Anger Management in Classrooms
April 15th, 2010 | 
Author: A school teacher wrote me the other day, asking about anger management in the classroom.
I referred him to my previous blog entitled “Anger Management in Schools,” as an introduction. (See previous blog entry dated April 10, 2010.) That represented a starting point for anger management, for individual students, for immediate short-term solutions in the “foreground” of the problem so to speak.
Here I would like to explore longer-term “background” solutions.
Longer-term solutions for anger management
All teachers and school counselors (and school principals) and students
should have the opportunity to read Dr. Merrill Harmin (2002),
“Strategies to Inspire Active Learning: Complete Handbook.“
When I was in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific islands
back at the start of the new millennium, nearly every teacher
and administrator had a copy of this vital handbook. Many
teachers had a copy on their desk for ready reference every
day in the classroom. It is for daily use, showing how to become
a better teacher right now, and tomorrow, not down the road
somewhere.
Many libraries had multiple copies as well.
In a future post, I’ll report on the effective learning-teaching
changes that came out of using Dr. Harmin in the classroom.
And the test scores on external examinations went up to boot.
The teachers would place on the walls of their classrooms
Dr. Harmin’s “TRUTH SIGNS” (from pages 49-51 in his book,
and practiced using them (not just let them hang on the wall).
More on these “TRUTH SIGNS” later.
Using Dr. Harmin’s suggestions lead to more dignity and mutual
respect in the classroom between teachers and students, and
between students, and less anger.
Dr.Harmin’s book (pages 5 and 6) shows a teacher what a
DESCA classroom looks/feels like and the rest of the book
shows the teachers how to help the students more and
more to develop themselves into a DESCA group of students,
students who have developed:
Dignity and respect for students (and teachers).
Energy that is at a good level, not too low and not too high.
Self-management and self-control for students (and teachers).
Community, where all students (and their teacher) work together
to learn, not just listen to the teacher lecturing; students help each
other learn in small groups of two or three; helps them learn to get
along with each other.
Awareness of self and others; “How am I doing?” thinks the student.
The whole book will transform the whole school if its inspiring strategies
are learned and practiced by teachers and students alike. (And of course
taught and encouraged by school principals and other administrators.)
Needless to say, one of the foundations is inspiring lessons taught by
inspired teachers, and taught by inspiring and active-learning students
as well.
Inspired strategies for active learning, practiced daily in the classroom
by teachers and students alike, reduces anger to almost zero.
The reason?
Everyone is actively engaged in the tasks at hand. Students feel more
worthwhile and more engaged in learning, more proactively involved
in their own present learning and their own future learning possibilities,
as opposed to simply reacting in anger to problems that present.
The students are even taught interpersonal and negotiation skills–
as an alternative to the use of violence–as a problem resolution pattern.
– Doc Meek, Inspired Learning Strategies Specialist
South Jordan, Utah, USA; and Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
P.S.
“Anger is the ultimate troublemaker. I feel you can express a strong disapproval or dislike of an object without losing your temper.”
– Dalai Lama
Posted in Learning Difficulties, learning solutions | 
Tags: active learning, anger management, brain rules, Doc Meek, school problems
