When Times Are Challenging, Focusing on the Positive Can Help in Effectively Moving Forward

The summer is a time to relax and have fun. It’s a time to make memories with friends and family. It’s a time to get prepared for what’s coming next. For the past two summers, it’s also been a great time for me to lead some summer camps at my school. The summer camps are a nice change from the rigor and schedule of the school year, as they are a whole week of one particular topic or theme. For example, last summer I hosted a camp called Forest Fun, during which the students built shelters, learned knife safety as they whittled, and also ventured into fire safety and fire building. We were outside every day. It was so much fun. The students loved it!

Because this past school year was so extremely challenging, I felt like one summer camp was all I wanted to tackle this year. So, this week, I hosted my Tabletop Gaming Camp. I had four students in attendance, and it was one of the most challenging weeks of my teaching career. The challenge did not come from a lack of preparation, as I had a very detailed agenda planned for the week. The difficulties stemmed from one student who really challenged me. This student was showing all of the classic signs of someone who is craving attention: He didn’t follow directions or respect the rules, he made fun of his peers, and had an attitude as though he was too cool for whatever we were doing. I pulled out all the stops and utilized all my teaching tricks. I empathized with him when I spoke to him individually about my struggles with him. I tried to keep things light and fluffy, as the summer is much different than the school year. I even had the students create the norms and rules that they would all follow. Nothing seemed to work for this particular student.

So, what was the problem? We were playing games all week. I provided the students with choices and options in terms of what games we played. Every time a new game was introduced and the rules were explained, this student was goofing around and not paying attention, which meant that he kept shouting about not understanding the game or what to do. When the other students in the camp and I reminded him that he was talking and playing around while the rules were explained, he argued with us that the game was ridiculous and we were wrong. So, we would then calmly and slowly explain the rules to him again. This happened for almost every game we played. The other campers were very frustrated with this one individual by the close of the camp on Friday.

I pulled the student aside and spoke to him on numerous occasions throughout the week. As the camps are optional and the families sign up for the ones they want, I asked him if he wanted to be at camp, as it was my perception that he did not seem happy. He didn’t really answer the question except by grumbling some sort of, “I guess.” Like any experienced teacher, I tried getting at the heart of the issue: What is the root of his behavior? What is causing him to act this way? I learned that his parents are divorced, which can most definitely cause trauma. So, is that why he acted out all week, or was there something else at play? Was it me? Could I have done something more or differently? Was I too hard on him, holding him accountable for his breaches of our camp norms? I had to remind him at least five times a day to keep his face mask on when inside the building, which he did not like, as he seemed to think face masks were useless and unnecessary. This mandate that my school has could have been the fuel for this fire of difficulty, as wearing a mask for a long period of time is very challenging. Did I provide too many options or choices? For most game types, I provided the students with two options. Was that too many or not enough? Would it have worked better if I chose the game instead? Did he not really want to be at the camp? He seemed to like a few of the games we played, and even brought in a game for us all to play on Thursday. He did a nice job explaining the rules of the game and teaching us all how to play. It was one of his best moments at the camp. I praised him for being a good teacher and sharing his game with us. This helped keep him more positive and respectful for a while, but the afternoon proved challenging once again. Anytime I asked him to do something like participate in our two-minute meditation, he argued and fought as if I were asking him to swim with blood-thirsty sharks.

I left camp each afternoon this week feeling lost. I spent most nights trying to think about how I could try to make tomorrow a better day for him, me, and the other campers. I tried being more serious, and that just angered the student more. I then tried being more fun and joked around with him. That helped a bit, at times, but, inevitably, he would go back to his default behavior and attitude of being disrespectful and unkind. What did I do wrong? What more could I have done to better support and help this student during the week? This person is not a current member of our school during the academic year and so he doesn’t understand how we do things. However, I had several campers that fell into that same criteria last year without any issues. So I doubt that was the cause of the problems I faced this week.

Although I informed my school’s headmaster of the issue with the student and he did chat with one of the parents of this student, had this student issue occurred during the school year, I would have had a sit-down meeting with the student and the headmaster to discuss the issues. We would have then put a plan in place to help, support, and hold this student accountable as he learns the BHS way. We would have also updated the parents and had meetings with them during this time as well so that they could reinforce our plan at home. However, this student only attended a week-long camp and so there wasn’t the time to execute a lengthier plan. Plus, the rules and protocol for our summer camps are far different than they are during the academic year. I had hoped that this student would make some progress and figure out that it’s far more fun to follow the rules and be respectful than it is to not listen and follow the rules. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and there was almost no progress made by this student at the close of the week.

Although I tried not to let this bring me down emotionally too much this week, it did weigh on me pretty heavily. I was more exhausted at the end of each day this week than I ever was during remote instruction. I tried to help provide the other campers with a fun experience. We did play lots of great games like Chameleon, What Do You Meme (Family Edition), Dungeons and Dragons, Cribbage, Kids Against Maturity, Fun House, Bananagrams, and Pandemic. Two campers chose to create their own board games, which we then played yesterday afternoon. One student made an awesome game all about rescue animals. We all had a blast playing that game, as it got us talking about our love of cats and dogs. Despite the fun that was had throughout the week, I’m still left wondering why this week felt so challenging because of one student?

Moving forward, I’m going to focus on the good that came out of the week and know that I tried extremely hard to support and help this one student. He did make it through the entire week without having to be sent home. That is something, as I got very close to calling his parents a few times throughout the week because of his poor choices.

On a positive note, a student that was in my class this past school year was in attendance at my camp this week. This was a student who began the school year unable to practice self-control and had very little drive to work hard. Well, he finished the year kicking butt and working extra hard. He learned how to control his choices and transformed into a phenomenal student. It was so cool for me to see this student practice the breathing and self-regulation techniques we learned throughout the week when dealing with this difficult camper. At one point, the student was sharing his thoughts with the group and the challenging camper kept interrupting him. Instead of yelling at the camper, he stopped talking and took some deep breaths before beginning to talk again. I am so proud of the progress this student made throughout the year. I praised him on numerous occasions throughout the week for his great choices and the application of techniques covered during the school year. This seemed to make him very happy. That is what I will focus on this weekend and into next week as I reflect on my camp from the week. I will think about the successes and not the struggles. I will not beat myself up over the fact that I wasn’t able to reach a student. I will not look down on my abilities as an educator because one student pushed all of my buttons successfully throughout the week. Instead, I will think about the good times that were had.

Supporting Some Students Takes Persistence and Patience

Some students are like fluffy little sponges ready to absorb information and adapt to their surroundings.  They are flexible and open to new ideas and approaches.  We love working with students like these because they enjoy school more than anything else in life.  These students are easy to work with and usually put a smile on our faces because they soak up every word that falls from our lips.  Some other students are more like dry sponges in need of a little watering before they are ready to take on the world.  They are very open and willing to learn things with a little help and prodding first.  These students are also easy to work with.  Then there are those few students who are more like a chunk of granite, in need of much work before they can be molded into open-minded young men.  These students need much help, support, and scaffolding in order for learning to take place.  They usually employ a fixed mindset from day one and often face much adversity in their personal lives outside of school.  Over my 17 years of teaching, I’ve had the pleasure of helping to mold quite a few granite slabs into fine, hard-working students.  It’s no easy task, but one well with the undertaking.  While I love all of my students, I do enjoy a good challenge, which is why I look forward to helping shape those few hunks of rock each year.

This year, I have a class filled with mostly porous sponges who can’t seem to learn enough.  They enjoy working on projects and spend much of their free time completing assignments.  It’s pretty awesome.  I’ve been able to extend my units and curriculum a bit more than in past years due to the fact that most of my students are up for and crave a good challenge.  Although this aspect of teaching fills me with great joy, I find it easy to execute and accomplish.  I love challenging students and creating unique and engaging projects and assignments that push the students to think critically in order to creatively solve problems encountered.  In order to truly grow as a teacher, I need to constantly be challenged myself.  Fortunately, I do have the pleasure of working with one young man this year who is proving to be quite a tough chunk of granite.  He has struggles with executive functioning skills, is very self-absorbed, struggles to see the reality of situations, and is very deficient in math, reading comprehension, and writing.  This, combined with the fact that his family just welcomed a new baby into the fold, makes him one hard rock to crack.  He is the only student in our class who is constantly challenged by our expectations and has yet to buy into our sixth grade program.  My co-teacher and I discuss this one student on a daily basis during our free periods and team meetings.  He often does not appropriately complete homework assignments and struggles to meet many of the graded objectives across all of our classes.  Our goal for the year, is to help him find the joy in school and learning.  While we don’t expect him to be an A student by any means, we want to help him see the value in school and learning.  We want him to find the fun in learning about new topics and solving problems in creative ways.  We want him to find the polished gemstone that is buried deep under his hard, rocky exterior.  It’s an interesting and sometimes frustrating journey that we are on with this student this year, but one we are excited to have embarked upon.

We began a research project on Africa yesterday in my Humanities class.  The students chose topics and began locating reputable resources from which they can mine for wonderful knowledge nuggets.  While almost every student had chosen a topic and began searching for online resources by the end of class yesterday, our one special student was unable to choose a meaningful topic.  He struggled to brainstorm appropriate ideas that would allow him to learn new information. He attempted to choose topics he already knew much about.  He wasn’t trying to challenge himself and was clearly using a fixed mindset in approaching the task.  My co-teacher and I worked with him on separate occasions, trying to help him find an engaging and appropriate topic for the project, to no avail.  He seemed determined to do what he wanted to do, which prevented him from being able to demonstrate his ability to meet several of the assessed objectives.

This morning in our study skills class, the students continued working on this research project.  This one student spent the period reading through an article on a topic that we had not approved, instead of trying to brainstorm and settle upon a new topic that would help him to grow and develop as a student.  My co-teacher and I were at a loss.  How can we help inspire him to choose a more meaningful topic?  How can we help him want to learn for the sake of learning?  How can we best support this student?  No answers came to us.  We were beginning to get frustrated, but we certainly were not giving up.  We just needed to be patient and persistent, which ended up paying off later in the day.

During my Humanities class, the students had another opportunity to continue working on this hefty research project in class.  The boys dug into their topics and sources like archeologists on a quest to discover a new dinosaur.  They were so excited looking for information and facts to help them understand their topics.  Many of the boys couldn’t help but share their finds with their table partner or me.  This one challenging student began the period, stuck, unable to choose a topic that he was interested in or knew very little about.  So, I stopped and had a chat with him.  I talked to him about why I am challenging him to choose a topic that would allow him to think critically.  I offered him some examples before providing him with time to work independently.  A few minutes later, I stopped to check-in on him, and lo and behold, he had chosen a more appropriate topic.  While it was still lumpy and needed to be ironed out a bit, it was a topic that will require much critical thinking to investigate.  So, I probed him a bit, trying to help him see how to whittle his broad topic down to a more meaningful chunk that would be easy for him to dig into.  Finally, with much support and scaffolding, he had generated and chosen an appropriate topic for his research project.  While it took much effort, patience, and persistence on my part, I was able to help him find his polished parts buried beneath his hard, outer shell.

This timeline of how he worked in class yesterday and today is very typical of him.  It takes him much time to get into an assignment or project before he buys in and begins to see the fun in the task of learning.  We have noticed that the time between him using a fixed mindset and then changing to a growth mindset is decreasing as the academic year progresses.  He’s breaking down his own walls, as he transforms from a mountain of rock into a stone statue with the ability to solve problems and think critically.  As his teacher, I just need to be patient, offer him much support and help, persist and never give up on him, and he will continue to be chipped away until only a soft and pliable inner core remains.  While this task proves difficult on a daily basis, it is one I frequently get excited for, as it allows me to grow and develop as a teacher.  Finding new ways to help support and challenge my students has helped me to become a better educator.