inattentive students By Michele

I know that for myself, when I am overwhelmed in a situation, I tend to space out, but I don't do anything physical just kind of check out for awhile. Even as an adult, I really have to struggle to maintain attention to anything for any length of time, especially if it's not hands-on.

The only advice I can give would be to have short timespans for activities, and hands-on activities. Depending on the grade level, this may be inappropriate. I receintly went to an awesome conference on Disciplining the difficult student, and they suggested that for your disruptive children to break it down into very small increments of time, physical reminders (tapping, sign language etc), and rewardign the behaviors that you desire. It is all information that we've heard before, but it helps me to hear it over-and-over! I did try this with three of my worst trouble makers, and it really changed the atmosphere in my room (then again, did the behavior change, or my response to it?)

michele