How to Deal with Difficult Students: The Ultimate Guide (Part 3)

How to Deal with Difficult Students: The Ultimate Guide (Part 3)

This week I began a 3-part series that began with major categories of difficult students followed by preventative steps for managing those kinds of students. On the rare occasion it is needed, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Image via Flickr by stevendepolo

I consider these tricks for dealing with difficult students a last resort. Because I am generally effective managing the classroom through preventative measures, I rarely have a need for these tactics. But do not doubt it, I have used each one of these at least once.

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Leadership lessons come from surprising sources sometimes. Like, totally.

Leadership lessons come from surprising sources sometimes. Like, totally.

I love movies – lots of movies – but I particularly enjoy a “surprise” movie. A surprise movie is that movie you decide to go see because a friend wants to see it or the one you watch because there is nothing else on and you feel like vegging out on the couch. You expect it to be bad, or just okay, and then it turns out that it is really good. I felt that way about Legally Blonde. What could have been a completely ridiculous movie was surprisingly good. But I particularly loved the smart character of Elle Woods — everything you expect plus a whole lot you don’t expect!

As I was reading an article today on the Harvard Business Review blog I realized what great leadership skills Elle actually displayed throughout the movie. The pink-wearing, perky blonde is not our typical image of strong leadership, but read on and I think you might agree that we should all aspire to be a bit more like Elle; she’s an excellent example of strong leadership.

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