February 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Does this sound familiar? The final moments of your lesson feel chaotic... unfinished, rushed work, students hovering by the door, mess everywhere, disruption, noise, and disorganisation leaving you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated?
If this sounds all too familiar, you are not alone. The good news is that with consistent, simple exit routines, you can transition out of your lesson calmly and purposefully without feeling like a bouncer at the door.
IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:
1. Why exit routines are essential:
Small, consistent steps at the end of a lesson do more than tidy up; they reinforce engagement, help wrap up the learning, and make classroom transitions less stressful.
2. My 3 non-negotiable exit routines:
- Self-reflection for early finishers – Teach students to ask, "Am I really done?" with an anchor chart that encourages independence and self-checking.
- Plenaries that stick – Wrap up the learning in a way that reinforces key concepts and expectations without falling into the trap of "death by plenary."
- The ‘row by row you go’ method – Use a clear, calm system for exiting the classroom that ensures it stays tidy and ready for the next group.
3. Practical tools to streamline your routines:
From self-reflection prompts to ready-to-go plenary resources, learn how to save time while keeping students engaged and ensuring smooth transitions.
When you embed these three routines into every lesson, you can:
✅ Reinforce behaviour and work expectations consistently
✅ Avoid the chaos that often accompanies lesson endings
✅ Create a calm, controlled environment that allows for smooth transitions
Ready to take the stress out of your lesson endings? Grab the resources mentioned in this episode inside The Behaviour Club or check out:
The Exit Routine Bundle: the-unteachables.com/exit
The Early Finishers Bundle: the-unteachables.com/earlyfinishers
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.
JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
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- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
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Connect with me:
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- Check out my website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the
Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not bouncers,
we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, fabulous teachers,welcome back to the Unteachables
podcast.
I am Claire.
I'm your host.
If you haven't listened to myvoice before, welcome.
It is so nice to have you here.
If you are a long-term listenerand you're back again, thank
you.
It's so nice to have you here.
If you are a long-term listenerand you're back again.
(01:04):
Thank you.
It's so nice to have you joinme.
This episode is going to be epic.
I am so excited for thisepisode, because my mantra for
the year I don't know if you'veheard me say it multiple times
by now that my goal is to helpas many of you as possible stop
crowd controlling in yourclassroom and start really truly
classroom managing in a waythat is intentional and
(01:25):
actionable and authentic andreally aligns with your values.
And this episode here is justthe epitome of stopping crowd
controlling in your classroomand it's all about exit routines
and how to really nail the lastkind of like five, 15 minutes
of the lesson.
So you're not standing by thedoor with students like hovering
(01:47):
around you pushing to get out,or you don't have a situation
where students in that last fiveminutes are just like it's a
free for all because there's nostructure.
You're not having a situationwhere you know students are just
running in and out or likescreeching off.
You know what that last fiveminutes can really get like.
And nothing in my classroomexperience has made me feel more
(02:12):
like a bouncer than being in aroom of 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds
who are standing by the doorsurrounding me like towering
over me, because my students arelike you, you know, once they
hit like year nine, year 10,they tower over me.
Nothing makes me feel more likea bouncer than standing by the
door five minutes before thelesson as they crowd around me,
(02:34):
feeling super helpless and justlike watching my clock saying oh
my gosh, please, belle, can youplease go?
Obviously, things are verydifferent now and my routines
and structures are in place,which is exactly what this
episode's about.
It is my three non-negotiableexit routines to make the final
15 or five, however long thatlast kind of bit of lesson goes
(02:58):
for, feel less like crowdcontrol and feel super calm,
super composed, super in controland just having students leave
the room really, really nicely,which is so much, so much better
than the alternative.
So a bunch of challenges doarise as the lesson starts to
(03:20):
come to an end.
So if you've got messeverywhere, if you've got that
door hover that I was talkingabout, if students are taking it
upon themselves to leave, ifyou've got students running
around, if there'sdisorganization like if there's
like completed like work ondesks that haven't been packed
away, or students are rushingtheir work to complete it, or
(03:42):
students are finishing adifferent time, so you know,
things get really messy in thatlast bit of the lesson.
So if any of those things arecausing friction, then this
episode is going to help.
It's all about having solidexit routines for those things
that you can use consistentlyevery lesson, like I'm talking
every lesson you're doing thesame thing, so students know
(04:03):
what to expect and I promise youit's going to help so immensely
.
So the first thing is, what isan exit routine?
It is just the consistent stepsyou follow at the end of a
lesson to transition out of thelesson and out of the room.
And for me, a really good exitroutine does three things it
(04:23):
reinforces expectations aroundengagement and behavior.
It wraps up the learning itselfin a way that's super
productive and meaningful and ithelps you feel more calm, helps
you feel more organized and youknow that kind of spreads into
how the students actually exitthe room.
It just does make the end ofthe lesson feel so much more
calm, controlled and less likeyou're a bouncer.
(04:45):
So here are my threenon-negotiable end of lesson
routines that really do kind ofput a spike in those challenges
that I spoke about before.
The first thing is a routine forwhen students finish that final
task early.
This is the time where thingscan very quickly slip into chaos
because they're finished.
(05:05):
The bell's not long off ringing.
So you need something thatreinforces your expectations
around that.
And when I say expectations,yes, I mean behavioral
expectations of how they areonce they've finished, but I
mean more.
So you know, I expect you tofinish your work to the best of
your ability.
I expect class time to beproductive time.
I expect you to really thinkabout the work that you're doing
(05:26):
.
So when a student finishes early, one of the routines I use is
the use of a self-reflectionanchor chart.
So the title I use I imagine abig chart up on the wall the
title at the top is are youreally finished?
And it has self-reflectionprompts on there like the
following.
The first I've asked for helpwhen I was confused.
(05:47):
So this is like the studentkind of asking themselves these
questions and going through thatself-reflection process.
So I've asked for help when Iwas confused.
And this one here just makesure that students haven't just
rushed through it becausethey're confused and haven't
really done anything about it.
The second is I've reread mywork to check for mistakes.
I've corrected any mistakesI've found.
I've ticked off the successcriteria.
(06:09):
I've put the date and my nameon the page, if that's relevant,
and I think this is my bestwork.
This is something that I give tostudents when they're finished
early or I have up on the wallto refer to so very quickly,
non-verbally.
I can either point to theanchor chart or give it to them
on their desk.
It consistently embeds thelanguage of reflection and it
hardwires that skill for them.
(06:31):
So remember it's a consistentroutine that we're using every
single lesson.
It encourages reflection andindependence in student learning
and it gives you your time back.
I always say the best thingsthat we can do in a classroom is
to try to remove ourselves asmuch as possible from actually
giving the instructions.
So routines, visuals, anythingthat we can embed that allows us
(06:54):
to just do something reallyquickly and then continue to,
you know, circulate around theroom and use our non-verbals and
you know, doing that is such areally important and fantastic
part of classroom management.
And on this anchor chart I alsoadd like a what's next section
that has a routine to follow,all about what to do once
they're finished that work.
So I do a couple of things likeand you can do whatever suits
(07:15):
your class, but I have like afolder of early finish tasks.
I have like a menu of tasksthey can kind of look at and
choose from.
I just do a bunch of differentthings depending on the context
of the class, but havingsomething for them to do after
that's already planned, alreadyprepped there's some options for
them gives them a bit ofautonomy.
It just takes, again, takes thetime and the pressure away from
(07:36):
students finishing earlybecause they've got something to
do and they're going to berunning around causing
disruption.
The second routine that I usefor the end of lessons is a
routine for wrapping up thelearning.
So using a plenary toconsolidate the learning, review
the objective, encouragereflection and consider the next
steps.
Yes, this is all teaching andlearning stuff, but it is also
(07:59):
just the perfect example of howeverything is interlinked and
classroom management is so muchmore than the behavior itself.
So plenaries are brilliant,proactive classroom management
tools because they first up,reinforce their expectations
around engagement.
Used as a routine, theyencourage work completion and
they send nonverbal messages ofyes, I give a crap about what
(08:21):
you do this lesson, I'm notgoing to allow you to sit at the
back and like, just be on yourphone or just doing work.
That's not your best work.
I am going to check your work,I am going to expect you to
reflect on this.
I am going to expect you tothink about the next steps and
how you can kind of up your gameand be better and do all the
things that I know you canachieve.
So all those non-verbals arereally important.
(08:42):
However, plenary fatigue is sucha real thing.
Once my principal gave me thisplenary resource and I had like,
honestly, he thought it was thebest thing ever and I'm not
going to name the resourcebecause he clearly just
downloaded it on a website forfree.
I'm sure if you were to Googleyou'd be able to find it, but he
(09:05):
thought it was the best thingever and it was going to help
his teachers so much and, youknow, save all this prep time.
But all it was was just like200 slides with pretty much the
same question written over andover and over again in different
ways, with just different modesthat students could complete
these plenaries in, but theywere like super unrealistic for
teachers to actually do inpractice.
(09:25):
So, like when you're finishinga lesson and you want students
to reflect on their learning,the last thing you want to do is
have a plenary task.
It takes 20 minutes andrequires a bunch of materials
you don't have to hand and willactually cause more chaos than
it will.
Just kind of settle studentsinto a task.
So things like create a model ofwhat you learn today or draw
something you learn today withno real like criteria around
(09:47):
what that looks like.
It's not explicit, it's notclear.
It just causes more confusion.
Act out what you learn today.
Create, like a you know, a fullpicture, bloody production with
three other people around, whatyou learned today, like it was
actually pathetic and I was sooff the idea about and he
(10:08):
brought this resource up so manytimes and he spoke about it in
meetings and it's classicticking the box of wanting just
to make sure people are doingplenaries but not really
understanding yourself what itlooks like to engage a class.
But anyway, so for students whodo struggle and, you know, for
(10:30):
classes that feel chaotic, theseare the worst things you could
do, for more reasons than I havetime to explain.
So just be mindful of that.
When it comes to plenaries, andif you're in the behavior club
this month, I have popped up aPowerPoint.
So I redid what that principlegave me and not redid.
I created something that wasfar, far, far, far better.
So if you're in the BehaviourClub, you have access to that.
It's a PowerPoint called whatdoor will we exit through today,
(10:53):
so there's 38 doors on thefirst slide.
You click on it and it takesyou to a new plenary that you
can use for that lesson.
These plenaries are all onesthat you can have students
complete individually.
They don't require anyadditional resources.
They're engaging.
They have a bit of novelty,which is always great for buy-in
.
So that is probably one of themost universally helpful
(11:16):
resources that I've ever createdfor all teachers.
So if you're in the BehaviourClub, make sure that you do not
sleep on that one.
You go and download thatimmediately and you start using
it for every single lesson thatyou teach.
It just takes so much of thepressure off.
As well as that, I've got 10print and go plenary slips that
you can just keep in your drawer, again with engaging plenaries
on them, just a bunch ofdifferent ways for students to
(11:39):
reflect and show how theyunderstood the lesson.
And I've got things liketraffic light posters and turn
it in tray labels.
So just if you're in thebehavior club, get in there and
download all of them.
Um, but at the end I'll speakabout it, but you can also just
grab that stuff separately.
If you head to the dash onteachablescom, forward slash,
exit.
I just want you to have all ofthe done for you resources.
If you want to invest, investin that, I want you to have
(12:01):
access to it because, again,plenary fatigue is a very real
thing.
And, um, plenaries, I don'twant to just like put out there
on the unteachables podcast thatthe plenaries are the best
thing in the world, but then yougo and do them and you're like
this actually sucks and mystudents hate them.
That's the last thing I'd want.
Okay, the third routine is aroutine for cleaning up and
(12:22):
exiting the room, because thesecond that bell goes, as I
mentioned in the intro, it canbe an absolute free for all.
So my routine for exiting theroom is called row by row, you
go, but you can call it whateveryou want, group by group, table
by table.
It's just the way that we cancommunicate the expectations of
(12:43):
packing up, waiting and exitingonly when instructed.
It's just about being reallyclear and consistent so they
know every single lesson.
You will dismiss them whenthey're standing behind their
chairs and everything's nice andtidy and things are calm.
I use my get ready, get set, goprocess to help me communicate
this.
So it's very clear every singletime what this sounds like is
(13:04):
I'll step through the get ready,get set, go.
So if you're saying get ready,it's okay, everybody, the bell
is going to go shortly and Iwill be asking you to clean up,
but wait for furtherinstructions.
Get set is giving explicit andclear instructions on what
success looks like for that.
So for this routine it would be.
I want you to pack up yourbooks, pick up any rubbish and
be standing behind your chair.
(13:24):
So I know you're done.
I'll also be looking for thetable.
Who have done all three ofthose things to go first.
And the go is any questions?
Great, let's get going.
And as students are cleaning upthe classroom, you're going to
be verbally reinforcing theexpectations and highlighting
what you want to see to keepthem on track.
So good work everybody.
Jenny's table over there isnearly finished.
(13:45):
Oh, bob's group over here.
There's still some paper on thefloor there.
Come on, let's get going.
And then the bell goes.
You pause.
Be sure students are payingattention.
Get into your credible teachingpersona.
Wonderful job.
James's row, you can head offfirst.
Looks like Jenny's group isready to go too.
Excellent, have a lovely lunch,penny.
Oh, your row still has a chairuntucked.
(14:05):
Let's get that in.
Fantastic Penny, your row cango.
So you're just really clear,really explicit about the exit
routine.
So you're not having everybodyrun out of the room at one time
and you're controlling theenergy in the room, like you are
influencing the way the energyis when they're walking out of
the classroom, and that rightthere is going to be a frigging
(14:27):
game changer for any of you whoare struggling with feeling like
a bouncer at the end of thelesson.
So those are my threenon-negotiables for my exit
routine and they all play areally important part of getting
to the end of the lesson in away that doesn't make me want to
hide in a corner away from thechaos or literally feel like I'm
crowd controlling standing bythe door while they hover around
(14:49):
and try to push on out past me.
And just to recap the threenon-negotiable exit routines
that I do have the first isthinking about what do they do
after they've finished thatfinal task.
So the self-reflection Thinkingabout what do they do after
they've finished that final task.
So the self-reflection settingup some tasks for them to do
once they've finished, so theycan kind of get on with it
without too much input from you,so you can continue to do the
(15:10):
work that you're doing in theroom, thinking about how you
wrap up the learning in a waythat reinforces your
expectations around taskcompletion and reflection and
growth.
So the plenary but just beingmindful of death by plenary and
how monotonous and boring theycan be that shouldn't just be a
ticker box thing.
Unless it's meaningful, weshouldn't be doing it.
And the third non-negotiablethat I use is the way they exit
(15:33):
the room.
So I use row by row.
You go, you can call itwhatever you want, it's just
exiting the room in a way that'scalm.
It leaves your environment tidyfor the next class, it sets the
next teacher up for asuccessful lesson because they
won't need to rechannel thatenergy that they ran out with.
So those are the three that Iwould always recommend people
having in their classroom.
And it's your exit routine,it's your context, it's your
(15:54):
students.
You have to choose what feelsgood and right for you as well.
Now, a little bit earlier, I didget super passionate about the
resources that I created insideof the behavior club.
This month, I completely nodoubt on the resources I create.
You can get all of those, ofcourse, inside the behavior club
along with the trainingteaching you explicitly how to
use them, or you can grab thoseresources in my exit routine
(16:17):
bundle, which has like a selectfew resources that can stand
alone.
This month's resources I'm notjoking are probably the most
universally helpful things I'veever put together for teachers.
Just the plenary doorsthemselves will take the
pressure off every single lessonand do so in a way that's going
to be really strategic and addimmense value to the learning
you're doing and to yourproactive classroom management
approach.
So, behavior clubbers, godownload them immediately and
(16:41):
start using them, or you canhead to the dash on
teachablescom forward slash,exit to see those resources for
yourself.
Make 2025 the year that youstop the door hover.
You are not a bouncer, you're ateacher, and you're a wonderful
one at that.
Thank you so much for joiningme this week and I look forward
to seeing you back here at thesame time next week.
(17:02):
Bye for now.
Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the
Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not bouncers,
we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, fabulous teachers,welcome back to the Unteachables
podcast.
I am Claire.
I'm your host.
If you haven't listened to myvoice before, welcome.
It is so nice to have you here.
If you are a long-term listenerand you're back again, thank
you.
It's so nice to have you here.
If you are a long-term listenerand you're back again.
(01:04):
Thank you.
It's so nice to have you joinme.
This episode is going to be epic.
I am so excited for thisepisode, because my mantra for
the year I don't know if you'veheard me say it multiple times
by now that my goal is to helpas many of you as possible stop
crowd controlling in yourclassroom and start really truly
classroom managing in a waythat is intentional and
(01:25):
actionable and authentic andreally aligns with your values.
And this episode here is justthe epitome of stopping crowd
controlling in your classroomand it's all about exit routines
and how to really nail the lastkind of like five, 15 minutes
of the lesson.
So you're not standing by thedoor with students like hovering
(01:47):
around you pushing to get out,or you don't have a situation
where students in that last fiveminutes are just like it's a
free for all because there's nostructure.
You're not having a situationwhere you know students are just
running in and out or likescreeching off.
You know what that last fiveminutes can really get like.
And nothing in my classroomexperience has made me feel more
(02:12):
like a bouncer than being in aroom of 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds
who are standing by the doorsurrounding me like towering
over me, because my students arelike you, you know, once they
hit like year nine, year 10,they tower over me.
Nothing makes me feel more likea bouncer than standing by the
door five minutes before thelesson as they crowd around me,
(02:34):
feeling super helpless and justlike watching my clock saying oh
my gosh, please, belle, can youplease go?
Obviously, things are verydifferent now and my routines
and structures are in place,which is exactly what this
episode's about.
It is my three non-negotiableexit routines to make the final
15 or five, however long thatlast kind of bit of lesson goes
(02:58):
for, feel less like crowdcontrol and feel super calm,
super composed, super in controland just having students leave
the room really, really nicely,which is so much, so much better
than the alternative.
So a bunch of challenges doarise as the lesson starts to
(03:20):
come to an end.
So if you've got messeverywhere, if you've got that
door hover that I was talkingabout, if students are taking it
upon themselves to leave, ifyou've got students running
around, if there'sdisorganization like if there's
like completed like work ondesks that haven't been packed
away, or students are rushingtheir work to complete it, or
(03:42):
students are finishing adifferent time, so you know,
things get really messy in thatlast bit of the lesson.
So if any of those things arecausing friction, then this
episode is going to help.
It's all about having solidexit routines for those things
that you can use consistentlyevery lesson, like I'm talking
every lesson you're doing thesame thing, so students know
(04:03):
what to expect and I promise youit's going to help so immensely
.
So the first thing is, what isan exit routine?
It is just the consistent stepsyou follow at the end of a
lesson to transition out of thelesson and out of the room.
And for me, a really good exitroutine does three things it
(04:23):
reinforces expectations aroundengagement and behavior.
It wraps up the learning itselfin a way that's super
productive and meaningful and ithelps you feel more calm, helps
you feel more organized and youknow that kind of spreads into
how the students actually exitthe room.
It just does make the end ofthe lesson feel so much more
calm, controlled and less likeyou're a bouncer.
(04:45):
So here are my threenon-negotiable end of lesson
routines that really do kind ofput a spike in those challenges
that I spoke about before.
The first thing is a routine forwhen students finish that final
task early.
This is the time where thingscan very quickly slip into chaos
because they're finished.
(05:05):
The bell's not long off ringing.
So you need something thatreinforces your expectations
around that.
And when I say expectations,yes, I mean behavioral
expectations of how they areonce they've finished, but I
mean more.
So you know, I expect you tofinish your work to the best of
your ability.
I expect class time to beproductive time.
I expect you to really thinkabout the work that you're doing
(05:26):
.
So when a student finishes early, one of the routines I use is
the use of a self-reflectionanchor chart.
So the title I use I imagine abig chart up on the wall the
title at the top is are youreally finished?
And it has self-reflectionprompts on there like the
following.
The first I've asked for helpwhen I was confused.
(05:47):
So this is like the studentkind of asking themselves these
questions and going through thatself-reflection process.
So I've asked for help when Iwas confused.
And this one here just makesure that students haven't just
rushed through it becausethey're confused and haven't
really done anything about it.
The second is I've reread mywork to check for mistakes.
I've corrected any mistakesI've found.
I've ticked off the successcriteria.
(06:09):
I've put the date and my nameon the page, if that's relevant,
and I think this is my bestwork.
This is something that I give tostudents when they're finished
early or I have up on the wallto refer to so very quickly,
non-verbally.
I can either point to theanchor chart or give it to them
on their desk.
It consistently embeds thelanguage of reflection and it
hardwires that skill for them.
(06:31):
So remember it's a consistentroutine that we're using every
single lesson.
It encourages reflection andindependence in student learning
and it gives you your time back.
I always say the best thingsthat we can do in a classroom is
to try to remove ourselves asmuch as possible from actually
giving the instructions.
So routines, visuals, anythingthat we can embed that allows us
(06:54):
to just do something reallyquickly and then continue to,
you know, circulate around theroom and use our non-verbals and
you know, doing that is such areally important and fantastic
part of classroom management.
And on this anchor chart I alsoadd like a what's next section
that has a routine to follow,all about what to do once
they're finished that work.
So I do a couple of things likeand you can do whatever suits
(07:15):
your class, but I have like afolder of early finish tasks.
I have like a menu of tasksthey can kind of look at and
choose from.
I just do a bunch of differentthings depending on the context
of the class, but havingsomething for them to do after
that's already planned, alreadyprepped there's some options for
them gives them a bit ofautonomy.
It just takes, again, takes thetime and the pressure away from
(07:36):
students finishing earlybecause they've got something to
do and they're going to berunning around causing
disruption.
The second routine that I usefor the end of lessons is a
routine for wrapping up thelearning.
So using a plenary toconsolidate the learning, review
the objective, encouragereflection and consider the next
steps.
Yes, this is all teaching andlearning stuff, but it is also
(07:59):
just the perfect example of howeverything is interlinked and
classroom management is so muchmore than the behavior itself.
So plenaries are brilliant,proactive classroom management
tools because they first up,reinforce their expectations
around engagement.
Used as a routine, theyencourage work completion and
they send nonverbal messages ofyes, I give a crap about what
(08:21):
you do this lesson, I'm notgoing to allow you to sit at the
back and like, just be on yourphone or just doing work.
That's not your best work.
I am going to check your work,I am going to expect you to
reflect on this.
I am going to expect you tothink about the next steps and
how you can kind of up your gameand be better and do all the
things that I know you canachieve.
So all those non-verbals arereally important.
(08:42):
However, plenary fatigue is sucha real thing.
Once my principal gave me thisplenary resource and I had like,
honestly, he thought it was thebest thing ever and I'm not
going to name the resourcebecause he clearly just
downloaded it on a website forfree.
I'm sure if you were to Googleyou'd be able to find it, but he
(09:05):
thought it was the best thingever and it was going to help
his teachers so much and, youknow, save all this prep time.
But all it was was just like200 slides with pretty much the
same question written over andover and over again in different
ways, with just different modesthat students could complete
these plenaries in, but theywere like super unrealistic for
teachers to actually do inpractice.
(09:25):
So, like when you're finishinga lesson and you want students
to reflect on their learning,the last thing you want to do is
have a plenary task.
It takes 20 minutes andrequires a bunch of materials
you don't have to hand and willactually cause more chaos than
it will.
Just kind of settle studentsinto a task.
So things like create a model ofwhat you learn today or draw
something you learn today withno real like criteria around
(09:47):
what that looks like.
It's not explicit, it's notclear.
It just causes more confusion.
Act out what you learn today.
Create, like a you know, a fullpicture, bloody production with
three other people around, whatyou learned today, like it was
actually pathetic and I was sooff the idea about and he
(10:08):
brought this resource up so manytimes and he spoke about it in
meetings and it's classicticking the box of wanting just
to make sure people are doingplenaries but not really
understanding yourself what itlooks like to engage a class.
But anyway, so for students whodo struggle and, you know, for
(10:30):
classes that feel chaotic, theseare the worst things you could
do, for more reasons than I havetime to explain.
So just be mindful of that.
When it comes to plenaries, andif you're in the behavior club
this month, I have popped up aPowerPoint.
So I redid what that principlegave me and not redid.
I created something that wasfar, far, far, far better.
So if you're in the BehaviourClub, you have access to that.
It's a PowerPoint called whatdoor will we exit through today,
(10:53):
so there's 38 doors on thefirst slide.
You click on it and it takesyou to a new plenary that you
can use for that lesson.
These plenaries are all onesthat you can have students
complete individually.
They don't require anyadditional resources.
They're engaging.
They have a bit of novelty,which is always great for buy-in
.
So that is probably one of themost universally helpful
(11:16):
resources that I've ever createdfor all teachers.
So if you're in the BehaviourClub, make sure that you do not
sleep on that one.
You go and download thatimmediately and you start using
it for every single lesson thatyou teach.
It just takes so much of thepressure off.
As well as that, I've got 10print and go plenary slips that
you can just keep in your drawer, again with engaging plenaries
on them, just a bunch ofdifferent ways for students to
(11:39):
reflect and show how theyunderstood the lesson.
And I've got things liketraffic light posters and turn
it in tray labels.
So just if you're in thebehavior club, get in there and
download all of them.
Um, but at the end I'll speakabout it, but you can also just
grab that stuff separately.
If you head to the dash onteachablescom, forward slash,
exit.
I just want you to have all ofthe done for you resources.
If you want to invest, investin that, I want you to have
(12:01):
access to it because, again,plenary fatigue is a very real
thing.
And, um, plenaries, I don'twant to just like put out there
on the unteachables podcast thatthe plenaries are the best
thing in the world, but then yougo and do them and you're like
this actually sucks and mystudents hate them.
That's the last thing I'd want.
Okay, the third routine is aroutine for cleaning up and
(12:22):
exiting the room, because thesecond that bell goes, as I
mentioned in the intro, it canbe an absolute free for all.
So my routine for exiting theroom is called row by row, you
go, but you can call it whateveryou want, group by group, table
by table.
It's just the way that we cancommunicate the expectations of
(12:43):
packing up, waiting and exitingonly when instructed.
It's just about being reallyclear and consistent so they
know every single lesson.
You will dismiss them whenthey're standing behind their
chairs and everything's nice andtidy and things are calm.
I use my get ready, get set, goprocess to help me communicate
this.
So it's very clear every singletime what this sounds like is
(13:04):
I'll step through the get ready,get set, go.
So if you're saying get ready,it's okay, everybody, the bell
is going to go shortly and Iwill be asking you to clean up,
but wait for furtherinstructions.
Get set is giving explicit andclear instructions on what
success looks like for that.
So for this routine it would be.
I want you to pack up yourbooks, pick up any rubbish and
be standing behind your chair.
(13:24):
So I know you're done.
I'll also be looking for thetable.
Who have done all three ofthose things to go first.
And the go is any questions?
Great, let's get going.
And as students are cleaning upthe classroom, you're going to
be verbally reinforcing theexpectations and highlighting
what you want to see to keepthem on track.
So good work everybody.
Jenny's table over there isnearly finished.
(13:45):
Oh, bob's group over here.
There's still some paper on thefloor there.
Come on, let's get going.
And then the bell goes.
You pause.
Be sure students are payingattention.
Get into your credible teachingpersona.
Wonderful job.
James's row, you can head offfirst.
Looks like Jenny's group isready to go too.
Excellent, have a lovely lunch,penny.
Oh, your row still has a chairuntucked.
(14:05):
Let's get that in.
Fantastic Penny, your row cango.
So you're just really clear,really explicit about the exit
routine.
So you're not having everybodyrun out of the room at one time
and you're controlling theenergy in the room, like you are
influencing the way the energyis when they're walking out of
the classroom, and that rightthere is going to be a frigging
(14:27):
game changer for any of you whoare struggling with feeling like
a bouncer at the end of thelesson.
So those are my threenon-negotiables for my exit
routine and they all play areally important part of getting
to the end of the lesson in away that doesn't make me want to
hide in a corner away from thechaos or literally feel like I'm
crowd controlling standing bythe door while they hover around
(14:49):
and try to push on out past me.
And just to recap the threenon-negotiable exit routines
that I do have the first isthinking about what do they do
after they've finished thatfinal task.
So the self-reflection Thinkingabout what do they do after
they've finished that final task.
So the self-reflection settingup some tasks for them to do
once they've finished, so theycan kind of get on with it
without too much input from you,so you can continue to do the
(15:10):
work that you're doing in theroom, thinking about how you
wrap up the learning in a waythat reinforces your
expectations around taskcompletion and reflection and
growth.
So the plenary but just beingmindful of death by plenary and
how monotonous and boring theycan be that shouldn't just be a
ticker box thing.
Unless it's meaningful, weshouldn't be doing it.
And the third non-negotiablethat I use is the way they exit
(15:33):
the room.
So I use row by row.
You go, you can call itwhatever you want, it's just
exiting the room in a way that'scalm.
It leaves your environment tidyfor the next class, it sets the
next teacher up for asuccessful lesson because they
won't need to rechannel thatenergy that they ran out with.
So those are the three that Iwould always recommend people
having in their classroom.
And it's your exit routine,it's your context, it's your
(15:54):
students.
You have to choose what feelsgood and right for you as well.
Now, a little bit earlier, I didget super passionate about the
resources that I created insideof the behavior club.
This month, I completely nodoubt on the resources I create.
You can get all of those, ofcourse, inside the behavior club
along with the trainingteaching you explicitly how to
use them, or you can grab thoseresources in my exit routine
(16:17):
bundle, which has like a selectfew resources that can stand
alone.
This month's resources I'm notjoking are probably the most
universally helpful things I'veever put together for teachers.
Just the plenary doorsthemselves will take the
pressure off every single lessonand do so in a way that's going
to be really strategic and addimmense value to the learning
you're doing and to yourproactive classroom management
approach.
So, behavior clubbers, godownload them immediately and
(16:41):
start using them, or you canhead to the dash on
teachablescom forward slash,exit to see those resources for
yourself.
Make 2025 the year that youstop the door hover.
You are not a bouncer, you're ateacher, and you're a wonderful
one at that.
Thank you so much for joiningme this week and I look forward
to seeing you back here at thesame time next week.
(17:02):
Bye for now.
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