Students Who Drive You Crazy, Second Edition, provides educators with a model for assessing, understanding, and responding to their most challenging interactions at school, whether with students, parents, or colleagues. The book addresses some of the most difficult problems educators face today: gangs, violence, disrespect, addictions, verbal abuse, lack of motivation, and obtrusiveness. The author covers the kinds of conflicted relationships that occupy so much time and energy and that can often challenge an educator'sapersonal life as well as professional morale. In addition to synthesizing the theory and research on the subject of difficult student relationships, this resource presents interviews with practicing teachers, counselors, and school administrators and with current and former students were known to drive teachers crazy. All voices speak clearly about their sources of frustration and highlight the elements that made the greatest difference in overcoming obstacles. The updated edition features activities for professional development in each chapter to help readers extend and personalize the content; expanded discussion of the types of challenging student behaviours; additional tips for developing active listening skills to improve communication with students and parents; suggestions for creating caring communities in the classroom; a new section on dealing with aggressive and violent behaviour; information on understanding parent behaviour and suggestions for building positive connections with families; and additional tables and charts that summarize key points.
Author Biography:
Jeffrey A. Kottler is one of the most prolific authors in the fields of counseling, psychotherapy, and education, having written more than 90 books about a wide range of subjects. He has authored a dozen texts for counselors and therapists that are used in universities around the world and a dozen books each for practicing therapists and educators. Some of his most highly regarded works include Creative Breakthroughs in Therapy, The Mummy at the Dining Room Table: Eminent Therapists Reveal Their Most Unusual Cases and What They Teach Us About Human Behavior, Bad Therapy, The Client Who Changed Me, Divine Madness, Change: What Leads to Personal Transformation, Stories We’ve Heard, Stories We’ve Told: Life-Changing Narratives in Therapy and Everyday Life, and Therapy Over 50. He has been an educator for 40 years, having worked as a teacher, counselor, and therapist in preschool, middle school, mental health center, crisis center, nongovernmental organization, university, community college, private practice, and disaster relief settings. He has served as a Fulbright scholar and senior lecturer in Peru and Iceland, as well as worked as a visiting professor in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Nepal. He is professor of counseling at California State University, Fullerton.
Ellen Kottler, Ed.S., has been a teacher for over 30 years in public and private schools, alternative schools, adult education programs, and universities. She has worked in inner-city schools as well as in suburban and rural settings. She was a curriculum specialist in charge of secondary social studies and law-related education for one of the country’s largest school districts. Ellen is the author or coauthor of several books for educators, including Secrets for Secondary School Teachers: How to Succeed in Your First Year, On Being a Teacher, Secrets for Beginning Elementary School Teachers, Counseling Skills for Teachers, English Language Learners in Your Classroom: Strategies That Work, Secrets to Success for Science Teachers, and Students Who Drive You Crazy: Succeeding with Resistant, Unmotivated, and Otherwise Difficult Young People.
She teaches secondary education and supervises intern teachers at California State University, Fullerton.
