What Makes Some Problems So Difficult?

What makes some classroom discipline problems so difficult? Students who present severe and chronic discipline problems have reasons behind their misbehavior. They're desperate to find ways to stop the pain of unfilled needs—pain that's driving them to behaviors that hurt themselves or others. In this first lesson, you'll learn exactly what the five basic needs are and how they motivate your students. You'll also step into a few classrooms and learn how creating a needs-fulfilling environment can stop many problems before they begin.

Dealing With Difficult Problems

As a teacher, it's critical for you to come to a better understanding of students and their innermost drives. This lesson begins by introducing a new six-step approach for reaching out to students to help get their needs met. You'll learn how using these steps will keep you and your students' focus on the future instead of the past, on positives instead of punishment, and on hope instead of despair. By the end of this lesson, you'll know what tactics work and don't work with students. Along the way, you'll learn what critical actions you must take when dealing with serious discipline problems.

An Effective Discipline Plan

If your goal is to have an effective way of dealing with discipline problems, then you have to have a plan for achieving that goal. Without a plan, you'll most likely react to problems without thinking, making a bad situation worse rather than better. In this lesson, you'll focus on practical steps for creating a classroom discipline plan. The lesson will compare ineffective plans with ones that work. You'll see how using positives, boundaries, and natural consequences can go a long way to establishing harmony in your classroom.

Teaching Time-Outs

Punitive time-outs are rarely effective when you're dealing with serious discipline problems. But there's a version of time-out—called a teaching time-out—that teaches children to become problem solvers and to take responsibility for improving their behavior. This lesson is devoted to the teaching time-out. You'll learn that you can't force students to behave; you must get their cooperation. By the end of the lesson, you'll have added teaching time-outs to your teachers' toolkit to help you get your students' cooperation.

Class Meetings

Just as teaching time-outs can help you solve individual problems, class meetings can help you solve problems that involve groups of students or even a whole class. In this lesson, you'll learn how class meetings allow students to discover that their class is a working, problem-solving unit. You'll see that within the class meeting, each student has both individual and group responsibilities. At the conclusion of the lesson, you'll understand that class meetings serve a variety of educational and social purposes, not the least of which is teaching students how to work together to find solutions to problems. Class meetings can also prevent discipline problems by building a trusting, respectful, and productive classroom atmosphere.

High School Problems

High school students can present special discipline problems. But children who threaten, intimidate, or bully another person engage in this behavior only to satisfy their basic needs. In this lesson, you'll learn how responsible teachers can connect with these students to address their unfulfilled needs. And you'll gain the necessary tools to solve problems of verbal abuse, stealing, and fighting.

Middle School Problems

The middle school years can be a challenging experience for both teachers and students. Why? It can be a time of terrible uncertainty and trepidation for children. For many of them, it seems that every aspect of their lives is in flux. In this lesson, you'll learn how to help middle school students when their behavior gets out of hand. You'll see specifically how to effectively deal with students who do no school work, students who talk back, and students who engage in vandalism.

Upper Elementary School Problems

Students in grades 4, 5, and 6 experience many emotional ups and downs in their lives, which can impact their performance and behavior in school. In this lesson, you'll find out how to help these children deal with emotions such as insecurity, fear, resentment, and anger. You'll also learn how to use the six-step approach to solve problems involving bullying, constant talking, and cheating.

Lower Elementary School Problems

Kindergarten through third grade can an exciting, fun time for both students and teachers. It can also be extremely frustrating and stressful when you have to deal with discipline problems. In this lesson, you'll learn why solving problems quickly and efficiently at this age level is critical. Problems that are left unchecked can easily escalate into disruptive situations that put a stop to teaching and learning. In addition, you'll learn step-by-step solutions to some specific problems: not sharing, temper tantrums, and throwing things.

Dealing With Violent Situations

In this world, violence can occur in any school. Being prepared and knowing what to do in these intense situations can prevent serious injury to you and to students. In this very important lesson, you'll learn about the causes of violent behavior and how to recognize warning signs. Then you'll examine three scenarios based on actual events and learn what to do when confronted with potentially violent situations at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

How to Handle Special Problems

In this lesson, you'll examine aspects of school discipline that are integral to classroom management. First, you'll learn about the special problems substitute teachers encounter and what steps they can take to deal effectively with classroom discipline. Next, you'll focus on Attention Deficit Disorder and learn 35 actions you can take to help students improve their attention spans. Finally, you'll learn how academic problems can lead to discipline problems, along with steps to help students who are struggling academically.

Preventing Severe and Chronic Problems

It's time to get practical! In this lesson, you'll take what you've learned in the first 11 lessons to create strategies for preventing severe and chronic discipline problems. You'll learn nine measures to prevent severe and chronic problems from occurring in your classroom. Then you'll see 12 actions you and your colleagues can take to prevent problems from occurring in the common areas of your school. To wrap things up, you'll look at six practical ways to prevent violence from occurring at your school. This lesson echoes the key point in this course: The best way to deal with chronic and severe discipline problems is to prevent them from happening in the first place!