Thursday, 26th November

Today we had a very special session with Simon James and Dave Smith. We talked about behaviour management and we discussed what makes a good teacher. To begin with, we are invited to share with the rest of the group some of the features that identify a good teacher in a brainstorming activity. We compared our own opinions with what children think, watching a video in which students explain what they think makes a good teacher. According to them, a good teacher should be human, approachable, fair, enthusiastic, positive, professionally skilled, respectful of students and sensitive to their difficulties in learning,

Behaviour management techniques are very important for teachers to be effective. Positive behaviour management is a good way to deal with low level disruption. In the best schools, creating a positive environment is a shared responsibility. Consistency in the use of rewards and sanctions is extremely important in order to make everybody feel that rules are fairly applied. The certainty that misbehaviour will have consequences is actually more important than the severity of the punishment.

Good teachers know how to manage behaviour of most of the students most of the time – but they can't completely control everybody all the time. They can also control some important factors, such as the seating plans, the routines, the ways we display work or greet children, etc. And they should have complete control over how to respond to misbehaviour. Many of these strategies can be learnt from Dr. Bill Rogers, who is an Australian expert in behaviour management. He presents some of his ideas in these videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqIXB1RG-Vg&list=PLF1FBp_bi4gbXAvyDu1oO5o_LaJ6PufZm

Positive behaviour management uses positive language instead of negative instructions, telling kinds what we want them to do rather than what we want them to avoid. It is also important to make effective use of praise and rewards, and to redirect towards success rather than highlight mistakes. However, too much praise can be counterproductive, as some students don't like to be praised in public. Praise should be sincere if we want it to be effective. A powerful technique consists in saying 'thank you' rather than 'please'. Behaviour management can be done using the 4 Rs frameworks: rights, responsibilities, rules and routines. Rights are connected with responsibilities, so we should encourage students to choose responsible behaviour.

When kids misbehave, they are making a choice that should have consequences. Managing behaviour has three phases: 1) give children choices within fair rules, 2) influence them to make appropriate choices by modelling behaviour and 3) apply consequences of choices in terms of rewards or sanctions. It might be useful to remind students that everything they do is a choice: “If you choose to keep on talking while I'm teaching, you'll be choosing to come to the front to sit near me. It is your choice.” Another powerful technique is the “maybe...and...” approach: ”Maybe you were listening to me, and I still need you to pay attention, thank you”.

Rob Plevin also has interesting videos about behaviour management in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_jQ81O0yzM

The effective way to give instructions begins making eye contact. The teacher should speak in a calm but firm manner, using first names and pausing after the name to make sure that the student understands the instruction using non-verbal cues when appropriate, saying 'thank you' rather than please, and dropping eye contact at the end, giving some take-up time to the pupil.