1. Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students Promoting Change Through Relationships

2. Why is it important to have personal relationships with your students?  Research suggests that teachers who develop personal, one on one relationships with their students experience fewer classroom behavior problems and better academic performance.  Teachers need a strong management system in the classroom that is based on the development of personal relationships with students.  Classroom management is critically important in the middle grade years when students are more likely to experience declines in academic motivation and self-esteem.  Teachers who had high-quality relationships with students had 31% fewer discipline problems, rules violations, and other related problems over a year’s time than did teachers who did not.

3. How do you develop personal relationships with your students?  Must understand the unique qualities of your students.  It is not the teacher’s personality that is important….it is specific behaviors, strategies, and fundamental attitudes demonstrated by the teacher  Take a personal interest in students  Establish clear learning goals  Model assertive, equitable, positive behaviors  Research indicates that the most effective classroom managers do not treat all students the same. Treat each student as an individual.

4. Building Empathy is Important!  Empathy is the most important aspect of a positive helping relationship (Garfield et al, 1994)  Empathy on the part of the teacher results in the student feeling understood.  Empathy is not the same as caring. Empathy leads to a student “feeling understood”.  Try to understand student without condoning the behavior. You can then brainstorm on ways to solve problem

5. Admiring Negative Attitudes and Behavior as a means to Redirect the Behavior  Based on “positive psychology” (Seligman, 1999)  A negative behavior is a skill that a student has been practicing for many years.  Rather than engage in a power struggle, acknowledge the skill and redirect it. This shows empathy and can encourage buy-in by the student.  Acknowledge the skill, reframe the skill, then redirect it with sincerity

6. Leave Your Ego at the Door  Students are skilled at reading teachers and identifying things that upset them.  Once a professional gives in to emotions, his/her ability to function is impaired.  When a student pushes a teachers button, the teacher has an ideal opportunity to apply the practice of leaving the ego at the door.  Learn to suspend your own issues, “place them on a shelf”, and address the problem at hand.  Respond strategically, not emotionally.

7. Promoting Change Through Positive Relationships  For most teachers, your relationship is your teaching  Empathy is critical. The most important aspect of a positive helping relationship is empathy on the part of the helper.  Acknowledge the negative attitudes and behaviors the student has worked hard to develop, reframe the skill, and redirect it.  Leave your ego at the door. Respond strategically, not emotionally, to behavioral issues.  View classroom management as an ongoing exercise in building relationships.

8. Checkpoint What are three important ways you can improve your relationships with your students and thus promote positive change in your classroom?  Build Empathy  Admire Negative Attitudes and Behavior  Leave Ego at the Door