The Unteachables Podcast

In this episode, I delve into the pivotal role of felt safety in classrooms. You'll learn how to craft a climate of felt safety that hushes unpredictability and amplifies familiarity, helping students to stay calm and regulated, ultimately reducing and mitigating disruptive behaviors.

One game changer when it comes to increasing this consistency, is the humble seating plan. 
 
It's more than just curbing ...

This week's "pillar" episode of The Unteachables Podcast explains the concepts at the core of my approach to classroom management; coregulation, regulation and dysregulation. 

I uncover how our survival instincts contribute to our emotional landscape and the implications it holds for teaching, and set the stage for future episodes where I delve into actionable classroom management underpinned by the need for...

Teachers, this episode I speak through the 5 mantras I use in my everyday practice to stay calm, stay connected, and ultimately, protect my peace!

I made this a quickie so you could return to this whenever you needed it as a bit of a pick me up. 

Write them down, pop them up on your wall, in your planner, on your desk, share with a teacher friend! Just have them in the forefront of your mind as you enter the schoo...

In this episode I speak to the incredible Robyn Gobbel, and when I say you’ll want to listen to this, you should really trust me on this one.

Robyn is a former therapist turned author, podcaster, educator, and community creator, supporting the grown-ups who care for kids with vulnerable nervous systems and big, baffling behaviors. Her work has been with children with histories of complex trauma, through which she takes a relational ...

Today, we're diving deep into a common saying in the behavior management world: "Behavior is communication." But let's be honest, it's so broad that it often leaves us wondering, "What are they really trying to tell us?" Well, in this episode, I've got you covered!

In this episode I will be:

• Unraveling the true meaning behind "Behavior is communication" and how it relate...

Once a mentor said something to me that changed the way I viewed teaching:

We teach students, not subjects.

I am an English teacher. I love English. I wanted students to love English as much as I did, to enjoy it, to be inspired by the concepts, to read a book and discuss it as a class and be thinking wow I was just transported into a dystopian land and I can see connections between that and out current society and wow mind...

I am sure I don't need to tell you this, but as a teacher, there is SO MUCH TO FREAKING DO! This is why some of the BIG questions I get asked from teachers, particularly newer teachers, is about things like prioritising, time management,  and how we can do allllll the things that are required of us.

The answer is simple.... We can't.

At least, we can't do everything well and still have a bit of ba...

On today's episode I dive into how our beliefs and assumptions about our students have a direct correlation with either their success, OR their failure.

These are the Pygmalion and Golem effects. The self-fulfilling prophesy.

The 1968 Rosenthal and Jacobson study concluded that when a teacher expects a student to excel, that student is more likely to perform well, while students who are expected to struggle or underper...

If you would like a printable cheat sheet of the steps found in this episode, click here.

Have you ever had to address comments from students that were homophobic, racist, misogynistic, ablest, or problematic in any other way?  If you're a teacher, it's likely the answer to that question is yes... Annnnd it only seems to be getting tougher. With male 'role models' in the social media space such as Andre...

In this episode of The Unteachables Podcast, I talk apologies, and the conundrum of forcing them. It feels like a knee-jerk reaction when a student has done something harmful... "What do you say?" or "Say sorry."

It makes sense why we do this. As the teacher we want to get to a resolution. We want to make things better! However simply forcing a student to say sorry is definitely not a solution to challe...

Join me in this week's episode of The Unteachables Podcast as I dive into the power of an actionable approach to restorative practice. Through this ep I will help you to discover how accountability, reflection, and restoration can transform those frustrating behaviour challenges into golden teaching opportunities.

Get ready for a refreshing approach that focuses on respect, support, collaboration, and meaningful discu...

In this episode, I take you on a mini pod journey as I unravel my tips for setting expectations with students. Join me as I explore:

- The drawbacks of traditional rules and the power of expectations in fostering collaboration and connection.

- Why expectations are more effective in gaining student buy-in and creating a productive learning environment.

- Practical strategies for effectively setting expectations, including dedicating e...

This episode is a BIG ONE!

The incredible Laura co-founder of The Kindness Curriculum visits the podcast to talk all things mindfulness (and beyond!) 

Listen in to hear us chat about...

• Why classroom management is all about regulation, not about just firefighting behaviours.
• What's the big deal with mindfulness?
• The complexities and barriers to using mindfulness in the classroom (hint... teaching is a bloody stressful...

"Have you ever experienced the quiet calm that sweeps over the room when you ask your students to copy the work off the board, write down definitions or do a word search?

If you teach students with social, emotional and mental health needs, I would almost
guarantee the answer to that is yes. When it comes to classroom compliance, this style of pedagogy works. Which is why it is no surprise that it is common practi...

On this week’s episode I get to have a chat with the incredible Danica, an educational mentor and consultant and the woman behind Little Bloom Consultancy. Through her work, she helps educators and parents transform how they support children’s behaviour and emotional development. Her work is firmly rooted in the values around teaching and respecting the whole human being, empathy, understanding.

We discuss a wide range of things, in...

Are you ready for an open house tour into That'll Teach 'Em?! 

13 years ago I stepped into the classroom with no confidence and no clue.

I was plonked into a chaotic classroom with 30 ‘unmanageable’ and ‘unteachable’ students

And then another, and another, year after year, and I had no option but to learn how to swim. It started with a little doggy paddle, and now I am on a pretty smooth freestyle, but it wasn’t an...

On this week's episode I am going to be talking about the entire narrative around behaviour management that is getting teachers stuck in PURE survival mode. It is a trap!

And what is the trap?

Seeing  behaviour management is solely that. Behaviour management.  Just about responding to and addressing behaviour.

It keeps teachers in a viscous never-ending cycle. Particularly with low level behaviours that can't neces...

Let’s talk about the fiction vs reality of Matilda’s MISS HONEY! 

She has inspired a generation of teachers. For so many she was actually the reason, the catalyst, the inspiration to get into the job of teaching. 

She was the saving grace to the kids she taught. She was generous, she was compassionate, she protected her students and their wellbeing from the incredibly punitive and nasty principal Ms Trunchbull, who used behaviour man...

In this episode, I answer the question, “aren’t we just excusing bad behaviour when we look into why it is happening?”

Why bother learning about behaviour? 

Afterall, whatever the reason behind it, it doesn’t change the fact that it IS happening and we need to address it all the same as teachers right? 

So why spend time learning about it?

Doesn’t learning about the why behind behaviour excuse th...