In all my years as a teacher, trainer and coach I have seen that one of the most common challenges that teachers face is that a handful of their students are destroying their lessons, in a 101 different ways.

How do they destroy your lessons?
We could probably talk for hours about how students
destroy lessons... Let's not do that.

What it's costing YOU?
We could probably talk for hours about what it's costing you in terms of health, and confidence. Let's not do that either.

Such conversations will surely not lead us to where you actually want to go.

So, let's do something different.

Whatever the students social backgrounds, gender, age, language skills, drug problems, gang affiliations, media influence, internet distractions, (add your observations here ...), there is always something you CAN focus on instead.

The solution is simple - you'd expect it to be big - but here it is, and it's completely under your control.

Look at what you can change about yourself

Whatever the circumstances your students are in, it's you who are in charge of creating the working atmosphere in your classroom, and that's something you CAN work with.

In the book "A Coaching Approach to Education", there is a case study of a teacher who uses paper clips to bring about a major improvement in how the class
communicates. So the tools can be very simple.

The case study describes a situation that was so tough that the teacher was wondering if she should leave the teaching profession. The students were also concerned about the final grades they might get, and the effect that would have on their future choices of study or work.

• She told, asked and listened
• She received feedback, adjusted,
  gave feedback

After just a few weeks, the working environment had improved and she chose to stay in teaching "for a few more years."

The case study is an example of using Positive Language.

There are six steps to this dream classroom

1. Positive language
2. Using Humour
3. Asking questions
4. Asking better questions
5. Using feedback, in two or three directions
6. Learning from Mistakes

In all of these steps, the teacher becomes a Role Model for the students in how to communicate, how to learn, how to grow, how to break free of limitations, to develop to the fullest potential.

Sounds like a dream? That's what school was initially designed to do. To bring up children to their fullest potential. What else?

In the next article I will talk about how to reconnect with students who aren't listening.

They are in class, or at least IN the classroom, but their attention is somewhere else. What can you do?

Again, the solution is very simple - and that's why it works.

The challenges we are experiencing in the education system guide us in making the right kind of chnges. Adults will benefiut from listening to the students more!