It’s time to empower the teachers of ADHD kids
Teachers have an incredibly difficult job trying to get through a demanding syllabus on a tight schedule while catering to numerous different needs in a classroom full of kids. Adding one or more kids with ADHD to the mix often overwhelms teachers who don’t have the skills and tools. The result is too often disruption for the whole class, the teacher expending a disproportionate amount of their limited time and energy, and frustrations for the teacher and the child. Resorting to primarily punitive measures to deal with the “problem” child is an ineffective long-term solution and can even feed a negative cycle of disruption-reaction-frustration.
The Kosher ADHD Training Group provides teachers with tools for ADHD students in ways that support the student, provide a boost to the classroom environment, and increase teacher satisfaction. It works. It’s effective. And it’s easier than you might anticipate.
Key points
- Teachers who struggle to deal with students who have ADHD are frustrated and less effective.
- Restlessness, impulsivity, and other disruptive behaviors that accompany ADHD challenge even the best teachers.
- ADHD is a neurological condition that is accompanied by behaviors that are disruptive but not malicious.
- Teachers can gain skills to support their ADHD students, while making the classroom environment calmer and more fun.
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The frustrating interplay between teachers and their ADHD students
For most teachers who have students with ADHD (but without adequate training to know how to deal with their ADHD students), every day in the classroom can feel like an ongoing struggle. The teachers have to get through a rigorous syllabus within a tight schedule and teach an entire classroom of students, each with their unique needs, skill sets, and personalities. They have homework assignments and tests to prepare, report cards to grade, and scores of parents on their case about everything under the sun, yet one particular child keeps disrupting class and derailing their efforts to teach.
It’s understandable that teachers quickly become exasperated by a child who continually disrupts the class with their restlessness, distractibility, and impulsive behaviors. The ADHD child’s antics cause frequent class interruptions and, at some point, drive the exasperated teacher to punitive measures to try and force compliance. The child’s self-esteem deteriorates further when their academics start lagging behind their peers, which leads to more acting out, and the cycle continues…
Neither teachers nor students with ADHD are to blame for the classroom dynamics that create such conflict
In almost all cases where the above scenario plays out, both sides might blame each other for the unpleasant dynamic. Yet judgment, criticism, and punitive consequences are completely ineffective in achieving lasting change. Harshness both exacerbates undesirable behaviors and wastes the golden opportunity to build up each child and watch them flourish!
Given what we now know about ADHD and the brain, students who have ADHD aren’t deliberately being defiant or belligerent (even if that’s how they may come across). Their behavior is the external manifestation of a neurological condition that’s beyond their control. They are struggling in a world that doesn’t understand them and isn’t set up to support their needs. Believe it or not, their behavior, outbursts, and apparent defiance are not deliberate, and it’s not their fault!
Yet teachers also can’t reasonably be expected to know how to support kids who have ADHD without the necessary training to be able to understand their inner world or the tools to support each child.
Kosher ADHD teacher training empowers better educators
All good teachers are drawn to education because they want to teach, inspire, and guide students to learn and grow as people, in the classroom and in life. Time and energy expended on ineffective discipline instead of teaching just wears them down.
We want to empower teachers to upgrade their teaching ability. We want teachers to stay enthusiastic about the opportunity to teach and nurture children’s growth!
In Kosher ADHD workshops, your teachers can become:
- Less reactive, more patient, and understanding of ADHD.
- Empowered with straightforward out-of-the-box tools to address ADHD-related challenges.
- Equipped with resources for an effective response for challenging kids.
- Part of a community of support (no educator should walk this path alone).
- A more effective teacher!
Your teachers can move away from the “punitive leader” role to a “wise guide” role, supporting, encouraging, and empowering students to shine, despite their difficulties!
In the workshop, teachers become better at class management and respond more thoughtfully to challenging students. As a “wise guide,” teachers become more effective and spend less energy and time on discipline. Many teachers report that their class time is immeasurably more productive as they no longer need to engage in power struggles, instead using their time to actually teach and encourage the kids, enjoying watching them learn and flourish!
The results speak for themselves
The Kosher ADHD teacher training program has been shown to work, even in the most difficult of conditions. The workshop methods have been tested repeatedly, including in some of the most difficult classrooms with a mix of children with ADHD and difficult home life.
For your teachers, the workshop has the potential to uplift the morale of entire classrooms — students and educators — as the dynamic shifts to one of creativity, collaboration, and empowerment. When the teachers are equipped to support those who are most struggling, the entire ecosystem changes, and everyone benefits! School performance improves, teacher satisfaction and retention improves, and the feelings of parents become more positive.