”A special voice note for you, on how our neurons help us with behaviour in our schools”
You’ve got this! Book Comp
Andrew Taylor, or @MrTs_NQTs as he’s known on Twitter, helps hundreds of ECTs and NCTs each week both online and in his role as an ECT Mentor. He also has a book! You’ve got this! Thriving as an early career teacher with Mr T
My top 3 lessons
When you’re in the thick of it all day, everyday, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees…the focus is the ‘bad’ behaviour, and so what you see is the ‘bad’ behaviour.
How much time do you spend on behaviour?
How much time do you spend: Dealing with behaviour issues? Talking with pupils about behaviour issues? Carrying out consequences and punishments? Communicating with other colleagues about behaviour? How much time does that add up to?
It’s not ‘bad behaviour’ that’s driving staff away…
Pupils that create challenging behaviour situations for staff is hard. It drains you day-to-day. It can be demoralising. Sometimes physically dangerous And make you question where the teaching went…but it is not this behaviour on it’s own that pushes staff to hand in their resignations.
You’re doing too much pastoral
“Adele, you’re doing too much pastoral”
This was the sentence that took me from teaching full time into the beginning of my now 7 year journey of running my own organisation as a Behaviour & Education Specialist.
Education in Costa Rica
My baby brother Adam* lives in Costa Rica. I have been lucky enough to visit him over there and experience a whole other culture and way of living.
It was fascinating to learn about an education system with a completely different focus to ones I had experienced before (see my research in Finland and the Dominican Republic).
How can new teachers manage challenging behaviour?
I really enjoyed this interview with Jamie over at Beyond Survival: The New Teacher Podcast because I got to share some of the root causes of behaviour issues and what we can do to support them.
How to make positive reinforcement work as a behaviour strategy
How do you make positive reinforcement actually work as a behaviour strategy with pupils (and staff)? There’s a foundational piece that many of us are missing with this.
Transforming Behavioural & Attendance Challenges
I recently chatted with Tom over at the EDClassPodcast where we discussed many practical strategies around behaviour and attendance.