School Turnaround Consultant, Consultation, Help, District Staff Professional Development

If you work with troubled and challenging students, you're on the right page. This is Youth Change Workshop's archive of all past Classroom Management Forum posts from 2010. Youth Change offers this forum as a service to youth professionals, and there is no charge for this expert consultation.

Youth Change specializes in providing nationally known trainers, consultants, speakers, keynoters, presenters, and instructors to turnaround whatever behavioral, social, or emotional problems you are seeing in your classrooms and group rooms. We also publish truly innovative, forward-thinking books, ebooks, posters, and podcasts for teachers, principals, school district superintendents, paraprofessionals, social workers, juvenile court workers, counselors, therapists, family workers, and child welfare workers. You could say that Youth Change wrote the book on troubled students-- and we teach the class. If you need more help, here are some key links, but professionals can click on our Expert Live Help link here, and below, or call us (click). Our website has hundreds of pages. Perhaps one of these links will give you the information you need to turnaround your challenged or troubled students, school, district, or group. For information on getting a consultation or training presentation on how to turnaround your school or agency, click here. If you prefer to consult and work with one of our speakers' bureaus, call us at 800-545-5736 for speaker details, training topics, and bureau choices. Click here for information on live workshops, and here for recorded workshops, and here to see an overview of all our books, posters, podcasts and ebooks. Click here to email us.

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QUESTIONS shown in GREEN
ANSWERS shown in BLUE

Date: 2010-12-15 12:23:18 Name: Avalon Subject: On-Site Professional Development Training Workshops Job Title: Curriculum Director Number: 48

I am also looking for budget professional development options for my school district but I need to arrange an on-site training event. We aren't permitting travel right now so on-site workshops are a necessity. What budget help do you offer?

Please call us at 800-545-5736 so we can run through the cost for on-site training. It may be much more affordable than you expect because we use flat-fee pricing, meaning we cover our travel costs and you just have a fixed fee that can't go up. We also allow you to include as many staff as you wish in your training for that fee. We even have ways to transform your professional development training event into a fund raiser that could defray the cost, or even end up making money to help your budget. Information on using our on-site inservice workshop as a fund raiser is here. Some sponsors have had fantastic results. We can even arrange college credit and clock hours for your event at no extra charge to you. Let us know how we can help. Popular dates can disappear quickly so do contact us as soon as you can. You can call 800-545-5736.

Reply written by Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Director, Youth Change at 2010-12-15 12:29:01

Date: 2010-12-15 11:59:47 Name: Tommy Etoffier Subject: Professional Development Training Job Title: District Professional Development Director Number: 47

Funds are tight here as they are most places right now. What professional development options do you have that are affordable that might fit our budget. Thanks for what you do.

We offer half-price work study slots for just $84 for live workshops. Simply call us at 800-545-5736 to grab some. For on-site professional development held at one of your schools, we will work with you on the cost as best we can. Call us and we will do our best to meet your needs. Some of our distance learning workshops could be of help too. Our Breakthrough Strategies to Teach and Counsel Troubled Youth Workshop (click) is affordable and can be used by many staff members. Think of the course as a budget consultant who's packed with answers to every imaginable child behavioral, social, or emotional problem. College credit and clock hours are offered. We have a mini-professional development option that's under $50. Find that staff development option here.

Reply written by Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Director, Youth Change at 2010-12-15 12:04:00

Date: 2010-12-13 07:22:50 Name: Chelsea Subject: reward system Job Title: Biology Teacher Number: 46

So, I am a first year teacher and I teach 3 classes a day in a block schedule school. I have two difficult classes that have very different students in them with varying academic abilities as well as a wide range of behaviors displayed. I teach high school biology, and I would really like to try using a reward system with these two classes. Does anyone have any ideas of systems that have worked with their classes in the past. I would love to hear feedback. Also, any suggestions for classroom management would be appreciated because that is my goal for my TEAM module 1.

You can use rewards but they are unlikely to be the quick fix you are hoping for because it is rare that a single intervention will be the solution for the array of students you describe. Instead, why not tackle the exact problem areas and remedy them directly? Wouldn't that be more likely to produce the type of change you need? To do so, identify the top problem areas, such as defiance, tardiness, or work refusal. Next, use the search engine on our site to identify some of our problem-stopping interventions, and implement them. You can work with each class or with small groups. Don't have the time? Typically, teachers lose 22 minutes per hour on behavior management. Fixing the School Skill deficiencies you describe will give you back a lot of those lost 22 minutes per hour. You will ultimately gain time, not lose. Here's an article (click) with more details.

Reply written by Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Director, Youth Change at 2010-12-15 11:26:14

Date: 2010-09-30 11:11:25 Name: Barney Dodgell Subject: Back-to-school Job Title: Coordinator Special Ed Number: 45 What ideas do you suggest for the first days and weeks of schools?

We strongly suggest you focus on School Skills Training, covering key issues like attendance, punctuality, and safety first. Next, move on to areas like classroom discussion skills, teacher interaction skills, peer interaction skills, homework management, and so on. Find many articles on this topic by clicking here. Also, find many cool posters to underscore and reinforce what you've taught about hand raising, respect, attendance, and so on. View our powerful, unexpected posters here.

Reply written by Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Director, Youth Change at 2010-09-30 11:16:11

Date: 2010-09-16 14:51:02 Name: Amanda La May Subject: Total Disinterest Job Title: Tutoring Business Owner Number: 44

In general, I do very well with getting my students to engage, but I have a very new student, who, it seems no matter what I do, won't smile. Her mother usually observes tutoring, and her father is the principal of her school, and they are very demanding people who often make me sweat! They want to observe my techniques so they can refer me to their students if they find it to be successful, but I noticed the one time their daughter smiled and decided to engage, was when they left the room! I have tried telling funny stories to illustrate the problems, letting her have choices in her education and assignments, using manipulatives, using wild gestures, and being excited myself, joking with her, and whatever else I can. When we are just talking, and not tutoring, she smiles, tells stories, and is a true chatter-box. She has just decided she doesn't like math and she doesn't like writing. My other students who have said this usually end up saying at the end of their tutoring, "well, I didn't like math, and I didn't like writing, but you make it fun." I am so creative with incorporating individual interests and offering points and prizes, but she just WONT engage. Do you have any advanced tips for motivating students for someone who already has the basics? Thanks! Amanda La May

Not all cats purr when content, not all students smile. I think what you are looking for is to have her be engaged, smiling or otherwise, and those are two completely different things. If she can be assisted to work without smiling, you've done your job. However, if you want more ideas, check out our huge treasure trove of educational articles (click), all packed with specific strategies you can use right away.

Reply written by Ruth Herman Wells, M.S., Director, Youth Change at 2010-09-29 10:19:16