All of us have had those times in life where we tried to do something, only to receive results we did not want. What are the things that helped you overcome and try again. The learning journey is filled with many of these setbacks. We must chose, will I try this again or not. But, what happens when you are not able to overcome the second time or the third try. Many students who struggle with behavior issues struggle to stay in class and do not even have the chance to see the information that is presented. The results compound on one another.

How do we overcome this, hopefully the same way that you overcame it the last time you failed at something. Someone comes along and says you can do this, I have faith in you, and we will get it next time. Now, dust yourself off and get back to work.

With the end of the school year approaching it is a great time for reflection. For teachers it is time to take into account the current year, what we can do to get through the rest of the year, and make adjustments for next year. When it comes to classroom management, this is the time of year to think about what the things are that are driving you CRAZZZY.  If it is driving you crazy now, how can you turn this into a process that is taken care of so you don’t have to deal with those missing assignments or answer the question about not having a pencil again.

How do you respond when you don’t get what you want? We all react very differently when we don’t get the things we want, but it is important to reflect on these experiences. But, how can we model for students what to do when they don’t get what they want? Following the experiences that we have we should have the opportunity to overcome and move forward. But, this is challenging for educators, especially when we are faced with poor attitudes in the classroom. How do you respond?

Working with students to modify behavior is a long and time consuming process. If you are struggling with students, I encourage you to think about assisting them in working through a thinking process that sees a future in their actions. We truly become the things that we do. Having an understanding of helping students to put good practices into place at a young age assists them as they get older. However, this is not easy and habits take a process to break. What are some ways that you have broken bad habits in the past? How can this be transferred into the school world to help students in becoming successful.

Often times students are confused after being sent out of class. While they have an idea of what happened, they were at times doing something that they thought the teacher would enjoy. To the educator this can be seen as the student just not following the rules of the classroom, there is more at the heart of the issue, social skills that have not been mastered and needs that are going unmet. It is important to remember that the student needs to have these needs met and come up with an appropriate avenue to get these needs met. This means it is important for us to teach how to have these needs met and how to have fun while learning. Students will have fun, it is simply dependent on if we are teaching them how to have fun in the appropriate way or a way that is disruptive to class.

“This year is going to be different”, a statement a lot of students make when coming back to school. Many students walk back into the halls ready to show off the new and improved version of themselves, to find themselves in the places that they did not want to be. But there is still hope, no matter where you find yourself you can still make improvements. Tomorrow is a new day to work towards showing others the you that you want them to see, to be successful, to come that much closer to your dreams!

This year I will wrap up my third year as a classroom teacher. Every summer I have decided that I will join a gym for the summer, every year the summer has started and I have decided I will go join the gym on the first day off… then when that doesn’t work I am going to hit the second day… then the next week… and this proceeds until July when I don’t have time to join until summer is over. This summer I started something new, kicking off the next season prior to the end of the last season. 2 weeks ago I did it, I went to the gym for the first time and set a goal, to go to the gym for 21 days straight. Now, as I sit in professional development, I have been to the gym 13 days. Kick starting the next habit ahead of time made the difference. I have started my way to achieving my goal and worked out a way to get started before the time allotted. For us procrastinators, this is incredibly helpful!

So what have you been putting off? What is something you have been trying to get started. Try starting it ahead of time and you will find it is easier to find results.

– Wes