Workshop 5

Classroom strategies for managing the emotion and behaviour of students identified with DIFFICULTIES

A half day or full day presentation suitable for ALL educators

Who are these students?
More often they are complex students living complex lives who have "more than their share of careless moments."

A starting point is to test your knowledge.

Try the ADHD, ODD, Learning Difficulty and Asperger Syndrome quiz
What teachers REALLY need to know about ADHD, ODD, LD's and AS?

Meeting the challenge.
Practical initiatives to manage ADHD, Asperger Syndrome, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Specific Learning Difficulties

Teachers Make the Difference
The research says, "Teachers make the difference." It is what teachers know, what they do, how they persevere and how they show they care that is most powerful.

The pendulum is swinging. It is now professionally savvy to embrace the emotional and social connectedness of students, alongside expert curriculum delivery. Working with students using this mindset is not asking more of educators. It is asking them to do what they do using an emotional lens on their work. After all, teaching is a deeply human activity, and working with the emotions is the one sure thing that will help us to provide a genuinely inclusive classroom. Carl Rogers had it right. We don't have the skills 'to fix' anyone up. The best we can do is to provide a quality relationship which an individual may choose to use for their own transformation and growth.

What is presented is taken directly from Mark's book -'Cognitive Behavioural Training: A How-to Guide for Successful Behaviour' It offers a rich collection of approaches to support students to move to new habits, new routines and new ways of thinking. These ideas are at the heart of quality management and are underwritten by empirical research.

Strategies to maximize success:

1. Relationship building; ideas to connect

   Sometimes 'good chemistry' is spontaneous, but 'good chemistry' can be deliberately built.
   In all probability teacher that made a difference for you was the teacher who cleverly and deliberately built a 'good chemistry' with you.

2. Dreaming, planning and setting goals

   Mapping success
   Tracking behavioural change
   Self-monitoring
   External monitoring

3. Strengthen emotional resilience

   Attitudes
   Self-talk
   Managing frustration
   Social skills training

4. Supporting perseverance and motivation

5. Increasing organisational skills

   Managing time
   Incorporating planning and schedules

6. Manufacturing encouraging 'lunch time' environments

7. When it comes to working alongside students with DIFFICULTIES, remember, that some parents just can't do this alone. They are reliant on educators being a steady, positive force in their lives. It is often worth reminding ourselves, and parents, of the old saying: "You can't change the wind but you can adjust the sails".
   

   Encourage parents to -
   Establish contact with others parents who may have a child with similar difficulties, and do it well.
   Put them in touch with organisations and professionals who can educate, intervene and be generally supportive.
   Gently feed parents helpful information that is likely to restore balance in their lives.

Take a moment to reflect on your own school days.
Can you recall a teacher who had the most positive impact on you? How did they gently build your belief in yourself? In all probability the teacher that made a difference for you was the teacher who made connections with you.

It's you who make the difference! Strategies to manage the emotion and behaviour of students with DIFFICULTIES is very much contingent on our learning our emotion and our attitudes

It's about or will to understand, to continue to learn and to want to make a difference. For some students, our will to make a difference may prove to be the greatest gift we ever hand to them.