Episode Transcript
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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, hello, welcome to theUnteachables podcast.
I'm Claire English, your host,and it is wonderful to have you
back here to support you withclassroom management, which is
very much an under-supportedarea of teaching.
(01:05):
So I'm very happy you're here.
So I can give you a fewpointers and I absolutely love
what we're going to be speakingabout today because it is the
actionable like what the hell doI do in this specific situation
, kind of stuff, because I'mgoing to do a few episodes that
are like kind of Q&A based orkind of things that have popped
(01:26):
up in my community or onInstagram or something where
someone's kind of gone ah, thisis happening in my classroom,
what the hell do I do about it?
So that is going to be what I'mgoing to be talking through
today.
One scenario that has popped upand this popped up a few weeks
ago in my Behavi Club communityand so many teachers were saying
my gosh, yes, help with thissituation.
(01:47):
It is the most frustratingthing.
It is so alarming or disarmingor whatever you want to call it,
like you know, throws yourconfidence.
So I really wanted to bring ithere on the podcast for anybody
who might need this too, becausemy BehaviClub has said that it
was very, very, very beneficial,and a lot of them have taken
this strategy into the classroomand seen some pretty immediate
(02:10):
results from that.
So here was the question Iwonder if anyone has any advice
on how to deal with students whobelieve that they have the
right to decide whether someonegets a sanction or, you know, a
punishment or a consequence,whatever you want to call it,
something that gets under myskin and more than low level
behaviors itself.
(02:30):
Is that one student tells meall of the time, miss, that
deserves a detention, or are younot going to tell them off for
that?
It feels like they're eitherdisrespecting me or don't trust
that I can handle the situation.
It seems to be the culture inmy school that students take it
upon themselves to offer theirown opinions on when sanctions
should be applied.
Oh, that is a big one and onethat definitely resonated with
(02:53):
me.
It has happened to me many timesin my career and there have
been many times where I've beenlike what the heck do I do about
this?
Because it's very frustrating.
It's like you know you'retrying so hard in that moment to
address the behavior in a waythat's calm, and you know like
you're doing your best to kindof put things in place, but then
there's students piping up and,you know, adding to the chaos
and adding to the noise, andit's just really overwhelming
(03:16):
and overstimulating sometimesfor that to be happening.
So if this sounds familiar, Iwould like to talk through how I
would deal with this.
But this is also something youcan apply to other behavior
situations, if it's notspecifically this, if it's
someone piping up about anythingand you really want to like
draw a boundary and draw a linethere in a way that is fair and
equitable and you're not comingacross as like a big, mean
(03:40):
teacher.
You're not coming across assomeone who's ready to, you know
, tarnish the relationshipsyou've had, like it's just a
really good boundary response tothis kind of behavior that will
give you more confidence andit'll make you feel like you're
in the driver's seat with it andit's just you with a really
strong, beautiful teachingpresence setting the boundaries
(04:01):
and drawing a line in the sandon this kind of stuff.
So what do we do to break thecycle?
Okay, this is something thatdoes seep into the culture.
I remember it happening in myclasses very early on.
It's very overwhelming,especially when it is happening.
You're also simultaneouslytrying to deal with the
challenging behavior that'spopped up.
So it just adds to the noiseand it can just be really tough.
(04:22):
It can really throw you and ifone student's saying that, then
the rest of them are stayingapart.
It's just hard.
It's really hard to deal with.
So you need something to breakthat culture.
You need something to kind ofdraw that line in the sand and
say this is what is acceptableand this is what's not
acceptable, and I find that awhole class reset does the trick
to do that.
By the way, if it's just anisolated incidence or it's just
(04:43):
one student, yes, you canapproach it individually and if
that's the case, you can have avery similar discussion with
them as what I'm about to modelfor a whole class discussion.
But it is really important thatif it's something that's
consistently happening or reallybuilt into the culture, that
you do do a whole class resetand even if there's a couple of
(05:03):
students, you can still do awhole class reset just to draw a
line in the sand and say thisis not appropriate, and this is
what we need to be doing fromnow on.
And this is not appropriate andthis is what we need to be
doing from now on, and this isthe expectation.
Okay, and it does alsoreinforce your behavior approach
and it is a really great way tobe living your expectations in
the day to day.
So have this chat If you wantto have this chat.
I find it really beneficial.
(05:24):
So here is the sample scriptthat I used with my behavior
clubbers and you can take thisand use this yourself.
You can adapt it to yourcontext.
So if you teach youngerstudents, you'll have to adapt
it to them.
But this is like kind of thebones of what you would say for
a whole class reset if this ishappening.
(05:46):
Okay, before we start the lessontoday, we need to talk about
something really important.
I'm the teacher.
If something is happening inthis room, it is my job to make
decisions that resolve that.
When I'm talking to a member ofthis class about their behavior
, you are going to see a verysmall part of the work that I do
.
I am going to respect everybodyhere enough to keep that as
(06:09):
private as possible.
It's not your job to decidewhat happens.
It's not your job to knoweverything that happens and it's
not appropriate to call outit's never appropriate to call
out what you think should happen.
I understand that you mighthave the best of intentions.
I understand that you mightwant things to be fair, but I
need you to trust that I amdealing with everything in the
(06:30):
most appropriate way possibleand you're never going to see
everything that happens.
So from now on, if you see meapproaching one of your
classmates about behavior, youwill not offer your opinion.
You're not going to comment.
You will allow me to do my joband you will do your job.
I'm going to give you 30seconds to think about that and
after that 30 seconds I'll getany questions from you that you
(06:52):
may have and then we're going toleave it as that.
Is that okay?
Yeah, okay, 30 seconds on theclock.
Then after the discussion, ifstudents do keep doing this,
I'll follow it up with eachindividual.
By the way, you can add thingsin the conversation, like, if
you see something that you thinkis unfair, if you think that
something is inequitable, pleasemake sure you do still come to
me and talk to me, but you cando that after the lesson in
(07:14):
private.
Like I'm more than happy tohave that discussion with you in
private, but it's notappropriate in the lesson.
So, making sure you're stillopening up those doors for
students to advocate for thingsthat they think are unfair, it's
only going to do things, it'sonly going to be great for
buy-in.
But what I do find withstudents that are, you know,
(07:36):
saying things in the middle ofthe lesson like, oh, miss,
that's unfair.
Oh, isn't he getting adetention?
Or blah, blah, blah, blah.
What I do find in thosesituations is that students
meeting their need for fun, forpower, for freedom, for all of
those things.
So it's not necessarily themadvocating for the right thing,
it's other things going on.
So still open the door forstudents to come to you if
they've got any concerns aboutthe way things are being run.
(07:56):
But in general, I woulddefinitely approach the
discussion in that way and youknow, if students do continue,
then make sure you're reallydrawing a line in the sand with
that.
You know you need to make sureyou're following through,
otherwise students are going tobe very quickly cottoning onto
the fact that you're not goingto stay firm in it and it's just
going to keep happening in thefuture.
So make sure you're havingthose one-to-one discussions.
(08:16):
Make sure, if this continues tohappen, you're talking to them,
making phone calls home ifnecessary.
But just make sure you'refollowing through and actually
taking it seriously.
Because what I find happenssometimes is we have these
discussions and they go reallywell and the students like, oh,
they mean business.
And then three weeks down theline it starts happening again
because they've started to liketest that boundary again, which
(08:39):
is what what kids do, like theyare built for boundary testing
and they're impulsive and allthose things.
So if they're testing thatboundary and they realize that,
oh okay, like you know, thatboundary isn't holding up, then
they will keep doing that andit's going to be harder next
time to do the whole class reset.
So making sure you're followingthrough in the best way
(09:00):
possible.
This is the perfect example ofthe approach that I teach.
You know, like we arecompassionate, we are kind, we
are driven by the most beautifulvalues and beliefs around our
students and I know that ifyou're listening to this podcast
, you are like me in that butthat does not mean that we can't
stand firm and credible withour expectations.
That doesn't mean that we can'thave serious conversations with
(09:22):
our students around behavior.
This does not mean that wedon't hold students accountable,
you know.
It just means that when we dohave these conversations, we
have far more buy-in with ourstudents because of all of the
work that we have done ininvesting about an approach that
is compassionate, kind andrestorative and trauma-informed
(09:53):
and all of those things.
Sometimes teachers can switchoff to that and go oh, it's a
weak approach, it's a softapproach.
It is not a soft approach.
It doesn't mean you're notstanding firm and strong in your
boundaries.
It actually just means thatyou're doing so in a way that is
going to get the maximum effectand buy in with your students.
And make sure you remember aswell that standing firm and
(10:15):
strong in your boundaries doesnot make you unkind, credible,
and being a credible teacher andbeing a strong teaching
presence in that moment when youreally need to be it, doesn't
equal unkind.
You just have to be reallymindful of your nonverbal cues.
You know, as I'm talking throughthat discussion with my
students, I'm not standing therelike yelling at them, I'm being
very calm, I'm being verymeasured.
(10:37):
I'm standing very credibly inthe classroom with my feet on
the floor.
You know, uh, weightdistribution evenly on both feet
, my shoulders down.
My facial expressions are quiteneutral.
I'm not going into that likekind of scary teacher mode
necessarily.
It's just like.
This is the situation, this iswhat's happening and this is how
(10:57):
we're moving on from here.
It is nothing that's going tosuggest to students that I'm
being unfair or unkind ornothing that's going to turn
them off coming to speak to meif they need to Also remember
that this kind of confidencedoesn't happen by accident.
If you're listening to thisepisode and going, oh my gosh,
like that sounds really good,but I just don't know if I have
the confidence to do that.
Practice it just practice,practice, practice.
(11:19):
That didn't happen for meovernight either.
You know like I wasn't havingconversations that sounded
really confident and reallycontrolled and really credible
when I started out with themodel that I teach.
It happens by practicing andhaving the right pathway to
follow and the right support andthe right experience.
I said it a few episodes ago,but there's literally nothing
different between you and I.
There's nothing special aboutme.
(11:40):
There's nothing outstandingabout me as a teacher.
It's just that I got the rightsupport and I've had the
experience and I've spent a lotof time hardwiring the things
that I've learned.
So please remember that there'snothing special about me.
There is nothing that you can'tdo that I do right now.
And if you're thinking, heck,yes, I would absolutely love to
(12:03):
have you as my mentor, claire,and to guide me through this
journey and to teach meeverything that you know.
I want to learn the classroomcompass method.
I want to be able to feelconfident in the classroom, to
be able to have theseconversations and just know what
to do when things pop up.
Right now, as we speak, doorsare open to the 2025 cohort of
the Classroom Management Lab.
This was formerly known as theThat'll Teach them course.
(12:25):
So if you've done That'll Teachthem, you've got the Classroom
Management Lab updates.
The, the classroom managementlab, is my eight week course, my
foundational, my absolutesignature course for guiding you
through my classroom compassmethod and I just walk you
through everything and teach youhow to reduce, respond to and
resolve behavior with the utmostconfidence and, you know, give
(12:46):
you those skills and thosestrategies.
So you aren't just wonderingwhat the hell do I do about this
kid, about this class, aboutthis, the culture that's
established in this room?
You'll know what to do becauseI'll guide you through it.
I'll be there, I'll help youthrough it and I absolutely
cannot wait to see you there andbe a mentor in your corner.
(13:07):
If you decide that theclassroom management lab is for
you in 2025.
I'll leave it there.
Thank you so much for joiningme today and I will see you at
the same time in the same placenext week on the Unteachables
podcast.
Take care.