Top 10 List of Things I’ve Learned in Positive Approaches to Challenging Behavior

1. Self-contained classes must deviate from curriculum; create your own. Appeal to their interests or you won’t get them to be a team. Go with your gut to get their needs met. Make it purposeful and meaningful, do whatever it takes & makes it mean something.

2. “There is nothing as unequal as the equal treatment of un-equals.” Fairness means that everyone gets what he or she needs. Write that on the board on the first day of school and exclaim that it doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same treatment.

3. Ask for three volunteers at a time and call on people with an open hand. Never point.

4. Do not use red or orange pens for marking student errors; instead use green pens. The color green “turns that frown upside down” and decreases frustration, anxiety, & tension.

5. Humor really does work! For example a student says: “Miss, I can’t read.” Give them a piece of paper with words that say “Here, don’t read this.” See what happens…

6. Have students engage in role playing with the premise that children develop social skills through their interaction with peers. Students learn from taking on responsibilities.
7. Going off-topic is good, but come right back. Validate, address all questions/comments, and return to the lesson. Keep them on their toes and feeling relevant.

8. Be yourself; that way you can be quirky & people won’t get offended. People will instead say, “Oh, that’s just Ms/Mr.___!” If someone get’s offended, then apologize and mean it.

9. Create a class portfolio which includes at least one “Class Book Report.” View & critique films in 20 minute segments. Use to motivate & differentiate; it is standards based.

10. “Describe You” activity: We used a body shaped template to identify out physical, emotional and public traits and then another template to designate traits for our most challenging student. We circled the traits that hold us back and then the student’s. This activity demonstrated perception vs. interpretation. We pondered if that was us a child. Did we grow out of it? Suppose they did not and they may never grow out of it at all.