Teaching Unteachable: What Teachers Can Do When All Else Fails

There are a wealth of teaching books with strategies and tips for dealing with challenging behaviour and disruptive students. Most teachers know a variety of strategies and have had some success in implementing them. But what happens when they don't work? In the fast-paced, pressurised, often chaotic life of a school, there are times when even the best tried and tested ideas do not seem to work with some classes and some students. There are days when some children seem completely unteachable and unreachable. Although a relatively small group of pupils, these children take up a lot of teacher's planning, thinking and emotional time. Even the most experienced teacher will have times when these pupils do not respond, leaving the teacher feeling de-skilled and incompetent.This book is aimed at helping teachers deal with these situations and feelings. It explores the factors behind those 'bad days' and looks at what can be done when nothing seems to work. The book includes practical, accessible examples based on the writer's own experience. Real-life examples include failures as well as successes, showing what can happen in the everyday classroom. The first section includes an extensive list of effective behaviour management strategies. The second section then offers an easily accessible framework for understanding the behaviour of those children for whom basic strategies do not always work. From this enhanced understanding, another list of principles and good practice is offered in the final section.