Some students' behavior goes beyond just being extremely misbehaved. Some students actually have mental health disorders. Counselor training includes extensive preparation to manage each type of behavior disorder. That is why counselors can sometimes more successfully manage youngsters that educators struggle to control. Most counselors learn specialized behavior management tools tailored for each type of acting-out disorder. Most of these targeted tools work really well for educators too-- except that educators are not normally routinely offered this essential training.

In this Classroom Management blog issue: In 2005, annual state-wide testing in
Texas included an essay section. Of the one million essays submitted,
nearly 700 youngsters wrote about their own abuse, neglect or rape
(USA Today, March 28, 2005). Around the same time, The New York
Times suggested that a recent Minnesota school shooting may
have occurred because "anguish turned homicidal."
In the at risk students keynote speaker next sentence,
they wrote: "Teachers are ill-prepared to identify
and address the normal emotional difficulties of their
students, much less the aberrational ones."

In this blog issue: There could almost be a sign hanging on the front door of your school:
"Students Wanted: No Training Provided." I'm Youth Change Workshop's Director, Ruth Herman Wells.
As a staff trainer who has led professional development workshops in every corner of North America,
I have to say that very few school districts have a formal plan to train kids to
become successful students. Years ago, parents routinely taught their offspring to look, act, and sound like students.
Now, many families can't or won't give their children the motivation, attitudes, and specific School Skills they need to
succeed in school. For all the research, fads, opinions, debates, and testing, this is the elephant in the classroom-- that
School Behavior Skills are universally expected but seldom taught. It doesn't take years of research to determine that it is
probably completely unrealistic to expect children to perform tasks they've never been taught.

News and graphic images of the recent disasters in Japan are everywhere right now.
While some of your students are unaffected by the tragedy, a portion
of your youngsters are at high risk to deteriorate emotionally, socially,
and academically-- even when the crises are occurring a world away.
If you're an educator, it's critical
to successful classroom management and instruction, that you know which of your students
are at risk, and what you should do to prevent, moderate, and manage these concerns.

Everyone at Youth Change Workshops is so excited that in January, 2011, our Director, Ruth Herman Wells was rated by SpeakerWiki as the #3 Elementary Education Speaker and #7 High School Ed Speaker in the U.S. She was also rated #8 of all Education Administrator Speakers. Ruth is known not just for her emotional, captivating speaking, but for her one-of-a-kind, unexpected behavior management interventions to turnaround troubled youth and children. Here are some of Ruth's most popular, enduring, and effective classroom management interventions for students' bad behavior and attitude in school.