This tiny tweak could change your whole classroom vibe.
If you’ve ever found yourself gripping onto those five students who always put their hands up while the rest of the class stares blankly out the window—or worse, starts low-key mutinies—you are NOT alone.
In this episode, I’m giving you a front seat to a game-changing shift I made in how I asked students to engage. It's a small upgrade that completely changed the energy in my classroom. And no, it's not a paddle pop stick in sight.
I’ll take you back to the chaos I experienced when cold calling backfired, why the same students always put their hands up, and what I realised was actually the goal when it comes to whole-class engagement (hint: it's not just getting more mouths moving).
You’ll hear practical ways to upgrade your questioning on the spot, why “write it on your sticky note and slap it on your forehead” can be pedagogical GOLD, and how micro tweaks like this can be low-effort but high-impact.
If your class is giving “two kids do all the work and everyone else is coasting,” this episode is your roadmap out of it.
Let’s roll the tape!
What you’ll learn:
- Why cold calling, name pickers, and paddle pop sticks might not be helping you build engagement (and what might work better)
- How to shift from passive invitations to explicit, all-in instructions
- Four easy ways to upgrade classic questions like “Who can find the simile?” and “What’s the main message?”
- Why shout-outs, whiteboards, and sticky notes beat raised hands any day of the week
- The sneaky ways we accidentally teach students it’s OK to opt out—and how to change that
- How to engage quiet processors and anxious students without triggering defiance or freeze responses
- One surprising tool for building rapport while building engagement
Resources & Links:
👉 Join the $1 Kickstart: https://www.the-unteachables.com/kickstart
👉 Waitlist for The Behaviour Club: https://www.the-unteachables.com/tbc
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
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.
Hello, hello, wonderful teacher, welcome back to the
Unteachables podcast.
It is brilliant to have youhere.
If you're a first time listener, hello, welcome.
I'm Claire, I'm your host andI'm here to help you make
(01:05):
classroom management feel alittle bit less daunting, a
little bit more practical.
And if you're an avid listener,I'm sorry that I took a little
one week hiatus last week.
I ghosted you a little bit.
I had all intentions to recordan episode and I'm like you know
what my daughter's not atdaycare today.
I really actually just want tospend some time with her and I
was just feeling really burntout and I just needed that
(01:26):
quality time with my little girl.
So and I thought you know what?
I haven't had an episode offfor a year, so I thought that I
had a little bit of your faithin me in the bank, that I'd come
back.
And here I am, and this week Iam talking about something that
I know that a lot of us strugglewith and I know it's going to
(01:47):
be a great and really, reallytangible and helpful episode.
So make sure you stick with me.
I will be talking about wholeclass engagement and, you know,
getting all of your studentsinvolved and you know when
students sit there and stare atthe wall or pretend to listen
and they start glazing over,just whole class engagement
(02:07):
stuff, getting students to beengaging rather than disrupting
or rather than, you know, justlooking out the window.
So it's going to be a reallypractical one.
The issues that I had in myearly career was that you know
you've got a class of 30 thereand you've just got the same
like five, like the same handfulof students, maybe five
(02:28):
students contributing, and therest of them are just sitting
there, not.
And you know, these studentsare like, really quick to answer
, they're really keen, they'vealways got their hands up,
they're always wanting to answer, say something.
And you love these studentsbecause you're not talking to
yourself.
You're like, oh my gosh, yes,anybody who can contribute, you
are golden.
But the problem is that ifyou've only got five
(02:51):
contributing, you've got therest of that 75% just sitting
there disengaging or feelinglike they can take their foot
off the accelerator or feel likethey don't have to engage.
There's no expectation for themto engage because other
students always fill that gap.
But I let those students fillthat gap all of the time because
(03:13):
, as I said, like it's justeasier and it's like this relief
that you're not standing therewaiting for anybody to reply.
You've always got somebody toyou know, step in, to reply.
You've always got somebody toto you know, step in.
But the problem is with thatwhole situation, that whole
scenario of only a few studentsputting their hands up and
contributing, the problem,outside of the fact that you
(03:35):
know you don't want students tothink that they can just
disengage, it's that, more oftenthan not.
Those five that arecontributing aren't necessarily
the ones that have the bestanswers and not necessarily the
ones that you know cancontribute the most insights or
interesting stuff to theconversation.
They're actually just the onesthat can process information
(03:56):
really quickly, they're the onesthat can access the information
and language really quickly intheir minds and they're the ones
that just feel confident enoughto speak up in front of the
group.
So, even if you do havestudents there who are really
keen, they've got insights,they're interested they're not
contributing to that discussion.
And I know that's me.
(04:18):
Like I sit in staff meetingsand I always am someone that
kind of has to formulate an ideain my mind before I say it.
I'm not one to just kind oflike put things out there.
And it always frustrated mebecause when we're having, like
you know, a staff discussionaround the table, maybe about
curriculum or something likethat, I did have some really
(04:38):
interesting things to say.
Well, I thought so anyway, butI would never be able to say
that because I would always feellike I needed to like get my,
get my my ideas straight firstbefore I said them.
I wanted to make sure what Iwas saying was doing justice to
what I was thinking in my mindand our students are really
similar to that.
Some students aren't able toprocess things quickly.
(05:00):
They want to be able to thinkabout things a little bit more
carefully.
So we have to consider thosestudents when we're going into a
lesson where we're asking themto engage.
Now, at the same time as all ofthat's happening, everyone else
is learning in the classroomthat it's okay and it's safe to
opt out because those are theexpectations we're sending
(05:20):
non-verbally, because we're notputting things in place to
expect whole class engagement.
If, day after day we're sendingnon-verbally because we're not
putting things in place toexpect whole class engagement,
if day after day we're saying,hey, what do you think about
this?
And the same students arereplying the rest of the class
are like, okay, sweet, everytime, you know, my teacher wants
somebody to contribute.
If I don't contribute, I don'tneed to contribute.
(05:42):
If I'm not offering mycontributions up on a platter,
it doesn't matter, I don't needto contribute.
If I'm not offering mycontributions up on a platter,
it doesn't matter, I don't needto.
So it's, they're safe, theyfeel okay to opt out of that.
So I've done a lot of things totry to combat that over my
career.
Right, I've tried the coldcalling students.
I've tried using pedal popsticks in a jar.
I've tried using random likename picker websites.
(06:02):
I've done all of that kind ofstuff just to go okay, well,
maybe if it's more random, maybeif students know at any time
that they can be picked out tocontribute in front of the class
, then they're all going to beengaged, right?
But the result was not that itwasn't what I expected it to be
or what I wanted it to be, andthat's like, really, the only
thing I thought in my head to do, like, okay, well, I'm just
(06:24):
going to call, call, I'm justgoing to make sure students know
that at any time I could becalling their name out.
But the result was the answersthat I was getting from these
students were lacking, orstudents would be shutting down
or saying I don't know.
I was seeing an increase in moredefiant behaviors.
I was getting more pushback.
Things in my classroom justfelt a little bit off and not
(06:45):
what I wanted them to be.
They didn't feel like a goodvibe for me.
Some students were justcomplying and I was getting more
engagement, like I was, but atwhat expense?
Because some students werebeing pushed into fight, flight
or freeze states, especiallythose with higher anxiety or a
PDA profile or ODD profiles.
So students were responding toit and I was getting more
(07:08):
engagement, but then at whatcost?
Because we have to think aboutwhat the actual goal is here.
Like when we're trying to getstudents to contribute to class
discussions.
Is our goal just to get as manystudents to talk as possible,
or is our goal to get studentsthinking and contributing and
learning and being a part ofthat community and sharing?
Like, what is the goal here?
(07:30):
Because when I used coldcalling and paddle pop sticks
and random name picker websites,I was going off the goal.
I just want to get morestudents contributing here.
Like, I just want to get morestudents opening their mouths
and saying something when I askthem a question, but that's not
the.
That wasn't the right goal forme.
It wasn't the goal that weshould be having.
(07:51):
The goal should be somethingmore meaningful and it's about
their learning.
Isn't it Not just like aboutsome kind of yeah, like external
thing that we want students todo?
It's not about the control overour students.
It's about wanting tofacilitate those things, but it
needs to be doable for us and itneeds to be done in a way that
we can weave it into oureveryday practice.
So it needs to be doable and,you know, tangible and all of
(08:13):
those things.
So we need to upgrade ourinstruction.
We can do this through thetangible tools that we use, like
the actual things that weprovide students to support them
, to contribute, and the waythat we're actually, like,
verbally, tasking students touse these tools.
(08:33):
If you're in the behavior clubthis month, it is all about the
engagement boost, the engagementupgrade and the instruction
upgrade.
So if you're having theseissues that I'm talking about, I
strongly suggest that, insteadof listening to this podcast
episode because I'll be givingyou a few takeaways but if you
really really want to like delvedeep into this and get all of
the strategies, I suggest you goin and log onto the behavior
(08:55):
club and watch those sessions.
They are incredible.
I take you through 12 tools andthen help you apply those to
upgrade your instructions and toget whole class engagement and
just significantly reducelow-level behaviors, off-task
behaviors, disruptive behaviorsand increase all of those
beautiful things that we want,all of those things that are
more aligned with our why,thinking, learning, sharing all
(09:16):
of those things.
So some of these tools andstrategies include quick tallies
and whiteboards and multiplechoice movement and show me
cards, shout it out, sticky noteslams which is one of my
favorite using sentence startersand more.
So I've got 12 tools there thatwe can use to help to boost
(09:38):
that whole class engagement.
But for the purposes of thispodcast of, of course, you can't
see the actual training, but Ijust want to give you a taste.
So I'm going to go through howI upgraded my instruction using
just a few of those strategies.
So, and tell me if I mean tellme gosh, you can't tell me.
Obviously it's a one-wayconversation, but, uh, pop into
(10:01):
my inbox.
I'm more than happy to hear ifthis does resonate with you at
all.
But when I was struggling withwhole class engagement, my
questioning of my studentsalways sounded a little bit like
this like who can tell me whatthe main message of this text is
?
Who can find the simile?
Hands up if you can find themistake in this sentence.
Who might know what we have towrite next?
(10:24):
And all of these questions haveone thing in common that
they're really vague, they'rereally passive and they're open
invitations for students to poptheir hand up and contribute.
So those first five were likeall over this.
They were sweet yeah, I've gotit, miss.
Like there's the simile, butthe only ones that are RSVPing
(10:45):
to those invitations are thosesame five students.
We're not getting any otherstudents if we're putting out
those questions.
So we need to zhuzh this up.
We need to boost the way thatwe are requesting whole class
engagement or encouraging wholeclass engagement, not in a way
that's like power over hey, ifyou don't contribute and you
(11:06):
don't answer me when I call yourname out of this random picker,
then I'm going to make a phonecall home and tell your parent
or carer that you're notengaging.
Like that's not going to helpus meet our actual goal of
engagement and learning and allof those wonderful things.
The goal for us givinginstructions should be to make
them clear and they should beexplicit actions that every
(11:29):
single student in the room isrequired to follow.
So this is what I mean.
I'm going to give you twoexamples of how I can upgrade
the instructions that I justtold you.
So all of those ones that kindof sounded like like what's the
main message?
Who can find the simile?
Hands up, blah, blah, blah.
I'm going to show you how Iwould upgrade those using some
(11:49):
of those tools.
So, one of the old instructionswho can tell me what the main
message of this text is?
That's passive, that's vague,open invitation.
I might have a few studentsputting their hands up and
saying, oh, the main message isthat, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.
Instead of that, I mightupgrade my instruction to
involve the whole class and benon-verbally expecting my
(12:12):
students Like that expectationis being reinforced that every
single one of them is going toengage.
So I might say write the mainmessage of the text on your slip
and swap it with your partnerImmediately.
There's an expectation of everysingle student then to be
telling me what the main messageof the text is.
It takes a little bit longer todo that, but you're going to
(12:34):
get this richness in thediscussion.
So they're writing their mainmessage on the slip of paper
that you give them and they'reswapping it with their partner.
That's another one of thestrategies.
Mini slips is what I use.
The next one is write the mainmessage of the text on a sticky
note and stick it up on theboard.
Or write the main message ofthe text on a sticky note and
stick it on your forehead, orwrite the main message of the
(12:56):
text on a sticky note and put itin this box as I go around and
I'm going to read out a few fromthat box.
It's something incrediblyexplicit, tangible.
Every single student isrequired and expected to do that
, and you are immediately, andsome students might not be able
to do it.
Some students might be stuckwith what a main message is.
(13:17):
Some students might strugglewith identifying the main
message, but immediately whatyou're doing is seeing who
actually is struggling and who'sjust opting out of the
conversation.
So it's just brilliant for usto be able to like look around
the room and see who's notwriting on their sticky note and
that's a student that I cantalk to a little bit later
(13:38):
rather than going.
Okay, well, there's 25 otherstudents here who aren't
contributing, so I'm just goingto assume that they know what
the main message is, because Ican't talk to 25 students about
their engagement.
The next one might be write oneword on your whiteboard that
best sums up the text, and whenI count down from three, you're
going to flip it over and holdit up for me Again at a glance,
just around the room, you'll beable to see what students are
(14:00):
thinking.
You'll be able to like, read itagain.
That one actually doesn't takethat much longer.
They've got their little miniwhiteboard or they've got a
piece of paper.
You don't have to do anythingfancy.
They write their word on theirpaper or their whiteboard, they
flip it up and you can be like,oh, jenny, that's a great idea.
You know, like, yes, thatword's fantastic, pete, that
one's fantastic, yes, james,awesome.
And you're just able to thenfacilitate this beautiful
(14:23):
discussion around the mainmessage of the text from the
ideas that you've gotten, notfrom five students who might
contribute every single lesson,but you're then able to pick
different words from differentstudents that you might not hear
from, and you can give themthat positive feedback.
You can build their confidence,which is something that's so
beautiful.
Another one you can say what'sthe main message.
(14:44):
I'll give you one minutethinking time and then be ready
to discuss, because one of thestrategies is as well one of the
tool, like the engagementtoolbox strategies is just to
give them a little bit more time.
You don't always have to dosomething that's like really
tangible that every singlestudent does Sometimes.
Just giving a little bit morethinking time allows those
(15:05):
students who require a littlebit of more like time to process
their ideas and then formulatetheir ideas and, you know, say
their ideas and feel confidentin that.
It just allows them to be ableto contribute, which is
sometimes just enough to getthat discussion a little bit
more rich and meaningful.
So those are four ideas on howyou can flip something like who
(15:26):
can tell me what the mainmessage of this text is into
something that is upgraded andimmediately you're shifting the
expectation from hey, openinvitation, who wants to come
along and who wants to tell mesomething, to hey, like, write
it on your, write it on yourwhiteboard, write on your sticky
note.
Here's something tangible thatyou can do to show me that you
(15:47):
are engaging and you'relistening and you're a part of
this conversation, in this, inthis classroom.
So the next one who can find thesimile?
Oh God, I said I don't know howmany times I've said that in my
career honestly who can findthe simile?
Who can find the metaphor?
Who can tell me what themetaphor is?
English teacher things.
So instruction, upgrade writethe simile on your whiteboard.
(16:07):
When the timer buzzes, you'regoing to hold it up, so give
them a really specific amount oftime, so they know exactly how
much time they have to be ableto find that simile, write it on
their whiteboard and they canflip it when the timer buzzes.
I love this, again, because youcan look across the room and at
a glance be able to say, yep,you've all got the simile.
I think we can all tick off theoutcome that you know what a
(16:28):
simile is Fantastic everybody.
Well done.
So again, you're just takingthe temperature of the whole
class.
You might be able to see acouple of students who need to
have a little bit moreinformation around it.
You might see the whole classis mixing up similes and
metaphors, so you have torevisit that.
So it's really good just totake the temperature.
The next one find the simile.
(16:48):
You're going to shout it out asa class when the timer gets to
zero or when I count down fromthree, three, two, one go and
they will tell you the simileall at once.
I love the whole class shoutedouts because you are not like
it's like low risk for students,but you're still getting like
the energy up and students arecontributing more, and it's
(17:09):
something that's really clearand tangible.
The next one write the simileon the sticky note.
When you're done, pop it onyour forehead and you can put a
little time timer there.
You can give them a timeframeor you can not, like it just
depends on what you want to do.
But I love the popping it ontheir forehead thing because it
just it brings a little bit ofnovelty and there's a little bit
of a laugh.
(17:32):
I was talking to people theother day cause I popped up on
my Instagram story like thesecelebration cards that I made
and they're really cheesy.
There's like 40 of them, thingslike the participation potato
and like they're little kind ofcelebration cards that you can
give to students.
That like I was trying to thinkof ways that I could replace
like tangible rewards, but stilldo something that is fun and
like builds community and givestudents a little bit of
(17:55):
recognition, just having a laugh, right, and not just things
like, okay, you've gotten an Ain your in your assignment, so I
created these celebration cards.
Right, they're not availablejust yet, so don't ask me.
Don't ask me.
At the moment I still have topop them up on my.
Like.
Shopping in the baby club notnot happening yet October the
1st, anyway.
So these celebration cards arehilarious and I love it because
(18:16):
I had a bunch of teachers replyto me saying, oh my gosh, my
year tens would think these wereso cheesy, but they would be
trying to collect every singleone of them and I love it and I
feel like this is Like andthat's who I created it for,
right, the middle schoolers whothink they're too cool but they
(18:36):
think it's going to be a laugh.
Or you know, like I'm dorky,miss English, and I come along
with these cars and they can.
You know, like we're buildingthat rapport because they're
mocking me a little bit and,like you know, I'm playing it up
and anyway.
So I absolutely love anythingthat's kind of building that
rapport in the I hope I'm makingany sense whatsoever but like
(18:59):
we're building rapport not byhey, what's your brother's name?
What, what's your favoritemovie?
Like we're building rapport inthe everyday, through these
micro moments that are justwonderful for building rapport.
And in these instructions itdoes the same thing.
Like you're having a bit of alaugh with your students.
They're popping on theirforehead, their fingers a bit
cheesy, but even though thefingers a bit dorky and cheesy,
(19:20):
they're still doing it andthey're having a laugh at their
mates, and so I just loveanything that embeds rapport
building naturally and gives usan opportunity to have a laugh
with our class while still kindof staying on track with the
learning.
Anyway, that was a really bigtangent.
The fourth, fourth thing, thefourth instruction upgrade for
(19:40):
who can find the simile is justdraw a picture on your
whiteboard that represents thesimile.
There are countless ways that Icould instruction upgrade the
two instructions that I havegone through.
So who can find the simile andwhat's the main message?
There are so many things, butthese instruction upgrades are
just so you can do like as many,like there's so many options,
right, using those tools that Iprovided.
(20:00):
But they're just us beingreally explicit with students
around what we expect.
We expect their engagement, weexpect their attention, we
expect their involvement and notin a way that is high stakes,
but in a way that's woven intothe lesson and instruction
really beautifully and naturally, because this should not feel
(20:21):
like an extra thing on yourplate.
That is not what I'm about.
The things I teach are thingsthat just can become a normal,
everyday part of yourpedagogical practice.
At the end of the day, if it'snot realistic, you're not going
to do it.
And if you're not going to doit, then what's the point of
trying?
It needs to be possible for usto do in the context of being
teachers and having a millionand one things going on.
(20:43):
If you are one of my behaviorclubbers, along with that whole
engagement, boost training,please go and watch that.
If any of this resonated,because it's so good, you've
also got a bunch of plug andplay resources just print, use.
You can immediately upgradeyour instruction.
I try to give you as much stuffas possible so you don't have
to reinvent the wheel.
It's better that I do it ratherthan 500 of you do it.
(21:06):
At the time of recording this,the BehaviClub is currently
closed as a wait list, but youcan join the $1 kickstart at any
time if you want to work withme and just get a taste of the
flipping magic that you can makewith your classroom management
by using easy and tangiblestrategies, just like the ones
that I discussed in this podcastepisode.
If you haven't joined thekickstart yet, come and do it
(21:28):
anytime.
Come and join $1.
And it is like golden.
It really, really is, and Icould have charged like a whole
course cost for this, but Idecided to create and put
something out into the worldthat can show you that things
aren't hopeless and there is somuch that you can achieve in
(21:49):
your classroom with reallysimple, quick strategies.
Because that feeling ofhopelessness that we can get
when it comes to classroommanagement is demoralizing, and
I wanted to have something topoint teachers towards, because
I get so many messages ofteachers saying I don't know
what to try, I don't know whatto do, I feel hopeless, I don't
know how long I can stay in theprofession, and I wanted
somewhere to point teacherstowards that was like you can
(22:12):
sit down, you can do these five,10 minute sessions and walk
into your classroom tomorrowfeeling a thousand percent
better about the position thatyou're in with your classroom
management, and I wholeheartedlybelieve that.
So you can go tothe-unteachablescom forward
slash, kickstart and you canjoin that at any time that you
feel like you want to come anddo that.
(22:34):
It's brilliant.
So, yeah, that's all for thisweek.
Beautiful humans, if you headinto your classroom this week
and try that instruction upgrade, please don't be shy in popping
into my Insta DMs or emailingme and letting me know how it
all goes.
I would absolutely love, love,love, to hear about it and
celebrate you and the changesthat you're making in your
(22:55):
practice.
And, as always, if you lovedthis episode, it would mean the
absolute world to me.
If you just went and gave me aquick review five stars
preferably.
If you went and gave me areview, it would mean a lot
because teachers need thissupport.
They really do, and the podcastis the best way that teachers
can get the free and on the gosupport that I freaking wish
(23:19):
that I had when I was really inthe thick of it.
So if you would just give me alovely review it means so much
or even just send it to ateacher friend, make sure you're
following along all of thethings.
Anyway, I will see you nextweek.
I promise I won't ghost youagain and bye for now, lovely
teacher.
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, wonderful teacher, welcome back to the
Unteachables podcast.
It is brilliant to have youhere.
If you're a first time listener, hello, welcome.
I'm Claire, I'm your host andI'm here to help you make
(01:05):
classroom management feel alittle bit less daunting, a
little bit more practical.
And if you're an avid listener,I'm sorry that I took a little
one week hiatus last week.
I ghosted you a little bit.
I had all intentions to recordan episode and I'm like you know
what my daughter's not atdaycare today.
I really actually just want tospend some time with her and I
was just feeling really burntout and I just needed that
(01:26):
quality time with my little girl.
So and I thought you know what?
I haven't had an episode offfor a year, so I thought that I
had a little bit of your faithin me in the bank, that I'd come
back.
And here I am, and this week Iam talking about something that
I know that a lot of us strugglewith and I know it's going to
(01:47):
be a great and really, reallytangible and helpful episode.
So make sure you stick with me.
I will be talking about wholeclass engagement and, you know,
getting all of your studentsinvolved and you know when
students sit there and stare atthe wall or pretend to listen
and they start glazing over,just whole class engagement
(02:07):
stuff, getting students to beengaging rather than disrupting
or rather than, you know, justlooking out the window.
So it's going to be a reallypractical one.
The issues that I had in myearly career was that you know
you've got a class of 30 thereand you've just got the same
like five, like the same handfulof students, maybe five
(02:28):
students contributing, and therest of them are just sitting
there, not.
And you know, these studentsare like, really quick to answer
, they're really keen, they'vealways got their hands up,
they're always wanting to answer, say something.
And you love these studentsbecause you're not talking to
yourself.
You're like, oh my gosh, yes,anybody who can contribute, you
are golden.
But the problem is that ifyou've only got five
(02:51):
contributing, you've got therest of that 75% just sitting
there disengaging or feelinglike they can take their foot
off the accelerator or feel likethey don't have to engage.
There's no expectation for themto engage because other
students always fill that gap.
But I let those students fillthat gap all of the time because
(03:13):
, as I said, like it's justeasier and it's like this relief
that you're not standing therewaiting for anybody to reply.
You've always got somebody toyou know, step in, to reply.
You've always got somebody toto you know, step in.
But the problem is with thatwhole situation, that whole
scenario of only a few studentsputting their hands up and
contributing, the problem,outside of the fact that you
(03:35):
know you don't want students tothink that they can just
disengage, it's that, more oftenthan not.
Those five that arecontributing aren't necessarily
the ones that have the bestanswers and not necessarily the
ones that you know cancontribute the most insights or
interesting stuff to theconversation.
They're actually just the onesthat can process information
(03:56):
really quickly, they're the onesthat can access the information
and language really quickly intheir minds and they're the ones
that just feel confident enoughto speak up in front of the
group.
So, even if you do havestudents there who are really
keen, they've got insights,they're interested they're not
contributing to that discussion.
And I know that's me.
(04:18):
Like I sit in staff meetingsand I always am someone that
kind of has to formulate an ideain my mind before I say it.
I'm not one to just kind oflike put things out there.
And it always frustrated mebecause when we're having, like
you know, a staff discussionaround the table, maybe about
curriculum or something likethat, I did have some really
(04:38):
interesting things to say.
Well, I thought so anyway, butI would never be able to say
that because I would always feellike I needed to like get my,
get my my ideas straight firstbefore I said them.
I wanted to make sure what Iwas saying was doing justice to
what I was thinking in my mindand our students are really
similar to that.
Some students aren't able toprocess things quickly.
(05:00):
They want to be able to thinkabout things a little bit more
carefully.
So we have to consider thosestudents when we're going into a
lesson where we're asking themto engage.
Now, at the same time as all ofthat's happening, everyone else
is learning in the classroomthat it's okay and it's safe to
opt out because those are theexpectations we're sending
(05:20):
non-verbally, because we're notputting things in place to
expect whole class engagement.
If, day after day we're sendingnon-verbally because we're not
putting things in place toexpect whole class engagement,
if day after day we're saying,hey, what do you think about
this?
And the same students arereplying the rest of the class
are like, okay, sweet, everytime, you know, my teacher wants
somebody to contribute.
If I don't contribute, I don'tneed to contribute.
(05:42):
If I'm not offering mycontributions up on a platter,
it doesn't matter, I don't needto contribute.
If I'm not offering mycontributions up on a platter,
it doesn't matter, I don't needto.
So it's, they're safe, theyfeel okay to opt out of that.
So I've done a lot of things totry to combat that over my
career.
Right, I've tried the coldcalling students.
I've tried using pedal popsticks in a jar.
I've tried using random likename picker websites.
(06:02):
I've done all of that kind ofstuff just to go okay, well,
maybe if it's more random, maybeif students know at any time
that they can be picked out tocontribute in front of the class
, then they're all going to beengaged, right?
But the result was not that itwasn't what I expected it to be
or what I wanted it to be, andthat's like, really, the only
thing I thought in my head to do, like, okay, well, I'm just
(06:24):
going to call, call, I'm justgoing to make sure students know
that at any time I could becalling their name out.
But the result was the answersthat I was getting from these
students were lacking, orstudents would be shutting down
or saying I don't know.
I was seeing an increase in moredefiant behaviors.
I was getting more pushback.
Things in my classroom justfelt a little bit off and not
(06:45):
what I wanted them to be.
They didn't feel like a goodvibe for me.
Some students were justcomplying and I was getting more
engagement, like I was, but atwhat expense?
Because some students werebeing pushed into fight, flight
or freeze states, especiallythose with higher anxiety or a
PDA profile or ODD profiles.
So students were responding toit and I was getting more
(07:08):
engagement, but then at whatcost?
Because we have to think aboutwhat the actual goal is here.
Like when we're trying to getstudents to contribute to class
discussions.
Is our goal just to get as manystudents to talk as possible,
or is our goal to get studentsthinking and contributing and
learning and being a part ofthat community and sharing?
Like, what is the goal here?
(07:30):
Because when I used coldcalling and paddle pop sticks
and random name picker websites,I was going off the goal.
I just want to get morestudents contributing here.
Like, I just want to get morestudents opening their mouths
and saying something when I askthem a question, but that's not
the.
That wasn't the right goal forme.
It wasn't the goal that weshould be having.
(07:51):
The goal should be somethingmore meaningful and it's about
their learning.
Isn't it Not just like aboutsome kind of yeah, like external
thing that we want students todo?
It's not about the control overour students.
It's about wanting tofacilitate those things, but it
needs to be doable for us and itneeds to be done in a way that
we can weave it into oureveryday practice.
So it needs to be doable and,you know, tangible and all of
(08:13):
those things.
So we need to upgrade ourinstruction.
We can do this through thetangible tools that we use, like
the actual things that weprovide students to support them
, to contribute, and the waythat we're actually, like,
verbally, tasking students touse these tools.
(08:33):
If you're in the behavior clubthis month, it is all about the
engagement boost, the engagementupgrade and the instruction
upgrade.
So if you're having theseissues that I'm talking about, I
strongly suggest that, insteadof listening to this podcast
episode because I'll be givingyou a few takeaways but if you
really really want to like delvedeep into this and get all of
the strategies, I suggest you goin and log onto the behavior
(08:55):
club and watch those sessions.
They are incredible.
I take you through 12 tools andthen help you apply those to
upgrade your instructions and toget whole class engagement and
just significantly reducelow-level behaviors, off-task
behaviors, disruptive behaviorsand increase all of those
beautiful things that we want,all of those things that are
more aligned with our why,thinking, learning, sharing all
(09:16):
of those things.
So some of these tools andstrategies include quick tallies
and whiteboards and multiplechoice movement and show me
cards, shout it out, sticky noteslams which is one of my
favorite using sentence startersand more.
So I've got 12 tools there thatwe can use to help to boost
(09:38):
that whole class engagement.
But for the purposes of thispodcast of, of course, you can't
see the actual training, but Ijust want to give you a taste.
So I'm going to go through howI upgraded my instruction using
just a few of those strategies.
So, and tell me if I mean tellme gosh, you can't tell me.
Obviously it's a one-wayconversation, but, uh, pop into
(10:01):
my inbox.
I'm more than happy to hear ifthis does resonate with you at
all.
But when I was struggling withwhole class engagement, my
questioning of my studentsalways sounded a little bit like
this like who can tell me whatthe main message of this text is
?
Who can find the simile?
Hands up if you can find themistake in this sentence.
Who might know what we have towrite next?
(10:24):
And all of these questions haveone thing in common that
they're really vague, they'rereally passive and they're open
invitations for students to poptheir hand up and contribute.
So those first five were likeall over this.
They were sweet yeah, I've gotit, miss.
Like there's the simile, butthe only ones that are RSVPing
(10:45):
to those invitations are thosesame five students.
We're not getting any otherstudents if we're putting out
those questions.
So we need to zhuzh this up.
We need to boost the way thatwe are requesting whole class
engagement or encouraging wholeclass engagement, not in a way
that's like power over hey, ifyou don't contribute and you
(11:06):
don't answer me when I call yourname out of this random picker,
then I'm going to make a phonecall home and tell your parent
or carer that you're notengaging.
Like that's not going to helpus meet our actual goal of
engagement and learning and allof those wonderful things.
The goal for us givinginstructions should be to make
them clear and they should beexplicit actions that every
(11:29):
single student in the room isrequired to follow.
So this is what I mean.
I'm going to give you twoexamples of how I can upgrade
the instructions that I justtold you.
So all of those ones that kindof sounded like like what's the
main message?
Who can find the simile?
Hands up, blah, blah, blah.
I'm going to show you how Iwould upgrade those using some
(11:49):
of those tools.
So, one of the old instructionswho can tell me what the main
message of this text is?
That's passive, that's vague,open invitation.
I might have a few studentsputting their hands up and
saying, oh, the main message isthat, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.
Instead of that, I mightupgrade my instruction to
involve the whole class and benon-verbally expecting my
(12:12):
students Like that expectationis being reinforced that every
single one of them is going toengage.
So I might say write the mainmessage of the text on your slip
and swap it with your partnerImmediately.
There's an expectation of everysingle student then to be
telling me what the main messageof the text is.
It takes a little bit longer todo that, but you're going to
(12:34):
get this richness in thediscussion.
So they're writing their mainmessage on the slip of paper
that you give them and they'reswapping it with their partner.
That's another one of thestrategies.
Mini slips is what I use.
The next one is write the mainmessage of the text on a sticky
note and stick it up on theboard.
Or write the main message ofthe text on a sticky note and
stick it on your forehead, orwrite the main message of the
(12:56):
text on a sticky note and put itin this box as I go around and
I'm going to read out a few fromthat box.
It's something incrediblyexplicit, tangible.
Every single student isrequired and expected to do that
, and you are immediately, andsome students might not be able
to do it.
Some students might be stuckwith what a main message is.
(13:17):
Some students might strugglewith identifying the main
message, but immediately whatyou're doing is seeing who
actually is struggling and who'sjust opting out of the
conversation.
So it's just brilliant for usto be able to like look around
the room and see who's notwriting on their sticky note and
that's a student that I cantalk to a little bit later
(13:38):
rather than going.
Okay, well, there's 25 otherstudents here who aren't
contributing, so I'm just goingto assume that they know what
the main message is, because Ican't talk to 25 students about
their engagement.
The next one might be write oneword on your whiteboard that
best sums up the text, and whenI count down from three, you're
going to flip it over and holdit up for me Again at a glance,
just around the room, you'll beable to see what students are
(14:00):
thinking.
You'll be able to like, read itagain.
That one actually doesn't takethat much longer.
They've got their little miniwhiteboard or they've got a
piece of paper.
You don't have to do anythingfancy.
They write their word on theirpaper or their whiteboard, they
flip it up and you can be like,oh, jenny, that's a great idea.
You know, like, yes, thatword's fantastic, pete, that
one's fantastic, yes, james,awesome.
And you're just able to thenfacilitate this beautiful
(14:23):
discussion around the mainmessage of the text from the
ideas that you've gotten, notfrom five students who might
contribute every single lesson,but you're then able to pick
different words from differentstudents that you might not hear
from, and you can give themthat positive feedback.
You can build their confidence,which is something that's so
beautiful.
Another one you can say what'sthe main message.
(14:44):
I'll give you one minutethinking time and then be ready
to discuss, because one of thestrategies is as well one of the
tool, like the engagementtoolbox strategies is just to
give them a little bit more time.
You don't always have to dosomething that's like really
tangible that every singlestudent does Sometimes.
Just giving a little bit morethinking time allows those
(15:05):
students who require a littlebit of more like time to process
their ideas and then formulatetheir ideas and, you know, say
their ideas and feel confidentin that.
It just allows them to be ableto contribute, which is
sometimes just enough to getthat discussion a little bit
more rich and meaningful.
So those are four ideas on howyou can flip something like who
(15:26):
can tell me what the mainmessage of this text is into
something that is upgraded andimmediately you're shifting the
expectation from hey, openinvitation, who wants to come
along and who wants to tell mesomething, to hey, like, write
it on your, write it on yourwhiteboard, write on your sticky
note.
Here's something tangible thatyou can do to show me that you
(15:47):
are engaging and you'relistening and you're a part of
this conversation, in this, inthis classroom.
So the next one who can find thesimile?
Oh God, I said I don't know howmany times I've said that in my
career honestly who can findthe simile?
Who can find the metaphor?
Who can tell me what themetaphor is?
English teacher things.
So instruction, upgrade writethe simile on your whiteboard.
(16:07):
When the timer buzzes, you'regoing to hold it up, so give
them a really specific amount oftime, so they know exactly how
much time they have to be ableto find that simile, write it on
their whiteboard and they canflip it when the timer buzzes.
I love this, again, because youcan look across the room and at
a glance be able to say, yep,you've all got the simile.
I think we can all tick off theoutcome that you know what a
(16:28):
simile is Fantastic everybody.
Well done.
So again, you're just takingthe temperature of the whole
class.
You might be able to see acouple of students who need to
have a little bit moreinformation around it.
You might see the whole classis mixing up similes and
metaphors, so you have torevisit that.
So it's really good just totake the temperature.
The next one find the simile.
(16:48):
You're going to shout it out asa class when the timer gets to
zero or when I count down fromthree, three, two, one go and
they will tell you the simileall at once.
I love the whole class shoutedouts because you are not like
it's like low risk for students,but you're still getting like
the energy up and students arecontributing more, and it's
(17:09):
something that's really clearand tangible.
The next one write the simileon the sticky note.
When you're done, pop it onyour forehead and you can put a
little time timer there.
You can give them a timeframeor you can not, like it just
depends on what you want to do.
But I love the popping it ontheir forehead thing because it
just it brings a little bit ofnovelty and there's a little bit
of a laugh.
(17:32):
I was talking to people theother day cause I popped up on
my Instagram story like thesecelebration cards that I made
and they're really cheesy.
There's like 40 of them, thingslike the participation potato
and like they're little kind ofcelebration cards that you can
give to students.
That like I was trying to thinkof ways that I could replace
like tangible rewards, but stilldo something that is fun and
like builds community and givestudents a little bit of
(17:55):
recognition, just having a laugh, right, and not just things
like, okay, you've gotten an Ain your in your assignment, so I
created these celebration cards.
Right, they're not availablejust yet, so don't ask me.
Don't ask me.
At the moment I still have topop them up on my.
Like.
Shopping in the baby club notnot happening yet October the
1st, anyway.
So these celebration cards arehilarious and I love it because
(18:16):
I had a bunch of teachers replyto me saying, oh my gosh, my
year tens would think these wereso cheesy, but they would be
trying to collect every singleone of them and I love it and I
feel like this is Like andthat's who I created it for,
right, the middle schoolers whothink they're too cool but they
(18:36):
think it's going to be a laugh.
Or you know, like I'm dorky,miss English, and I come along
with these cars and they can.
You know, like we're buildingthat rapport because they're
mocking me a little bit and,like you know, I'm playing it up
and anyway.
So I absolutely love anythingthat's kind of building that
rapport in the I hope I'm makingany sense whatsoever but like
(18:59):
we're building rapport not byhey, what's your brother's name?
What, what's your favoritemovie?
Like we're building rapport inthe everyday, through these
micro moments that are justwonderful for building rapport.
And in these instructions itdoes the same thing.
Like you're having a bit of alaugh with your students.
They're popping on theirforehead, their fingers a bit
cheesy, but even though thefingers a bit dorky and cheesy,
(19:20):
they're still doing it andthey're having a laugh at their
mates, and so I just loveanything that embeds rapport
building naturally and gives usan opportunity to have a laugh
with our class while still kindof staying on track with the
learning.
Anyway, that was a really bigtangent.
The fourth, fourth thing, thefourth instruction upgrade for
(19:40):
who can find the simile is justdraw a picture on your
whiteboard that represents thesimile.
There are countless ways that Icould instruction upgrade the
two instructions that I havegone through.
So who can find the simile andwhat's the main message?
There are so many things, butthese instruction upgrades are
just so you can do like as many,like there's so many options,
right, using those tools that Iprovided.
(20:00):
But they're just us beingreally explicit with students
around what we expect.
We expect their engagement, weexpect their attention, we
expect their involvement and notin a way that is high stakes,
but in a way that's woven intothe lesson and instruction
really beautifully and naturally, because this should not feel
(20:21):
like an extra thing on yourplate.
That is not what I'm about.
The things I teach are thingsthat just can become a normal,
everyday part of yourpedagogical practice.
At the end of the day, if it'snot realistic, you're not going
to do it.
And if you're not going to doit, then what's the point of
trying?
It needs to be possible for usto do in the context of being
teachers and having a millionand one things going on.
(20:43):
If you are one of my behaviorclubbers, along with that whole
engagement, boost training,please go and watch that.
If any of this resonated,because it's so good, you've
also got a bunch of plug andplay resources just print, use.
You can immediately upgradeyour instruction.
I try to give you as much stuffas possible so you don't have
to reinvent the wheel.
It's better that I do it ratherthan 500 of you do it.
(21:06):
At the time of recording this,the BehaviClub is currently
closed as a wait list, but youcan join the $1 kickstart at any
time if you want to work withme and just get a taste of the
flipping magic that you can makewith your classroom management
by using easy and tangiblestrategies, just like the ones
that I discussed in this podcastepisode.
If you haven't joined thekickstart yet, come and do it
(21:28):
anytime.
Come and join $1.
And it is like golden.
It really, really is, and Icould have charged like a whole
course cost for this, but Idecided to create and put
something out into the worldthat can show you that things
aren't hopeless and there is somuch that you can achieve in
(21:49):
your classroom with reallysimple, quick strategies.
Because that feeling ofhopelessness that we can get
when it comes to classroommanagement is demoralizing, and
I wanted to have something topoint teachers towards, because
I get so many messages ofteachers saying I don't know
what to try, I don't know whatto do, I feel hopeless, I don't
know how long I can stay in theprofession, and I wanted
somewhere to point teacherstowards that was like you can
(22:12):
sit down, you can do these five,10 minute sessions and walk
into your classroom tomorrowfeeling a thousand percent
better about the position thatyou're in with your classroom
management, and I wholeheartedlybelieve that.
So you can go tothe-unteachablescom forward
slash, kickstart and you canjoin that at any time that you
feel like you want to come anddo that.
(22:34):
It's brilliant.
So, yeah, that's all for thisweek.
Beautiful humans, if you headinto your classroom this week
and try that instruction upgrade, please don't be shy in popping
into my Insta DMs or emailingme and letting me know how it
all goes.
I would absolutely love, love,love, to hear about it and
celebrate you and the changesthat you're making in your
(22:55):
practice.
And, as always, if you lovedthis episode, it would mean the
absolute world to me.
If you just went and gave me aquick review five stars
preferably.
If you went and gave me areview, it would mean a lot
because teachers need thissupport.
They really do, and the podcastis the best way that teachers
can get the free and on the gosupport that I freaking wish
(23:19):
that I had when I was really inthe thick of it.
So if you would just give me alovely review it means so much
or even just send it to ateacher friend, make sure you're
following along all of thethings.
Anyway, I will see you nextweek.
I promise I won't ghost youagain and bye for now, lovely
teacher.
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