Pick your battles

When I reflect on my first few years of teaching, I often think about moments in which with hindsight was a battle I didn't need to pick.

University trains you to be teachers, equips you with knowledge how to teach but is severely lacking in teaching students how to effectively manage behaviour when they soon become teachers. Practicum is set up in a way to ensure the vast majority pass, even those who the training teacher has little confidence in, we word the report in a way that might flag it to future employers without confronting the issue. Practicum isn't the real teaching world, if you happen to have a highly volitle student, the training teacher will step in at the first signs of confrontation.

I recall an over reaction of mine in my first year of teaching, which was also continued by the chain of command. I had a known behaviour student with learning difficulties who didn't want to partner with a particular person, the child who I asked him to work with wasn't who he had picked. In true tantrum style he sat at the front of the class and refused to move. At that stage, everything I had been taught said, I was the teacher and whatever I asked the student had to do, he needed to respond! Without going I to too much detail to protect identities, the child was physically removed by the executive staff and taken to an office where he had a complete meltdown!

I often think about this situation, as I have been confronted with a simialar situation, at a different school. This time the child had a fair amount more behaviour issues and did at times become very aggressive. My response to this action was simply ignoring the student, I was going to gain control by picking my battles. Did it really matter if the child sat facing the wall for half of the lesson? They will soon get bored snd rejoin the class and then, when they have calmed down you talk to them about their behaviour, ask the child were they being respectful to you and their peers, the answer is no and I generally ask what would be an appropriate consequence (within reason), Surprisingly these students are harsher on themselves then what I would be so we reach a happy medium. If we have a communication book (something I will dedicate a post to), inform their caregivers what happened and then the good they did that day.

I'm also aware, as I've had it happen, that ignoring some students can cause a massive increae in poor behaviour. I've taught 30 minutes of a maths lesson with a child screaming and crying. I ignored the child and encouraged the students to do the same. There may be some rare situations were, the child becomes violent and aggressive to other children and it is essential to remove the other children from the classroom. If the child continues on, send a child to the office for assistance, stay away from the child but still being able to see what they are doing. These are generally extreme circumstances, where the behaviour management is automatically handed over to the executive staff. In an incident such as this suspension is the general outcome and if possible ask as the classroom teacher to be present at this meeting. It's great experience, whilst providing you with a greater insight into the child's home life and the people management strategies of your executive.

If you are struggling with any student and feel like each day you are banging your head against the wall, talk to your supervisor, they are there to help, or another teacher with a bit more experienc who can give you some tips. Remember if there is a sudden behaviour change, there's a high probability that something drastic has happened in that child's life and how they express their emotions is by acting out in class. Students who do this often have learning difficulties which puts them at a further disadvantage.

I hope this helps my fellow teachers.

The first post on behaviour management at school and at home

I was inspired to write this blog, because as a primary school teacher, with experience in Western and South Western Sydney, teaching in low socio-economic areas, behaviour management was a reaccuring problem. There were generally lots of behavior concerns, which ultimately lead to a great degree of learning difficulties, frequently without the funding or training to assist teachers, caregivers and students with these problems. Thus I felt this blog was something teachers and caregivers world wide could benefit from!

From personal experience, I believe it is essential to establish a relationship with both the child and the caregiver, to discover their likes and dislikes, they history and potential triggers. For example I use a lot of visual aides which are made to the individual needs of each child, but often these children have a tumultous past and it is essential to know what these triggers are. You could be teaching a child who has had a traumatic past and is suffering from PTSD, their triggers might be brought on by certain actions or colours revealed in your visual aide, and may result in a complete melt down from the child, often leaving no choice but to suspend them.

These conversations aren't always easy, have your supervisor or senior teacher with you in
this meeting, find out the child's triggers, their likes or dislikes and the manner which they
act when they have a meltdown. If there are other agencies involved, such as Burnside for Domestic Violence, the parent may want their caseworker their, give them that opportunity. Hopefully these meetings will reduce the amount of suspensions or extreme behavior, by the child. It also gives the caregiver a sense of responsibility and ownership in their child's
education, by doing this we are saying, you are important and we value what you have to say,
we are in this together. It also sets the ground for any future meetings, you know the caregivers, they know you and what you expect, it creates a sense of unity.

These meetings provides a forum for you to reiterate the classroom rules (I call them consequences). At the start of each year, I conduct this is as a whole class, with students having an individual say in the establishment of class consequences, this heightens their individual sense of responsibility and recognition of their actions, particularly if they are not complying to the established consequences. If they argue, they are arguing with themselves! Even if a child with known behavior issues comes to the school half way through a term or through the year, the entire class is more than willing to explain the individual consequences for certain actions in the class environment, I have found a role play works best for this.

It is also important to understand that students with extreme behaviour will require an
individualised program. I try and teach these students to identify their anger as being
something measureable ie; its at my chest or at my eyes, when they can identify this, it will
take lots of perserverance but you can teach them various strategies; such as going to a
corner, drawing, writing, just sitting and counting. I will go through in detail all of these
strategies with you in another post.

The important thing is to never get up in a students face and yell at them, that's almost like
having a sign saying hit me and swear at me, written on your chest. No matter how frustrating
the child may be behaving try and take your emotion away, you are the adult!

Through these blog posts I'll be providing both teachers and caregivers strategies on how to
deal with problem behaviors both at school and at home. I will also be making visual aides
which can be purchased for a small price, these are great for both home and school. You may
ask why visual aides work, the large majority of children with behaviour problems also have
receptive and expressive language problems (in everyday language they have problems understanding what we are trying to say and they often have bigger problems telling us what
they want to say). Pictures give students simple non verbal cues which can be used as a
reminder to modify their behaviour or it can also be a safe way for them to express themself,
when they can't find the words.

Don't forget visual timetables and a set routine at home and school are fantastic, it's often
surprises that cause children, particularly those on the autism spectrum to have a mini
meltdown!

One last point for this post, be consistant in your behaviour management, this is the hardest
thing to do. Don't get emotionally involved and start screaming back, this means you have lost
the battle. Stay firm and strong in what ground rules you have estaished and always follow up with the relevant consequence. Although you may have 5 different children on individual
behaviour plans, you need to follow through on each one. Remember no matter what melt down a
child has, you are the adult, you have responsibility to at times remove the other students from the room because of their own safety (I've done this many times). If a child is injured,
you are the one responsible. Finally in these moments, ask yourself, would you poke a raging lion? I'll leave you with this to ponder as it leads to the next post.

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I hoped you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Until next time, stay focused, stay calm and most importantly enjoy teaching!