Dealing with Disruptive Students Without Doing Damage

(audience: youth development practitioners)

Have you ever put in a lot of thought, planning and preparation into an activity that you’re really excited to try only it have it derailed by a disruptive student? Well, you’re not the only one. And probably not the only one who can think back to a specific time when your lesson was sidetracked and wish you’d handled it differently. It’s really easy to take an outburst or disruption personally and respond with one of the ‘Don’ts’ outlined in a great post from Edutopia.org called Classroom Management: The Intervention Two-Step.

This post focuses on a two-step process for dealing with disruptive students so you can keep a lesson on track without lashing out at a student and possibly

damaging your relationship with them. Trust, and creating safe spaces is at the core of our work with youth and these suggestions offer ways to get things back on track without being hurtful. I really like the section with specific response to try out when dealing with a distracting student.

Give these tips a try and let me know how they work for you.