In the workshops I offer teachers about fostering student self-esteem, I pose the following questions: “Do you believe you have a long-lasting impact on the lives of your students? Five, ten, twenty years from now, will your students remember you or experiences from your class? And if so, what do you hope they will remember?”

The first step is for educators to recognize anxiety, as it presents itself in a variety of ways in the classroom. Here are some behaviors exhibited by students attempting to manage anxious feelings:

Actor and author Henry Winkler reminisces about how dyslexia impacted his school years in this article from Highlights for Children magazine. “Now I know,” he writes, “that even if a person learns differently, he or she can still be filled with greatness.”

Kids hate being nagged, don’t we all? My colleague and friend, Bob Brooks tells the story of a young boy whom Bob was counseling. The boy was reluctant to take his prescribed daily dose of Ritalin and this was a source of ongoing conflict between him and his Mom.

Because of their repeated failures in school, many LD kids are very sensitive to massive corrections of their written work. The sight of their compositions covered with red-penciled corrections, arrows, symbols and cross outs becomes a real morale buster for these kids.

Twentysomething Justin Lafond sheds light on growing up with ADHD.

We often label students according to their behavior-without knowing the essential cause for behavior such as “laziness,” “carelessness,” or “acting out.” Identifying the cause can be quite complex. This article explores the connections between learning disabilities and emotional problems.