innovative

At our popular Breakthrough Strategies to Teach and
Counsel Troubled Youth Workshops, we always let the course
participants name the problem areas they want to cover
during the inservice workshop. We can always count
on teachers asking for ideas for classroom management
and control. Nearly every teacher has had moments
when maintaining control over the class was difficult
or impossible. Some teachers tell us that their class
has actually gotten out of control. Here’s help.

So many students believe that they should be in charge
of the classroom and that they know more than the
teacher. It can be tough to teach hard-to-manage
students who think they should be in charge. Since few
schools have a written game plan to formally train their
kids to be students, you may see a lot of younger and
older youth who do not look, act or sound like students.

Until trained to be students, some youngsters may
continue to be unmanageable. Here is a small sampling
from our arsenal of strategies to effectively teach
kids to be successful students. The strategies
offered here will focus on just one of the many
skill areas you need to cover: how to interact
properly with teachers. Don’t forget to cover those
other areas too– how often to talk in class, what
to say or not say, how to be on task, how to arrive
on time, how to interact with other students and
so on. Our books and classes cover all these areas
in depth, but here’s a peek at some of our best!

** Who Is Qualified to Be in Charge?
For students who believe that they should run the
class, have your kids list out all the qualifications
that teachers must have. Write their responses
on the board and elicit answers like “have a
college degree” and “have a license to teach.”
Next, ask the class to determine who has these
qualifications, the teacher or students? This
intervention can very effectively squelch
your “know-it-all” students’ attempts to be
the boss of the class.

** Just Say “Yes”
So often, “NO!” is the first word from a
student’s mouth in response to a teacher’s
direction. Understandably, that response
can become a problem quite quickly. Teach
the students that a “trick” to more often
get your teacher to do what you want is to
say “Yes.” Drill the students to use
sentences such as “Yes, I will do the math
but can you show me how” and “Yes, but I
don’t really want to do it.” Teach students
that “Yes” is the magic word to use with
teachers to have a better chance to get
what they want. Also, discuss what
bad things can happen to employees who say
“NO” to bosses, and note that school is the
place to prepare for employment to avoid
“practicing on the job.”

** Help Me Faster
When the teacher doesn’t immediately respond
to a request for help, some students become upset
or misbehave, sometimes believing that the teacher
hates them– that’s why they don’t respond faster.
To quickly show students why the teacher doesn’t
always immediately provide aid every time, have a
student assume the role of teacher then have all the
other students request help at once. The role-play
teacher will quickly understand why the teacher is
unable to always provide instant aid. Ask the students
to recommend how the teacher should allocate aid.
The class will suggest that the teacher respond to the
person who requests help first, which should prove to
be an easy-to-do answer for the teacher to follow.

** Teachers Are Lousy Mind Readers
To show students that teachers are unable to decipher
what that their tantrum or sulking means, teach students
that teachers are lousy mind readers. Have students
think of numbers, and have the teacher attempt to guess
the numbers. Keep score on the board. Assess the score and discuss that teachers can’t read minds very well.
Discuss when students sometimes expect teachers to
read minds, and what students could do that would
work much better.

** Top 10 Ways Your Teacher Can’t Tell You Need Help
To further teach students that teachers are unable
to magically determine when students need help, have
the class make a Top 10 List. Title this list “The Top 10
Ways Your Teacher Can’t Tell You Need Help.” Elicit
answers such as “you glare.” Post the completed list
on the wall and discuss what might work better

Get much more information on this topic at
http://www.youthchg.com. Author Ruth
Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change,
(http://www.youthchg.com). Sign up for her free
Problem-Kid Problem-Solver magazine at the site and
see hundreds more of her innovative methods. Ruth
is the author of dozens of books and provides workshops and training.
For re-print permission for this article, contact the author by

email (dwells@youthchg.com.)

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