7 Ways to Handle Difficult Students in Your Classroom

Transcript

[Music] your words are about as clear as mine are right now let's talk ways of managing however you want to call it defiant challenging difficult combative disruptive behavior they all fall under the same umbrella let's talk about I just want to start off by saying we've all been there we have all experienced trial and error trying to figure out what works what doesn't we have all made mistakes we have all been reactive if you feel like you're doing something wrong or something is wrong with you nope now these tips that I'm sharing with you today I know that you can put them in your back pocket today and start using them tomorrow however I really want to remind you that one size does not fit all for them for example if you saw my cell phone management video as much as I love that strategy does it work for every single student no and well every strategy that I give you today work for you as a teacher maybe that would be great but maybe not so I encourage you to take these tips that I give you today keep what feels good to you and make them your own because if you're not vibing and aligning with your own rules and your own strategies then what good is it going to do in your classroom I hope these tips today either remind you of what you already know but have forgotten or Inspire new action if you're new here hi my name is Alexa Baroda I teach high school English I also taught Middle School language arts for eight years and I enjoy creating Vlogs about all things teaching anything from artificial intelligence to how I like to manage behavior in my classroom don't forget to hit the button if you like this Vlog and want to see more let's go behavior management is a sensitive topic because I feel that as teachers we all have our own philosophies on how to manage certain behaviors and also we're all different in what we have patience for and can tolerate for example what I find difficult to deal with you may not and vice versa for the sake of this video let me just Define what I consider to be disruptive behavior a disruptive student is someone who makes it nearly impossible to teach or for students to learn maybe they're interrupting your lesson maybe they never want to sit down perhaps they're always shouting maybe they're talking back maybe they're bullying maybe they're trying to leave your class maybe nobody wants to sit with them because they're so distracting and students are afraid to speak up maybe there is a certain policy in your room that they're just constantly breaking I know right now that we have all had a student or two who checks all those boxes my first behavioral tip for you is to provide lots of positive feedback specific genuine positive feedback this is important for all students but it's especially important for students who are disruptive maybe they have great attendance they're always on time maybe they're never on time but on one particular day they were more on time than usual they notice that you notice you know what I'm saying I'm in another room because my neighbor is mowing his lawn you know positive feedback it does not necessarily have to be verbal I know some teachers who like to write a comment on a Post-It write a comment on some graded work that you're giving back what a nice surprise to see oh my teacher noticed me look at this comment on my work for some students this is enough for other students they need a little bit more so let's go to number two number two is a do not do not embarrass them sometimes we throw our words around we're joking or sometimes we find ourselves saying things we wish we didn't say because we're being reactive why would you think that that student now is going to care about anything that you have to say it's really hard to come back from that number three you need clear consequences have yourself a consequence ladder you could find a ton of them online I suggest taking one as a framework and making it your own your school might even have its own consequence ladder ask yourself are you following it I think we all kind of know that the majority of kids will take advantage of what they can get away with if your consequences are unclear if you are not enforcing them you better believe that many of them are going to test the waters and see what they can get away with if if student is late every single day consistently what is your response for that I'm gonna call home I'm gonna change your seat I'm going to start writing you up are you call are you right you write students up if your words are empty or if a student does not know what is coming well they are just more likely going to be difficult something else about your system it should be easy for you to follow it should be easy for you to remember it should be easy for you to enforce and that brings me to number four which is be consistent with your consequences I have at one point or another been guilty of not following through with my own consequences especially in the beginning of teaching when I was trying to follow somebody else's consequences they didn't really work for me like I already said students are going to take advantage of what they can get away with it's more than that though you have to follow through with your consequences because it might look like you're picking favorites if you're calling home for one student and not the other for the exact same offense that's not fair I have literally seen teachers give the same consequence over and over and over again I'll give you an example let's say a student is talking back students being nasty they're talking back and I have heard some teachers tell the student over and over again I'm gonna call home I'm going to write you up but then never actually do it I remember these teachers when I was in both middle and high school if you're not consistent with your consequences they don't work you kind of just don't have a leg to stand on without them and without being consistent with them five oh I love five find ways to connect with your students this is my favorite I start this from day one so this is important with all of your students but when we're talking about disruptive students they're disruptive for a a reason and one size does not fit all but let's look at some of those reasons they want attention for whatever reason they want attention well connecting with them is giving them what they want you're giving them attention and you're giving them the right kind of attention and I mean I'm just going to say it maybe they're bored and they just don't like your class it might be you it might be the content for example me right I get students who believe it or not can you believe it they're not excited to be an English class at 7 30 in the morning like what part of the disruption could have something to do with that so coming back to connecting with them maybe they find your class to be so difficult or they're they're just not interested in the content take the time to connect with them in a different way connections don't have to be fancy maybe you have some kind of music or TV show or movie that you have in common maybe it's a sport maybe it's none of those things and you don't know what you have in common with the student if that's the case start asking questions ask them about their family some of their favorite teachers without a connection a student might just see you as their teacher by forming a connection with them they're also kind of seeing you as a person they may have more empathy for you and they're just more willing to give you their attention six is being intentional being mindful of how you approach a situation in other words just try not to be reactive to a combative student your words are about as clear as mine are right now look I'm not going to try to sugarcoat anything some students literally have verbal diarrhea okay verbal diarrhea of the mouth they have no filter they say whatever they want whether it's against you against another student whether it's threatening non-threatening it is really really important that we as teachers are intentional in how we approach this verbal diarrhea and this is my dog Lexi Lexi say hi imagine a muddy dog I'm not saying that students are animals but dogs for mud they're just shaking their mud everywhere splattering everybody if you're yelling and getting all confrontational with the dog does it stop them from getting mud everywhere they'll run and track that mud all through your house I know this for a fact a student Will Make It Rain if you're calm and intentional about how you react to the muddy dog there's a possibility they might turn around go back outside and come back in a little less money I don't know if that makes sense but it makes sense to me did you know that we have something called mirror neurons mirror neurons are the reasons why moods can be sometimes contagious and negative moons moons negative moons are much more contagious than positive ones it's a scientific fact and so if you're getting defensive and if you're being reactive scientifically they are going to give back to you what you put out on steroids because they're teenagers and they have lots of hormones I'm going to share with you right now literally what I do when a student is big extra it's a 478 breathing technique I started doing it when I was pregnant to help prep myself for contractions because this breathing technique literally helps with real pain breathe in for four seconds hold it for seven seconds breathe out for eight seconds you might be thinking that this sounds impossible when you're in the heat of a moment I promise you it's not what it actually does is it gives a silent period what do you need to be talking and reacting for in those seconds of your breathing what do you what do you need to be doing or saying either they're just going to keep going and you're ignoring them because you're focused on your breathing or they will just stop I have found myself in some situations where I'm not even doing the four seven eight it looks more like two four five but I'm still doing it and they say I I want to say that this is true because I've been doing it for so long it really is effective they say that when you get to that eight seconds of breathing out that it sends some relaxation signal to your brain that's what they say Mel Robbins Mel Robbins put that out there into the world like many years ago I even do it when my husband gets on my nerves like be subtle be subtle not confrontational what do I mean by subtle this is where you really just have to lean into what works for you here are a couple examples of subtle jotting down on a Post-It I need to talk to you after class tapping a student on the shoulder letting them know hey I see what you're doing for example I see your cell phone in your lap my man subtle can be addressing the whole class about something when that one student knows darn very well that you are addressing the class because of them but you are doing it in a way that is subtle alone time singular time with that student maybe you let a certain Behavior go all through class because you know that student all too well and you know that by mentioning anything about what it is that they're doing it's going to escalate to another level so getting some alone when it's a challenging student spending a little time even if it's during your prep or your lunch with that student will go a long way no matter how upset I am in that moment or later on in the day I'll ask them are you okay they're demeanor changes the conversation quickly shifts from being about the two of you to what's going on with them here we go the this is it for this Vlog number seven find a teacher or teachers who this student has a really good rapport with who the student really likes maybe it's a coach maybe it's a club advisor find one of these people go to them and have conversations about this student spend a lot of time listening to everything that this person has to say it could be as simple as that it could be okay I learned something about this student I I feel like I have some better footing in where I want to go from here or maybe it looks like you working together you working with their coach you working with another teacher and communicating to the student that you're all a team and that you're all going to work together to make sure that this student stays on track and and so on and so on and so on it all comes back to you care about them everything needs to fall back on that you care about your students and that you care about they're learning because they'll feel that that is it for today that is it for this Vlog if you like this please by all means share in the comments with some of your strategies are not just for all the viewers but for me as well I'm always learning and I will see you next time bye folks