Teaching Difficult Students: Blue Jays in the Classroom

by Nicole M. Gnezda

Overview

Here is an easy-to-read and inspiring text that explores the nature of young people and the effects traditional discipline strategies have on them. The author recommends humanistic approaches that promote personal growth in students rather than the common system of reward and punishment that aggravates underlying psychological issues and encourages resentment, retaliation, apathy, and failure. Includes: an academic review of educational psychology theories, step-by-step instructions on how to discipline students humanely and effectively, expressive artwork that illustrates how the principles of psychology manifest in the lives of real students in real schools. The ideas and stories emanate from the experiences of a K-12 teacher whose personal life has been profoundly intertwined with the teaching profession. This book will be of interest to practicing and pre-service teachers of all subject areas and grade levels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610482639
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	12/08/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nicole M. Gnezda teaches Visual Art at Worthington Kilbourne High School, a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School in the Worthington (Ohio) City school district.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 List of Illustrations
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction: Blue Jays
Chapter 4 1. How the Universe Works
Chapter 5 2. Vision
Chapter 6 3. Why Students Behave the Way They Do and What We Can Do about It
Chapter 7 4. It Matters How We Treat Difficult Kids
Chapter 8 5. It's All about the Soil: A Parable
Chapter 9 6. Reconsidering Assumptions: Cleaning out Our Brains
Chapter 10 7. The Poor Get Poorer: Why Rewards and Punishments Do Not Work
Chapter 11 8. We Won't Be Wimps!
Chapter 12 9. More about Courage
Chapter 13 10. Keeping It Simple
Chapter 14 11. Why Bother?
Chapter 15 12. The Ultimate View
Chapter 16 References
Chapter 17 Index
Chapter 18 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

(Gnezda has) discovered that troubled students often benefit from compassion and freedom to create than from punishment. ... But is Gnezda's altruistic approach successful? Her blue jays' stories speak for themselves. One is of an emotionally troubled boy who drew violent images. Later, he explained that drawing the pictures kept him from acting out.

NEA Today

Nicole Gnezda does an excellent job of exploring the nature of our hard-to-reach students, the blue jays in our classrooms. ... Teaching Difficult Students would be good reading for teachers and principals, especially as they look for ways to communicate with those students whose in-school behavior is so deeply connected to the difficulties in their personal lives.

School Administrator

(Gnezda has) discovered that troubled students often benefit from compassion and freedom to create than from punishment. ... But is Gnezda's altruistic approach successful? Her blue jays' stories speak for themselves. One is of an emotionally troubled boy who drew violent images. Later, he explained that drawing the pictures kept him from acting out.

Nea Today