One thing nobody tells you before you step into a classroom is just how much behaviour will challenge you. Not just your strategies. You. Your nervous system. Your confidence. Your sense of self.
In this episode, I’m talking about what it really feels like to manage behaviour in the moment – especially when you’re young, new, or not naturally loud or assertive. And I’ll walk you through some of the exact strategies I used to build confidence in my classroom management without changing who I am.
IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:
- Why behaviour hits us so hard (and what nobody prepares us for)
- How to feel confident even if you’re quiet, calm, or brand new
- The 3 non-verbal strategies that completely shift your presence
- How to “embody the credible” and model calm, consistent leadership
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
- Join The Behaviour Club
- My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
- Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'
Connect with me:
- Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
- 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.
G'day wonderful teachers.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire, and ifyou're here for the first time,
what we do over on theUnteachables podcast is just go
through some classroommanagement stuff.
(01:05):
It's pretty simple, but nobodydoes it, nobody teaches us these
things.
So that is what I do here onthe podcast and I am so happy to
have you here, and in today'sepisode I'm going to be guiding
you through how to stand talland confident in front of a
class, even in the midst of sometough as hell behaviors.
(01:27):
One thing right that nobodytells you before you walk into a
classroom for the first time ishow much behavior is going to
challenge you.
They don't just don't tell youthat.
They don't tell you how muchit's going to trigger you,
challenge you, how hard it'sgoing to be to self-regulate,
how you'll be walking out ofthat classroom of a really tough
lesson and you'll just bequestioning yourself and your
(01:48):
abilities and everything.
It's just nobody teaches youthat, nobody tells you that,
nobody prepares you for that.
I don't think anybody, even ifthey did tell you that, I don't
think anybody could trulyprepare you for the feelings,
the heaviness that comes withwalking out of a classroom that
you have felt has just walkedall over you, or just you know,
(02:09):
oh, they didn't care about thelesson, they just spoke over me,
they threw their paper around,they threw their work around.
They didn't do it, they didn'tcomplete their work.
You know, like all of thosethings, no one really prepares
you and nobody can prepare youfor how demoralizing and how
challenging that can feel whenyou are preparing to start
(02:30):
teaching.
I feel like behavior is almostspoken about, like as this
external thing to us.
You know like that studentbehaves and then you know the
student does X and then we do Y.
But there's this space betweenthe X and the Y and it's how it
makes us feel, how it triggersour nervous system, how it can
diminish our confidence and howit can make us feel like we're
(02:51):
not good enough and how we canfeel just totally out of control
.
That's what happens in thatspace between X and Y.
So it's not like that behaviorhappens and then we do this in
response.
It's like that behavior happensand then we go on this
rollercoaster if we're notconfident and don't feel capable
and aren't prepared for it,before we even get to that why?
And that really does impact theway we respond?
(03:14):
Because we go into ourclassroom with our nervous
systems already wired for fight,flight and freeze, like we feel
out of control.
So our nervous systems arewired because in a classroom of
30 students, we know that we arejust one behavior away from
feeling all those feelings, fromlosing it, from feeling
disempowered publicly, maybefeeling embarrassed publicly.
(03:34):
You know, when I startedteaching I was 21 years old and
I was teaching a year 12 class,which meant I was 21 years old
and some of those students wereturning 18 that year, so we
weren't that too far off in age.
Like some of those students Iwould have gone to school with
and been friends with, like Ididn't teach in an area that I
grew up in, luckily, I mean, Idid, but not in the same suburb,
(03:57):
so obviously I didn't knowthose students.
I didn't go to the same schoolas those students.
I didn't operate in the samecircles as those students.
But what I'm saying is that wecould have we definitely could
have Having confidence to beable to approach behaviors of
students in a class.
Does not come like that, doesnot come naturally, does not.
(04:18):
Isn't something that we canreally prepare for?
Like that was freaking tough.
How do you have authority inthat situation?
How do you have authority inthat situation?
How do you establishcredibility in that situation?
But you know that feeling oftrying to approach challenging
behavior in a lesson when youhave spectators who are ready to
jump in or start acting inchallenging ways themselves.
You know it's just.
It's just not something thatyou can explain to somebody who
(04:41):
has not been a teacher and maybethat's why we aren't prepared.
Maybe that's why nobody istelling us because I bet my
bottom dollar that the tutor whotried to teach me how to
approach challenging behaviorhadn't stepped foot in a
classroom for a decade at leastminimum, like probably three
decades.
So one thing you need whenyou're going into these
(05:01):
situations day in, day out isconfidence, and I'm talking
oodles of it.
You need the confidence to beable to stand there in front of
these students and be able toapproach behavior in a way that
is calm and considered and allof the things.
And confidence comes withknowledge and it comes with
support and it comes with havingstrategies that you know you
can stand there and beconsistent with.
(05:22):
That will weather the stormwith you.
But if you're not gettingtaught those things, it can be a
bit hard.
So let's dig into some of thosethings, because I want you to
walk away from this chat todaywith your head held high,
feeling like you can feel moreconfident in front of those 30
kids.
So confidence First up.
Own your personality.
(05:42):
I don't care if you're quiet asa mouse.
I don't care, that doesn'tmatter.
Don't let anybody get in yourhead and tell you that you need
to be louder or project yourvoice more when you are freaking
, trying but that's just notyour voice, like, maybe your
voice is just not that loud.
Don't let people tell you to bestricter or more intense when
that's not you.
You cannot develop yourconfidence as a teacher in the
classroom if you're constantlyfeeling less than constantly
(06:06):
feeling like you are innatelycrap at classroom management
because of a personality traitthat you can't change about
yourself.
So just please know, before wego into this, like the kind of
nuts and bolts of this episode,the bulk of this episode that
these strategies have nothing todo with that Confidence doesn't
mean changing your personalityand being really big and loud
when that's not you.
So own your personality.
(06:29):
That's the first step.
Own it, embrace it.
Know that you can beautifullyand confidently classroom manage
, no matter the kind of personthat you are.
Second, the second thing that Iwould like you to do is get
really good at these threenon-verbals that will send
messages every second you're inthe classroom that you are
(06:49):
credible and in control.
The first thing is mind howyou're standing.
So get your posture straight.
Get your posture tall.
Weight evenly distributed onboth feet it matters more than
you know.
Still paused, front and center,taking those big deep breaths
and dropping your shoulders.
These things seem like microthings, like like they're not
(07:11):
going to matter, but all ofthese things are sending
constant nonverbal messages thatyou are credible and that you
are confident and that you arein control of that space.
That classroom is yours.
So posture straight, tall,really regulating yourself,
taking those big deep breaths,dropping your shoulders so you
don't look tense.
Like you know, I feel like theycan smell it out when you're
(07:34):
feeling really stressed arestill paused and poised and
front and I say front and centerbecause the amount of
observations that I've done inclassrooms where teachers are
not that confident and you cansee it because they are leaning
against their desk or they'rehiding away in a corner and then
I talk to them about it theyhave no awareness that they're
actually even doing that.
So I just say you need to be inyour attention spot, which is
(07:57):
front and center.
So I like to I don't know ifI'd like to say fake it till you
make it when it comes to thatstuff, but your non-verbals are
something that you can craft andkeep practicing them, keep
crafting them.
So, front, center, posture, allof the things.
The next non-verbal that I wantyou to get really good at doing
and get really good atpracticing is just minding your
(08:19):
volume and how you're talking inthe room, so really getting
conscious of when I'm talking.
Am I using my public voice oram I using my private voice?
Am I pausing when I wantstudents to listen?
Am I pairing that with beingreally credible?
And still, you know the wayyou're standing.
A great example of this is justsay we are standing in the front
(08:40):
of the room and we're waitingfor students to be listening to
our teacher-led instruction andinstead of pausing, instead of
modeling the volume that we wantto see from our students, we're
standing up the front goingyou're right, quiet, you.
I'm still waiting.
Year eight, year eight yeareight I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm sorry if I scared you justthen, because I'm watching my
(09:00):
recording and I can see thevolume just go ping.
I hope you're not like volumeall the way up and you're, you
know, having a run and anyway,yes, so making sure that you are
modeling the volume that youwant to see from your students.
Another example of this is justsay you are um, walking around
the room, students are workingaway and they're doing their
(09:22):
independent work and things arenice and quiet and a student
puts their hand up.
If you go over to that studentor if you just say, you yell
over the room like what's up,katie?
Like that is going to be quitedysregulating for the classroom
and that's going to give them anonverbal permission to then
start talking.
In the same way, what you wantto do is you want to make sure
you go over to that student,kneel next to them and then talk
(09:42):
in a private voice that canonly be heard and I say only be
heard by you and that student.
But you know, our classroomsaren't the size of a football
field.
I size of a football field.
I just mean really modeling thequiet and calm volume that you
would like from the rest of thestudents, or that's kind of just
sending a message saying likethis is still quiet time when
you're approaching a student inthat way.
And then the next thing is withyour non-verbals is minding how
(10:06):
you're moving around the roomso slowly, quietly, calmly.
Again, if you've got thestudents working away on their
own independent tasks and youwould like them to keep doing
that, running from pillar topost is going to be quite
dysregulating and it's going tobe sending non-verbal, mixed
messages to your students thatyou're not expecting them to be
still and quiet.
(10:27):
What you will see happening andI've watched it happen in dozens
and dozens and dozens ofobservations that I've, you know
, had with teachers over theyears and I wanted to say really
lovely observations not goingin, you know, pointing fingers
and passing blame.
I'm talking about reallywonderful, supportive,
well-received observations I'vehad with teachers.
(10:49):
What I see is them doing thatand running around the classroom
.
When students and of coursethey are like you know you're
trying to get everything done.
You're giving students a penand you're going to the bin and
doing all these things andtrying to write on the board.
And so when I see teachersdoing that, what I see is then
students getting out of theirseats and going to the bin.
I see students getting out oftheir seats and going over to
(11:09):
their mates.
I see that happening far moreoften than if teachers are
really paying attention to howthey're moving around the room,
because the second you slow itdown, the second you use your
pace, your proximity, your bodylanguage when you're walking
around the room, that isconstantly sending nonverbal
messages that you are expectingthem to continue to be engaged
(11:29):
and sit in their seats quietlyand do their work.
So just mind how you're movingaround the room.
So those three non-verbalsagain that will help you to
really feel confident in frontof a classroom and use your
credible body language Mind howyou're standing, mind how you're
talking and mind how you'removing around the room.
And every single one of thesethings is called embodying the
credible, like teaching persona.
(11:52):
And all of those concepts aredrawn from Michael Grinder's
Envoy, which is all aboutnonverbal body language in the
classroom.
Envoy was just such a pivotalthing in my teaching career.
You can look at the book now.
I think there's.
I was, I had the privilege ofbeing able to do like proper
in-person training, which Ithink it needs to happen
sometimes when it comes to thesethings, to see it happening in
(12:12):
real, in you know, real time, um, but there is a book that you
can get around and voice stuffas well.
But all of these things, doneintentionally and done
consistently, will craft ateaching presence where you can
stand confidently in front of aclass and co-regulate and
mitigate a lot of the behaviorsthat you're seeing, where you
are non-verbally modeling thebehaviors that you want to see,
(12:33):
where you can then calmly moveto address some of the
challenges that are in front ofyou as cool as a cucumber, even
if you don't feel like it.
But if you're ever in doubt,ever in doubt and I say this all
the time to teachers that Isupport if you're ever in doubt,
just tell yourself everything Iwant right now in this class.
I need to model, I need tomirror what my message is.
(12:54):
If my message is that I wantthis class to be nice and quiet
and settled, I need to mirrorthat.
If I run around the classroomfrantic and anxious and in a
hurry and trying to get thingsdone and I'm feeling, you know,
really discombobulated, that isthe energy that I am putting out
there.
That's what I am, you know,mirroring to my students.
(13:18):
And, by the way, this is notsome who, who like manifestation
.
I'm not saying manifestations,who who?
I'm just saying that this istangible and rooted in
neuroscience.
This is not just like, oh,we're manifesting the energy
that we want to see in the room.
No, this is like.
This is mirror neurons.
This is us modeling exactlywhat we want to see and us
co-regulating with our students.
And the last one that I love totell people to remind themselves
is what I am saying I must show, because often we send a lot of
(13:43):
mixed messages when it comes toour non-verbals.
Like, for example, like we wantstudents to be listening to us
up the front with ourinstructions, but then we're
giving students a pile of paperssaying, take one, pass one
along.
So all of a sudden theirattention is on the papers that
we're passing around and we'resending those really mixed
messages that what we aretalking about at the front isn't
(14:06):
as important because we aregiving them something else to
distract them.
So what I am saying I must showthis right here is just one of
the things.
All of these non-verbals andwhat we've discussed today is
just one of the things that wecan do to mitigate some of the
low-level behaviors that we seein our classrooms.
And it is step two in myclassroom compass method, which
(14:26):
is about reduce, and where wework on that really proactive
level when it comes to reducingdisruptive and distracting and
all those behaviors that we'reseeing in the classroom.
When we embody the credible, wereally can immediately see a
significant shift in thebehaviors in front of us, so
much so that I get messagesconstantly I'm talking like at
least one message a week for thepast two, three years from
(14:49):
people who have been through theclassroom management lab or the
low level behavior bootcamp,saying that these non-verbals
alone have completelytransformed the behavior in
their classroom.
So please go and try these,reflect on your own practice, go
into the class, like yourclassroom tomorrow, and just
think, okay, I'm going to take,I'm just going to take note of
my body language, I'm going totake note of my non-verbals and,
(15:09):
kind of like, just tweak themand play with them and see how
that kind of has a knock-oneffect with the behaviors in the
classroom.
Just go in and just collectsome data on that and just see
how you go.
Okay, that is it for this week.
However, I have got a littlefavor to ask you.
If you enjoyed this episode,would you kindly do me a solid
and go over to your podcastingapp.
(15:30):
Just click on this episode, goto my podcast and give me a
review.
It would mean the absoluteworld to me, because classroom
management stuff is obviouslysomething that a lot of teachers
need support with and, uh, youknow I'm here to reach as many
teachers that need this supportas possible, so please leave me
a lovely review.
Um, I read all of them and itwould just mean the absolute
(15:51):
world to me and that's it really.
That's all for this week, andyou can also do me another solid
and make sure you aresubscribed to the podcast and
come back next week.
That is it.
That is all I ask.
It would be wonderful to seeyou there and be able to
continue to support you, lovelyteacher.
Okay, until then, have a lovelyweek and I will see you in the
(16:12):
same place, hopefully, and atthe same time next week.
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.
G'day wonderful teachers.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unteachables podcast.
I'm your host, claire, and ifyou're here for the first time,
what we do over on theUnteachables podcast is just go
through some classroommanagement stuff.
(01:05):
It's pretty simple, but nobodydoes it, nobody teaches us these
things.
So that is what I do here onthe podcast and I am so happy to
have you here, and in today'sepisode I'm going to be guiding
you through how to stand talland confident in front of a
class, even in the midst of sometough as hell behaviors.
(01:27):
One thing right that nobodytells you before you walk into a
classroom for the first time ishow much behavior is going to
challenge you.
They don't just don't tell youthat.
They don't tell you how muchit's going to trigger you,
challenge you, how hard it'sgoing to be to self-regulate,
how you'll be walking out ofthat classroom of a really tough
lesson and you'll just bequestioning yourself and your
(01:48):
abilities and everything.
It's just nobody teaches youthat, nobody tells you that,
nobody prepares you for that.
I don't think anybody, even ifthey did tell you that, I don't
think anybody could trulyprepare you for the feelings,
the heaviness that comes withwalking out of a classroom that
you have felt has just walkedall over you, or just you know,
(02:09):
oh, they didn't care about thelesson, they just spoke over me,
they threw their paper around,they threw their work around.
They didn't do it, they didn'tcomplete their work.
You know, like all of thosethings, no one really prepares
you and nobody can prepare youfor how demoralizing and how
challenging that can feel whenyou are preparing to start
(02:30):
teaching.
I feel like behavior is almostspoken about, like as this
external thing to us.
You know like that studentbehaves and then you know the
student does X and then we do Y.
But there's this space betweenthe X and the Y and it's how it
makes us feel, how it triggersour nervous system, how it can
diminish our confidence and howit can make us feel like we're
(02:51):
not good enough and how we canfeel just totally out of control
.
That's what happens in thatspace between X and Y.
So it's not like that behaviorhappens and then we do this in
response.
It's like that behavior happensand then we go on this
rollercoaster if we're notconfident and don't feel capable
and aren't prepared for it,before we even get to that why?
And that really does impact theway we respond?
(03:14):
Because we go into ourclassroom with our nervous
systems already wired for fight,flight and freeze, like we feel
out of control.
So our nervous systems arewired because in a classroom of
30 students, we know that we arejust one behavior away from
feeling all those feelings, fromlosing it, from feeling
disempowered publicly, maybefeeling embarrassed publicly.
(03:34):
You know, when I startedteaching I was 21 years old and
I was teaching a year 12 class,which meant I was 21 years old
and some of those students wereturning 18 that year, so we
weren't that too far off in age.
Like some of those students Iwould have gone to school with
and been friends with, like Ididn't teach in an area that I
grew up in, luckily, I mean, Idid, but not in the same suburb,
(03:57):
so obviously I didn't knowthose students.
I didn't go to the same schoolas those students.
I didn't operate in the samecircles as those students.
But what I'm saying is that wecould have we definitely could
have Having confidence to beable to approach behaviors of
students in a class.
Does not come like that, doesnot come naturally, does not.
(04:18):
Isn't something that we canreally prepare for?
Like that was freaking tough.
How do you have authority inthat situation?
How do you have authority inthat situation?
How do you establishcredibility in that situation?
But you know that feeling oftrying to approach challenging
behavior in a lesson when youhave spectators who are ready to
jump in or start acting inchallenging ways themselves.
You know it's just.
It's just not something thatyou can explain to somebody who
(04:41):
has not been a teacher and maybethat's why we aren't prepared.
Maybe that's why nobody istelling us because I bet my
bottom dollar that the tutor whotried to teach me how to
approach challenging behaviorhadn't stepped foot in a
classroom for a decade at leastminimum, like probably three
decades.
So one thing you need whenyou're going into these
(05:01):
situations day in, day out isconfidence, and I'm talking
oodles of it.
You need the confidence to beable to stand there in front of
these students and be able toapproach behavior in a way that
is calm and considered and allof the things.
And confidence comes withknowledge and it comes with
support and it comes with havingstrategies that you know you
can stand there and beconsistent with.
(05:22):
That will weather the stormwith you.
But if you're not gettingtaught those things, it can be a
bit hard.
So let's dig into some of thosethings, because I want you to
walk away from this chat todaywith your head held high,
feeling like you can feel moreconfident in front of those 30
kids.
So confidence First up.
Own your personality.
(05:42):
I don't care if you're quiet asa mouse.
I don't care, that doesn'tmatter.
Don't let anybody get in yourhead and tell you that you need
to be louder or project yourvoice more when you are freaking
, trying but that's just notyour voice, like, maybe your
voice is just not that loud.
Don't let people tell you to bestricter or more intense when
that's not you.
You cannot develop yourconfidence as a teacher in the
classroom if you're constantlyfeeling less than constantly
(06:06):
feeling like you are innatelycrap at classroom management
because of a personality traitthat you can't change about
yourself.
So just please know, before wego into this, like the kind of
nuts and bolts of this episode,the bulk of this episode that
these strategies have nothing todo with that Confidence doesn't
mean changing your personalityand being really big and loud
when that's not you.
So own your personality.
(06:29):
That's the first step.
Own it, embrace it.
Know that you can beautifullyand confidently classroom manage
, no matter the kind of personthat you are.
Second, the second thing that Iwould like you to do is get
really good at these threenon-verbals that will send
messages every second you're inthe classroom that you are
(06:49):
credible and in control.
The first thing is mind howyou're standing.
So get your posture straight.
Get your posture tall.
Weight evenly distributed onboth feet it matters more than
you know.
Still paused, front and center,taking those big deep breaths
and dropping your shoulders.
These things seem like microthings, like like they're not
(07:11):
going to matter, but all ofthese things are sending
constant nonverbal messages thatyou are credible and that you
are confident and that you arein control of that space.
That classroom is yours.
So posture straight, tall,really regulating yourself,
taking those big deep breaths,dropping your shoulders so you
don't look tense.
Like you know, I feel like theycan smell it out when you're
(07:34):
feeling really stressed arestill paused and poised and
front and I say front and centerbecause the amount of
observations that I've done inclassrooms where teachers are
not that confident and you cansee it because they are leaning
against their desk or they'rehiding away in a corner and then
I talk to them about it theyhave no awareness that they're
actually even doing that.
So I just say you need to be inyour attention spot, which is
(07:57):
front and center.
So I like to I don't know ifI'd like to say fake it till you
make it when it comes to thatstuff, but your non-verbals are
something that you can craft andkeep practicing them, keep
crafting them.
So, front, center, posture, allof the things.
The next non-verbal that I wantyou to get really good at doing
and get really good atpracticing is just minding your
(08:19):
volume and how you're talking inthe room, so really getting
conscious of when I'm talking.
Am I using my public voice oram I using my private voice?
Am I pausing when I wantstudents to listen?
Am I pairing that with beingreally credible?
And still, you know the wayyou're standing.
A great example of this is justsay we are standing in the front
(08:40):
of the room and we're waitingfor students to be listening to
our teacher-led instruction andinstead of pausing, instead of
modeling the volume that we wantto see from our students, we're
standing up the front goingyou're right, quiet, you.
I'm still waiting.
Year eight, year eight yeareight I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm still waiting.
I'm sorry if I scared you justthen, because I'm watching my
(09:00):
recording and I can see thevolume just go ping.
I hope you're not like volumeall the way up and you're, you
know, having a run and anyway,yes, so making sure that you are
modeling the volume that youwant to see from your students.
Another example of this is justsay you are um, walking around
the room, students are workingaway and they're doing their
(09:22):
independent work and things arenice and quiet and a student
puts their hand up.
If you go over to that studentor if you just say, you yell
over the room like what's up,katie?
Like that is going to be quitedysregulating for the classroom
and that's going to give them anonverbal permission to then
start talking.
In the same way, what you wantto do is you want to make sure
you go over to that student,kneel next to them and then talk
(09:42):
in a private voice that canonly be heard and I say only be
heard by you and that student.
But you know, our classroomsaren't the size of a football
field.
I size of a football field.
I just mean really modeling thequiet and calm volume that you
would like from the rest of thestudents, or that's kind of just
sending a message saying likethis is still quiet time when
you're approaching a student inthat way.
And then the next thing is withyour non-verbals is minding how
(10:06):
you're moving around the roomso slowly, quietly, calmly.
Again, if you've got thestudents working away on their
own independent tasks and youwould like them to keep doing
that, running from pillar topost is going to be quite
dysregulating and it's going tobe sending non-verbal, mixed
messages to your students thatyou're not expecting them to be
still and quiet.
(10:27):
What you will see happening andI've watched it happen in dozens
and dozens and dozens ofobservations that I've, you know
, had with teachers over theyears and I wanted to say really
lovely observations not goingin, you know, pointing fingers
and passing blame.
I'm talking about reallywonderful, supportive,
well-received observations I'vehad with teachers.
(10:49):
What I see is them doing thatand running around the classroom
.
When students and of coursethey are like you know you're
trying to get everything done.
You're giving students a penand you're going to the bin and
doing all these things andtrying to write on the board.
And so when I see teachersdoing that, what I see is then
students getting out of theirseats and going to the bin.
I see students getting out oftheir seats and going over to
(11:09):
their mates.
I see that happening far moreoften than if teachers are
really paying attention to howthey're moving around the room,
because the second you slow itdown, the second you use your
pace, your proximity, your bodylanguage when you're walking
around the room, that isconstantly sending nonverbal
messages that you are expectingthem to continue to be engaged
(11:29):
and sit in their seats quietlyand do their work.
So just mind how you're movingaround the room.
So those three non-verbalsagain that will help you to
really feel confident in frontof a classroom and use your
credible body language Mind howyou're standing, mind how you're
talking and mind how you'removing around the room.
And every single one of thesethings is called embodying the
credible, like teaching persona.
(11:52):
And all of those concepts aredrawn from Michael Grinder's
Envoy, which is all aboutnonverbal body language in the
classroom.
Envoy was just such a pivotalthing in my teaching career.
You can look at the book now.
I think there's.
I was, I had the privilege ofbeing able to do like proper
in-person training, which Ithink it needs to happen
sometimes when it comes to thesethings, to see it happening in
(12:12):
real, in you know, real time, um, but there is a book that you
can get around and voice stuffas well.
But all of these things, doneintentionally and done
consistently, will craft ateaching presence where you can
stand confidently in front of aclass and co-regulate and
mitigate a lot of the behaviorsthat you're seeing, where you
are non-verbally modeling thebehaviors that you want to see,
(12:33):
where you can then calmly moveto address some of the
challenges that are in front ofyou as cool as a cucumber, even
if you don't feel like it.
But if you're ever in doubt,ever in doubt and I say this all
the time to teachers that Isupport if you're ever in doubt,
just tell yourself everything Iwant right now in this class.
I need to model, I need tomirror what my message is.
(12:54):
If my message is that I wantthis class to be nice and quiet
and settled, I need to mirrorthat.
If I run around the classroomfrantic and anxious and in a
hurry and trying to get thingsdone and I'm feeling, you know,
really discombobulated, that isthe energy that I am putting out
there.
That's what I am, you know,mirroring to my students.
(13:18):
And, by the way, this is notsome who, who like manifestation
.
I'm not saying manifestations,who who?
I'm just saying that this istangible and rooted in
neuroscience.
This is not just like, oh,we're manifesting the energy
that we want to see in the room.
No, this is like.
This is mirror neurons.
This is us modeling exactlywhat we want to see and us
co-regulating with our students.
And the last one that I love totell people to remind themselves
is what I am saying I must show, because often we send a lot of
(13:43):
mixed messages when it comes toour non-verbals.
Like, for example, like we wantstudents to be listening to us
up the front with ourinstructions, but then we're
giving students a pile of paperssaying, take one, pass one
along.
So all of a sudden theirattention is on the papers that
we're passing around and we'resending those really mixed
messages that what we aretalking about at the front isn't
(14:06):
as important because we aregiving them something else to
distract them.
So what I am saying I must showthis right here is just one of
the things.
All of these non-verbals andwhat we've discussed today is
just one of the things that wecan do to mitigate some of the
low-level behaviors that we seein our classrooms.
And it is step two in myclassroom compass method, which
(14:26):
is about reduce, and where wework on that really proactive
level when it comes to reducingdisruptive and distracting and
all those behaviors that we'reseeing in the classroom.
When we embody the credible, wereally can immediately see a
significant shift in thebehaviors in front of us, so
much so that I get messagesconstantly I'm talking like at
least one message a week for thepast two, three years from
(14:49):
people who have been through theclassroom management lab or the
low level behavior bootcamp,saying that these non-verbals
alone have completelytransformed the behavior in
their classroom.
So please go and try these,reflect on your own practice, go
into the class, like yourclassroom tomorrow, and just
think, okay, I'm going to take,I'm just going to take note of
my body language, I'm going totake note of my non-verbals and,
(15:09):
kind of like, just tweak themand play with them and see how
that kind of has a knock-oneffect with the behaviors in the
classroom.
Just go in and just collectsome data on that and just see
how you go.
Okay, that is it for this week.
However, I have got a littlefavor to ask you.
If you enjoyed this episode,would you kindly do me a solid
and go over to your podcastingapp.
(15:30):
Just click on this episode, goto my podcast and give me a
review.
It would mean the absoluteworld to me, because classroom
management stuff is obviouslysomething that a lot of teachers
need support with and, uh, youknow I'm here to reach as many
teachers that need this supportas possible, so please leave me
a lovely review.
Um, I read all of them and itwould just mean the absolute
(15:51):
world to me and that's it really.
That's all for this week, andyou can also do me another solid
and make sure you aresubscribed to the podcast and
come back next week.
That is it.
That is all I ask.
It would be wonderful to seeyou there and be able to
continue to support you, lovelyteacher.
Okay, until then, have a lovelyweek and I will see you in the
(16:12):
same place, hopefully, and atthe same time next week.
Bye for now.
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