice place, with a paved trail that runs along the river. There's a pedestrian bridge that goes across the river by High Rocks Park (which is near the Gladstone DMV), and from there, connects with the I-205 bike trail and another trail that's on the other side of the river. It's nice and shady which helps with the summer heat. There's the river to look at, and lots of people fishing along the banks. There's tons of wildlife to look at, and an osprey that has a nest across the river near the defunct train bridge. I usually take Cedar over there at least once a day, sometimes more. He finds the squirrels fascinating, and enjoys picking flowers, and picking up sticks to carry around. When we cross the bridge, it is right by the highway, so he can see lots of big trucks zooming by, which as a two-year-old boy, works for him.

Fourth of July

Ironically, on an evening filled with fireworks and the sounds of hundreds of explosions, the full moon rising over the trees, steals the show.