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TALK TO ME : EDUCATION MEETS HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION EMMA CHARLOTTE VAN DER KLIFT - PDF

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TALK TO ME : EDUCATION MEETS HOSTAGE NEGOTIATION By EMMA CHARLOTTE VAN DER KLIFT A Major Research Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in CONFLICT

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Positive Reinforcement & Growth Mindset "Shout Outs"

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These "shout outs" can be awarded to students as praise or positive reinforcement for excelling academically and/or behaviorally. If you are focused on a growth mindset in your classroom, give out "shout outs" for improvement and progress toward student goals. "Shout outs" can be given to students ...

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MO SW-PBS Schools develop standard procedures for responding to inappropriate student behavior. These procedures help staff avoid overreacting to inappropriate behaviors, avoid unnecessary exclusion of students from the learning environment, add an instructional component to address inappropriate behavior, and create predictable environments for students.

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I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized. -Haim Ginott
The teacher is the decisive element in the classroom.

I believe this quote has power outside of the four walls of a classroom. As a special education teacher and inclusion facilitator, it goes without saying that my response to a student with a challenging behavior affects the student, but sometimes more importantly, it significantly affects the behavior of the adults around me. While a student kicks, screams, and cries, paraprofessionals, general education teachers, campus security, and the principal take their cues from me for how to respond. If I am calm and confident, they will respond in the same manner. When my students are experiencing a meltdown or crisis while working with another adult, I watch to see how that adult responds. The ones who are calm, demonstrate respect, and provide the student an opportunity to safely experience his emotions are the adults I want on my student's team.

I've also learned that how I respond to a student with a challenging behavior significantly impacts current and future inclusive opportunities for the student. Regardless of the fact that I believe every student should be included no matter what, I am keenly aware that many of the adults around me don't share the same belief. The following are some lessons I've learned navigating the path of inclusion for students with disabilities and challenging behaviors.

1. Plan for your student and staff simultaneously.

Working with administrators and counselors to pre-schedule students in classes that are engaging, meaningful, and with supportive teachers is the first step I take in supporting students with challenging behaviors. While I want every teacher on my campus to accept and teach students with disabilities, I've learned that my students are much more likely to experience success in a classroom with a supportive teacher.

Each teacher is provided with an IEP student profile and PBS chart at the beginning of the school year. I do my best to meet with teachers in person before the first day of school (and certainly on a regular basis after school starts) and share my experiences supporting the student and family. We review the PBS chart and I make a point to highlight the strategies and supports that need to be in place to prevent challenging behaviors. I think it is essential to have honest conversations with teachers about challenging behaviors and provide awareness about what the student's behavior is communicating. This builds trust and if I'm including a student with significant behavior challenges, I need my colleagues to trust me until they develop their own relationship with the student. I also need my colleague to know how to appropriately respond to a behavior so I can prevent a pattern of sending a student to the special education room whenever any challenging behaviors occur.

Students should have access to any needed supports in their general education classroom to prevent challenging behaviors. This starts with teachers providing appropriate, adapted curriculum materials and access to a communication system, if needed. Students may also need personalized supports they can access at anytime during class, such as fidgets, stress balls, inflatable bumpy seats, pencil grips or weights, a photo book of classroom rules, break cards, or something of comfort to keep in a pocket/backpack. Include students in identifying useful supports and creating their personal kit. Make sure to talk with paraprofessionals and the classroom teacher about the contents and purpose of the kit, so students are not prohibited from using these tools in class.

2. Strategy session: Two heads are better than one.

I am not afraid to ask for help and suggestions when supporting students with challenging behaviors. I am lucky to work with some of the most talented and creative paraprofessionals, who also have hobbies outside of their work. These hobbies have offered us behavior support strategies I never would have thought of by myself. One paraprofessional sews, and while at the fabric store one weekend she found a bolt of fake fur. She immediately thought of a student who repeatedly pulled the hair out of her arms and eyebrows. At school on Monday, we cut up very small squares of the fabric and asked the student if she might want to put it in her sensory kit (a small pencil pouch) in her backpack. She did and over time learned to pull the hair out of the fur, instead of her own skin.

When I am stumped or overwhelmed, I call in reinforcements. My district has a behavior specialist paraprofessional who is incredibly astute and calm. She has helped me observe students, collect data, and train my staff in communication strategies. I also look towards my colleagues or mentors who can help me be objective and look at the big picture. Meeting a mentor for coffee before work or a quick Skype chat can make all the difference in my feeling supported, which leads to me supporting students and staff more effectively. After quick call to a former professor, I remember best practices I learned long ago but had limited opportunities to put into place, until now.

3. Empower students and peers.

I believe students and peers of all ages need knowledge about disabilities and behaviors in order to accept and appreciate each other. This begins with how the adults in the room model respect and demonstrate appropriate responses to challenging behaviors of all students. I think it's important to de-brief with students and classmates after a challenging behavior. For some students this might mean reviewing a social story about "what to do when _____ happens", while other students might engage in a verbal and visual problem-solving strategy. Classmates can support students in making positive behavior choices by providing natural reinforcement or kindly telling a student how challenging behavior affects them.

Classroom presentations also open the door to positive relationships with classmates. When one of my students advocated for himself and requested he not have a paraprofessional support him in his leadership class, his mom facilitated a class presentation about autism, her son's strengths, and how his classmates could best support him in class. The teacher and classmates reported to me how helpful this presentation was and my student experienced independence and success in this class all year long. One of the best ideas I've read for a classroom presentation comes from blogger Mom-NOS, who talks to her son's elementary school class about autism, using analogies that make sense to his peers.

4. Develop family and school partnerships.

Students with challenging behaviors, often have challenging behaviors at home or in the community. Developing positive behavior support plans with parent support and ideas is crucial. My students have had the most success when there are consistent rewards and consequences for behaviors at school and at home. This requires ongoing two-way communication between home and school and the ability of both parties to be open to new ideas or feedback.

Sometimes relationships between families and schools become difficult. In these situations, it has been helpful to me to focus on what is within my realm of control at school: good data collection, consistent responses to challenging behaviors, and continuing to advocate for the student to have meaningful instructional and social opportunities at school. A little bit of chocolate at the end of the day helps too.

5. Keep perspective.

In an inclusive classroom, students with disabilities are not the only students with challenging behaviors. I think it is important to know what is going on in classrooms on a regular basis to ensure students with disabilities are not being held to a gold standard of behavior, while everyone else goofs off in class. I once had a student who was sent to the principal's office for playfully swatting a boy on the rear-end during PE class. This behavior was unusual for my student, so I went to observe PE class the following day and discovered a large group of boys swatting each other on the rear-end (similar to athletes on the game field) after completing the game. My student was imitating his peers, but unlike his peers, he had consequences. I immediately marched into the principal's office and shared my observations about the behavior of all the students. We agreed on a new plan, with the PE teacher and paraprofessional, and talked with the peers about their behavior and how that would affect or influence classmates to respond.

With the right supports, students with disabilities and challenging behaviors thrive in inclusive classrooms. Identifying the right supports for my students has been an ongoing process; from the moment they walk in the door on their first day of 7 th grade until the moment they graduate, we are continually fine-tuning our strategies to successfully support them in class. But, I believe the commitment to that process and including students with disabilities and challenging behaviors, provide tremendous opportunities for growth for students and teachers. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Life is a journey, not a destination."

For more information and resources to implement positive behavior support plans in inclusive classrooms visit New Jersey Positive Behavior Support in Schools' website.This site has ready-to-use resources for conducting a functional behavior assessment, team meetings, or staff development.

Photo Credit: Cali4beach/Flickr
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in 2012 and has updated headings and a new featured image.
Megan Gross is a special education teacher and inclusion specialist in California. She has facilitated inclusive education in K-12 classrooms. Megan is the co-author of The Inclusion Toolbox: Strategies and Techniques for All Teachers and ParaEducate, a resource book for paraprofessionals and special education teachers. She currently teaches high school and is the co-advisor of her campus' Best Buddies club. Megan lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. Follow Megan on Twitter (@MegNGross).

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5 Strategies for Positive Behavior Support in Inclusive Classrooms | Think Inclusive

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I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

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Poverty, violence, hunger, abuse, and an unstable world are causing chronic stress for our nation's kids. And that sad truth is that prolonged exposure to stress can damage the centers of the brain associated with learning, cause behavioral problems, and increase the cycle of violence. Nearly half of the children in the United States, or almost 35 million kids, have experienced "at least one or more types of serious childhood trauma," according to a survey by the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).

As teachers are the adults who see students for the longest periods of time throughout the day, they play a critical role in recognizing the symptoms of trauma and treating it at the classroom level. After reading our brief synopsis on trauma, check out the tips below that are absolutely essential for anyone working with trauma.

What is trauma?

Trauma can be broken down into these eight categories, according to the work of Bonnie L. Green, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Georgetown University (Wilson & Sigman, 2000/Green, 1993):

1. Threat to life or limb.

2. Severe physical harm or injury, including sexual assault.

3. Receipt of intentional injury or harm.

4. Exposure to the grotesque.

5. Violent, sudden loss of a loved one.

6. Witnessing or learning of violence to a loved one.

7. Learning of exposure to a noxious agent.

8. Causing death or severe harm to another.

For young students, traumatic stress can severely impact a student's ability to learn, function in social environments, or manage their emotions and behaviors. Becoming a trauma-informed educator means becoming more acutely aware of how trauma alters the lens through which its victims see their world, and building practices that honor that reality. The good news: beyond these tips below, there are professional development opportunities that can greatly help you support your students (and yourself).

Implementing trauma-informed best practices in the classroom

Know the signs

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, children experiencing traumatic stress can have difficulty self-regulating emotions, may be aggressive, skittish, impulsive, or require extra attention while simultaneously remaining fearful of new or unfamiliar situations or people. Teachers may also notice physiological symptoms of trauma such as appetite issues, weight changes, exhaustion, frequent illness, or poor hygiene. When these changes are sudden, it's especially telling that a student may be experiencing traumatic life events. A comprehensive list of traumatic stress symptoms can be found in the NCTSN Toolkit for Educators. Are any of your students exhibiting one or more of these signs?

Provide consistency and structure

Students who experience trauma can feel triggered by a lack of clear structures, boundaries, and routines. As we're sure you can imagine, providing classroom consistency, daily structures, clear expectations, and reliable warmth and love help stressed students feel safe. Normalcy is profoundly healing and comforting, particularly for students who do not feel in control of their lives.

Implementing even small classroom systems can greatly alleviate emotional stressors and prevent behavioral incidents. For example, sharing a clear agenda for the day's learning makes a student aware of what's ahead and expected, giving them time to get comfortable. This decreases the stress and uncertainty caused by classroom activity transitions and the roll-out of assignments. Additionally, offering a student some choices throughout the day gives them a sense of dominion, developing a mending sense of self-control over their environment.

Get serious about social-emotional training

Traumatized students require explicit emotional training to regulate their emotions, process stress, and heal from their experiences. Ideally they should receive counseling, but on the classroom level, social-emotional learning can include things like meditation, breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices that provide students with time to pause and reflect on their emotional state.

Teaching students to recognize negative emotions, pause, and process them before they manifest into negative behaviors also builds coping skills and reduces the need for disciplinary measures. "When well taught and when practiced regularly, [mindfulness] has been shown to be capable of improving mental health and well-being, mood, self-esteem, self-regulation, positive behavior, and academic learning," according to research by Katherine Weare, Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Southampton (2013).

Use restorative practices over zero tolerance policies

Students with traumatic backgrounds benefit from clear boundaries and limitations, coupled with a restorative approach to discipline, rather than a punitive one. Restorative practices rebuild a traumatized student's relationship to authority and to the adults and peers in their daily lives. Restorative circles, team-building exercises, meditations, and counseling can all reform a traumatized student's belief in fairness, as well as their capacity for conducting themselves with integrity.

"Restorative Justice is particularly impactful for traumatized students because it prioritizes de-escalation. It's about getting to the root of a student's triggers, underlying issues, and motives, teaching healthy communication skills," says Gina Angelillo-Farieri, a Restorative Justice Coordinator in the New York City Department of Education. "Relying solely on punishment leaves out the important and healing lessons that students of trauma so desperately need."

Take care of yourself

Working with individuals who have experienced a traumatic event can make someone more susceptible to secondary traumatic stress. In other words, if you're working with kids who are coping with trauma, there's a chance it could affect you too. That's why it's so important to take care of yourself - a healthy teacher is a more effective teacher. According to the Treatment and Services Adaptation Center, awareness is the key to managing secondary traumatic stress. They recommend regular small group check-ins, regular exercise, a healthy diet, and sufficient sleep.

For more on trauma-informed teaching, check out these resources:

Tags: Professional Development, Trauma and Resilience

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Trauma-Informed Teaching Tips for Educators & Traumatized Students

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Poverty, violence, hunger, abuse, and an unstable world are causing chronic stress for our nation's kids. And that sad truth is that prolonged exposure to stress can damage the centers of the brain associated with learning, cause behavioral problems, and increase the cycle of violence.

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Mr. Hill stops reading aloud to his 4th grade students and turns to Anisa. "Anisa, you're off task. Change your clip. I asked you once and you are still digging in your desk. Walk over and change it now."

Anisa stands and walks across the classroom. Several of her peers make condescending comments under their breath. Anisa moves her clip from green to yellow and returns to her desk and puts her head down. Her nonverbal behaviors indicate that she's angry, hurt, and frustrated.

A few minutes later, Josh raises his hand. Mr. Hill calls on him and Josh responds, "Anisa is off task again."

Mr. Hill looks at Anisa and says, "Again? Please change your clip to red. One more problem and it will be another call home. You have to learn to pay attention."

A Practice That Harms

Scenes like this are common in schools today. Pass through the halls of almost any elementary school and you are likely to at some point hear "pull a red ticket" or "you're on yellow now." Behavior charts-and their variants-are standard in elementary schools throughout the world. They represent a practice long overdue for retirement.

In thinking about this strategy for managing student behavior, we challenge you to ask yourself a question: Why are you are an educator and why do you continue to be an educator? Did you respond with, "to show students who's boss?" or "to help the students who are already doing well to succeed?" Of course not. Your response was probably some version of, "I want to make a difference" or "I want to be the teacher students need in their lives." We posed this question because we can't move forward in the argument we're about to make until we share a strong understanding of our ultimate goal as educators. Most of us are in education to make a difference in our students' lives and help them become their best selves-aspirations that, in our view, aren't compatible with behavior charts.

In working with students, we've often seen adolescents display challenging behaviors that have evolved over years. We've wondered to what extent their behavioral paths could have been corrected in early-childhood classrooms rather than exacerbated by stigmatizing practices like behavior charts. Braithwaite's shaming theory (1989) highlights the connections between stigmatizing shame and later delinquency. According to Braithwaite, "shaming means all societal processes of expressing disapproval which have the intention or effect of invoking remorse in the person being shamed and/or condemnation by others who become aware of the shaming" (p. 100). Although the relationship between shame and later behavior is complex, empirical studies provide enough evidence to compel us to stop shaming young children and instead build strong relationships and seek alternative methods to promote prosocial behaviors.

We present here three reasons to abandon behavior charts. If such charts are used in your school, we encourage you to have an open mind as you consider our reasoning. And we hope you take down those charts tomorrow and consider trying the alternatives we propose to foster positive behavior.

1. Compliance Isn't Our Long-term Goal

Behavior charts do an excellent job of teaching children that they will be punished if they don't comply with directions or rules. Although this may work in the short-term to make some students compliant, compliance shouldn't be our end game. We can shoot so much higher than that! We want students to be engaged and excited about learning, to persist when their work is hard, and to interact with others in ways that will lead to positive social and academic outcomes in the future.

Art Costa and Bena Kallick (2000) have done beautiful work organizing and describing the skills and behaviors educators should cultivate in all our students, what they term habits of mind. These lifelong skills-like persisting, managing impulsivity, and listening to others with empathy-improve students' competence, confidence, and ultimate success across the curriculum and in life. Such skills are arguably more important than the content we teach; the content is merely a vehicle for teaching them. Solidifying these habits is what teachers should aim toward. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating what William Deresiewicz (2015) called "excellent sheep"-students who play the game of school but lack true engagement and critical thinking.

2. Behavior Charts Can't Teach Self-Regulation

Teaching the whole child is our responsibility. If we are to be effective in our work, faculty at all levels must be able to teach habits of mind such as self-regulation, a key skill for shifting toward more positive behavior. Simply rewarding and punishing behaviors is not what helps students learn such habits and skills. It's particularly ineffective with self-regulation.

Punishments work to reduce behaviors by immediately following a behavior we don't want to see with a consequence that the child doesn't like (Alberto & Troutman, 2002). Thus, behavior charts can reduce a student's problematic behavior if the student dislikes negative public attention-or public shaming. This is a questionable strategy to begin with since it's based on stressing out the student rather than cultivating new aptitudes. But for many students, negative attention is something they've gotten used to, or worse, something over which they feel they have no control. Their identity has become "the kid who is bad." Have you noticed that most of the time the student who is "on red" today is the same one who was "on red" yesterday and the day before? And is likely to be "on red" all year long? What does it tell us if the intervention being put in place doesn't lead to a change in students' behavior? Clearly, the strategy isn't working. Why would we continue to use any strategy that isn't working?

Decades of research have led to a body of evidence on how educators can effectively support and teach key skills like self-regulation (Heckhausen & Dweck, 2009). Nowhere in the literature do researchers recommend that we shame children into being compliant.

3. Charts Hurt Students!

The most compelling reason to abandon behavior charts is this: They risk harming our students. Lee Ann still remembers the painful effect of the color behavior chart a teacher used when her son, Spencer, was in 1st grade. Spencer was a sensitive "people pleaser" as a young child. He preferred to do what he needed to do with little public attention, but he valued personal relationships. He was kind to everyone around him and worked hard in school. One afternoon, Spencer came home from school distraught because he'd had to "move his stick." He'd gone to school without a paper signed by Lee Ann and, in front of the class, his teacher reprimanded him and asked him to move his stick from green to yellow. Spencer felt as though he had failed and let his teacher down. He was embarrassed and affected by the event for days.

Fortunately, Spencer's experience was a one-time event. But consider the inner voice of the student who is "on red" nearly every day. When we reprimand a student in front of their peers, we risk changing that student's inner voice, shifting their identity to the "bad kid," isolating the student from peers, and disrupting their relationship with their teachers. At worst, we risk making a student feel unloved. Imagine the devastating effects for a child who gets most of her or his love at school.

Instead of using charts, we could just as effectively reduce undesirable behaviors by dumping ice water on a student or inflicting corporal punishment. Did you furrow your brow at that thought? We would never do that! We would never use physical punishment on a student in an effort to shape behavior-or even want a student to learn to avoid certain behaviors out of fear of physical harm. So why don't we have the same visceral reaction to emotional punishment?

Consider who this practice harms the most. Not the student who has a handle on self-regulation and performs well in school. It's the students who need us the most who we are hurting. Behavior charts are a way to excuse ourselves from the hard work of meeting a student's self-regulation and behavior needs. The fact of the matter is, when we use behavior charts, we are sacrificing student dignity in favor of teacher convenience.

Alternative to Sticks, Clips, and Charts

Perhaps we've convinced you to stand up right now, run down the halls of the school, and tear down the behavior charts. But before you jump out of your chair, you might be asking, "What do we do instead? If I don't have consequences in place, my classroom will be chaos." As we advocate for avoiding punitive approaches within schools, we often hear rumblings that alternative disciplinary strategies are too soft and "touchy-feely." Dominique has even heard restorative practices-that is, those based on reconciliation and understanding-referred to as the "hug a thug" approach.

Rest assured, we don't recommend removing structures or accountability. We advocate for putting behavioral structures in place, just not punitive ones. We want students to be held accountable in more natural ways and to have a chance to learn the impact of their actions on others. We want them to build empathy, persistence, or whatever skills they need to behave appropriately-and for those positive behaviors to become internally driven.

There are effective, humane, growth-producing ways to teach students that their behaviors impact others. True, there may be a bit of an adjustment period when changing to a new system. But our students' self-worth and long-term success are worth any temporary disruption we may encounter. To move away from the reactive approach of behavior charts, we recommend teachers put into place three proactive strategies.

1. "Take Ten" for Each Learner

Set aside 10 minutes each day to sit with one student (focusing on each of your students in turn). Talk about something non-school-related that's of interest to that child. When educators build strong, caring relationships with their students, each student naturally wants to protect that relationship and avoid anything that might damage it. Students' behaviors and approaches to learning in the classroom are then driven by relationships, not fear.

Teachers need to know as much as possible about what makes each student unique and special-her personal interests, what excites him, what delights her, what he fears. We need to understand much more than their academic strengths and needs; we need to know the whole child-who they truly are-and allow them to know our true selves, too.

Students should feel that teachers are on their side. Imagine how differently the opening anecdote might have turned out if Anisa's teacher had built a strong relationship with her.

2. Keep It Off-Stage

Stop making discipline for poor behavior visible. Students tend to react negatively when they're called out in front of others. Instead, when a student's inappropriate behavior needs to be addressed, have a one-on-one conversation with the student, staying calm but firm. When possible, avoid publicly calling a student aside for this talk: Publicly-and perhaps angrily-telling a child to come talk with you can have the same humiliating effect as a behavior chart. Instead, after class invite that student to have a conversation with you or quietly ask them to talk with you at a time when other students are otherwise engaged.

Be calm and supportive in discussing the behavior. To maintain your relationship with the student, always conclude by ensuring the student understands that although you are unhappy with the behavior, you still care about them and are there to support them in their growth.

3. Hear Students Out

Before acting on any student behavior, try to understand why it happened. When a student needs a corrective conversation, first ask to hear his side of the story. Generally, students prefer to have a conversation with a teacher rather than having a teacher conversation happen to them.

There's always a reason why students are acting as they do. Stop asking "What's wrong with that student?" and start figuring out what happened to that student. This may mean asking questions that prompt the student to reflect on the behavior and its effects on others. Students often have a hard time knowing why they acted in a certain way. It's only once their emotion has calmed-and through a guided analysis-that they can identify the reason.

Once a learner understands the underlying reason, we can guide him or her to consider alternatives for next time and discuss any consequence that needs to follow. Even students who are caught in a pattern of disruptive or harmful behaviors-perhaps especially those students-benefit from being heard. Certainly, there are times when we must intervene and stop a behavior, such as if it is causing harm or severe disruption. We may need to remove the student from the situation immediately to restore a calm, safe environment-and later teach that student the self-regulation skills needed to prevent such behavior in the future. The key is that the subsequent conversation should be private and should be about the behavior rather than the person.

Students Deserve Better

Imagine how much better things might have turned out if, in the opening scenario, instead of scolding Anisa, Mr. Hill had tried some of the techniques described here. He might've noted that Anisa was having difficulty remaining engaged in the reading and lesson and, after finishing the group read-aloud, approached her while everyone else was gathering their things and moving to stations for the next lesson. Imagine if he'd said, "Anisa, I saw you were having trouble staying with me today. I'm worried that if you aren't paying attention to the lesson, you'll miss something important to your learning. What was going on today?" Mr. Hill might have found out that Anisa was actually looking for a pencil to write down ideas that occurred to her as he read aloud. He might then have affirmed, "That seems to be happening a lot lately-trouble finding your pencil and other materials. Let's find some time today to see if we can come up with an organization solution, OK?" With such a response, Mr. Hill would've acknowledged the need for a change in Anisa's behavior, but not stigmatized Anisa as a "bad kid;" rather, he would have helped her develop a solution.

All students deserve this kind of supportive response. We are calling out the practice of behavior charts for what it really is: public shaming of children into compliance. We have many good strategies available for teaching self-regulation; humiliation isn't one of them. Let's stop "managing behaviors" and instead guide and support engagement, persistence, and positive interactions. Let's build relationships that promote growth of the whole child-and the skills each student needs for a lifetime of positive interactions and success.

Now, go tear down some charts!

Authors' note: All teacher and student names are pseudonyms.

Guiding Questions

› How does your approach for addressing student behavior issues square with your personal answer to the question Jung and Smith propose: "Why do you continue to be an educator?" Does how you deal with "problem" students fit your central purpose?

› What challenges might you or your school face in adopting Jung and Smith's three strategies for teaching positive behavior? What steps could you take to address those challenges?

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Mr. Hill stops reading aloud to his 4th grade students and turns to Anisa. "Anisa, you're off task. Change your clip. I asked you once and you are still digging in your desk. Walk over and change it now." Anisa stands and walks across the classroom.

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Some students will stop at nothing to get attention in class. Banging on the desk, making burping sounds, making inappropriate comments - we have all experienced these tedious behaviors that stop the learning and wear down even the most dedicated and experienced teacher.

Over time, most learn more appropriate ways of drawing the teacher's attention. The distracting behavior subsides. However, there some for whom attention-seeking behaviors are a comfort zone. They continue to yell, throw things, and otherwise highjack the classroom while the helpless teacher is frustrated and out of patience.

In these cases, ignoring seems logical - we've been taught when a student wants attention and we give it to them, we might be reinforcing the behavior. But it is not that simple. When a student a student seeks attention in disruptive ways, it may be due to underlying distress or uncomfortable feelings, such as anxiety. Ignoring the behavior can increase anxiety or discomfort and subsequently increase the student's behavior.

Ignoring can accidentally reinforce less safe behavior
Raphael sat under the desk during math class. When his teacher ignored the behavior he ramped up to something that couldn't be ignored. He lifted the desk and banged it down repeatedly until the teacher finally responded. Raphael learned that banging works better than sitting under his desk.

Teachers can unintentionally be part of reinforcing the escalation in their students who are laser focused on getting attention. When a student finds a behavior that the teacher is forced to respond to, they have learned a less safe behavior that "works" to get the teacher's attention and will move right to that behavior in the future.

Ignoring can unintentionally dismiss the student's feelings
Betsy, a third grader with a history of trauma and generalized anxiety disorder, asked the teacher for more crackers. The teacher explained everyone had six crackers so, to be fair, he couldn't give her anymore -- plus there were no crackers left. Betsy made an angry face, folded her arms and started to kick the leg of the table repeatedly. The teacher ignored her and went to the rug to teach, telling Betsy to join the lesson when she's ready. Betsy remained in her seat, kicking the table with tears streaming down her face for 28 minutes until the lesson was over.

Behavior is communication. The teacher's behavior is no exception. From Betsy's viewpoint, the teacher ignored her because he didn't like or care about her. These feelings impacted her relationship with him, which may have led to broken trust and less compliant behavior in the future.

In truth, the teacher cares deeply for Betsy, often losing sleep over how to help her. Once the student's interpretation of being ignored was pointed out, he felt terribly and asked for alternative approaches.

When in doubt, validate
A student engaging in negative attention-seeking behaviors can be so off-putting that we don't always react empathetically. If a teacher responds to any behavior with empathy and validation, the intensity is typically diffused. The best response may be, "I'm sorry you're so upset" or "I know this is hard for you."

Betsy's teacher could have responded empathetically, "I am so sorry that I can't give you more crackers. I feel bad. I get mad, too, when I don't have the snack I want." This way the student will know the teacher cares, even if she doesn't like his ultimate answer. A similar response would be for the teacher to realize and acknowledge that asking for more crackers isn't a big deal and maybe there's a compromise that's fair and comfortable for student and teacher, like borrowing some crackers in another classroom.

What is the student gaining from negative attention seeking?
To come up with an alternative to ignoring, it's important to understand why students engage in negative attention-seeking behavior. Actually, negative attention is easier to get and understand than positive attention, which can be unpredictable and subtle. For example, a student appropriately doing independent work in class may get a subtle smile, head nod, check on his paper, or mild "good job" from the teacher, after doing work for 40 minutes. Here's a common scenario: A student throws a heavy book down on the floor during a quiet moment in class. For him, this is:

* Efficient: a small movement garners an immediate reaction;
* Predictable: the behavior gets a response every time;
* Obvious: the response from the teacher includes exaggerated facial expressions and a voice tone and volume that's easy to understand;
* Dramatic: the reaction from the teacher may include gasping, yelling, shouting, rushing to the student, or sending the student to the office where several adults may process the event, including the principal.

We need to come up with alternative strategies for delivering positive attention that mirror these more intense reactions automatically received from inappropriate behavior.
Alternatives to Ignoring
More Efficient Positive Attention
For a student with oppositional behavior and underdeveloped social/emotional skills, demonstrating appropriate and expected behavior is an accomplishment. I recommend celebrating expected behaviors (e.g. walking into class and sitting down). Take the time to praise these moments, making positive attention easier and faster to earn. If a student rarely raises his hand, call on him and thank him for participating or acknowledge him with a nonverbal thumbs-up if you call on someone else first.

More Consistent, Predictable Positive Attention
You can wear a timer to remind yourself to give the student attention every few minutes or even have a timer visible to the student to make the attention predictable. Say, "I'll be back to see how you are doing in five minutes." Then set the timer. This offers the student a transparent and reassuring way to predict when you'll be back.

More Obvious Positive Attention
Our voices and facial expressions are exaggerated and more obvious if we react to a student when we're aggravated. Positive attention is often nonverbal and subdued (e.g. a smile or nod). Use an exaggerated affect and tone of voice when giving positive attention. It helps a student who isn't great at reading social cues.

Respond More Dramatically or Intensely
Fortunately, it's rare to have a student who seeks the dramatic aspect of negative attention, which can make a student feel powerful (e.g. bolting out of the building with five adults after him). For students with a pattern of demonstrating behaviors resulting in a dramatic response, be aware of this and be as dramatic and enthusiastic when cheerleading for expected proper behaviors.

Breaking the Cycle
The priority of teachers is for all their students to feel cared for and respected. We need to remember that behavior is how the student communicates to us that they are in distress or anxious and there are more supportive, empathetic, responses than ignoring the student and his behavior. To minimize negative-attention-seeking behavior and to break a negative interaction pattern, you need to make positive attention compete with negative attention in some or all of the domains the student is seeking: efficiency, predictability, obviousness, and intensity/drama. You may only need to use these techniques for a short time before the negative attention cycle is broken. Then you can taper off until positive attention can be delivered in a less frequent and less intense way, all the while continuing to validate the student's feelings and foster a positive relationship.
Jessica Minahan, MEd, BCBA, is a board-certified behavior analyst and special educator, as well as a consultant to schools nationwide. She is the author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students, with Nancy Rappaport (Harvard Education Press, 2012) and author of The Behavior Code Companion: Strategies, Tools, and Interventions for Supporting Students with Anxiety-Related or Oppositional Behaviors (Harvard Education Press, 2014).

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Why Ignoring May Backfire: Positive Alternatives for Disruptive Behavior

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Some students will stop at nothing to get attention in class. Banging on the desk, making burping sounds, making inappropriate comments - we have all experienced these tedious behaviors that stop the learning and wear down even the most dedicated and experienced teacher. Over time, most learn more appropriate ways of drawing the teacher's attention.