Session 1: Empowered Teaching®: Diagnosis
One size does NOT fit all
When students misbehave we often take it personally and feel frustrated or angry at the student. All misbehavior is caused by a student trying to get a legitimate need met. Once we diagnose misbehavior it is much easier to determine the strategy you need to address the misbehavior in a productive way for you and the class. Using your actual students you will diagnose impulsive, rebellious, discouraged and denial patterns of misbehavior. Armed with your diagnosis, you can structure the solution. See additional sessions for specific strategies.
Session 2: Empowered Teaching®- End Impulsive Misbehavior
Who doesn’t love a game?
This game is just what you need if you find yourself giving the usual three warnings and it’s only 10 minutes into the class time. Learn to play the Chalk-Talk game with students in order to end impulsive behavior. This game is used every day by kindergarten to 12th grade teachers. The game has multiple levels of difficulty and can be revisited throughout the year on an as needed basis. It’s a whole new way of looking at changing behavior not to mention it’s fun!
Session 3: Internalize Behavior Rating Scales
Why does all the good behavior leave the room when you do?
Just as drivers tend to speed up when the patrol car leaves the freeway, so do students behave best only when the teacher is in the room. Students who have not learned to internalize positive behavior, misbehave when the teacher isn’t constantly enforcing rules. As you know students will do what ever it takes to have friends. Often the rules and behaviors necessary to be successful conflict with the behaviors needed to have friends so students have to choose between having friends and being successful. Learn one simple strategy that changes individual behavior and the group norms while students learn to internalize positive behavior. The best part is that this strategy doesn’t take away from learning time.
Session 4a: Preserve your Sanity— and Health
No More Power Struggles!
Some students are especially adept at getting a rise out of us. Once angered the teacher often reacts to the situation winning the battle and losing the war, wasting a significant amount of instructional tine. These students trigger a fight-or-flight reflex. Even through a teacher may have several good strategies, he or she can’t use them while this reflex is triggered in the brain. This problem isn’t answered with knowledge but with the physiology of the body. Learn a nonverbal response that will stop the panic and restore your rational thought processes. Learn to stay calm under stress for your benefit.
Session 4b: Ending Rebellious Behavior:
Turn Negative Leaders to Positive Leaders
The rebellious student acts out to earn the approval from their peers. Their misbehavior quickly becomes a group norm because they are the respected by peers. No amount of adult admonishment is very effective and often has the opposite effect of making this rebellious student look “cool” to their peers. Other student will emulate this to also gain social status. The teacher must turn around the norms of the group by using techniques which enable peers to evaluate and express disapproval without risking losing friends. This is something traditional methods of discipline will not achieve due to its accusatory basis. Empower yourself to end rebellious behavior without directly pointing fingers and engaging the one factor that motivates this child, peer approval.
Session 5: The Discouraged Student
"The Diamond in the Rough”
Today’s child spends so much of their day in social settings (school day care etc.), that not having friends is devastating. The child who is or will be rejected by their peers is the “turtle”. These “turtles”, hide in a shell afraid of another peer rejection. Some bully for protection, others shut down. Some eventually become the “walking time bombs”. It isn’t just this student who suffers. Their existence impacts the whole class because their peers are afraid they too could become rejected. That threat prevents students from taking the risks necessary for learning, a risk that older kids are increasingly sensitive to. Learn to use a strategy called Touchstones to enable these students to learn the social skills needed to have friends.
Session 6: End Denial by building Self Responsibility
If They don’t Own the Problem They Can’t Change the Behavior
Students who refuse to take responsibility are the most exasperating of all. It is “never their fault” so this student feels unjustly persecuted or the subject of prejudice. Their parents often agree and become defensive. The parents become increasingly frustrated and eventually get angry enough to sue the school district. The problem with denial is that the as long as the student doesn’t take responsibility for their behavior they can’t change it. Behavior contracts usually fail because they don’t address the underlying lack of ownership. Learn a strategy called self-evaluation to bring this student out of denial AND end misbehavior. Be the first teacher to call this parent and tell them how well their child is doing.
Session 7: Difficult Parent Teacher Conferences Made Easy
Often teachers have the unavoidable task of delivering news that isn’t welcome. Rapport breakdown can lead to costly consequences for the district. As professionals we must have the skills to maintain rapport with parents. Sometimes we forget that we all want the child to succeed. Using concepts such as the stages of acceptance, logical levels and common sense learn to make a difficult conference a success.
Fill your tool box with skills to:
Recognize the stages of acceptance;
Structure a agenda for a conference and have a realistic expectation;
Present disappointing news without being attacked;
Learn to keep your cool and help them keep their cool;
Learn to recognize rapport, break down, and build it back up.
Session 8: Working Smarter not Just Harder
Trick the Brain into Learning the Easy Way
The sun is just rising on a whole new paradigm for learning steeped in brain research and kinesiology. First: Some students know the material but can’t access their memory during a test or simply have mental blocks. Their anxiety prevents mental function. Learn to re-wire brain function to obtain higher test performance. Second many learners are using an inappropriate processing method for the task at hand. Some students use auditory processing for a task that requires visual memory to be successful such as spelling and multiplication facts. Others may use visual processing when auditory channels would be more appropriate. This would be true for step-by-step problem solving in long division. Learn to determine how the child is accessing information and how to change the channel to one that comes in clearer for the answer. Learn to change student’s self-sabotaging thought processes to productive ones.
