7 of the Best Back to School Articles for Behaviour Management
Set your classroom standards early and have children stick to them for the whole year with these expert advice articles and videos…
- by Teachwire
1 | Keep kids quiet and attentive
New class, new students, who knows what this lot will be like. Whether you fear the worst or are hopeful of a well-behaved cohort, children are children. You’ll need to keep them listening to you if they’re going to learn anything.
These videos from behaviour management expert Sue Cowley cover everything you need to get your behaviour expectations in place and have kids sticking to them.
There’s everything from grabbing their attention to the best tone of voice to use, using the classroom layout to your advantage, and stopping interruptions effectively.
Watch Sue’s 10 short videos tips here.
2 | Plan to succeed, not just survive
No matter how many Septembers you’ve seen in education, there’s always some new educational policy or fad thrown in to trip you up or make your life harder. Nothing is ever certain, but Alex Quigley’s advice can help put you in the best possible place to be ready for whatever the year has in store.
3 | Get behaviour right
Meet George. “I’m just about to start my second year of teaching. My first year was a challenge. I didn’t get the students where I wanted them in terms of behaviour. That, in turn, had an impact on progress and, to be honest, gave me a few sleepless nights. So I want this year to be different and I’d like it to be different from day one. Any tips?”
Robin Launder runs through George’s dilemma and lays out exactly how you can avoid the same happening to you.
Read his words of wisdom here.
4 | Show pupils they can succeed
This article from Christine Gilbert of Future First talks about the benefits of using alumni to show your students that people like them can and will succeed in life.
It discusses how you can boost their confidence and expectations in the first week back with a series of fun and engaging exercises.
See how this can help your students here.
5 | Keep September enthusiasm all year round
Hopefully you’ve had some time to relax and recharge this summer, ready to return to school with renewed vigour. Your classroom will have fresh displays, you can actually find all the glue sticks, wouldn’t it be great if this wasn’t doomed to fade before half term has rolled around?
This piece from Laura-Jayne Ward is full of ideas to stop that from happening, and keep your energy levels, enthusiasm and organisation as high as possible all year round.
6 | Help Year 7s feel at home
If we are not careful, the start of a new year can feel very much much like a case of ‘here we go again’ – at least for the staff and older students. Of course, it’s a different prospect for a young person joining Year 7.
In this piece, Vic Goddard reveals that after 20 years in the job he thought he was fully aware of what these new arrivals might be feeling as they start secondary, but that he was in fact wrong.
When his son started Year 7 he got to see from the other side what it was like for a child heading into secondary school, and this is what he learned.
7 | Just one resolution
It’s tempting to start the new school year with a long list of resolutions, says Alex Quigley – but sticking to a single change might prove more effective.
We all know how easy it is to quit on New Year’s resolutions, so make things much easier on yourself with teaching and just focus on this one piece of advice, rather than slowly giving up on a huge list of teaching dos and dont’s and feeling terrible for it.
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