Teaching Tough Kids

How can you really make a difference for your students? Teaching Tough Kids delivers a refreshing collection of realistic ideas to sustain the organisational and behavioural transformations of all students, particularly those who 'do it tough'; who learn and react differently. They are complex kids who find life tougher than most. Managing their emotion and behaviour presents educators with a spectacular challenge in schools today, and numbers are on the rise. Filled with inspirational case studies, this book focuses on building improved relationships, structures and behaviours, rather than seeing the student as 'the problem' that must be fixed. Highlighting the value of promoting positive connections with students of all ages, the author presents ways to incorporate inclusive ideas into everyday practice and construct pathways for students to become engaged in their learning and achieve success. This stimulating book shows teachers how to: build student connectedness to learning; set achievable goals for each individual child; support emotional stability; strengthen organisation patterns; address behavioural issues; improve homework planning; create friendships and deal with bullying. Teaching Tough Kids takes a particularly close focus on students identified with Learning Disability, Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Asperger Syndrome. Another group of students with executive functioning difficulties are emerging in schools. These are the kids who have endured neglect or too much stress and uncertainty in their lives and as a result display classic symptoms of hyperactivity, hyper vigilance and impulsivity. Teaching Tough Kids will be of immense interest to teachers, student teachers, staff in Pupil Referral Units, SENCos and all those involved with Behaviour Support work.

"Practical classroom management strategies."--Cover.

Permission is granted for the purchasing teacher to reproduce the tools for use in her/his classroom.

Teaching Tough Topics shows teachers how to lead students to become caring citizens as they read and respond to quality children’s literature. It focuses on topics that can be challenging or sensitive, yet are significant in order to build understanding of social justice, diversity, and equity. Racism, Homophobia, Bullying, Religious Intolerance, Poverty, and Physical and Mental Challenges are just some of the themes explored. The book is rooted in the belief that by using picture books, novels, poetry, and nonfiction, teachers can enrich learning with compassion and empathy as students make connections to texts, to others, and to the world.

In this insightfully honest and moving memoir about the realities of teaching in an inner-city school, Ed Boland "smashes the dangerous myth of the hero-teacher [and] shows us how high the stakes are for our most vulnerable students" (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black). In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a twenty-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them. Freddy runs a drug ring for his incarcerated brother; Nee-cole is homeschooled on the subway by her brilliant homeless mother; Byron's Ivy League dream is dashed because he is undocumented. In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students. Told with compassion, humor, and a keen eye, Boland's story is sure to ignite debate about the future of American education and attempts to reform it.

Focuses on teaching social skills to the student who displays excesses in noncompliance and aggression and deficits in self-management.

The research-validated solutions included in this book are designed to reduce descriptive behaviour without big investments on the teacher's part. The solutions also provide "tough kids" with behavioral, academic, and social survival skills.

The Tough Kid New Teacher Kit is the latest addition to the popular and time-tested "Tough Kid" management series. The authors have built on the strategies contained in previous Tough Kid books to offer a complete and practical system for managing the most recalcitrant class Especially designed for the first-time teacher, the kit contains: A simple, easy-to-use manual chock-full of tips, suggestions, and proven tactics that will make any class pay attention, be respectful, and comply with your rules; Attractive classroom charts that use Mystery Motivators and other Tough Kid strategies to clearly layout what happens when the class does, and doesn't, behave; Classroom games to make following the rules fun; The Tough Kid Tool Box, a book of forms, charts, and other reproducibles used successfully in many schools around the country.