The Unteachables Podcast

#123: How to stand tall and confident in front of your class (even in the midst of some tough as heck behaviours)

• Claire English • Season 6 • Episode 123

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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


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Speaker 1:

Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the Unteachables podcast.

Speaker 1:

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. G'day wonderful teachers.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Unteachables podcast. I'm your host, claire, and if you're here for the first time, what we do over on the Unteachables podcast is just go through some classroom management stuff. It's pretty simple, but nobody does it, nobody teaches us these things. So that is what I do here on the podcast and I am so happy to have you here, and in today's episode I'm going to be guiding you through how to stand tall and confident in front of a class, even in the midst of some tough as hell behaviors. One thing right that nobody tells you before you walk into a classroom for the first time is how much behavior is going to challenge you. They don't just don't tell you that. They don't tell you how much it's going to trigger you, challenge you, how hard it's going to be to self-regulate, how you'll be walking out of that classroom of a really tough lesson and you'll just be questioning yourself and your abilities and everything. It's just nobody teaches you that, nobody tells you that, nobody prepares you for that. I don't think anybody, even if they did tell you that, I don't think anybody could truly prepare you for the feelings, the heaviness that comes with walking out of a classroom that you have felt has just walked all over you, or just you know, oh, they didn't care about the lesson, they just spoke over me, they threw their paper around, they threw their work around. They didn't do it, they didn't complete their work. You know, like all of those things, no one really prepares you and nobody can prepare you for how demoralizing and how challenging that can feel when you are preparing to start teaching.

Speaker 1:

I feel like behavior is almost spoken about, like as this external thing to us. You know like that student behaves and then you know the student does X and then we do Y. But there's this space between the X and the Y and it's how it makes us feel, how it triggers our nervous system, how it can diminish our confidence and how it can make us feel like we're not good enough and how we can feel just totally out of control. That's what happens in that space between X and Y. So it's not like that behavior happens and then we do this in response. It's like that behavior happens and then we go on this rollercoaster if we're not confident and don't feel capable and aren't prepared for it, before we even get to that why? And that really does impact the way we respond? Because we go into our classroom with our nervous systems already wired for fight, flight and freeze, like we feel out of control. So our nervous systems are wired because in a classroom of 30 students, we know that we are just one behavior away from feeling all those feelings, from losing it, from feeling disempowered publicly, maybe feeling embarrassed publicly.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I started teaching 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 were turning 18 that year, so we weren't that too far off in age. Like some of those students I would have gone to school with and been friends with, like I didn't teach in an area that I grew up in, luckily, I mean, I did, but not in the same suburb, so obviously I didn't know those students. I didn't go to the same school as those students. I didn't operate in the same circles as those students.

Speaker 1:

But what I'm saying is that we could have we definitely could have Having confidence to be able to approach behaviors of students in a class. Does not come like that, does not come naturally, does not. Isn't something that we can really prepare for? Like that was freaking tough. How do you have authority in that situation? How do you have authority in that situation? How do you establish credibility in that situation? But you know that feeling of trying to approach challenging behavior in a lesson when you have spectators who are ready to jump in or start acting in challenging ways themselves. You know it's just. It's just not something that you can explain to somebody who has not been a teacher and maybe that's why we aren't prepared. Maybe that's why nobody is telling us because I bet my bottom dollar that the tutor who tried to teach me how to approach challenging behavior hadn't stepped foot in a classroom for a decade at least minimum, like probably three decades.

Speaker 1:

So one thing you need when you're going into these situations day in, day out is confidence, and I'm talking oodles of it. You need the confidence to be able to stand there in front of these students and be able to approach behavior in a way that is calm and considered and all of the things. And confidence comes with knowledge and it comes with support and it comes with having strategies that you know you can stand there and be consistent with. That will weather the storm with you. But if you're not getting taught those things, it can be a bit hard. So let's dig into some of those things, because I want you to walk away from this chat today with your head held high, feeling like you can feel more confident in front of those 30 kids.

Speaker 1:

So confidence First up. Own your personality. I don't care if you're quiet as a mouse. I don't care, that doesn't matter. Don't let anybody get in your head and tell you that you need to be louder or project your voice more when you are freaking, trying but that's just not your voice, like, maybe your voice is just not that loud. Don't let people tell you to be stricter or more intense when that's not you. You cannot develop your confidence as a teacher in the classroom if you're constantly feeling less than constantly feeling like you are innately crap at classroom management because of a personality trait that you can't change about yourself. So just please know, before we go into this, like the kind of nuts and bolts of this episode, the bulk of this episode that these strategies have nothing to do with that Confidence doesn't mean changing your personality and being really big and loud when that's not you. So own your personality. That's the first step. Own it, embrace it. Know that you can beautifully and confidently classroom manage, no matter the kind of person that you are.

Speaker 1:

Second, the second thing that I would like you to do is get really good at these three non-verbals that will send messages every second you're in the classroom that you are credible and in control. The first thing is mind how you're standing. So get your posture straight. Get your posture tall. Weight evenly distributed on both 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 micro things, like like they're not going to matter, but all of these things are sending constant nonverbal messages that you are credible and that you are confident and that you are in 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.

Speaker 1:

Like you know, I feel like they can smell it out when you're feeling really stressed are still paused and poised and front and I say front and center because the amount of observations that I've done in classrooms where teachers are not that confident and you can see it because they are leaning against their desk or they're hiding away in a corner and then I talk to them about it they have no awareness that they're actually even doing that. So I just say you need to be in your attention spot, which is front and center. So I like to I don't know if I'd like to say fake it till you make it when it comes to that stuff, but your non-verbals are something that you can craft and keep practicing them, keep crafting them. So, front, center, posture, all of the things. The next non-verbal that I want you to get really good at doing and get really good at practicing is just minding your volume and how you're talking in the room, so really getting conscious of when I'm talking. Am I using my public voice or am I using my private voice? Am I pausing when I want students to listen? Am I pairing that with being really credible? And still, you know the way you're standing.

Speaker 1:

A great example of this is just say we are standing in the front of the room and we're waiting for students to be listening to our teacher-led instruction and instead of pausing, instead of modeling the volume that we want to see from our students, we're standing up the front going you're right, quiet, you. I'm still waiting. Year eight, year eight year eight I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting. I'm sorry if I scared you just then, because I'm watching my recording and I can see the volume just go ping. I hope you're not like volume all the way up and you're, you know, having a run and anyway, yes, so making sure that you are modeling the volume that you want to see from your students.

Speaker 1:

Another example of this is just say you are um, walking around the room, students are working away and they're doing their independent work and things are nice and quiet and a student puts their hand up. If you go over to that student or if you just say, you yell over the room like what's up, katie? Like that is going to be quite dysregulating for the classroom and that's going to give them a nonverbal permission to then start talking. In the same way, what you want to do is you want to make sure you go over to that student, kneel next to them and then talk in a private voice that can only be heard and I say only be heard by you and that student. But you know, our classrooms aren't the size of a football field. I size of a football field. I just mean really modeling the quiet and calm volume that you would like from the rest of the students, or that's kind of just sending a message saying like this is still quiet time when you're approaching a student in that way. And then the next thing is with your non-verbals is minding how you're moving around the room so slowly, quietly, calmly. Again, if you've got the students working away on their own independent tasks and you would like them to keep doing that, running from pillar to post is going to be quite dysregulating and it's going to be sending non-verbal, mixed messages to your students that you're not expecting them to be still and quiet.

Speaker 1:

What you will see happening and I've watched it happen in dozens and dozens and dozens of observations that I've, you know, had with teachers over the years and I wanted to say really lovely observations not going in, you know, pointing fingers and passing blame. I'm talking about really wonderful, supportive, well-received observations I've had with teachers. What I see is them doing that and running around the classroom. When students and of course they are like you know you're trying to get everything done. You're giving students a pen and you're going to the bin and doing all these things and trying to write on the board. And so when I see teachers doing that, what I see is then students getting out of their seats and going to the bin. I see students getting out of their seats and going over to their mates.

Speaker 1:

I see that happening far more often than if teachers are really paying attention to how they're moving around the room, because the second you slow it down, the second you use your pace, your proximity, your body language when you're walking around the room, that is constantly sending nonverbal messages that you are expecting them to continue to be engaged and sit in their seats quietly and do their work. So just mind how you're moving around the room. So those three non-verbals again that will help you to really feel confident in front of a classroom and use your credible body language Mind how you're standing, mind how you're talking and mind how you're moving around the room. And every single one of these things is called embodying the credible, like teaching persona. And all of those concepts are drawn from Michael Grinder's Envoy, which is all about nonverbal body language in the classroom. Envoy was just such a pivotal thing in my teaching career. You can look at the book now. I think there's.

Speaker 1:

I was, I had the privilege of being able to do like proper in-person training, which I think it needs to happen sometimes when it comes to these things, to see it happening in real, in you know, real time, um, but there is a book that you can get around and voice stuff as well. But all of these things, done intentionally and done consistently, will craft a teaching presence where you can stand confidently in front of a class and co-regulate and mitigate a lot of the behaviors that you're seeing, where you are non-verbally modeling the behaviors that you want to see, where you can then calmly move to address some of the challenges that are in front of you 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 I support if you're ever in doubt, just tell yourself everything I want right now in this class. I need to model, I need to mirror what my message is. If my message is that I want this class to be nice and quiet and settled, I need to mirror that. If I run around the classroom frantic and anxious and in a hurry and trying to get things done and I'm feeling, you know, really discombobulated, that is the energy that I am putting out there. That's what I am, you know, mirroring to my students. And, by the way, this is not some who, who like manifestation. I'm not saying manifestations, who who? I'm just saying that this is tangible 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 exactly what we want to see and us co-regulating with our students.

Speaker 1:

And the last one that I love to tell people to remind themselves is what I am saying I must show, because often we send a lot of mixed messages when it comes to our non-verbals. Like, for example, like we want students to be listening to us up the front with our instructions, but then we're giving students a pile of papers saying, take one, pass one along. So all of a sudden their attention is on the papers that we're passing around and we're sending those really mixed messages that what we are talking about at the front isn't as important because we are giving them something else to distract them. So what I am saying I must show this right here is just one of the things. All of these non-verbals and what we've discussed today is just one of the things that we can do to mitigate some of the low-level behaviors that we see in our classrooms. And it is step two in my classroom compass method, which is about reduce, and where we work on that really proactive level when it comes to reducing disruptive and distracting and all those behaviors that we're seeing in the classroom. When we embody the credible, we really can immediately see a significant shift in the behaviors in front of us, so much so that I get messages constantly I'm talking like at least one message a week for the past two, three years from people who have been through the classroom management lab or the low level behavior bootcamp, saying that these non-verbals alone have completely transformed the behavior in their classroom. So please go and try these, reflect on your own practice, go into the class, like your classroom tomorrow, and just think, okay, I'm going to take, I'm just going to take note of my body language, I'm going to take note of my non-verbals and, kind of like, just tweak them and play with them and see how that kind of has a knock-on effect with the behaviors in the classroom. Just go in and just collect some data on that and just see how you go. Okay, that is it for this week.

Speaker 1:

However, I have got a little favor to ask you. If you enjoyed this episode, would you kindly do me a solid and go over to your podcasting app. Just click on this episode, go to my podcast and give me a review. It would mean the absolute world to me, because classroom management stuff is obviously something that a lot of teachers need support with and, uh, you know I'm here to reach as many teachers that need this support as possible, so please leave me a lovely review. Um, I read all of them and it would just mean the absolute world to me and that's it really. That's all for this week, and you can also do me another solid and make sure you are subscribed to the podcast and come back next week. That is it. That is all I ask. It would be wonderful to see you there and be able to continue to support you, lovely teacher. Okay, until then, have a lovely week and I will see you in the same place, hopefully, and at the same time next week. Bye for now.

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Claire English

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