New Teacher Tips on Preventing Discipline Problems and Helping Students Pay More Attention to Your Lesson

Every new teacher has students who are very good at what they do, and many that proclaim they will accomplish what they set out to do. But teachers have many, many students who carry disaster along with them. Many of these are the students who aren't focused, don't learn well, don't hand things in on time, and many times won't make it through the term.

See if you recognize some of these students:

Shaniece has low self-esteem and will tell you, 'I'm no good, and I seem to fail at everything I do.'

Dustin feels like a victim and says, 'I'm sorry you wasted your time on me, but n o one understands me anyway.'

These are the most challenging students for new teachers because interaction with them that will actually make a difference requires that teachers go further than a verbal pat on the back; it requires offering themselves at a deeper level that goes beyond the authoritative image.

Many new teachers don't really want to get involved at this level. Teachers aren't counselors, right? Teachers aren't responsible for students' emotional health, they just want them to know how to how to do the required learning tasks for their subjects. That may be the case, but many times those feelings of inadequacy in students are the only thing blocking them from breakthrough in their learning.

Researcher Geoffrey Cohen conducted a study among suburban junior high students. In the study, they gave writing assignments focused on the students' personal values with the idea in mind that it would decrease the impact of negative stereotypes by affirming the idea that the students have value even if they don't necessarily perform well at school. The grades the following semester were up, and even a year and a half to two years later the students who started out average were up .24 points in their GPAs and those who were below-average students were up .41 points. In this particular study the effects were found within African-American students, and not in white students.

There is more to education than teaching a student how to write an essay. It is important, yes, and new teachers have a lot of tools to help with that in the classroom, but for me as a teacher trainer and diversity coach, the larger goal is to help foster positive identity that will build healthy communities in the business, professional, and personal world inside and outside of school. If we want to prepare our students for being the best employees, this is crucial. Maureen Mackenzie, an associate professor of management and leadership at Dowling College, says that those with low self esteem are not as creative, nor do they press through difficulty the way that those with optimism do. Kamal Dean Parhizgar, who has written numerous books on the global economy and multicultural business says that those with low self-esteem show an inefficiency in reaching their organizational goals.

If teachers pursue deeper levels of connection and speak positive words of affirmation, it may help their students in the classroom and will definitely challenge them in their ideas of themselves. In conclusion, most of these issues in students come from root moments and years of negative confirmation. As a teacher and authority of sorts in their lives (they look up to us) we can speak to their base identity and begin to break down the lies that they are useless, that they cannot do it, that they are worthless, or that it won't matter.