Tactful Teacher , livre ebook

Nomad Press - Yvonne Bender

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72 pages

English

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Description

By equipping teachers with the tools they need to communicate effectively with colleagues, parents, and administrators, this handbook prepares them to deal successfully with and understand the dynamics of a variety of work-related situations. Especially helpful for those new to the field, this guide teaches the skills to build effective communication, tailor messages to fit their recipients, and interact with difficult people and under pressure. Using specific scenarios, such as dealing with angry parents, sharing unpleasant information, or communicating in less-than-ideal school environments, different communication strategies, and why they work, are discussed in detail. Advice is also given on handling "The Social Addiction Trap" and those tricky "what's your opinion" questions with grace and aplomb.

Sujets

Teacher education

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Publié par	Nomad Press
Date de parution	28 octobre 2005
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781936313150
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0650€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Nomad Press
A division of Nomad Communications
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Copyright © 2005 by Nomad Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
The trademark "Nomad Press" and the Nomad Press logo are trademarks of Nomad Communications, Inc.
Printed in the United States.
ISBN: 0-9749344-3-7
Questions regarding the ordering of this book should be addressed to Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin St.
Chicago, IL 60610
Nomad Press
2456 Christian St.
White River Junction, VT 05001
www.nomadpress.net
Also by Yvonne Bender:
The Power of Positive Teaching: 35 Successful Strategies for Active,
Enthusiastic Classroom Participation
and
The New Teacher’s Handbook:
Practical Strategies & Techniques for Success in the Classroom
Acknowledgments
I wish to gratefully acknowledge the following people for their assistance in writing The Tactful Teacher:
Melanie Gaieski for many hours spent reading and reviewing, designing charts and forms, and offering advice on content and style.
Lauri Berkenkamp for editing that greatly improved the book.
Table of Contents
Part I: Building Effective Communication
Ten Strategies for Building Effective Communication
• Adjust Your Communication to Fit the Situation
• Follow Your School’s Chain of Command
• Open Lines of Communication
• Begin Positively
• Practice Active Listening
• Emphasize Areas of Agreement
• Be Willing to Compromise
• Respect Confidentiality
• Avoid Gossip
• End on a Positive Note
Part II: Tailoring Communication for a Perfect Fit
Communicating With Parents
Communicating With Administrators
Communicating With Colleagues
Communicating With the Community
Part III: Communicating With Difficult People
Communicating Effectively With Angry People
• Peeved Parent
• Annoyed Administrator
• Cranky Colleague.
• Crabby Custodian.
Communicating With Overly Controlling People
• Authoritarian Administrator
• Overly Helpful Parent
• Charmingly Assertive Colleague
Communicating Effectively With Apathetic People
• Lassez-Faire Administrator
• Uninvolved Parent
• Indifferent Colleague
Communicating Effectively With Anxious People
• Overly Protective Parent
• Indecisive Administrator
• Insecure Colleague
Part IV: Communicating Under Duress
Communicating Unpleasant Information
• To Parents
• To Administrators
• To Colleagues
Communicating in Less-Than-Ideal Circumstances
• In Impersonal Learning Environments
• In Cynical Environments
• In Fearful Environments
Appendix: Interpreting Non-Verbal Communication
• Body Language
• Detrimental Behavior
• Style of Dress
Introduction
As a beginning teacher many years ago, I was assigned a particularly challenging group of students. On my first day on the job, the assistant principal called me into his office and told me not to worry about student discipline problems: he strongly supported his teachers and if any students gave me a hard time, he would deal with them. I was new to teaching and determined to begin on the right foot. I spent long hours planning and preparing (what I believed to be) engaging lessons, but was unable to teach them because my students were so poorly behaved and uncooperative. After several futile attempts to get things under control on my own, I began sending the class troublemakers to my assistant principal, as he had told me I should, so he could deal with them.
Unfortunately, this strategy did not improve matters; rather, it made them worse. It wasn’t long before the assistant principal called me into his office and asked me to stop sending so many students to him.
"Ms. Bender," he said. "I suggest you start building a more positive rapport with your students. I want you to meet daily with Mr. X and Ms. Y, who are veterans of this school, to get a few practical pointers on how classroom management is really done."
I did as directed, miserable that I had misunderstood my assistant principal’s initial communication with me, and concerned that my teaching career was about to end before it actually began.
With the help and guidance of some kind colleagues, I made it through to the end of the year, and was even rewarded with a few, small teaching successes that inspired me to continue to a second year and eventually a long and satisfying teaching career.
This rocky beginning forced me to quickly master basic classroom management techniques, but equally important, it made me acutely aware of the problems that result from confusing communication. After my unpleasant experience with the assistant principal, I was much more sensitive to all of the communications of others, and thus more attuned to the exact meaning of those exchanges.
As I gained experience in the work world, I learned that good communication builds good public relations and good public relations are essential to successful teaching. Teachers with effective communication skills have more positive working relationships not only with their students, but also with parents, administrators, supervisors, resource personnel, and the community at large. More importantly, their highly effective communication skills help them resolve complex problems and avoid long-term difficulties that teachers with weaker communication skills often struggle to overcome.
When faced with angry parents, overly critical supervisors, autocratic administrators, less than helpful guidance counselors, or careless custodians, these tactful teachers employ strategies that keep the lines of communication open, the dialogue collegial, and help all concerned reach some measure of common agreement. They employ definite strategies to master the politics of difficult communication.
The Tactful Teacher contains many of these strategies and explains in detail how to implement them. These strategies are based on actual teaching experiences, and are explained in step-by-step detail. They provide effective, easily implemented solutions to vexing communication problems, and will help you communicate in a proactive, positive, and respectfully assertive fashion with those whose support and goodwill is essential to your teaching success even when the information you must communicate is unpleasant and difficult.
Part I
Building Effective Communication
P eople communicate both directly and indirectly. Most direct communication is intentional and includes what we choose to say, write, and do. When we teachers distribute guidelines for a research paper, review them with our students, and insist that they follow them, we are using direct communication.
In addition to direct communication we also communicate in indirect and unintentional ways through body language, facial expressions, and speech patterns. Most indirect communication is the result of long habit, personality traits, and social customs. It is unintentional and requires a concerted effort to control. The beginning teacher who repeatedly asks "okay?" when working with her class unintentionally communicates her lack of self-assurance to her students, inadvertently inviting them to question her authority. In order to communicate in a more authoritative manner, she must become aware of that particular speech mannerism and consciously work to change it.
Communication is often complicated by our inability to accurately interpret how others are communicating to us. Did the speaker or writer really say what we thought he said, and mean what we thought he meant? If we misinterpret and respond inappropriately we may create serious (and sometimes long-lasting) difficulties for others and ourselves. The way to prevent such misunderstandings is to understand and implement effective communication strategies.

WHEN BODY LANGUAGE SPEAKS, SEE WHAT IT’S SAYING
Inadvertent behaviors can, depending on the circumstances, communicate useful information about the people exhibiting them. People who sit facing away from a speaker with their arms and legs tightly crossed are often revealing resentment, anger, or discomfort, especially if the speaker is relating unpleasant information to them. Those who hang back during introductions at a back-to-school night, rejecting handshakes and avoiding eye contact, may be revealing shyness, social ineptitude, or distrustfulness, while those who violate their listeners’ personal space by standing within inches of them during a discussion about school policies are often revealing an in-your-face aggressiveness and belligerence. See the Appendix on page 131 for more information on interpreting nonverbal communication.
While all body language doesn’t necessarily have hidden meanings (people sometimes yawn only because they’re tired, not because they’re bored, or glance at their watches only because they want to know the time, not because they’re anxious for a meeting to end), some behaviors when viewed within certain contexts speak volumes about the people exhibiting them.

TEN STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
The following are some strategies you can use to make your communication skills more effective. Adjust your communication to fit the situation. Know and follow your school’s communication chain of command. Open lines of communication before problems start and work to keep them open. Begin positively. Practice active listening. Emphasize areas of agreement. Be willing to compromise. Respect confidentiality. Avoid gossip. End on a positive note.
1. Adjust Your Communication to Fit the Situation
Just as you modify your behavior to fit a setting and situation, you also modify the way you communicate to do the same. Your behavior and communication style, for example, are much different at an old friend’s birthday party than they are at a faculty meeting. At a birthday party they are informal and casual, at a faculty meeti