Teacher Describes Two Goals that can Help Manage Challenging Students in Inside the School Seminar
Mendler's seminar for Inside the School focused on suggestions to help teachers manage difficult and unmotivated students in the classroom. He believes keeping a positive attitude and not judging students are part of the keys to success.
Madison, WI, February 06, 2010 --(PR.com)-- "Isn't it hard to be optimistic when students are challenging?" educator Brian Mendler asked participants of his online seminar Classroom Management Tips.
Mendler's seminar for Inside the School focused on suggestions to help teachers manage difficult and unmotivated students in the classroom. He believes keeping a positive attitude and not judging students are part of the keys to success.
"Don't take anyone else's word that a student is difficult, disruptive or unmotivated. Believe that you can diagnose a kid," Mendler said.
Successful classroom management for all students should include Mendler’s two goals: 1. Always do the best to keep kids inside your classroom and 2. "Get back to teaching."
Keep your students in the classroom, even if they’re acting out, Mendler said. You don’t want to give students the idea that they can miss out on the learning if they disrupt other students. The only reason to remove a kid from class, he said, is when the student is physically endangering herself or others or are causing such an extreme disruption that other students can’t learn.
Sometimes the student with the behavior problem isn’t acting out, she’s just not doing anything at all. Even if the students are not participating, Mendler recommends keeping them in class.
Mendler's second goal, "get back to teaching," means that teachers shouldn’t allow students to hijack their lessons. Redirect the misbehaving student and then get back to business.
"If you can get back to teaching [after a student is disruptive] and keep kids in class, it shows you are tough. Being tough is not getting upset when a student is pushing your buttons. It's easy to get upset and yell. It is harder to keep composure and keep teaching the lesson. That's tough," Mendler said.
In the seminar Mendler said he believes each student should be compared against themselves and not each other.
"There is one person each day a person should be compared to - themselves. Compare kids to their previous work the day before. You can take a kid that doesn't feel successful to feel like they can succeed," Mendler said.
"If you care more about grades then you do about learning, you won't see a lot of successes in challenging students," Mendler said.
While working with challenging and disruptive students it is important to keep momentum when the student does show improvement.
"The #1 motivation killer, for good or not-so-good students, is to give them a very low grade when they do the best job they can do," Mendler said. "We can give grades to motivate or to kill motivation. Those are the choices."
Students who are showing any kind of improvement and motivation should be rewarded, he said.
Rewards work to manage and motivate students, but Mendler also recommended having fun and being creative to help different students with different situations.
Mendler talked about one technique he learned from a teacher that can help students that may know the material well, but just not know the answer to one tough test question.
"A Wildcard question on a test allows the student to cross out any one test question,” Mendler said. "But, they have to write a question and answer on the material that was not asked by the teacher, but should have been."
This method shows the teacher the student knows the material and can demonstrate her knowledge in a way that’s meaningful for her.
In the seminar, Mendler included advice for ADHD students as well. He explained that some people just can not sit still.
"Place a music stand at the back of the room. Music stands can be adjusted lower or higher to act as a table for people that are sitting or standing. When a student just can't sit still and is not focusing and becoming disruptive, order them to the back of the room by a music stand so they can stand during the lesson," Mendler said.
One of his methods, the "wheel of misfortune," is a wheel that includes different punishments as well as fun items that a student can spin in order to avoid a punishment they see as unfair.
Brian Mendler is an author and nationally recognized authority on behavior and classroom management. He is a highly sought after educational consultant, and president of the Teacher Learning Center (www.tlc-sems.com). He is an adjunct professor at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, where he teaches behavior management and introductory special education classes.
Inside the School provides practical resources for middle and secondary teachers online (http://www.insidetheschool.com) in free weekly e-zines, online seminars, articles and printable reports.
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Mendler's seminar for Inside the School focused on suggestions to help teachers manage difficult and unmotivated students in the classroom. He believes keeping a positive attitude and not judging students are part of the keys to success.
"Don't take anyone else's word that a student is difficult, disruptive or unmotivated. Believe that you can diagnose a kid," Mendler said.
Successful classroom management for all students should include Mendler’s two goals: 1. Always do the best to keep kids inside your classroom and 2. "Get back to teaching."
Keep your students in the classroom, even if they’re acting out, Mendler said. You don’t want to give students the idea that they can miss out on the learning if they disrupt other students. The only reason to remove a kid from class, he said, is when the student is physically endangering herself or others or are causing such an extreme disruption that other students can’t learn.
Sometimes the student with the behavior problem isn’t acting out, she’s just not doing anything at all. Even if the students are not participating, Mendler recommends keeping them in class.
Mendler's second goal, "get back to teaching," means that teachers shouldn’t allow students to hijack their lessons. Redirect the misbehaving student and then get back to business.
"If you can get back to teaching [after a student is disruptive] and keep kids in class, it shows you are tough. Being tough is not getting upset when a student is pushing your buttons. It's easy to get upset and yell. It is harder to keep composure and keep teaching the lesson. That's tough," Mendler said.
In the seminar Mendler said he believes each student should be compared against themselves and not each other.
"There is one person each day a person should be compared to - themselves. Compare kids to their previous work the day before. You can take a kid that doesn't feel successful to feel like they can succeed," Mendler said.
"If you care more about grades then you do about learning, you won't see a lot of successes in challenging students," Mendler said.
While working with challenging and disruptive students it is important to keep momentum when the student does show improvement.
"The #1 motivation killer, for good or not-so-good students, is to give them a very low grade when they do the best job they can do," Mendler said. "We can give grades to motivate or to kill motivation. Those are the choices."
Students who are showing any kind of improvement and motivation should be rewarded, he said.
Rewards work to manage and motivate students, but Mendler also recommended having fun and being creative to help different students with different situations.
Mendler talked about one technique he learned from a teacher that can help students that may know the material well, but just not know the answer to one tough test question.
"A Wildcard question on a test allows the student to cross out any one test question,” Mendler said. "But, they have to write a question and answer on the material that was not asked by the teacher, but should have been."
This method shows the teacher the student knows the material and can demonstrate her knowledge in a way that’s meaningful for her.
In the seminar, Mendler included advice for ADHD students as well. He explained that some people just can not sit still.
"Place a music stand at the back of the room. Music stands can be adjusted lower or higher to act as a table for people that are sitting or standing. When a student just can't sit still and is not focusing and becoming disruptive, order them to the back of the room by a music stand so they can stand during the lesson," Mendler said.
One of his methods, the "wheel of misfortune," is a wheel that includes different punishments as well as fun items that a student can spin in order to avoid a punishment they see as unfair.
Brian Mendler is an author and nationally recognized authority on behavior and classroom management. He is a highly sought after educational consultant, and president of the Teacher Learning Center (www.tlc-sems.com). He is an adjunct professor at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, where he teaches behavior management and introductory special education classes.
Inside the School provides practical resources for middle and secondary teachers online (http://www.insidetheschool.com) in free weekly e-zines, online seminars, articles and printable reports.
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(608) 227-8117
www.insidetheschool.com
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