In this episode, Burned-In Teacher Facebook Members, Sarah and Alexandra, and I discuss all things classroom and behavior management and how difficult it can be to support some students in today’s classroom. Sarah and Alexandra share situations they’re currently dealing with and what they’re doing to support their students, but also what they’re doing to support themselves and to create a culture of support in their classrooms.

Sarah Kaminski is a 6th grade ELA teacher at a middle school in central Wisconsin where she lives with her husband and two young children. Sarah has been teaching in her current district for 5 years and has been apart of district initiatives that include Personalized Learning, Writers Workshop, and UDL. She is currently working on obtaining her ELL certification to continue with her passion of understanding inclusionary practices in the classroom.

Alexandra Coutlée is an ESL specialist who has been teaching for over 15 years. She teaches at the high school level in Quebec, Canada. She has authored and co-authored many educational publications that are currently being used in Quebec schools and is very active in her English as a second language community. She is currently completing a degree in educational technology and is always looking for ways to integrate technology in her classroom.

It Is

• Routines and planning

• How you set up your class so it functions properly

• Coregulating (Dr. Lori Desautels Episode #029)

• the environment, how you make students feel, and how we feel together

• Creating a compassionate learning environment together

• Knowing your kids  and creating a connection

• all about adaptation

• Having proactive behaviors

• Them knowing, liking, and trusting you

• Building trust

• Thinking outside the box for them - try things you haven’t tried

• Allowing for movement breaks and for some play - yes, even the older kids

• Asking for help, knowing that some students need more than what we can do - going to principal and/or counselor for extra support

• Knowing it takes a village

• Trying to get parents on board

• Remembering there are things that are out of your control

• Going back to that serenity prayer

• Doing the best with what you have in that moment

• Remembering time of day and subjects of interest or lack of interest can play a part in behavior too

• Remembering that you get a chance to start over every day or every time the bell rings

• Believe that you’re doing the best you can, in the moment with what you have

• Apologizing when you make a mistake

• Offering some students more support

• Offering some students more stimulation

• Offering some students more of a challenge

• Meeting kids where they are so we aren’t reactive. When we’re reactive, students react and there’s a chain of negativity

• Understanding that if you have a student who is hurt, that’s what makes it the hardest

• Believing that if students are too hurt and the hurt is too deep and they need more than what we can sometimes give them

It Isn’t

• behavior management - you truly cannot manage other people’s behavior and choices

• Only YOUR responsibility

• Treating all classes and students the same

• Expecting children to act like adults

• Taking their behavior personally

• Telling yourself that it’s all about you and your authority

• Believing that you don’t matter

• Believing that you aren’t enough

• Becoming reclusive and trying to bear it all

• Quitting on yourself or your student

• quiet, listening to the teacher all the time

• managing anyone, you can’t make anyone do anything

IF seeing no change, focus on:

1. How teachers can work together

2. It will take longer to see results from students who are really hurting

3. How teachers can work as a team,

4. Focus on the system and who can give help to the students when you can’t

Burned-In Dare:

• Make positive phone calls.

• Focus on the positive/look for the positive.

• Email your teacher group about something positive that happened with that student that has been challenging.

• Subscribe to blogs or podcasts that can send/give you ideas on classroom.

• Observe in other classrooms.

• Have someone come in to watch you and to see you and your students in action.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE 

• Ep #028- Dr. Lori Desautels Helps Us Coregulate Ourselves and Our Students

• Teach Like a Pirate - Dave Burgess

• Ditch that Textbook - Matt Miller

• The 5 Second Rule - Mel Robbins

• Hacking School Culture: Designing Compassionate Classrooms - Angela Stockman

• Love and Logic - Jim Fay and Charles Fay, Ph.D.

• Smart Classroom Management Blog

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