Check out my Brain Break Bundle!

As a secondary English teacher, I used to struggle with the idea of brain breaks. The pressure to get through content and prepare students for exams felt too overwhelming to justify stopping for “games.”

But my classroom culture was suffering. Students were stressed, disengaged, and burnt out—especially during heavy writing sessions leading up to exams. So I decided to try something different.

When I started embedding brain breaks into my lessons, I immediately saw positive shifts.

  • Students focused better and produced stronger writing.
  • Transitions became smoother because I could use movement-based games instead of battling student resistance.
  • Apathy decreased, and energy in the room improved.
  • Rapport and community strengthened as brain breaks became a consistent, positive routine.

The result? Better engagement, improved learning, and a classroom that felt lighter, happier, and more productive.

Listen in as I discuss:

  • Why brain breaks matter in secondary classrooms. Overcoming the pressure to “just keep going.”
  • Three types of brain breaks you can use today. Upregulation, downregulation, and movement-based games.
  • How brain breaks improve engagement, learning, and classroom culture. Small shifts that make a big impact.

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

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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 dancers, 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 there.
Welcome to the Anteater Girlspodcast.
If you're a newbie, if you'rejust tuning in for the first
time, welcome.
I'm Claire, I'm your host and Ihope you get so much from this
episode.
And if you're a long timelistener, then welcome back.

(01:04):
It is so lovely to have youhere today.
I am talking about brain breaks.
I'm talking about my favoritebrain breaks and when I use them
, I actually really struggledwith the idea of brain breaks
throughout my career.
I'm a secondary English teacherand because of the pressures
the constant pressure of gettingthrough content and getting

(01:25):
students exam ready, I justdidn't want to waste time doing
things that weren't going todirectly impact the learning in
the room.
And my classroom culture wascrap.
My students were stressed.
I just felt like this sense ofdisconnection with my students
and between my students andthere was no sense of like
community.
There was no joy, there was no,I don't know, there was no

(01:48):
light in the room and I justfelt like it was just.
It was just constantly trudgingalong through the mud, you know
, just trying to get from onelesson to the other or trying to
get through content or tryingto get writing out of them, and
it was just this constant pushand it was so stressful.
And then there was oneparticular day we were doing

(02:09):
heavy writing work in the leadup to the exams and I looked
around and I'm like everyone isso burnt out.
Everyone is like they were justkind of looking at their books
and their writing was, you know,really poor compared to what
their capabilities were, and Iwas like, okay, this is
something that needs to change.

(02:29):
So I decided to stop and Idecided to get them up out of
their chairs and I started to dolike I just played a really
silly.
I think I played like headsdown, thumbs up with them or
something, because that's theonly game in my head that I
could think of at that moment,cause that's a game that I used
to play when I was at school, inprimary school, and I used to
be school and these were year 11students.
But I'm like stuff, this, I'mgoing to get them up and I'm
going to have a little bit offun with them.

(02:50):
We're going to get them movingand we're going to see if we can
get some of that energyshifting, because what's
happening right now is notworking.
You can tell I'm an Englishteacher, can't you?
What's doing?
So when I did that, there wereimmediate positive shifts with
my class, and when I thenstarted to do it consistently,
it was so, so powerful.

(03:10):
The things that I recognizedpretty immediately is that
students were focusing better.
I got way better writing out ofthem.
In the time that we spent Thenfor other classes, I was
realizing that I was able tochannel the chaotic energy in a
way that had more novelty andmore buy-in, and often without
the students even realizing Iwas trying to get them back to

(03:31):
their seats and trying to getthem engaged, and I realized
that I could either spend 10minutes telling them to sit back
down in their chairs and getstarted stressing myself out, or
I could play a three-minuterock paper scissors battle and
get students sitting down asthey lost, getting them
re-engaged and getting themready for the next thing.
So I realized that this was asuperpower that I could use to

(03:53):
get buy-in, to have novelty, togive them a break, but then also
just to get the best out ofthem.
I was struggling with a lot ofteenage apathy and this was a
way for me to break through thatand get some energy back into
the room, some life back intothe room, and get them really
wanting to work.
I was able to develop rapportconsistently and realize
community building wasn't justan icebreaker at the start of

(04:13):
the year, and I'm such a bigadvocate for this.
You cannot just do an icebreakerat the start of the year and
expect people to feel vulnerableand feel happy and feel
connected and feel like they'reable to take risks in your
classroom.
It is a day-to-day commitment.
It doesn't have to take a lotof time, but it is an ongoing
commitment to community buildingin your classroom.
Whether you teach primary whichis wonderful because you're

(04:36):
able to do that on a wider scale, like you see these kids day in
, day out but as a secondaryteacher, it might just be two,
three, five minutes every singleweek, but it's a constant
commitment to that communitybuilding.
So, all in all, when I startedto do brain breaks, the results
were better.
Their learning was better, theylistened more, they had more

(04:56):
buy-in.
The community became morepositive and students were
actually happy coming to class.
They'd walk into the lesson hey, miss, give me a fist bump.
They'd be so excited to getstarted.
Not always, obviously.
There's not like some utopianland where you know it, not
always, obviously.
There's not like some utopianland where you know everyone all
of a sudden wants to studyShakespeare.
You know like it's not thateasy, but it was so, so, so much

(05:19):
better and so much easier andso much lighter going into class
every single day.
So if you want to make brainbreaks something that you do in
your classroom and do it reallywell and do it in a way that
doesn't feel like you're takingtime away from really crucial
learning.
That's obviously a big thing,especially if you've got senior
leadership that are putting thepressure on a lot and don't

(05:40):
really want you to give time tothis stuff.
This is the stuff that I useand it really doesn't take that
long.
Before I go into this as well,just remember to read the room
and just do what feels good foryou at the time and right for
you at the time.
Reading the room is a skillthat you cannot discount.
Okay, so these are three thingsthat I do.
In my toolbox I have a big listof whole class games that I use

(06:03):
when I need to upregulate theenergy in the room or when I
want to redirect the energy andpress that reset button and be
able to get students back ontrack.
So the first thing is, when myyear 10s come in or my year 11s
come in and they're reallyapathetic and tired and the
energy is like super low andthey just want to put their
heads down, I'll get them up,I'll get them moving and I might

(06:25):
do a rock paper scissors battleto get them up and moving and
to get that energy flowing andto get them talking and moving.
And to get that energy flowingand to get them talking and and
really starting to shift thatenergy from low and tired to.
You know, we're all of a suddenimplementing movement and we're
getting them talking and we'regetting them excited.
So when they sit back down intheir chairs and the winner is

(06:45):
crowned, uh, and you can do funthings with this as well.
Like, just give it a little bitof novelty and it literally
takes three minutes.
By the time they sit in theirchair, they're more engaged.
They've been moving, they'vebeen engaging in something.
So it makes it so much easierto then use that energy and
focus that energy on what youwant them to be doing for that

(07:06):
lesson.
The second thing is, if I justsay I have my year eights and
I'm struggling to get them tolisten, I'm struggling to get
them to follow instructions andthey're just chatty and they're
loud, I might play a game offrom this same whole class games
list.
By the way, this list is justmy bread and butter.
I can't do anything without mygames.
As a supply teacher a casualteacher as well it is just

(07:29):
brilliant to have these up yoursleeve in any circumstances,
really.
So if my students are chatty,they're loud, I'm struggling to
get them to listen and followinstructions.
I might play a game of count to20.
So in this game, students needto take turns saying a number
and counting up to 20.
But if they speak at the sametime they have to go back to the

(07:49):
start.
So they have to as a team, as aclass team, they have to reach
20.
But if they talk over eachother, if two students say the
number at the same time, theyhave to go back to the start.
It can get very frustrating,but it can be a lot of fun and
it's always such a big hit withstudents.
This is a great one becauseinstead of pushing crap uphill,

(08:12):
trying to force them to sit andlisten, this game naturally
lends itself to studentslistening and engaging.
Then, when the game is over, Ican calmly and credibly
transition into teacher-ledinstruction through all of my
credible non-verbal bodylanguage that I can use in my
teacher presence.
So really thinking about howyou can confidently use these

(08:35):
games, confidently use brainbreaks to then transition into
learning in a way that works foryou Reading the room, playing
to your strengths.
I also have really specificbrain breaks for downregulation,
such as gratitude tasks.
Where they have promptquestions around gratitude and
mindfulness.
They can sit there and do thatfor three minutes.

(08:55):
I use three minute meditationvideos.
I use calming music.
I might get them to do abreathing exercise as a group
just something that is a fewminutes long, that resets things
.
So I always just keep like acheat sheet in my Google drive
of links to YouTube videos thatI find really helpful with
students, whether it's ameditation, whether it's a

(09:15):
breathing exercise, whether it'slike a bit of a stretching,
like a yoga or something like achair yoga or anything that I
think is going to help withdownregulation With prompt
questions.
Around gratitude, if you're inthe behavior club, I have got a
gratitude bundle there that hastask cards and it has like
conversation cards.

(09:36):
It has a bunch of differentresources that are perfect for
using for a five minute downregulation brain break.
So if you're in the behaviorclub, go in there, go into the
resource section, go into yourbundle.
I'll give you the informationin the show notes anyway, or you
can just pop into the communityand ask me where they are and I
can post it in there.
But yeah, just brilliant thingsfor down regulation during a

(10:00):
five minute brain break.
Then the third kind of brainbreak I use are question based
games like would you rather,because I can then incorporate
movement.
I can then incorporate a bit ofdiscussion.
I might have students standingand sitting, depending on their
answers, I might have them goingto opposite sides of the room,
depending on their answers, orhands up, hands down, just

(10:20):
whatever I feel like isappropriate in the moment to get
them kind of like moving ortalking or like just engaging,
whatever I feel like is neededat that moment for them to then
refocus on their learning.
It is always a bit of fun, it'sa bit of and, honestly, you can
just use one question in thelesson to have a micro brain
break between sessions, likemaybe it's you're transitioning

(10:43):
from a group activity to anindependent task and you just
feel like they need something toyou know, split up those two
tasks, just do one single wouldyou rather question you know,
like something really reallysimple, um, and that's a micro
brain break community building,you know, movement, a bit of a
laugh, a bit of a chat and thenstraight back onto the next

(11:04):
activity.
So just having a list in frontof you of some would you rather
questions is great, even justGoogle it to say would you
rather questions and you can geta bunch that come up.
Um, so just give it a go andembed a brain break into your
lesson this week, even if it'sjust one small thing, you know.
So, whether it's a game of rockpaper scissors, whether it's

(11:25):
the count to 20, whether it'ssomething that helps with
downregulation, like a bit ofbreathing, mindfulness, chair
yoga, a bit of gratitude,whether it is, you know, know, a
couple of would you ratherquestions or something like that
, just give it a go and if youneed more ideas, you can
download my free list of games.
So those games I spoke about inthat first point, I've got a

(11:48):
list of 13 whole class prep freegames that are honestly just
such a must have in my classroom.
So you can just I'll put thelink in the show notes, but you
can just head to the dash onteachablescom, forward slash
games, and that's just a freeresource that you can download
and just keep in your folder orkeep in your diary, and that's
there for you If you need topull something out of the bag

(12:10):
for just a really quick brainbreak.
Um, or, better yet, if you're inthe behavior club and you go to
the resource section, you havemore engaging brain breaks in
there than you would ever knowwhat to do with for years and
years and years.
So heaps of slides, heaps ofgames, heaps of tasks cards,
cards like just gratitude cards,mindfulness links and so much

(12:32):
more.
And if you're not in the club,I'll pop the link to either join
the club to grab that or thelink to just grab those brain
breaks separately as a bundle inthe show notes for you.
And that is a resource thatwill just pay off year on year
on year on year.
It definitely has for me andit's something that I've
developed over many years in myown teaching practice and stuff.

(12:52):
That is just.
It's just transformative whenyou're able to read the room and
you have a bunch of resourcesat hand that you can go.
Okay, right now I know my classis not going to engage with what
I've got in front of me, so I'mgoing to have to just change my
tact and throw something in themix.
It's going to get them moreengaged.
It is just magic to be able todo that.
Okay, wonderful teachers, Iwill stop nerding out on brain

(13:13):
breaks now and let you get onwith your week.
I'm sure you have plenty ofthings to get on with, and I
will see you at the same time,in the same place, next week.
Bye for now.

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