Behaviour Management? In her book Getting the Buggers to Behave , Sue Cowley (www.suecowley.co.uk) talks about many aspects leading to student misbehaviour. She describes the ‘Cardinal Sins’, unintentionally shown towards students, by some teachers. Possibly ALL teachers at some time or another (after all, you’re only human) .....
It’s easy to say that the golden rule is to be consistent, but there are days when the behaviour of your students might be getting the better of you, and you fall into the trap of behaving in a way which is incongruent with the behaviour you’d like to see.
This is especially true of life in secondary school and FE, where students will test you while they travel the bumpy...
ADHD and learning
The recent publicity around the blanket ban on fidget cubes and spinners to help in class at some schools has caused me to send a silent wave of sympathy to anyone who knows a learner with ADHD. Or in fact any young person who is fabulously wriggly for no particular reason in every given environment (but particularly the classroom).
The fidget cubes and spinners were designed to enable an outlet for restlessness (or boredom) which is often a side effect of ADHD. But the resultant ‘craze’ of these amongst school children, and subsequent ban, has been rather detrimental to those 6% of pupils who could really benefit from using them.
In January 2017 I wrote a blog An ADHD Agony – Fidgeting in Class which gave a short scenario of a real-life pupil who needs to fidget.
Research...
I regularly work with teachers and support staff around their use of positive language in behaviour management.
It’s human nature to berate, scold, or become exasperated when behaviour stops learning or when a seemingly innocuous event ends up on the disciplinary path.
Punishment isn’t the only tool in your classroom management toolbox. Calling for assistance, threatening with disciplinary action or pursuing an argument to the bitter end sets out a message that you are not in control. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that these must be the last resort rather than the first one, because many behaviours can be managed very well using simple verbal cues.
It’s what we could term high emotional intelligence. "Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others." This usually involves: ... the ability to manage your...
Here's a transcript of the video (if you aren't able to watch/listen)
Some things are really troubling me, because of a couple of articles I’ve read recently. It started with some data regarding the number of teachers leaving the profession, and recently an article in TES which said that a teacher had written in to say that as she “slumped on her computer she realised she couldn’t go on any more”.
That strikes a chord with me. I’m a teacher and I know how difficult it is, the way I developed my teaching career was a long slow burn but I loved every minute of it. The last several years were very full on.
What I know is that when I decided to leave and follow my path, I didn’t leave the education sector, I stayed with what I knew, the system that I love so much, and found a way to...