In all areas of society - higher education included - many people have the sense that incivility has escalated in both degree and frequency.  For those of us in the professoriate who have been here awhile, the change has been marked and it’s been difficult to reconcile for ourselves and our colleagues.

Considering the fact that students arrive in your classroom with increasing amounts of baggage–and varying levels of instruction and modeling about ‘civil’ behavior–you cannot expect your teaching to be immune from disruptive incidents. Although there are no guarantees nor foolproof preventative methods, it’s always wise to get to know your students and to let them get to know you.  Developing positive relationships is a first step toward staving off inappropriate behavior or being able to curtail it, should it become an issue.

But let’s just say that you have done everything you can to keep disruptive behavior from occurring - and yet it does anyway.  Common misbehaviors include loud and excessive talking, profane or defamatory language, physical invasion of others’ space, bringing in food containers and spreading them out as if sitting in a fast food restaurant, putting one’s head down to sleep, and the like.  In an increasingly accountability-minded and litigious society, you cannot fail to respond when students cross the line with you or with their fellow students. Not responding to unacceptable behavior from a student creates a hostile environment for other students, reduces the effectiveness of instruction, and detracts from your standing with students.

The following practices can become part of your toolkit for addressing such situations:

• Maintain your most professional stance and refrain from being angry, sarcastic, or accusatory.  If you sink to their level (or respond in a knee-jerk fashion to their inappropriate behavior, language, or attitudes, you end up making the situation far worse and the students may even support the student who is behaving badly rather than you.  However, when you stay poised, yet firm, you are likely to rally support from the other students.
• Confront students quietly outside of class.  Whenever possible, address the students who are misbehaving outside the earshot of other students.  In rare instances, you have to take a student to task in front of the whole class, but that should be avoided whenever possible.  You can speak to students after class (asking them to stay), you can call students out of class, or you can ask students to stop by your office.  First, give the students a chance to explain and/or save face.
• Go the extra mile to preserve the dignity of all concerned.  Assume the best until proven otherwise.  Students are reasonably fragile and their inappropriate behavior may be due to not knowing any better (incredible, but true).  Explain what the behavior is that you find unacceptable, give them the alternative that you’ll expect to see (and why), and treat them respectfully.
• Keep private issues private.  Inexperienced professors, especially those who are younger and/or those who want the students to ‘like’ them will often be sucked into sharing concerns about one student with another.  Be VERY wary of students who try to get you to talk about other students.  No one is served by this.  If you had a private conversation with a student about his/her behavior, keep it private.
• Document actions and words immediately, and inform those who have responsibility for student affairs.  Unfortunately, there are some situations that are far worse that clomping into the classroom late or using profane language in the heat of an argument with another student.  Some students are dangers to themselves and others.  Other times, there are behaviors that persist.  Whether the problem is the severity or the frequency, begin to document what is happening so that you have it later.  Just keep a note in your lecture notes or planner.  It’s not necessary to use specifics but it’s wise to have the beginning of a record.
• Refer students to campus support resources.  Some situations are far beyond your ability to handle.  Either refer out those students who need help that you can’t provide and/or contact the campus support centers yourself to find out what might be an appropriate next step.
• Let your department chair or other unit leader know about problems that are extreme or pervasive.  I only had a handful of situations over my 15 years of being a faculty member that I felt the need to tell my department chair about - and I was always glad I had.  One involved a student who was ultimately excluded from the program (as he had been from several other programs in other states).  Another involved a “student” who had been released from an institution (apparently too soon) and wasn’t even enrolled at the university.  I felt I was in over my head with both students and was glad to have an administrator’s support, especially as a young faculty member.

You and your students deserve open, positive, productive arenas for teaching and learning.  Keeping the behavior within the acceptable range is one key step.

Obtaining educational financial aid is a daunting enough task for the average college student who only has to be responsible for herself. How much more intimidating, then, will accomplishing the same task be for a single mother who, before she can even think about paying for college, must provide for both her own and her child’s (or children’s) basic needs? Fortunately, there is help to be found in single mother grants for college.

Before you attempt to tackle finding specific government grants, it may help to take a step back from your personal situation for a moment. Look at yourself as simply a current or prospective college student.

Realize that there are government grants for education for anyone who needs them, regardless of her background. For example, any undergraduate can receive Federal pell grants - currently up to $4371 per school year - based on financial need alone. The outlook doesn’t seem so bleak now that you realize that any single mother grants for college you obtain will serve as additional assistance to the minimum the federal government will allot you simply as a student with a certain level of financial need.

So, what specific study grants do exist and how do you obtain them? The power of the Internet makes finding financial resources much easier than it used to be. Start with a simple search for “single mother” and “financial assistance”, “financial aid”, or “college grants”, and you’ll be well on your way to finding the help you need in providing for you and your children’s future. Also try including the name of your state of residence in your search. For example, Arizona offers the Arizona Foundation for Women, which provides empowering opportunities to girls and women through grants that assist them in meeting their personal needs, including higher education.

Specifically, single mother grants for college can be acquired through the Helping Hands for Single Moms program that is funded in part by the Arizona Foundation for Women. Helping Hands for Single Moms not only provides financial aid, but helps single moms find affordable housing and also teaches money management through the guidance of a mentor. The goal is that through a combination of higher education and life skills such as financial literacy, single moms will acquire the lifelong ability to independently support themselves and their children.

Helping Hands for Single Moms is just one example of many programs that make it possible to find single mother grants for college. Plus, positively keep in mind that grants such as these are financial assistance in addition to that which you will receive first from the federal government. Rest assured that with perseverance, you can indeed achieve your dream of obtaining a college education and becoming a financially independent provider for yourself and your children. Louis Zhang, Singlemotherfinancialassistance dot com.

There is an abundance of teacher resources available to today’s modern teacher, so many so in fact that it can be daunting to wade through the sheer number of options presented. Let’s face it, publishing houses are not getting any smaller and are producing books at a record rate. Additionally, there is an innumerable amount of personal and professional teaching resources available on the Internet. To make things even more complicated you have traditional publishers creating online content, and online content producers striking deals to have their works published. At the end of the day it is one big hodgepodge of teach resources all fighting for your attention and classroom budget.

Classroom budgets aren’t getting any larger either, in fact they’re downright vanishing; making it all the more important for you to invest your limited resources in purchasing only the best teaching aids available. Ideally you want to turn to resources that are created by professionals from within the field of education. These folks have on-the-job training that is invaluable to the final end product. Consider this: who would you rather learn from? Someone who spent years studying the issues facing teachers, or someone who spent years actually facing those issues head-on.

How to Thrive and Survive in Your Classroom is a program created by three education professionals with years of experience in the field of teaching. These guys know their stuff, and have worked tirelessly to create a program that passes their experience on to you in an accessible and easy to follow way. Their learn at your own pace program is designed specifically for teachers on a hectic schedule who find themselves at a loss for managing and maintaining their classrooms. It is not so much reeducation as it is refining current education, and molding existing knowledge into a more useful paradigm.