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Teachers are trained to deliver information to students who will sit still and listen . . . and then they’re put in front of students who won’t sit still and listen!

Here it is . . . Your ADHD student is not the one with the “learning issue.”

YOU ARE!

• I tried yelling at them. (I call it the “Yell-and-Hope” method.)
• I tried rearranging the classroom furniture. (All it gave me was a sore back.)
• I tried using point systems. (Which my kids found pointless, sigh.)
• I tried opening a classroom store from which I gave away free stuff for being good. (That just made me broke.)
• I tried giving kids raffle tickets any time they answered a question correctly, and then I held a drawing at the end of every month (as if kids with near-zero attention spans were capable of looking ahead that far!)

But guess what?  Caring is not enough!

These kids weren’t intentionally misbehaving for the sole purpose of driving me batty!  Rather, their misbehavior was actually a secret message that the student was (unwittingly) trying to convey to me.  And usually that message was this: “Reach me.”

As I’ve already pointed out, there are plenty of things that DON’T work.

• Yelling doesn’t work
• Bribes eventually fail
• Rewards aren’t enough
• Punishments don’t cut it
• Caring isn’t enough
• taking the “tough approach,”
• saying, “Joey, please stop” all day long,
• raising their voices and making threats,
• doling out punishments that only make the problem worse.

The solution is changing our way of thinking from a controlling, adversarial mode to something more like coaching.

Do you know exactly who revolves in their daily orbit?  Do you understand their chief concerns?  Are you aware of their secret likes and dislikes?  Does each one have a secret passion that he doesn’t share with anyone else?

That’s not the case, of course.  Students are doing these annoying behaviors without any premeditation because they lack control.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no rhyme or reason to these behaviors.  In reality, these students are sending you a message in code — and usually that code translates into two words:

“Reach me!”

1. “Walk and Talk” with your ADHD students as many times as you can

I’m talking about completely casual walks in which there is no authoritative agenda hanging over the conversation whatsoever.

2. Find ways to get your students to follow your directions quickly and quietly, the first time given.

3. Get closer to your ADHD students — even if you are afraid to or don’t feel like it.

The key is to act but not react.

Simply put, you must find another way of doing things.  You must come up with an alternative to what you and your school are already doing, because what’s happening right now is clearly not working well enough.  (Or you wouldn’t be reading this in the first place.)

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of getting a different result, then decide right now that you are going to do something different this year.  You’ll not only be saving your kids, but you’ll be preserving your sanity as well.

The bottom line is, producing the changes you want in your classroom comes down to developing these simple but transformational strategies:

• Taking responsibility for your future and not leaving it to chance, hope, or a society that looks for magic pills (literally).
• Making a real connection with your ADHD students, and helping them forge life-changing relationships with other mentors and authority figures like yourself. (Do this and you eliminate disruptive behavior in your classroom forever.)
• Listening to your students’ misbehavior and deciphering what it’s really trying to convey.
• Getting your ADHD students to follow your directions quickly and quietly, the first time given.
• Getting your worst students to see good grades as their paycheck in life.
• Diverting and redirecting the energy of ADHD students instead of trying to stand in front of a runaway train.
• Realizing that when traditional approaches don’t work it’s time to try something new that does work

Innovation spotlight: Behaviour management

Article by Crispin Andrews

Great Expectations

Accompany Merion Morgan on one of his frequent trips around the corridors of St Mary and St Giles Church of England Middle School and you might be struck by many things: the vibrant buzz of hard-working pupils and staff, their mutual pride in a visually impressive environment, even the calm familiarity of the headteacher’s rapport with those around him. However as Morgan himself explained – this has not always been the case.

“It wasn’t long ago that our children tended to be extremely reluctant to give of their best,” he says. “Often unsettled, they found it difficult to concentrate or focus in class.  As a result, the majority of pupils simply weren’t reaching their potential.”

Changing from a punitive system of behaviour management to one based on high expectations has had a dramatic impact on pupil behaviour. Put simply, teachers are now able to teach and students learn, without distraction. It’s what the whole staff insists upon and pupils themselves have come to expect.

But not only has the change in the school’s approach to behaviour resulted in increased enjoyment for pupils and staff, it’s had a transformative effect on standards.

The Stony Stratford school is now second in the Milton Keynes league tables, with its value added score now in the top five per cent nationally. SATs results have improved dramatically over the last five years.

Ever since Morgan’s very first staff meeting, early in April 2001, pupil behaviour, or ‘children’s news’ as the school prefers to call it, has been top of the agenda. Not only does this give a high profile to the sorts of issues that might be affecting the behaviour of individuals but it allows a consistent and uniform approach to be taken towards a child by every member of staff.

It was soon agreed that the sort of confrontational – “I’m in charge, do as I say and this is what will happen if you don’t” — system that was in place previously, was doing little to motivate pupils.

It was almost as if certain children thought that teachers expected them to misbehave.

Under the new system teachers would no longer shout, and pupils would not be sent to stand outside the classroom or given detentions.
However, any child who did disrupt a lesson knew that they would be given an appointment to discuss the matter with the head teacher, who would work with the pupil to come up with a solution that would allow the pupil to return to class.

From the very beginning, through newsletters and on induction days, parents were made aware of these new expectations and how they themselves would be expected to contribute.

The success of the approach is demonstrated by the fact that last term, Morgan had only two such meetings with pupils. His regular presence in and around the school and the continued support of all members of staff, who between them had devised the system in the first place, have been key factors in the turn around of attitudes and behaviour.

“If I spent ages tucked away in my office or was always out of school,” he says, “it would be easy for children — especially those who had been kept waiting to see me — to think that I wasn’t really bothered about what they were doing, be it good or bad.”

Achievement assemblies, an upgrading of the school’s physical environment and an increasing variety of extra curricular clubs, along with constant, informal positive reinforcement whenever high expectations are met, give one very clear message to pupils: that they are part of a high quality learning environment where everyone — teachers and pupils — are doing their best to make sure potential is fulfilled.

Ldr June 2005