Even experienced teachers in increasing numbers find themselves at the end of their ropes.  Phi Delta Kappan reports that in 1996 for the first time, teachers cited lack of discipline as the main reason for leaving the profession.  No wonder new teachers are daunted and overwhelmed when they first enter the classroom by the task of inspiring interest, promoting involvement, and activating learning in students, all the while maintaining discipline.

You do not have to send your teachers into the classroom ill equipped to meet the challenge.  After participating in this two-day session, teachers will be able to use specific skills to deliver any content, at any grade level in ways that engage students as willing participants in the learning process.  These proactive methods head off discipline problems before they can get started.

When teachers use these tested, proven techniques to present their subject matter, students become:

• INTERNALLY MOTIVATED TO LEARN
• SELF-DISCIPLINED TO COMPLETE WORK
• PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE TO DO THEIR BEST

• understand that when students are externally motivated it undermines self-directed learning.
• understand that when students are internally motivated it promotes self-directed learning.
• acquire specific techniques to develop internal motivation in students.

• understand that building a relationship with students is a powerful tool to stimulate their learning.
• understand that relationships that inspire go beyond the essential core of respect.
• acquire specific skills that foster productive classroom relationships.

• understand that when worth and value are based on external factors, students are much more susceptible to inappropriate peer pressure in the classroom and are easily drawn off task.
• understand that when worth and value are based on internal factors, students are much more resistant to peer influence in the classroom and stay focused on the learning activity.
• acquire specific techniques to help students develop a sense of worth and value that is based on internal factors.

• understand how students who fail to accept responsibility will blame others for their own poor academic performance and see consequences as unjustified, which leaves them unable to correct the problem.
• understand how students who take ownership of their actions can identify what they did to contribute to their learning problem and accept the consequences as deserved, which leaves these students knowing what to do to correct the difficulty.
• acquire specific techniques to help students take ownership of their learning behaviors and performance.

• understand how failing to provide choices for students leaves them feeling disenfranchised and uninvolved in the educational process.
• understand how providing choices for students fosters involvement and creates active, committed participants in the educational process.
• acquire specific techniques to provide choices for students in the daily learning activities of the classroom.

• understand how enabling provides help for students in ways that undermine their desire and opportunity to start and complete tasks on their own.
• understand how empowering provides help for students in ways that energize them to begin and finish tasks of their own volition.
• acquire specific techniques to interact with students in empowering rather than enabling ways.