Share an experience you had in dealing with a challenging student and how you handled the situation.
"It's funny that you ask this question because my internship brought me in front of a very challenging student within my first couple of weeks on the job. My internship was with a large hospital, and my supervising Health Educator threw me right into existing classroom sessions with patients. With one particular group, I presented managing life with diabetes and the effects that healthy living can have on the disease. As I started talking about healthy eating habits, I could tell that one younger man in the class had become disengaged by rolling his eyes at me. Not wanting to call him out in front of a large group, I approached him following the session and asked him bluntly why he had stopped paying attention during that part of the presentation. Point blankly, he told me that he wouldn't stop eating potato chips, pizza, and red meat completely. I explained to him that healthy eating habits aren't started overnight and that I thought his goal for the week should be to eat two completely healthy meals each day with one meal of his usual choice for the other. The following week, he told that he had done this successfully and would be working to get that cheater meal down to every other day for the coming week."
"In my current job, I spend a lot of time talking about a variety of health issues in schools with middle and high school-aged kids. Knowing that teenagers have attitudes because of my experience with my own children, I know that teenagers project a rough exterior to try and impress their friends but are often very vulnerable and looking for help on the inside. If I notice this happening in group classroom settings, I take time individually with students to meet one-on-one as I find it more helpful to the students. This was the case with a recent young man that was in my class on drug abuse. In the classroom setting, he was disruptive and not attentive. Following the class and noticing that he stuck around after the other kids have left, I asked if he wanted to talk with just me, and he said yes. Getting him one on one, he opened up that he was scared for his future, being that his friends were all abusers of both drugs and alcohol. After talking more, I had him prepared with ammo to both talk to his friends about their choices while being able to say no while still being their friend."
There is always that one student...the one that heckles you, mocks you, insists they've tried it all, and you couldn't possibly be the one that will change their ways. Share a brief story about a time you worked with a difficult student. Be sure to close with how you settled the situation and share what the two of you learned from it.
"I had a client that was in a group session for smoking cessation. The client had insisted that no one could help him with his nicotine addiction and that I wouldn't be any different. I talked to the client one on one and showed him that we would work through the struggles together despite his past. He was appreciative and started opening up more in the group. With his newfound positive attitude, I truly believe that he is bound to stop smoking soon."
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