The Unteachables Podcast

#120: Your teaching IS your classroom management. Here are 3 ways to make it work for you

• Claire English • Season 6 • Episode 120

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You’re trying to support every student – but the second you lean in to help one, the rest of the class starts to drift. The volume rises. The off-task behaviour begins. And you feel pulled in every direction.
It’s overwhelming. It’s exhausting. And it’s not sustainable.

In this episode, we break down why this keeps happening – and what to do instead.

IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:

  • Why teaching and behaviour management can’t be separated
  • The number one trap teachers fall into when trying to support everyone
  • What true differentiation looks like (and why it should remove you, not rely on you)
  • Easy scaffolds and strategies that keep the whole class on track – without burning you out

If this scenario hit home, you’ll love my free training Turn Your Teaching into a Classroom Management Machine. I’ll break down exactly how teaching and learning can actively reduce behaviour challenges – and how to build a classroom where every student knows what to do without needing you constantly.

Head to the-unteachables.com/learn to enrol!


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

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Speaker 1:

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 old behavior nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behavior and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to, because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game, changing strategies and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and, dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode. Hello, wonderful teachers. I am Claire English, I'm your host and this is the Unteachables podcast.

Speaker 1:

Just in case you pressed play and you weren't sure what you're listening to, I thought I'd introduce myself. Today. I am going to walk you through a scenario. It was originally a question inside of my behavior club community from one of my fabulous members, but it just resonated with so many of my members, so I thought I'd bring it to the podcast today because I feel like you may see yourself in this scenario, even just a little bit.

Speaker 1:

So here's what it is this teacher in a classroom of 32, she wants to help everyone. Of course she does. That's our job, right. So she tries to go around and spend time with individuals and work through their problems and support them to get where they need to be and teach them and, you know, give that really individualized instruction. That sometimes really does need to happen, that really individual input when students just aren't getting something or they need to, you know, get somewhere and they just can't, they're stuck. Of course we want to do that, right? Um, it's our job, we need to teach our kids. But she is becoming overwhelmed because in doing so, she notices that the rest of the class is constantly getting off track. They are so reliant on her or they're just taking the opportunity to have a chit chat because she's talking to individual students and not paying attention to the rest of the class. The behavior of the rest of the class when we're sitting there and we're talking to individual students, especially if we're doing it a lot what happens is we're not using our proximity, we're not using our presence, we're not moving around the room in a way that is getting students on track non-verbally. Maybe some of the students are waiting for their turn to get that one-on-one support because they're not sure what to do. And if students do become like really reliant on that teacher instruction, that really one-to-one instruction, they are going to continue to wait for that one-on-one support. But either way, or maybe some students is getting on with the work like that can also happen, like so maybe some students if it's having a chit chat, maybe some students are waiting for their turn.

Speaker 1:

Either way, this cycle, this situation is so overstimulating and so overwhelming for us as teachers because we're only one person, we're not an octopus with eight different hands and we can go around and support everybody. It's chaotic, it's sweat inducing, it's overwhelming and overstimulating and all of the things I'm just picturing myself right now in a class of 32, year eight, nearly next to a student that really needs my support. And as I'm trying to support this student, as I'm trying to explain and you know, use my thinking brain I'm becoming more dysregulated because behind me I can hear the chaos building and building, I can hear the volume rising, I can hear everybody off task. It is so hard and then all of a sudden you're turning around everybody quiet, get on with your work and like it's just a mess. It's just so hard. Like anybody who isn't a teacher, I just cannot understand the feeling of trying to balance all of those things at once Like you're spinning. You're spinning 50 plates at once in a classroom.

Speaker 1:

This scenario here, and just that challenge in general, reinforces one of the most important things about my classroom management approach you cannot separate behavior management with teaching and learning. They are interconnected and intertwined. It also reinforces the fact we just can't be approaching differentiation as something that's like oh, support for this student, then support for another student. It needs to be something that we are authentically embedding into our planning, and that is what true differentiation is. It's not about giving students different work that suits their learning needs. It's about doing things within our teaching that supports every single student at different levels so important, by the way. I am not talking about doing things that take a million years to plan for. I'm talking about doing things that are embedded into our day-to-day planning that actually take a lot of the pressure away and a lot of the time away. So teaching and learning and lesson planning and scaffolding and all those things related to actually teaching a lesson. They're actually a big part of my classroom compass model for classroom management. It's actually stop number two where I talk about all of the things that reduce behavioral challenges in the classroom. It is such a huge piece of the puzzle and nobody teaches us the connection between these things and it just drives me mad because I just know how impactful and how incredible it is once we've gotten this stuff sorted. So let's talk about true differentiation for a second.

Speaker 1:

True differentiation or, if you are in different parts of the world, I think you call it adaptive teaching now, and I think the shift was just because people were misunderstanding what true differentiation is. So true differentiation looks like this removing ourselves as much as possible from the situation because it puts a lot of support in place Scaffolds, you know, like it puts the supports in place. We're not trying to climb the side of a building to get to the roof. We've got a scaffold so we can climb up to the roof. You know it should feel like having a bunch of teaching assistants in the room that will non-verbally explain and re-explain things. And true differentiation I feel like I'm always struggling to say differentiation. I say things so quickly as an Aussie and I feel like it just gets lost on. I really hope you don't get lost when I'm talking to you and true differentiation.

Speaker 1:

It looks like supporting students who need it the most, without us needing to sit there with them and ignore the rest of the class accidentally or to create that chaos because we're trying to move around. You know to every single student to support them individually. It should empower them and it should support them to be able to do that task with as minimal involvement from us in the moment as possible, because we've already put the scaffolds and supports in place for them to be able to successfully achieve that task. So differentiation should mean taking yourself out of the equation as much as possible. I always know that I've made a successful lesson when I can sit back and almost like have I don't know my job done for me in the lesson by the things that I've put out there and I just I don't mean obviously I can walk away, but I can focus on the things that help me to then manage the lesson rather than try to facilitate every single little thing, because I've already got the things in place Right.

Speaker 1:

So an example of what this looks like in the day to day scaffolding as much as possible, as many little scaffolds as you can create, and they can be subject specific. So the scaffolds that I have, I don't have to redesign the wheel every single time. I teach them because I've got things in place Like so. That's why it takes so much less time when it comes to planning and, you know, actually running things in the room, because I've got them in place. I might just have to tweak things that are specific to the actual task, things like writing scaffolds. So if you teach any form of writing, like peel scaffold or the burger model, those are all scaffolds that support students to create a sentence or a paragraph in a way that is well structured and meets the criteria that you're setting.

Speaker 1:

Sentence starters you know taking any of that kind of hesitation away from students at the start. So giving them a variety of sentence starters to choose from so they can pick that and then continue the sentence, every student can then be successful in some way, shape or form. Think charts or thought organizers so if you're asking them to analyze a certain text and you want them to pick out a piece of textual evidence and explain why that you know proves a point or how that supports the main message or the question or whatever it might be. You can use that think chart or thought organizer for them to be able to go through the text and fill in that thought organizer so you know that they've hit those steps. You can then have prompts embedded into that. You can have sentence starters embedded into that. You can have little you know like where to look, parts Like you can just as much support as they need you can embed into the scaffold.

Speaker 1:

So the one thing about these scaffolds is just think about a house. Right, you've got a house that's being built. That scaffold around that house is not intended to be there forever and the scaffolding does get shed away. You know, as the house gets built it's not always there. The roof might be tiled so that part of the scaffold can be removed. You know the outer scaffolding can be removed when different parts are done and then when you've got that final finished product you don't need the scaffolding there anymore because it is done. You know the house has been built, metaphorically speaking, with the student. Or you know they've got the skills to write that essay. So just say you've got a writing scaffold. Just say you've got a pill paragraph writing scaffold. Because I don't know, I think most people will be familiar-ish with a pill paragraph scaffold. So you've got point, example, explanation and then link.

Speaker 1:

Some students might be pretty confident in their writing and they might just need a little bit of support structuring their paragraph. So you might have a scaffold that just has the P, e, e, l just to guide them and then some lines for them to write on. Some students might be far less confident with that, so they might need just like a couple of reminders on what they you know what they have to write. Or some students might need just like a verbal reminder on you know the points there, remember like you can start it like this Other students might need a lot more support so they might have a choice of five different sentence starters for each of the P, e, e and L. Some students might need that. Plus they might need a little bit of an like a little bit of information on where they can find that example. Or maybe you give them the example, you give them some information and they just put that into a paragraph because they're still really learning the nuts and bolts of paragraphing. So you can do one scaffold and you can shave it back in a variety of ways and literally just delete parts of the scaffold and then print out those. And then the students you can just pan them out as you go through.

Speaker 1:

So it's not about giving students different things. It's about providing a scaffold that's going to support every single student in different ways. You can also have that same scaffold but extending students. Maybe you add another E and E in there. So not only are they doing one example and one effect of that, they're doing the point and then they're finding multiple examples and multiple points of evidence to support the point that they're making. So it shouldn't just be there to limit. It's not there to limit. Well, it's never there to limit. It's there to support students to every single student in that class to meet the outcome of the lesson in a way that is working for them. You know that works for their specific level that they're working at at that moment, but everyone can be successful in that and it can push those students up as well. So it's not to limit them at all. So just have a think like what scaffolds can you provide?

Speaker 1:

And the reason these work is because, instead of having to go around and say, okay, you're struggling with this sentence. How can you get started, jerry? How can you get started? Like what can you say? So you're struggling with this sentence. How can you get started, jerry? How can you get started? Like what can you say? So you're sitting there with that student. You're supporting them one-to-one, instead of you sitting there and supporting Jerry one-to-one, while Stacey is up the back waiting with her hand up because she also doesn't know how to start her sentence. Around the example that she's found. You're able to go around. Stacey has a hand up. You're able to point to the scaffold in the exact part that she's stuck on. Jerry puts his hand up. You're able to go over and go oh, give a bit of a thumbs up and then point to the part where he's stuck on, so that scaffold is working for you.

Speaker 1:

However, you need to remember that any scaffold that you create, you have to teach. Whatever you want your students to do, it must be first taught. So giving them a pill scaffold with some sentence starters is not going to work alone. You'll have to do the groundwork on that, project it up on the boards and then model it first yourself. Okay, this is a scaffold.

Speaker 1:

What we're going to be doing this lesson is you're going to be learning how to write an epic paragraph. I'm going to be going through it first and I'm going to be showing you exactly how to use this paragraph scaffold to make an epic paragraph. Then you'll rub off what you've done on the board and you're going to say okay, now you're going to show me how to do it as a class. That's your job First. We've got the P. Who wants to come up? I'll give you the marker. Who wants to come up and show me what you would write for P? Fantastic. Or you'll say okay, jerry, what sentence data would you use for the next section? Why would you use that sentence data? Why would that work? Fantastic. Who can follow on from Jerry's sentence? Becky, fantastic, thank you, that's wonderful.

Speaker 1:

So you're building that together. That's called joint constructing. So it's what's that? What is that Me? I do, we do, you do so. It's that kind of philosophy of scaffolding. So I'll do it first and I'll show you. We will do it together and then you can go off and do it independently. So then you're building their knowledge around the scaffold and they feel more confident in doing it. There's no point giving them a scaffold and expecting them to know, because we're just assuming that they know how to fill that in, but it's not necessarily what they're going to be able to do, and then students will hopefully well, a lot of them will be able to get on with it independently, and that will then give you space to work with the students who are really, really struggling, if they're still not getting it, and just free you up in the lesson so you're able to feel more confident and calm and in control of that space because you've got things working for you. You have got everything running smoothly and that's why I call so.

Speaker 1:

I've got this free training coming up and it's called your classroom management machine. I turn your teaching into a classroom management machine and that's why I call it that, because all of these working cogs, all of these pieces work together so perfectly. So it's not just about the behavior happening and then we're responding reactively to it. It's this beautiful proactive way of approaching behavior that works for us and works with us, and we can go in more confident and capable and just feel amazing in the classroom because we've got things covered. So saying that, if you want to learn more about what I call the learning link and all of the other parts of this model. I'll be giving you a rundown in this free training. It's coming up at the end of the month, called Turn your Teaching Into A Classroom Management Machine.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, this session was so good. Last year A lot of people would be like I would have paid for that. That is the best training I have received in my career around classroom management and it was literally just an introductory free training around my four-step classroom management approach. But yeah, come along. I would absolutely love to nerd out with you in person about this. I would love to spend some time together and walk you through this just the stuff that people really deserve to know. Like it's just ridiculous that we aren't taught this stuff, even the differentiation stuff.

Speaker 1:

I remember running that for the first time in my course, in my training course, my classroom management lab course, and someone was like why the hell have I not been taught this sooner? And they had been teaching for 20 years. I'm like I don't know. I just don't know it. Just it's such a travesty.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, come along to that. It would be brilliant to see you there. You can register by heading to the link the-unteachablescom. Forward slash learn. I have two different times that you can enroll in, so hopefully you can come live, and I'll also be giving everybody a free gift for showing up and coming live on the day. But, of course, if you can't make it, I'll be releasing the replay as well. So come along, check it out, and it would be just freaking wonderful to see you there.

Speaker 1:

But until then, this week, just give it a go, you know, just think, okay, this is what I'm teaching today.

Speaker 1:

What might be the questions that I get? What hands are going to go up and how can I put a scaffold, a model, in place this lesson so I can step away a little bit, I can take a deep breath and I can just have things working for me in the lesson. And if that works for you, if you try it and it goes well, please like reach out on Instagram or my email, claireatthe-unteachablescom. Like, start the conversation with me. Let me know if that worked for you or you know what you did in your classroom. I absolutely love, love, love having that chat. This is not a podcast that I just want to go out into the, you know, into the universe, and never have discussions around. So come and have a chat with me and yeah, that is all for this week. Thank you for coming and spending some time with me and I can't wait to do it again next week at the same time, in the same place, on the Unteachables podcast. Bye for now, teachers.

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Claire English

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