There are ways to deal with difficult students. Working in groups can help many types of students. The group is managing the issues without being offensive to the student. The student is being engaged and the energy from the group can help the student feel more secure in their learning.
I need to include every student where they are and help them to engage in the assignment or conversation. Make them take stockholdership of the lecture so that they get the most out of it.
All the students should have the chance to speak, one way or another. Is imperative for the teacher to be sure that the students have their 5 minutes each one.
Strategies were a big standout point:
Create a class calendar
On the calendar give the due dates for all your assignments. Give the calendar out at the beginning of the class and highlight important dates such as the first assignment deadline and the first test given. This ensures that all of your students can see you have strict deadlines that you are going to enforce.
Penalties
As a part of your grading scheme, create a sequence of penalties for lateness. The more time that elapses, the more severe the point loss. Put this in your syllabus and cover it at the beginning of the course. You may also want to offer bonus points for handing in assignments early. This can be an incentive for those students who are in need of course points but can't seem to get things in on time- they can recoup lost points with this method.
Syllabus statement
Include a statement in your syllabus that recognizes the unforeseen events that might prevent students from meeting a deadline and that you want to be flexible when these situations occur. In addition to this statement, you should also make it clear that you require documentation to support the request for an extension. You will find that this requirement reduces attempts to defraud you with excuses.
Observe your students
You will quickly see which students are going to try and "work" you. Keep a good level of professional consistency in your treatment of students but employ your observational skills to help you sort out the real excuses from the false ones. By listing in your syllabus your method of handling extension requests, you have given the students an obligation to document their requests. If you suspect that you are being lied to, you can request whatever documentation you want and you will be within your right. You will find that after just one of these incidents these "professional excuse givers" will smarten up and start to work within the system or leave the class. Either way you will have taken major steps to solve the problem of "it's not my fault" excuses.
In this module I learned strategies on how to deal with the difficult or challenging students. There are many different ways students can be challenging whether it is the un-attentive, the blame others, or drop out attitudes. I received great input on how to deal with these groups.
Comment on Michael Tabo's post: Yes I agree duting my short span of teaching I have ran across several of these diverse personalities
Great ideals for for each student.
Comment on Thomas Luong's post: Agree 100%
I learned different approaches for various class room situations.
Great strategies to deal with the various types of students. One of the things we have is a shoe holder mounted on the wall. We treat them like adults with their cell phones. One they abuse the privilege and are still on them during class, we make them put their phone in the holder until class breaks. Then we take attendance by if their phone is in the holder or not.
Great strategies to deal with different situations. Liked and will keep in mind the "use it wisely" cards.
very informative about teaching with students who have different learning types
Teaching at a trade school, it sometimes becomes challenging for students, which can create a lack of interest from them. I will always try to come up with different situations I encountered in the field and bring those same things to the classroom to prepare them for the field as well as keeping it fun so they want to be engaged.
The biggest problem I face is cell phone usage. Next year I am going to have a numbered pocket cart that I will ask the student to place their cell phones in if I have to ask them twice to put it away. Another CTE teacher did this and it seemed to work. I am going to enforce my seating chart a little more during spring semester as well. I do have those that want center-attention and partnered with their buddy beside them it seems to get out of control.
Using the 'class act' to monitor discussion by taking notes is a good idea. At the same time, moving around the room to distracted/bored students and leading a discussion by calling on those that we don't hear from often would work well for me.
I've learned to engage every student, especially the quiet ones, and make certain to make the class learning relevant to their career goals.
I try to look at it from their perspective and work something out, within reason. Sometimes you can’t and you need to tap out and let another person try.
Using the phone in class is the worst part
I now get strategy to deal with thatComment on Katherine Hillerich's post:
I like the part about getting the students to write minute papers summarizing the day's content, and then sharing it with the class.
Also the one about giving the talkative five blue cards to ask questions, & when the cards are gone, they're not allowed any more questions for that class. I've very rarely had this happen in my classes, but it's a good idea if the situation does occur.
It is encouraging to read and listen to strategies to help us teachers hold students accountable. I appreciate learning these helpful strategies.
