Four Most Baffling Challenges for Teachers and How to Solve Them, The: Classroom Discipline, Unmotivated Students, Underinvolved or Adversarial Parents, and Tough Working Conditions

144 Pages·2006·0.83 MB·English

by  Sheryn Spencer-Waterman

The Four Most Baffling
Challenges for Teachers
And How To Solve Them
Classroom Discipline–Unmotivated Students–
Underinvolved Adversarial Parents–
or Tough Working Conditions
Sheryn Northey Waterman
First published 2006 by Eye On Education
Published 2013 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2006 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to
persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise,
or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas
contained in the material herein.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and
knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or
experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should
be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for
whom they have a professional responsibility.
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waterman, Sheryn Northey. The four most baffling challenges for teachers
and how to solve them: classroom discipline, unmotivated students,
underinvolved oradversarial parents, and tough working conditions /
Sheryn Northey Waterman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-59667-019-3
1.Effectiveteaching.2.Classroommanagement. 3.Motivationineduca-
tion. I. Title.
LB1025.3.W38 2006
371.1—dc22
2005034893
ISBN: 978-1-596-67019-8 (pbk)
Also Available from EYE ON EDUCATION
Handbook on Differentiated Instruction
For Middle and High Schools
Sheryn Spencer Northey
What Great Teachers Do Differently:
14 Things That Matter Most
Todd Whitaker
Classroom Motivation From Ato Z:
How to Engage Your Students in Learning
Barbara R. Blackburn
BRAVO Teacher!
Building Relationships with Actions That Value Others
Sandra Harris
Great Quotes for Great Educators
Todd Whitaker and Dale Lumpa
What Great Principals Do Differently:
15 Things That Matter Most
Todd Whitaker
101 “Answers” for New Teachers and Their Mentors:
Effective Teaching Tips for Daily Classroom Use
Annette L. Breaux
Talk It Out!
The Educator’s Guide to Successful Difficult Conversations
Barbara E. Sanderson
Differentiated Instruction:
AGuide for Elementary School Teachers
Amy Benjamin
What Successful Principals Do!
169 Tips for Principals
Franzy Fleck
Motivating & Inspiring Teachers:
The Educational Leader’s Guide for Building Staff Morale
Todd Whitaker, Beth Whitaker, and Dale Lumpa
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
1 The Four Most Baffling Challenges for Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How to Evaluate Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The BESST Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Brain-Based Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Standards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Other Views of Excellent Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Systems Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The BESST Criterion = Value Added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How to Use the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Applying the Chart to a Specific Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How Do You View Relationships?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Which View Do You Take? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
My View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
How Will You Use This Information to Deal With the Challenges? 14
Choosing How to Deal With the Four Challenges: Three Ideas . . . . . . . 15
Summary: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Classroom Management and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
What Are the Challenges? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Classroom Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Maintaining Effective Teacher and Student Relationships—
Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Maintaining an Appropriate Mental Set for Management—
Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Determining and Enforcing Rules and Procedures—Solutions . . . . . 24
Classroom Management Styles That Influence the
Development of Rules and Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Suggestions for Rules and Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Carrying out Disciplinary Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Overview of the Opposing Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Where Specific Discipline Programs Fit—Solutions. . . . . . . . . 30
Evaluation of Opposing Views Using the BESST
Criterion = Value Added. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Five Pause-Point Decision-Making System With a Discipline
Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Suggestions for Dealing With Your Own School System—
Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Special Disciplinary Actions for Children of Poverty—
Challenges and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
◆ v
vi(cid:2) The Four Most Baffling Challenges for Teachers…And How To Solve Them
3 Unmotivated Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
What Are the Challenges? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
(1) Edward Deci’s Self-System—Why We Do What We Do. . . . . . . . . . 51
(2) What Do Students Say Motivates Them?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
(3) Teaching Styles That Create Motivation Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
(4) Teaching Practices That Are Best in Terms of Motivation. . . . . . . . . 56
Constructivism Versus Objectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Differentiation Versus One Plan Fits All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
(5) Evaluating Opposing Views Based on the BESST
Criterion = Value Added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
(6) Other Issues Related to Student MotivationCChallenges and Solutions 61
Diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Optimal Life Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Breaking Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Brain-Brain Based Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
(7) Using the Five Pause-Point System of Decision Making With
a Student Motivation Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
(8) Suggestions for Dealing With Your Own School System . . . . . . . . . 67
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4 Dealing With Underinvolved or Adversarial Parents. . . . . . . . 71
What Are the Challenges? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
(1) How Role Perspectives Affect How Parents and Teachers Get Along. . 72
(2) What Constitutes a Good Parent-Teacher Relationship? . . . . . . . . . 73
(3) Evaluation of Opposing Views Based on the BESST
Criterion = Value Added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
(4) Using the Five Pause-Point System of Decision Making With
a Problem Parent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
(5) The Effect of Poverty on Parent-Teacher Relationships . . . . . . . . . . 77
(6) Why We Have Problem Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
(7) Standards for Involving Parents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
(8) Strategies for Getting Parents More Involved With Your School. . . . . 82
(9) What To Do About Adversarial Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
(10) Suggestions for Dealing With Your Own School System . . . . . . . . 89
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5 Tough Working Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
What Are the Challenges? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
(1) Physical Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
(2) Time Demands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
(3) Organizational Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Table of Contents (cid:2)vii
(4) Evaluation of Opposing Views Based on the BESST
Criterion = Value Added. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
(5) Using the Five Pause-Points System of Decision Making with
a Working Conditions Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
(1. Planning, 2. Implementing/Observing, 3. Reflection,
4. Revision, and 5. Acting with More Knowledge) . . . . . . . . . 110
(6) Suggestions for Dealing With Your Own School System. . . . . . . . . 113
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6 Solutions Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
(1) Overview of the Opposing Views of the Four Challenges. . . . . . . . 115
(2) Evaluation of Opposing Views Based on the BESST
Criterion = Value Added. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Step 1: Review the Elements of the BESST Criterion. . . . . . . . . . . 117
Step 2: Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Discipline Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Unmotivated Student Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Underinvolved or Adversarial Parent Challenge . . . . . . . 118
Working Conditions Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
(3) Caring-Based Versus Traditional Education Organizations . . . . . . . 119
(4) Other Challenges and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
New Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Closing the Gap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Grating Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
How Can You Get Organizations or People to Change?. . . . . . . . . . . 124
Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
This page intentionally left blank
1
The Four Most Baffling
Challenges for Teachers
This book is about dealing with the four most common challenges for
teachers. As you will see, there is a great deal of information about how to
deal with these four challenges:
(cid:2) Discipline
(cid:2) Unmotivated students
(cid:2) Underinvolved or adversarial parents
(cid:2) Tough working conditions
Inmyyearsofteaching,Ihavedealtwithvariousaspectsofeachofthese
challenges. Sometimes solutions were simple, but often solutions tested my
characterandskills.Fortunately,mystruggleswiththesechallengeshaveled
to my growth as a professional teacher and as a person. When I started this
book, I made a commitment to learn as much as I could about these chal-
lenges sothat Icouldprovidethe information tomycolleaguesasakindof
executivesummaryofwhatisoutthere.Becausethisistheinformationage,
informationiseasytoget;however,thereistoomuchofitandnewideaspop
updaily.Ihavereadextensivelyonthesetopics,andIpresentanoverviewof
researchandresourcesthataddresseachone.Ialsoofferacriterionforjudg-
ing the solutions I found in my reading and in my experience. I also offer a
suggestionfordecisionmakingbasedonasynthesis oftheinformationand
myexperiencesasaclassroomteacher.IgiveexamplesofhowIsolvedissues
related to these challenges. Although these examples are based on real
events, they have been fictionalized to protect those involved from being
identified.
I hope this book provides some possible solutions that couldhelp make
teachingmorerewardingandthatitmightevenpreventgoodteachersfrom
leavingtheclassroom.Ifyouareaffectedbyanyofthesechallenges,orifyou
knowsomeonewhois,pleasecheckoutthisbook.Readitchapterbychapter
or just read the chapters that address your particular challenges.
◆ 1