Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

by Jeffrey Benson

Support students who may not be able to explicitly ask for help.

Develop an unobtrusive, special signal for when a help-avoidant student needs help:

Tell students you intend for them to work as hard as they can on this day.

Reflect on a student's behavior, not your hypothesis that they may be under the influence.

Never speak poorly in any public setting about a student, not even after the student has left your school.

Review the elements of the school environment (procedures, rituals, objects) that communicate your mission.

Review what happened when a student has left the program.