Can you give me advice on working with high school students?

Instead of upbeat and light, try being real. Tell them you are frustrated at wanting to help them and not knowing how.

Talk to them the way you would to a friend.

Until they see a NEED to learn, you’re going to be spinning your wheels. I remember very well being 16 and knowing everything. Then I went through it with two of three of my kids. Yipes! You may have to get tough on them. If they see you as someone that they WANT to be like, someone to be admred, they’ll start to come to you. Generally, this is attained by being more distant and aloof. I’m not sure why. So what do they respect? Who are their heroes? What can you do that will make them say “Oh wow!” ?
Teenagers are like dogs. If they smell fear on you they’ll tear you apart. If they respect you, they’ll want to be like you and please you.

You have got to find the right connection for these students, that all of them will understand and will be on your level of communication. first, ask all of them to give you their likes and dislikes. once you have discovered a common ground for all the students, use this to your advantage. remember, you are the teacher, not the students. be on the defensive. some students come from homes where assault is commonplace. protect yourself.

Kids who don’t want to be somewhere HATE someone being upbeat. Try relating to them, pretending you don’t want to be there either.

Be honest. These kids are lied to all the time, they can smell BS a mile away. Even if you end up telling them things that they might not want to hear, they will respect you for your honesty.

I would be very low key about it. Tell them that you understand that nobody likes being forced to be anywhere. Tell them that they do have a choice though. They can remain angry and resentful or they can make use of the time to make improvements. Tell them that you have volunteered because you believe that you can help. Point out that they have a chance to try new skills without fear of being penalized if they do not get it the first time.

Try showing them a cool activity that you can do; for instance if you were in the martial arts, show them your best side-kick or if you can solve the rubix cube really fast show them, or if you know any cool jokes or life experiences. When you have done this link what you have done to the discipline needed for sucess at school. Also be very confident with them and dont be afraid to talk to them. Find out what games they are interested in and try to beat them at their own game, that would also have them look at you for respect.

The one time a friend of mine went to summer school to make up a class, the teacher was this young Chinese guy who was very “in tune” with the kids, despite his strong accent. He was weird and funny and very blunt about things. I think the kids liked it because my friend said it was a good class (despite the fact that almost everyone there was there because they failed geometry) and half-way through when the kids were supposed to switch teachers, a lot of people requested to stay in his class.

I know “be real” is really vague, but my art history teacher in high school was the most “real” teacher I ever had and everybody loves her (she was also 50 years old when she taught my class). You don’t go have to as far as her (she swore in class, ranted about the administration, and discussed how she smoked pot in high school) it takes a special person to do that and be a very good teacher, but she was just very intelligent and it showed and there was absolutely no BS from her. She was understanding, but tough, and because you respected her, you wanted to do well in that class.

Never approach them unarmed.

A school day is a long haul for these kids. You could you start of with a ten-minute game/activity/brain teaser designed solely to energize their brains/bodies. Maybe something where they can join in as they arrive. Set a timer so that it’s not you putting an end to the fun. Lots of kids are accustomed to doing homework with music on. Maybe you could reward hard work with music the last half of the hour. Select a good worker to pick the music.

I work in a school as a lunch room monitor. I get after the kids for not eating lunch. I tell them they don’t want to fail lunch, ‘cuz they’ll end up having to do summer school. Either that, or eat double lunches right up through spring break!

It always gets a smile. Perhaps you could find something equally silly to threaten your kids.

Another thing I’ve started to do is introduce a word of the day. I tell everyone, students, teachers, and administrators alike the latest word of the day. I had no idea how many people look forward to the cool obscure words I’m introducing them to.

My first word of the day was “defenestrate”. It means to throw out the window. I have found it very effective to go up to a kid in the dumps and tell them the meaning of that word, and ask them if there is anything in their life they’d like to defenestrate. So far, it’s a winner.

By the way, my sources so far are the Internet (look up “unusual words” in a search engine), or Roget’s International Thesaurus.

Don’t try and be ‘cool’, ‘hip’ or ‘trendy’. Adults who try and use teen slang, or who try to act like teens always look stupid. If you do this I can guarantee that the students are all laughing at you behind your back. Just talk like a normal person, and use standard English. There’s nothing worse than a teacher/instructor running around saying that things are cool, hip, rad, off the chain… etc….