SWATCA 2025 - South Western Alberta Teachers' Convention

When good students suddenly “stop caring”, it’s shocking and disheartening for teachers and parents. No matter what anyone does to try to get them back on track, it seems impossible to motivate them to even try (or in some cases, even show up). From the outside, it looks like they got in with a bad crowd and are hijacking their academic career to fit in. Threats and punishments do little to pull them up from their free fall and often yield the opposite result: pushing them toward even riskier behaviour. Believe or not, even the so-called “lazy” kids secretly wish they were doing better in school. The problem is no amount of “shaming” them or their parents is going to get them care about school. So what then? Parenting coach and teen advocate, Aly Pain talks about what’s going on behind the lack of motivation and why traditional intervention methods don’t work. She discusses how the developing teenaged brain influences their ability to cope with stressors and how focusing on emotional support is the key to success. Key Take-Aways: · The Bad Kid/Bad Parent Myth – Aly busts the belief that if you could just get the parents to engage with their student, everything would be fine. The reality is most parents are doing everything they can think of to get their student to perform. · The Most Common Reasons WHY Good Students Go Bad – Aly shares what troubled teens and their parents tell her is behind the lack of motivation (and what teachers and parents can do about it). Spoiler alert: it’s not what you think. · How to Support Students and Engage the Parents – Aly discusses concrete strategies to support struggling students in school and how to engage parents to do the same at home.