Succeeding with Difficult Students

EDZU 9721 (3 credits / 45 hours)

Location: Online
Instructor: Dawn Nachtigall & Pamila Pahuja

Start Date: 03/13/2024
End Date: 04/16/2024

Course Syllabus

As teachers, we have students in our classrooms that exhibit a wide range of behaviors that we might consider difficult. However, it is important for us as educators to realize that the majority of difficult behavior comes from some underlying reason. In this course, we will identify some of those reasons and try to understand the resulting behaviors. Once we have defined some of the concerns our students bring to the classroom, we will develop strategies to use when working with them. Throughout the course, we will explore current research, examine case studies, as well as discuss our own experiences to create a personalized proactive plan that each teacher can bring back to their current teaching situation. This course is designed for teachers in all grade levels who want to become more effective with students that exhibit difficult behaviors.

Teachers enrolled in this course will...

Know

• the typical causes for “difficult behavior.”
• immediate reactions, short term solutions, and long term solutions to difficult behavior.
• what a Behavior Intervention Plan is, the important elements that make up a BIP, and how they are used in schools.
• the difference between reactive and proactive teachers.

Understand

• that a student isn’t “difficult”; his or her behavior is.
• that teachers can only control their own reactions to a behavior.
• how outside stresses and childhood experiences contribute to “difficult behavior”.
• the nature of certain disabilities such as ADD, AD/HD, LD and ODD, and how they can cause difficult behavior.
• a teacher’s role is in designing a BIP.

and Be Able To

• use a series of strategies designed to address certain difficult behaviors that they experience in their classrooms.
• use immediate, short term and long term solutions to succeed with difficult behavior.
• help design a BIP for a student who exhibits difficult behavior.
• use techniques to develop trusting relationships with students who exhibit difficult behaviors and their families.
• to reach out and communicate with difficult students.