This session will be active and interactive. I'll share interesting and engaging content, and participants will share and talk together through partner chats and other interactive learning structures to process and share what they're learning with each other.
Introductions and Warm-Up (10 min.): After a brief personal introduction in which I share a highly compelling story about a former prickly student, participants will warm up with table/partner chats about kids who they consider porcupines. I'll then share the agenda and goals of the session so they can see how this session will apply to their work.
A Few Key Mindsets (5 min.): Before we dig into the "what" and the "how" of this session, it's important to help connect with teachers' "why". I'll share a few key mindsets teachers might adopt for this work to be most impactful. Teachers will share with each other about which of these mindsets they find most important and compelling.
Positive Relationships (15 min.): It’s so easy to say we need to form positive relationships with our challenging students, but what does that even mean? What exactly is a “positive” relationship? We’ll explore several practical strategies that all connect with four key research-based characteristics: warmth, demandingness, support, and empowerment. Participants will reflect and share with each other about which of these qualities are relative personal strengths and which they might want to work on.
Effective Discipline (15 min.): We’ll next explore several key classroom management strategies that are warm and demanding. We’ll specifically look at shifting common practices around praise, consequences, and rewards. Participants will share with each other about which of these shifts they might try in the coming year.
Engaging Academics (10 min.): Finally, we’ll explore a few simple and powerful ways to make learning more inclusive and engaging, so that kids who typically struggle in school can feel more competence, agency, and purpose in their work. Teachers will reflect on which of these they already do and which they might want to try.
Closing (5 min.): I'll offer some other resources educators might use (through a free online binder) to deepen their thinking and support their ongoing implementation. Participants will have one final partner chat about what they are looking forward to trying.
After this session, participants will be able to better understand why some students struggle with behavior in school and have practical tools and strategies to try. These include shifts in teacher language, classroom management strategies, and even a few academic shifts to consider. Participants will also gain access to a free online binder of resources to support their implementation and ongoing learning.
This talk is drawn primarily from my newest ASCD book (May, 2026): Hugging Porcupines.
Here are some other resources with which it connects:
Book: https://www.amazon.com/What-We-Say-How-Matter/dp/1416627049
Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416630333
LiveBinder: https://www.livebinders.com/b/2544484
Back
Trips and Tours
