Jeffrey Benson > Quotes

“Because teachers' work consists of affecting their students, they are dependent on their students both for the actual success of their work and evidence of that success”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Listening is a fundamental way to invite a child into the community. It is commonly said that listening is the cheapest concession you can make. In schools, adults listen, but mostly for the answers to our academic questions. We listen to determine what is right and wrong. We listen for opportunities to lecture.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Class, take 15 seconds to think of your answers. I will go around the room starting at Lindsay and everyone will have a chance to respond. When it is your time to answer, if you want to, you can say, "Pass." If you do so, that's OK. I will come back to you, and you can either give an idea you thought of or say an idea you heard from someone else that you agree with. Or a part of an idea you agree with. So in this way we will hear from everyone. Class, take 2 minutes to develop an answer to this question. You may write down some ideas in a list, in sentences, in images. I want you to go beyond the first ideas in your head. I will then call on you, one at a time. Class, this is a great question for everyone to consider. I think you need about 37 seconds on this one. I will tell you when that time is up, and then you should share your answer with the person sitting next to you. Then I am going to go around the room—this time, let's start with Andrew and go counterclockwise—and you have to tell us what your partner gave for an answer. So listen carefully. Class, here's the deal with answering this question. Everyone will have 20 seconds to consider. Then I am going to ask Eric and Liz their ideas. Then I will ask Jess and Matt to say if they agree or disagree with Eric and Liz. Then I will ask Jenny and Max to add any ideas or reactions. We will regularly do this: one group gives a first response, one group says if they agree, and the third group adds comments. Class, I am not asking you "Why did the Industrial Revolution begin?" but instead, "What are some of the reasons it began?" You can write a list or sentences. I will start this time with Danielle and have her say one reason. I'll write it on the board. Then Casey will give one reason. Then Eric. And we'll go around the room, collecting ideas, until we run out of them. That way, no one person gives all the answers for the group—everyone contributes. When we collect all the ideas, then I am going to have you work on your own to organize them into …. Class, JP just gave an answer to the question I asked before I could give you all time to think, so now I want you to consider his answer for 10 seconds. Then thumbs up if you agree with JP, thumbs down if you disagree, and thumbs sideways if you are not sure. Oh no, class, it happened again—this time Jeffrey answered the question before I gave you all time to think. So, it's "Fist to Five" time. Hold up a fist if you disagree, five fingers if you completely agree, and one to four fingers depending how much you agree. Let's see what we all really think, after 10 seconds. Class, this is a time I want to let the conversation flow more quickly than usual. There is only one thing you have to do before you give your ideas—you have to summarize as best you can what the person who spoke before you said. That way we know we are listening. Class, I have a question to ask that you will need a bunch of time to think about and organize your answers, and then we'll share them in some fashion. I put together this graphic organizer, which might help you get all the parts of the answer organized. You don't have to use it. You can sketch an answer, or write a list, or sentences. I am not playing "Guess what the teacher is thinking" here. The only right answer is what you are thinking, if it is organized enough for the rest of us to understand. Here goes….”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“What I offer in this book are stories of hanging in, the practice-based evidence from working with our most challenging students,”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“When children live in a persistent state of fear, the areas of their brains controlling the fear response can become overdeveloped. These parts of the brain may direct behavior even in situations in which it would be more appropriate for other parts of the brain to be in charge. It is important to note that the areas of the brain active in fearful states are different from those active in calm states, and it is predominantly the areas active in calm states that are required for academic learning….”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“For many people, writing is a way to clarify their thoughts and communicate their deepest understandings. For others, writing is a barrier to communicating, a seemingly endless gauntlet of rules and restrictions, a daunting maze of grammar and structures. For some challenging students, the expectation to write across the curriculum is overwhelming, not so much an invitation to share as a minefield to cross. The expectation to write and write and write provokes shutdowns and conflicts. For these students, we offered a writing plan with two significant goals: 1) allowing the student to continue to receive direct instruction to improve written output, and 2) allowing the student to demonstrate understanding across the curriculum in ways other than writing.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Through the years, I have seen the records of many challenging students who tested at low levels because they were suffering from the emotional overload of their lives. It is common to see false scores at the lower end. A student cannot accidentally stumble up into the "advanced" level of an assessment, but many suffering students tumble down into the lowest percentages.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Working as a team: No one effectively does the work of teaching challenging students alone for very long. Teachers and professional staff must have multiple venues to vent, ask for advice, brainstorm strategies, and celebrate successes.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“There is no way to overestimate the critical importance of adult teamwork and communication when we have challenging students like Toni. In isolation, teachers can feel like the last soldier on the battlefield, defending modern civilization against the potential chaos of a world filled with unruly teenagers. Toni was seen as one of those chaos-threatening students. She would often display her bad behavior in front of a lone teacher, provoking all of the consequences the adult had available. As a teacher once admitted to me when reflecting on his own emotional buildup and fear of losing control, which had propelled him to become more harshly punitive than he even expected he could be: "Not on my watch were we going to lose the battle!" When teachers have time to collaborate with each other and administrators, the metaphor of war can be put aside, and we can return to the boundless terrain of education.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Challenging students threaten staff unity. They expose our differences, often cultural and familial, in the areas of discipline and respect for institutions and traditional authority. These challenging students become our fears of the future. They are representing us in our own dramas regarding parents, siblings, teachers, and judges. This is why a student may evoke compassion and engagement in some teachers, yet other teachers may find him irritating and disrespectful.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“teachers hanging in with challenging students, such as Marcus, are not therapists, but we must behave as therapists; that is, we must provide an emotionally safe environment in which our students can become their best selves, intellectually and emotionally. We, the adults, are the most significant force for honesty and integrity in the classroom. We have to display a professional self that is authentic. This does not mean that we talk about our personal lives—we are not leading students, with details of our lives, into a friendship—but that we share our professional hopes, fears, and expectations with all the passion and sadness and sincerity in us. If we behave professionally so that students trust us and seek to relate to us, we offer them a path to find a healthy place for themselves in the less-than-ideal world the adults are bequeathing to them. Succinctly put, "Relationships are the means and ends to our development" (Nakkula & Toshalis, 2006, p. 95).”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“We want to help students maximize their strengths so they can hold jobs, pay taxes, and be happy. Watching students mature along that path is one of the great rewards of the profession.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Be available to cover for a teacher who is de-escalating a challenging student. It is symbolically very meaningful when an administrator offers to cover a class, for even three minutes, so that the teacher can complete a complex interaction with a challenging student. Designate other faculty that can also be tapped when the need arises.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“The sum total of a day in school should not be an overwhelming reminder of what students cannot do. Ensure that all students have a school adult or activity that connects them to their best possible selves.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“have now made adjustments for each of the weaknesses in my plans; finally, I am going to make that imaginary bet in my favor. I am excited to teach”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Katerina, do you ever watch a comedy show on TV? At the end of one of those 30-minute shows, the credits roll. About 75 people have worked on that show, and only sometimes the shows are funny. I am one man alone. Given the odds, you are lucky if you get a single chuckle out of me. You're lucky if I even make you smile.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“To work effectively with challenging students, teachers must spend a lot of time in lesson planning. Hidden in every typical set of class activities are trapdoors and land mines that can cause challenging students to disappear or explode.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Don't stop giving sincere compliments when the student seems to be rejecting you—you are being tested to see if you can hold up to a bit of rejection. Some students will reject you before you can reject them. Don't let their attitude change your attitude of appreciation. They have to know that you believe that they can be successful in the culture.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

“Students have the right to know our goals—all of them. Challenging students, who have experienced adults as unpredictably dangerous creatures roaming their landscapes, have earned the right to be suspicious of us. If these students are to try again, we have to be transparent in our efforts.”
― Jeffrey Benson, Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most