Though I don’t like the headline, the Harvard Business Review article How to Work with Someone Who Creates Unnecessary Conflict provides good advice that can be adapted to the classroom.

I don’t think the suggestions in the article will come as any surprise to veteran teachers, but they are good reminders of how to respond to students who we might find challenging:

  • Identify common interests/values
  • Redirect energy (I suspect many of us have found success identifying a key classroom job or responsibility for a student to take)
  • Create (or, even better, co-create) rules to govern how conflicts are handled.

I’m adding this info to Best Posts On Classroom Management.