It's only been 2 weeks, but so far I have had mediocre to poor results. My one 7th grade class, students who did not have me last year, have been more receptive to this new method than my other classes - all 8th graders that I taught social studies last year not using WBT. In fact, many of these older middle schoolers won't even do the class-yes or the teach-ok. They are VERY tough nuts to crack, so I am going right to the Industrial Strength leadership strategy.

Any suggestions on how to even get this started? Today some classes were so noisy and unruly that even brainstorming about positive leadership qualities proved impossible. Many teachers in this fairly troubled urban school use traditional tightly controlled strategies, but test scores have not improved. I haven't had much success either with control or academic issues lately, which is why I turned to WBT this year.

I'm hanging in there and NOT giving up, but this is definitely not "going by the book" Is there by chance a nuclear-strength version???????

Okay, here's the problem. Think of us as the doctors and you are the patient. We have some idea about what a cure would be, but if you don't follow our prescription, we're not sure what to do. The idea with the Industrial Strength method is to create suspense first with several days of posting signs about Mind Soccer ... BEFORE you have the discussion you've already had. With the toughest kids, like yours, you have to start very slowly, very carefully. Without observing your class, it's hard to give a suggestion ... but if you're getting absolutely nowhere, go back to traditional instruction and add, after awhile, the idea of 5 minute detentions as described in "Teaching Challenging Teens" ... and then maybe you can sneak back into Industrial Strength. We know this system works with very tough kids, but you have to follow the stages of the prescription!!!

I actually did post mind soccer signs for a few days, but no one asked about them. I will make them bigger and go back and re-read Teaching Challenging Teens, especially the part about the short detentions. I'm sure I just need more practice and experience in implementing these strategies. Thank you for your input.

Send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we can chat further ... thanks!