The Unteachables Podcast
Welcome to 'The Unteachables Podcast', your go-to resource for practical classroom management strategies and teacher support. I’m your host, Claire English, a passionate secondary teacher and leader turned teacher mentor and author of 'It's Never Just About the Behaviour: A Holistic Approach to Classroom Behaviour Management.' I'm on a mission to help educators like you transform your classrooms, build confidence, and feel empowered.
Why am I here? Not too long ago, I was overwhelmed by low-level classroom disruptions and challenging behaviors. After thousands of hours honing my skills in real classrooms and navigating ups and downs, I’ve become a confident, capable teacher ready to reach every student—even those with the most challenging behaviors. My journey inspired me to support teachers like you in mastering effective classroom strategies that promote compassion, confidence, and calm.
On The Unteachables Podcast, we’ll dive into simple, actionable strategies that you can use to handle classroom disruptions, boost student engagement, and create a positive learning environment.
You'll hear from renowned experts such as:
Bobby Morgan of the Liberation Lab
Marie Gentles, behavior expert behind BBC's 'Don't Exclude Me' and author of 'Gentles Guidance'
Robyn Gobbel, author of 'Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviours'
Dr. Lori Desautels, assistant professor and published author
And many more behaviour experts and mentors.
Angela Watson from the Truth for Teachers Podcast.
Whether you’re an early career teacher, a seasoned educator, or a teaching assistant navigating classroom challenges, this podcast is here to help you feel happier, empowered, and ready to make an impact with every student.
Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode packed with classroom tips and inspiring conversations that make a real difference!
The Unteachables Podcast
#116: Quick Win Challenge! 5 brilliant behaviour reflection strategies you can start using immediately
When I engage with students about their behaviour, it’s often just a conversation between us. But sometimes, having a structured reflection task can make a huge difference.
Reflection is a skill that needs to be taught, modelled, and practised. These tasks help students problem-solve, build self-awareness, and develop emotional regulation. In this episode, I’m sharing five different reflection strategies that can guide students through conflict, help them process their behaviour, and encourage meaningful change.
Listen in as I discuss:
- Why reflection is an essential skill in behaviour conversations. Helping students take ownership of their actions.
- Five practical reflection tasks to use in your classroom. Simple but powerful tools to support student growth.
- How to embed these strategies into everyday behaviour chats. Encouraging accountability and problem-solving.
Mentioned resources:
MASTERCLASS: REAL CONSEQUENCES, REAL CHANGE
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
Welcome to your weekly Classroom Management Quick Win Challenge. True classroom management is not how we address behavior when it pops up. Instead, it is a compounding effect of many, many micro decisions we make in our teaching practice before the behavior even pops up. In these Quick Win episodes, I'm handing over one actionable, small but mighty tool to help you move the needle every single week to stop crowd controlling and to start calmly classroom managing like a pro. Let's dive into this week's game-changing challenge. Hey, wonderful teacher, welcome to this week's quick win episode.
Speaker 1:And today I wanted to talk to you about five different ways to get students thinking about their behavior. So when I'm engaging with students around their behavior and talk to you about five different ways to get students thinking about their behavior. So when I'm engaging with students around their behavior and talking to them about their behavior, it's very often just me chatting with the student. You know nothing too fancy. However, sometimes it is great to have something a little bit more to guide the conversation. Hardwire the skill of reflection, and reflection is a skill. So here are five reflection tasks that I use to help get students thinking about conflict and behavior and their feelings and just encourage problem solving and equip students with those skills. So the first reflection tool that I use is something called problem solving baseball, and you can do this with a student to help them work through a problem or a conflict they're having. They can then do that alone or work through it with a teacher, like it's a really great thing for students to then have under their belts to be able to use independently once they have the skills to do so. But the way that it works is you do the home base, which is pitching the problem. So what's going on? What's the problem you're facing? Then they move to first base what are some options to resolve this problem? From there you can talk to the student about what the best option is. So on second base they write the best option that they have and then on the third base they have to decide what they need to do to action the plan. So I love problem solving baseball because it gets us thinking about problems in a way that is a little bit different. So students will pitch a problem to us and rather than us trying to, you know, talk through things without structure. It just allows us to develop those skills in our students to get them thinking about different options, to get them thinking about the best option for them. It keeps them in their thinking brain rather than their emotional brain, and gets them to action a plan that is going to work for them and is the best option at the time.
Speaker 1:The second reflective task that I use with my students is what I can control. So often we get hung up on the things that we can't control not just our students, but us too. So when students are having difficulty, it's really great to go through an exercise where they can identify the things that they can control in that situation and that they can change, and, of course, the things that aren't in their control and that they can't change. Another reflective tool that I use all of the time is storyboarding. I love to use this with students who they might be a little bit younger, so they might not have the skills yet to really explain and explore what's happened. Or students with additional speech, language and communication needs who, again, might just not have the language or the skills they need to explore conflict or unpack the challenges that they've experienced. The way they do it is just have students, you know, as they're talking through their stories, I might draw a very simple storyboard of the narrative that they're explaining to me. I might stop and clarify. You know I show them the pictures and ask if I've gotten the story right, if it represents accurately what happened. I might get them to say, okay, well, what happened before this scene here? Because there seems to be a scene missing. And you know I'll get them to Then use that storyboard to retell and explain the narrative if they need to, for example in a conflict resolution. I just keep it really minimal, with as few words as possible. I might label with names and simple explanations, and I just love to use it when I'm preparing them for a conflict resolution or after an incident has occurred and I'm really trying to get to the heart of the real conflict, the real problem. What happened? What triggered the behavior to begin with?
Speaker 1:Another one that I love to use are just visuals. So I have some posters available where students can identify their emotions visually. I use a poster where there's a thermometer and lots of emojis around it, so when I'm talking to them about their behavior I can use that flexibly to encourage students to identify the feelings behind the behavior. It just embeds the language of emotional regulation and helps us to reinforce that. The feelings are okay, but the way they behave and how they deal with it is what they need to work on. So really kind of bringing in that emotional literacy and just getting them to try to attach the feelings with the behaviors.
Speaker 1:Before I created these resources that I'm talking about, I also used to use blob tree people. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but I used to love blob tree people. That was also another really lovely visual to get students to identify, like if they were one of the blobs, what would they be and why? I used to use it in learning and behavior. So you know, how did you feel about the lesson? Where do you think you're at with your learning? So visuals in general are just so powerful. But yeah, I use posters where there's a thermometer, lots of emojis and just trying to embed the language of feelings around the behaviors we're talking about.
Speaker 1:The next thing is a behavior think sheet. I always have this to hand. I always have a scaffold of some kind that helps to guide the conversation around their behavior. It's really helpful for students who need that little bit more support and it can be used like a visual reminder. It can be used then when communicating with parents. It can be used as a behavior agreement and it does all of these things while still embedding the language around what's beneath the behavior and thinking more restoratively around what can be done to make things right. It also encourages accountability, which is what we want for our students, because then they can make plans and move forward and make things right and repair, and it reinforces the idea that we are making choices and we can learn to make better choices. So I always have to hand a scaffold, a behavior think sheet. Usually mine will look like you know what happened at the time, what were the feelings, and I'll have like some visuals they can choose from. I'll go through something like you know what actually happened, what choice did we make, what would be a better choice and what skills do I need or what help do I need to get there. So something like that.
Speaker 1:What I want you to know about the last five tools that I've said, most of these can just be done by getting a blank piece of paper and writing it down on those pieces of paper. Like it doesn't have to be flashy. For most things you can just use a pen, a paper and yourself. I don't want you to feel like there's any barriers to you starting this immediately in your practice. Sit down with a student, get out a pen and paper, draw a couple of circles on a page what I can control, what I can't control, or you know, do a couple of faces, or you know, split the page up into four and do four bases and, you know, go through the problem solving baseball Like you can do this with very little resources except for a pen and a paper. So please don't feel like it's blocking you. Go out and try it immediately.
Speaker 1:Even just having that as a visual tool can be so wonderful in your behavior chats with your students. However, if you would just like to grab my reflection scaffolds that I use in my day-to-day practice, if you just want that all done for you, and if you want to bank just to grab and use whenever you need to, all of those that I've spoken about, plus many, many more, are included inside of the behavior club this month. It's it's also included with real consequences, real change, the masterclass. If you are a part of that, that's a part of your resource pack, um, and you can also grab them separately. So I'll pop the note, the links for all of those in the show notes so you can explore those, but it's also good if you want to click on that and then you can actually just see what mine look like and it gives you a bit of an idea about what the actual visual like layout of those might be, because I love a bit of a visual.
Speaker 1:So go there, check it out, let me do the work if you want me to do the work for you. Or, again, as I said, just grab a piece of paper and a pen and put that action, step into practice this week and I can't wait to hear how it all goes. So please always drop me a message on Instagram I'm theunteachables or you can send me an email at claire, at the unteachablesthe-unteachablescom. I am always so happy to hear what you're doing in your classroom, doing in your practice, and how you are just making incredible change. So that's that and until next time, wonderful teacher, have a fabulous week.
