Be Proactive: Including Students With Challenging Behavior in Your Classroom

Many teachers feel unprepared to deal with disruptive behavior and believe this substantially interferes with their teaching and their ability to successfully include children with disabilities (Schumm & Vaughn, 1995). In addition to the stress of dealing with never-ending piles of paperwork, working with challenging students may be one of the most salient reasons that teachers today are leaving the classroom in greater numbers than before. While stress-reducing activities such as regular exercise, pursuing hobbies, and seeking other employment are options that may be helpful to teachers in the long-term, the following strategies are suggested to help maintain a sense of humor and sanity on a day-to-day basis. BE PROACTIVE (see sidebar) includes strategies based on the premise that being proactive is more effective than responding after the fact.