The Unteachables Podcast

#148: If I had a totally unmanageable class, I'd do these 4 things immediately.

• Claire English • Season 7 • Episode 148

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This episode, I’m giving you a front seat to one of the most common questions I get from Behaviour Clubbers, and honestly, it’s one we’ve ALL asked at some point: “What do I do with a class that is just... chaotic?”

We’re talking cultural chaos. The kind of class that leaves you emotionally wrung out, standing at the board yelling instructions to a sea of disengaged students while your nervous system quietly screams.

In this episode, I’m not going to throw another vague strategy at you or tell you to “build relationships” (you’re already doing that). Instead, I’m breaking down exactly what I would do if I had that class and had to make changes immediately.

This one’s especially for you if you’re:

  • Constantly waiting for quiet
  • Feeling frazzled by the end of every lesson
  • Dreading certain classes
  • Questioning whether you’re even cut out for teaching anymore


We’re stripping it all back and starting with what actually shifts classroom culture: ROUTINES.

What You’ll Learn:

  •  The first thing I’d do if I had a chaotic, chatty, unmanageable class
  •  Why teacher regulation trumps any routine or strategy
  •  The 4 core routines you NEED in place to turn the chaos around
  •  The sneaky behaviour triggers you might be missing
  •  How to get your students started before the lesson even begins
  •  My go-to early finisher system that doesn’t rely on “busy work”
  •  What to do in the last five minutes of class that’ll save your sanity


Resources Mentioned:

🎁 The $1 Behaviour Club Kickstart:
https://www.the-unteachables.com/kickstart

🧠 Early Finisher Task Bundle:
https://the-unteachables.shop/products/early-finishers-activity-bundle-choice-board-packet-worksheets-reflection?_pos=1&_sid=f45b530cb&_ss=r

🪄 Exit Doors Routine (the viral one):
https://the-unteachables.shop/products/exit-task-bundle

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

Connect with me:


SPEAKER_00:

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 behaviour nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behaviour 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, hello, welcome back to the Unteachables Podcast and Kiara because I am in beautiful New Zealand, recording this from beautiful New Zealand. We are here for a couple of weeks visiting my husband's parents. We haven't been back here since we moved to Australia back in February. So it has just been so wonderful to bring Ava back. She's much bigger and bolder than ever than they saw her last, to be able to bring her back and spend time with her grandparents. And also, it's been bloody awesome to feel like I'm being present because I feel like, and you know it too, life, especially as teachers, it is chaotic, it is non-stop. And especially like you know, in the unteachables, I'm constantly like looking to the next thing and what do I need to do? What do I need to do? There's always something to do, and just to be able to kind of stay take a step back, Ave is not a daycare this couple of weeks. We're just pottering around the house, we're walking down to the river, we're going to the zoo, we're going to the gardens, we're going to brunch, like just being able to be really present because in our everyday life, it is just go, go, go on the weekends, it's what do we do? What do we do? Like, who are we seeing? Whose birthday is it? What event do we have? We have to take it to a sport. So just being able to kind of take a step back has really reminded me of the importance of that. So anybody out there who is feeling depleted, burnt out, especially like I'm very acutely aware we're coming into November, and my gosh, is it hard for our own regulation? The kids are getting friggin' tired, behaviors are amping up because of that. So I think it's a really good reminder of what are we actually doing on the weekend to replenish because constantly going by the calendar has not been helping me. I have been stressed and dysregulated and finding parenting on the weekend very hard because of it. And I feel like this second week I'm kind of coming into myself a little bit more. Last week I was like, oh my gosh, like without daycare and like trying to get some work done because I'm still doing a bit of work here, obviously. Like I need to still support my behaviour clubbers, I still need to reply to the emails. Uh it's just me, I'm not, I don't have a team here. But it's just been such a like a reminder of how important that is. Um, just being present. So this weekend, what are you doing? Like, are you doing something to actually feel better come Monday? Or are you just kind of going by the calendar and does it feel like another mission? That's just the stuff that I'm asking myself at the moment. So I thought it might be helpful for anybody else out there. I did say we're coming into November. I mean, we are in November, we're in the thick of November now, and things are very hard in our classroom at this time of year for a variety of reasons. And I've had this question that's popped up probably weekly for the last year, uh, but it was asked this week by a behavior clubber, and it was all around like, I have this class and it's unmanageable, they're constantly chatting, they're constantly not listening to my instructions, I'm constantly waiting, it feels like chaos, like I can't teach this lesson. And I've had that like particular question asked in so many different ways over the past like however long I've been doing this work for in this public space, but I really wanted to address this question today because it is one that comes up a lot. I feel like I'm kind of saying the same thing to my clubbers and pointing them in the same direction every time this question does get asked. But I really wanted to just stop, pause, and answer this question here on the podcast. So if I had a class right now that was unmanageable, that was constantly chatting, here is where I would start. This might be an incredibly relevant episode for you if you're sitting there in the middle of the year and you're looking around and realizing that the class you're teaching is chaotic, it's chatty, you're finishing every single lesson feeling totally depleted. You're constantly waiting for quiet, you're constantly repeating yourself, your instructions, getting them settled after a break time feels impossible. Like it's like pushing it uphill. You feel like you're getting through to the bell, but you're getting like bowled over, they're just like running out, or the rooms being left in a mess. You know, all of those things that make us sit down at the end of the lesson and go, oh my god, I just don't know if I can do that again. And then you get in your car and you drive home and you sit in your um, you sit in your driveway and just stare blankly, and then you get out of the car. Just one of those lessons, and you then get back to school and you do it all over again. So I'm gonna talk to that particular kind of class. Of course, if it's not as extreme, the things that I'm going to be talking about are gonna be super beneficial for you, but this is where I would start if I had a class like that right now. And I'm not speaking from a place of oh, maybe like a hypothetical. Like I've had this class, I've taught this class multiple times, and even with the skills that I have, sometimes I get through to half the year and things slip because we're human beings and we get tired too. So I'm coming from a place of, hey, like actually, if I had this class and I let things slip, and if things were really tough, this is what I would be doing. But first up, it's very important for me to say, and I do say this every single time I answer a question like this, there is not just one thing that's going to fix this. There's no magic bullet, and I'm so sorry if that's what you're looking for here. But when it comes to classroom management and behavior, it just does not exist, especially when it comes to what I like to call cultural chaos, like in a class like this, like this particular kind of situation. But there are so many things that you can do and start to implement that'll make it feel so much easier for you and your class. It'll make you like feel like you can get on top of things, and most importantly, you're making changes with what you can control in the classroom. So I always like to do that little caveat that you're not going to come here and listen to one single podcast episode, press a magic button, and Bob's your uncle, like everything is calm and lovely and easy, and it just doesn't exist, it doesn't happen that way in education. However, these things are going to help you immensely. The first thing that I'm going to suggest you do is be really checking yourself and your own regulation. I say this every time I give any strategies because it is so foundational to everything that we do. We can put all of the things in place, but if we're putting the things in place in a way that's like super franting and dysregulated, we're not going to be setting the vibe in our class that we need to see the changes in the behaviors in our classroom. And I want to zoom back into the classroom for a second. I'm just imagining I'm standing beside you in a classroom. If you're experiencing these things at the moment, I'm going to hedge my bets and say that this is the kind of classroom management that's going on right now. I would say that your nervous system is totally fried. And I would say that because your nervous system is fried, this is how you're showing up in the classroom. You might be frantic, you might be yelling at your class a lot, you might be really fast-paced in your movements because you're just desperately trying to get through the lesson in whatever way you can, handing out sheets really frantically, writing on the board, writing students' names on the board. Maybe you're chucking out bribes or empty threats because you are desperate and want to get on top of the chaos as quickly and as easily as you can. You just want to feel some kind of control, some semblance of control in that space. That is a stress response. That is not you being a bad teacher. And I know because number one, I've been there more times than I can count with teaching, but I've actually felt like that a lot in my parenting in the last six months. My daughter has, you know, gone straight in, like I mean, for maybe a year and a half now, but like really amped it up with those really like big feelings, big toddler meltdowns, big toddler behaviors. And I have really struggled to, you know, regulate myself. And because of that, those are the kind of things that I'm even seeing in my own parenting. And yes, I've seen it a lot in my own teaching as well. So I really wanted to start there. And I'm not calling you out on it, I'm just saying I understand if your classroom management style right now is less than zen, but all of the strategies to follow are really going to hinge on your ability to deliver them calmly and credibly. Remember when we talk about that credible teaching presence, we're talking about our stillness, you know, using our breath, modeling what we want to see in the classroom. I'm not here to give you a big old lesson on regulation. All I'm saying is please just become aware of how you're showing up in the classroom. Just take note of what your body is doing, how you're feeling. When you're standing there, for example, waiting for your class to come to the door. If your amygdala is firing up before they even get there, it is a telltale sign that you're needing to do some work. I mean, that dread that you can feel before some lessons can be so telling of how we're going to be showing up in the classroom. And when we are feeling like that, it is far easier for them to drag us into their chaos rather than us bring them into our calm. So that's all I wanted to say first. Really become aware of your own regulation and what your body's doing, how you're feeling, what your nervous system is like. Now, let's get on to some actionable stuff. You've become a little bit aware of your nervous system. Just say that you're like, you know, ready, like you're okay, sweet. I'm taking a few breaths. I'm a little bit more aware here. I'm dropping my shoulders. I'm trying to show up credibly. I'm doing my best to slow my movements down and to model what I want to see for my students, model that quiet. Now you're ready on some solid action points. What can we actually do to shift this cultural chaos into a place where we're feeling like we can actually show up and do our damn jobs? And I don't know if this is going to surprise you at all, but I'm going to be talking about routines. The first one is entry routine because when your students come to class, if you're struggling with this cultural chaos, I'm pretty sure that they'd be coming to class already pretty dysregulated. So start with a very clear, very consistent, very strong entry routine. That is where I'd be starting. Okay, what is happening when my students get to my room? What am I giving them when they get to my room? What entry am I expecting from them and how am I communicating that to them? By the way, before we get started on this, I actually have a$1 Behavior Club Kickstart. If you have not already done that and you are struggling with this stuff, you need to go and do the Behavior Club Kickstart. It is$1. It takes you through five 10-minute sessions that are freaking transformative. I wanted to make it so easy and give you really quick wins, some resources you can implement immediately, because I wanted to show you what was possible with classroom management when we used really clear, explicit, predictable routines. So if you would rather just go do that and you have the capacity to do a 10-minute session over five days, um, then please go and do that first. Like go and do that now because it is going to be so beneficial. But if you're just driving to work and you don't have that time, that is fine. Let's go through a few routines that are going to be really helpful. So the entry routine, I'd be starting with there's a couple of things in an entry routine that are really pivotal, but but pivotal, but one of those things is a non-negotiable pen to paper five-minute activity that they can do in absolute silence that helps to downregulate the room. It needs to be achievable, it needs to be something that they can all do. So not hinging on the previous lesson, not a recap, not something that only half the lesson might be able to achieve because of literacy levels. Because we all know that in one class of 30, we might have students who are operating at a year eight level and then some who are operating at a year two level with their literacy. We have such huge disparities in the levels that our students are working at that we need to make sure that when we have a starter activity, it is something that every single one of them can achieve. The reason being, if they walk into a room and there is a task popped in front of them that is not achievable for them, that they feel like they can't do, that will activate the stress response. They'll look around the room saying, Hey, why can my mates do this task and I can't? I'm dumb, I am a failure, I've always failed at English or maths or science or whatever the subject is, and their stress response is going to spike. And when their stress response spikes, so do behaviors. So it needs to be something that they can all do. It needs to have a bit of buy-in, it needs to be a bit of a breath of fresh air from their day. So, okay, the rest of the day might be really hard, but this activity I can do. I have starters that any students can do across any subjects. Yes, you can make a subject specific. Yes, you can make it concept driven for what you're teaching that lesson, but as long as they are able to do that. So that's an entry routine. So when they come in, I would be making sure that on their desk, really clearly, I like the path of least resistance. Like I would have a slip of paper on their desk with the task on there with a pen ready for them. So there's no faffing about, they can sit down and they can immediately get started. And then I would be at the front of the room and I would be using my teaching presence to settle the room and modeling what I want to see. The next thing I would do if I was dealing with this cultural chaos is tasking my students with clarity, like absolute clarity and predictability. Whatever I'm doing with them, no matter what task it is, I'm gonna make sure that I'm trying to be as clear and predictable as possible. And I would make sure that everything I do is non-verbally reinforcing my expectations. For example, I give them a task where they have to write a paragraph, like an analytical paragraph. And with that paragraph task that I've given them, I'm gonna make sure they have every single tool they need to not only succeed at that task, but throughout that task, I am reinforcing my expectations that this task here is expected for you to be doing, and I'm going to give you what you need to get there. For example, before we get started on that task, I'm going to do a bit of modeling. So I might do a Mi Wii U where I am showing them, like modeling it myself. I'm doing a drink instruction, and then I'm going to be setting them off on their task. I'm going to make sure that they have a task card there with checklists where they can go through and check things off. I'll make sure they have a success criteria so they know what a quality response looks like. They're not just like fumbling through it and saying, I'm done, head down, phone out of their bag or whatever they're doing. I'm going to make sure that in the corner of their task or up on the board is a timer where they know exactly how much time is allotted. Again, so they don't do one sentence and then say I'm done. I can go over to them and just tap the timer and say, Well, is that like 20 minutes worth of work that you've done here? What can you do to extend it? Everything I'm doing is nonverbally saying, this is the task we're doing, this is what we expect from this task, and this is how you get to the outcomes of that task. So I would make sure that if I'm giving them something, everything around that task is nonverbally expecting them to be like is communicating my expectations of that task to them. So that's how I would try to shift my class out of that dysregulated, chaotic, like out of control space during a task and really doing that non-verbally, credibly, in a way that is protecting my piece as well, because you don't have 10 teaching assistants in the room, but the clarity that you can bring through those tasks can do the job of 10 TAs. It's it's brilliant, it's so wonderful when you can get that happening. There is actually a whole kickstart session on just tasking. So one of them is how to use really clear, concise task cards. I hand you over a template for that. So go to the dash unteachables forward slash kickstart. Oh my gosh, even just for that one session alone, it is so worth doing. Um, so go do that. It's amazing. Anyway, so that's what I would do next. Tasking. So we've got entry routine, getting them a really clear pen to paper, five-minute activity, then making sure the task that we give them is really clear, really predictable, and it's communicating our expectations non-verbally. Perfect. Two things. The next thing that I would have as a non-negotiable to try to shift my class out of chaos and to feel more in control and karma every day when I rock up, it is a really solid early finisher routine. So much can be lost in those five minutes that students rush through tasks, their attention, their engagement. They can. I always say that if we're not engaging our students or if they're not engaged in the lesson, something else is going to engage them. I mean, my brain is the same. If I'm not engaged in something, my brain will immediately be looking around, going, I mean, just think, even when we sit on the toilet and we leave our phone in the next room accidentally, we're looking at the back of a spray bottle or the back of a shampoo bottle and reading that. And all of a sudden we become interested in every single little ingredient that's on the back of that bottle. So, a really solid early finisher routine. And there are a few things I do with early finishers. So let's just say a student rushes through their work, or or maybe they do their work well, but they're just finished 10 minutes earlier than the rest of the class. They put their hand up, hey, I'm done. Hmm, are you really? That's the first thought that would go through my head if it's certain students. So the first thing that I do is give them a checklist that literally has, are you really finished? as the heading. And then it has a series of tick boxes that students can use to self-reflect on how they've gone with the task. And this might look different depending on the task, like the task you have or the subject and the context of your particular school. But mine might look like this. So I have checked my work, I have asked for help, I have asked if I was confused about anything, I've done my best work, I've used full sentences, I've got my name and the date at the top of the page, just little things like that. And if they are able to say yes to all of those things, I have two things that I make sure are available and ready for my students. The first is a folder of early finisher tasks. These early finisher tasks are easy. They shouldn't have any input from me. They should be really easy to be self-run by students. So think writing tasks or challenges or mindfulness activities or something that they can do pen to paper, something they can fill out, something they can do. Um, and it can be related to your subject. In the Behavior Club, I've got about 20 printable sheets that make up my early finisher folder, like my early finisher task folder that has like creative writing tasks, little challenges. Um, so if you're in the behavior club, go and download that. It's also in my early finisher bundle. I can pop that link in the show notes as well. But it should be super, super, super easy for them to go up. I literally have it as like a ring binder folder with plastic sleeves, and then they just go and pick one out. They go and choose one, they pick one out so it's got more buying, there's more novelty, they find one that is interesting for them, and they go ahead and do that. The next thing I have is a menu of early finisher activities. And on that menu are eight things they can do. So eight options. Options like read, complete homework, do a mindfulness task, um, you know, go and get one of the early finisher tasks, all of those things there that they can then choose from. Again, just trying to get as much buy-in as possible. So students go don't go stuff this, I'm not doing it, and just sit there and like put their legs up. I want to make sure that when a student finishes their work, they know that there is something else waiting for them. So then when they do start their initial task, they're more likely to put the effort into that because they know that they're gonna have to start a new task anyway, once they're finished with the current one. They're not just rushing through it so they can then sit on their phones. They are trying to actually do the work in the beginning. And I have seen such a huge cultural shift in my students when I have started doing really explicit, not just like flippant, oh you're finished, oh okay, like here's something to do that's really reactive, and the students know that's reactive. If there's like a really clear, predictable routine in place, they know they're going to get the checklist, they know you're going to be coming back over and checking that, they know that they're then going to get a certain thing that they're going to be doing. When it's a routine, I have just seen like night and day changes from my students when they're actually engaging in their tasks. So definitely try that if you haven't already. So that's the next thing. Finally, if I had whole class chaos and I was really struggling, I would make sure I had a solid exit routine that keeps students settled and engaged until the bell. Because one of the hardest parts about a class that is really, really challenging is clockwatching and the chaos that happens as the bell kind of like, you know, comes nearer and nearer. If you can do one thing, if one thing changes in those classes, get that final five under a bit of calm control because it'll make you feel so much better. And it'll like I just remember sitting at my desk and going, oh my gosh, I just can't do this anymore. And the bell would go and I'd be like, oh my god, thank gosh. When I had a solid exit routine and I knew that at least if the lesson itself was really hard, if I knew at least then that final five, because they wanted to go, they wanted to go to their lunch or whatever, I knew that that final five could be calm and could be engaging. I always implement an exit task activity. You don't have to do anything fancy. I use my exit doors presentation, which has been like it's literally gone viral. Um, so many teachers are using it. I think I've spoken about it on the on the podcast before. But what I do there is I have a set of doors on the main screen, and they click one, they choose one, and it takes them to a different um exit activity. Again, you don't have to do anything fancy, but the reason I like the exit doors is because it increases the novelty around the exit routine, it gets a little bit more buy-in, it boosts autonomy. So it just goes so well when it comes to that final five, but even just having an exit task, it is fine. Give them an exit slip. Just try and like when it comes to exit tasks, just try not to do the same question over and over because poor old Billy sitting there in the in the front rows going, oh not again. Like, you want to make sure that exit task, and it is hard to come up with new ones, which is why I've done so much work inside of the behavior club around exit tasks and why I've done so many resources for exit tasks so you don't have to think about so many, but just try to think of different ways to deliver them. I've done actually podcast episodes before an exit task that give you a few of those ideas. So I'll try to link that in the show notes as well, um, as well as my exit task resources. But if you're in the behavior club, please just go in and like go to um the resource hub and then go to routines, exit routines, and you'll find everything in there. Okay, that is exit tasks. The reason exit tasks work so well, it's because again, exit ticket, they're expected in that final five to produce something for you. And that is going to be something they have to give you as they exit or have to hand to you before they go. Uh, and it's you know, something really quick and easy. You don't have to grade all of them, you don't have to sit there and I just go around and give like like a stamp on each or like mark my name or like just something that shows them that I am expecting them to complete it, or they can put it in certain trays as they leave. There's a couple of things you can do with it, but the main thing is that they've got something to do in that final five that's engaging, it's got buy-in, and they're going to be doing it. Another routine I use at the end of a lesson is the row by row exit or table by table. Super clear, super effective. I pop up a transition slide that visually gives those instructions so it's very, very clear. Then there's a timer, so there's like a boundary to that expectation. They know what is expected of them, and it's very, very clear. All they need to do is just clean up around their desks and be sitting quietly at the end of that timer, and then I'll just dismiss them one table or row at a time, depending on, you know, who's ready first, whether or not their area's clean, whether or not they're really sitting down and listening quietly. It's just easy. If you have had the worst lesson ever, a solid exit routine can make you feel so much better. It's the difference between walking out and thinking, I don't want to be a teacher anymore, and walking out and thinking, okay, maybe I can actually do this, but I need some more structure and routines around certain things. Okay, that was a lot. Uh, but that's where I would start if I had a chaotic class. Routines, routines, routines. And not only do routines reinforce expectations nonverbally, so we're not having to use our voice and repeat ourselves a million times, they're doing it nonverbally, and they give us more control over the things that we can control, but the predictability and clarity of those routines actually supports students to feel safe and regulate. And then that by nature reduces behaviors that are a manifestation of that stress response. So it is like win-win, you know, I want to-I didn't want to say double-edged sword because that's like a negative connotation, but you know, two-pronged attack, if you will, of a class that is really struggling, that you're struggling with, that is really chaotic. Is it the whole picture though? No, of course it's not. My job would be a hell of a lot easier or non-existent if it were that easy. And I wish that that was the case, but it's not. But my gosh, is it such a solid start if you're currently in the thick of it and feel like you just need to move forward. You need to you need something to change. And of course, you'll feel that way if your class is feeling really unmanageable. But remember to work on your own regulation because the power of any routine or any strategy is you. You are at the heart of all of these routines, all these strategies, all of the things that we do in the classroom. You, the educator. Okay, that was a longer one today. I hope that it was really helpful. If it was really helpful and you got something from that episode, it would mean the absolute world for me if you popped over and left me a review. Even better if you wrote something along with that review, because it does help me reach more teachers who are probably struggling with the same stuff. Because let's be real, it's November and things are friggin' tough. Okay, lovely teachers, that is all for now. Until next time, keep sprinkling that classroom management magic into everything you do. Bye for now.

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Claire English

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