Ministry of Education, Guyana

A five-step framework for cultivating the strong relationships with students that are critical for their learning. When you reflect back, why were students quiet those first days, or even weeks, of school? Could it be that they were asking themselves, “Can I trust this teacher? Will I be respected in this class? Does this teacher want to get to know me?”

Any student may refuse to cooperate at times, but handling students with oppositional defiant disorder requires that teachers have a plan. We all have students who test our limits. Most kids can be uncooperative at times, especially if they’re tired, hungry, or feeling overwhelmed. For certain age groups, like 2- to 3-year-olds and teenagers, noncooperative behavior is a normal part of development.

Memorize and implement all the strategies you want but if you don’t learn to command the respect of your students you will be fighting a battle every single day. Respect is the base ingredient for classroom management; few (if any) classroom management tactics will work without it.

It can be difficult enough to keep adults engaged in meetings, let alone a classroom of students with waning attention spans. Here are five methods you can combat distraction in the classroom. Teachers are always looking to better facilitate the understanding, retention, and application of new information for their students, but students have diverse learning needs and each may require an individual—creative— approach. Instead of dreading disengagement, acknowledge it and begin to build your arsenal against it.