Reaching the Challenging Child

As teachers, we are passionate about our content areas and skilled in techniques of delivery that provide well-designed and engaging lessons. Sometimes, however, this is not enough to bring all of our students to the table. In these circumstances, we need to have a broad knowledge of issues of resiliency, learning challenges, trauma, cultural relevancy, and emotional frailty that might be proprelling a student away from productive participation. Each year, we are presented with a new field of promise along with new, unique areas of challenge to face in our classrooms. Surrounding ourselves with positive, passionate colleagues goes a long way to buoy us in times of stress and provide reflective feedback when we feel our efforts are not making a difference. In addition, we need to seek professional development to strengthen our practice and hold us firm in the philisophical underpinnings of an optimistic classroom. One book I have found enormously helpful over the years is Solving Thorny Behavior Problems by Caltha Crowe. This is a reference that have read and reread in times of challenge, always with positive results for myself and the students in my care. Knowledge is power, but I find that remembering what I have learned and lost in a moment of stress is also energy; making it possible for me to dig deep and remain firm in my commitment to high expectations for every student.