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Reflect on your learning with Jane & Yeasmin
The second mentor video diary to recap the course and your reflections for this week.
YEASMIN MORTUZA: Hello, colleagues. I’m Yeasmin Mortuza. And I’m here with Jane Winter. And this is the second of our video diaries for this course on managing behaviour for learning. So I’m going to hand over to Jane immediately for our next comment, well, our first comment. Over to you, Jane.
JANE WINTER: Thank you very much for this lovely comment, Anita. Anita helps children– her school helps children to manage their feelings by providing a sofa outside the classroom where children can go to if they feel that they might behave inappropriately or they’re losing control of their feelings. Children are allowed to go there if they feel they need to. So they’re given responsibility to manage their own feelings. But they’re also given adult support, taught how to use it. And an adult will join them and help them talk through what’s happened. So we thought that was a really, really lovely idea. Very similar to that was one from Louise, just looking at the next slide.
And they have a bounce back area in the classroom, very similar. Children can go to it if they feel the need. Or they can be sent there by the teacher. And there’s just some quiet activities there, like jigsaws, books to look at, colouring in. Again, like with Anita’s sofa, the children are taught how to use this resource. And they’re give adult support when they get there. So we thought that was really lovely. Thank you. And then another way of supporting children to manage their feelings comes from Anna. And they help– in her school help children to recognise when they might be getting emotional, describe what they see. So a child is beginning to get angry.
They’ll comment on the clenched fists and the red face. And that is really important because often children, the first that they know that they’re getting angry is when they’re actually blowing their tops. So just helping them recognise those feelings really early on gives them a chance to start get into control. So another lovely, lovely way. And I think you’re going to talk about the influence we have in our own classrooms now, Yeasmin?
YEASMIN MORTUZA: Indeed, Jane. And so this next comment comes from Jane, a participant. Thank you very much, Jane. So Jane, I think our picture really sums up the message here. What we do is tell the students how we want to see behaviour, how we want to see them behave towards us. So it’s really important to remember that students will mirror what we show them. We are teachers. And we’re teaching them more than we realise. We’re not just teaching them the subject. We’re teaching them how to behave. They will model us. They will emulate us. And it’s good– it’s really important that we are mindful of that and we remember that and we factor that in.
In fact, we can take it a stage further, and Jeremy puts a really nice summary there, always take the weather with you into the classroom and make it constantly warm and sunny. It reminds me of a really good, important unquote by Dr. Haim Ginott. The start of the quote is, “I have come to a frightening conclusion.” But I’ll allow you to go and look up the rest of that quote. It’s well worth a read. The summary is that we are quite powerful in our classrooms. We’re not there just to teach them. But actually we can make or break in an environment. And that is one of the key fundamentals of behaviour management.
So thank you, Jeremy and Jane, for those comments. So I’m going to hand back over to Jane for the next comment. Over to you, Jane.
JANE WINTER: Yes. So this comes from Scott. Scott I had quite a long discussion on one of the threads, the Sean thread. And Scott wasn’t entirely happy with that. He pointed out that actually it’s not about being a hero and self aggrandisement. It’s about working together as a team if we are to support our students. And you’re spot on, Scott. Of course, we need to work with other teachers in the school if we’re going to give our students the best opportunity. So that was a really good point, well made. However, moving on to Florbella’s point, she actually counteracts that with, but we can make a difference. Sometimes it is that one teacher that can turn your life around.
So, yes, we should be working as a team, but never forget that you might be– you might not know it. I can think of teachers in my past that really had a profound influence on me. I don’t think they know that. But you never know. So always be doing the best. And you never know. You might be that one teacher that helps a student to believe in themselves in a way that they didn’t before. So great, but opposing points there from Scott and Florbella. So thank you very much for that. And I think you’ve got a good point to make as well, haven’t you, Yeasmin?
YEASMIN MORTUZA: Yes, a good– a couple of quick points from Natalie and Jeanette. And that is it’s all about manners, good manners. Sometimes we can get caught up in what we’re doing. And we forget if we want to see good manners, we need to demonstrate good manners. And actually, it starts with us as well. So I think that’s all I’m going to say for that one before handing back over to you, Jane. Over to you, Jane.
JANE WINTER: Yeah. This is one of the threads where there’s been quite a lot of discussion when we’re thinking about whether we reward students. And Vicky makes, I think, a really, really valuable point. She says that yeah, if you give rewards to students, it does work, yeah. But it’s short term. It’s a quick fix. It’s done at the expense of long-term relationships, attitudes, and behaviour. So we’re looking at helping to develop that intrinsic motivation in children instead of just getting them to do something because they think we’ll like it or because we’ll give them a reward.
And if you’re not sure about this, I you recommend going back and having a look at week three work, where this is all discussed, and there’s some quite lively debate that goes on. Leanne also added to the debate on the next slide. She pointed out that praise is almost manipulative, the way it can be used. Not always. I might say to Yeasmin– well, Yeasmin said to me today, you made a great joke of the slides, Jane. And that is quite appropriate. It’s not that we never say nice things to people. And I tend to say, would you say it to a colleague? Ah, yes, she would. Then that’s OK to say to children.
If you wouldn’t say to a colleague, then it’s probably either patronising or manipulative. And that’s not what we’re looking for. We want to develop adults who can think for themselves and take responsibility for their own behaviour. And that is why we treat children respectfully and, again, help them to develop that intrinsic motivation to be proud of the people they are and the way they behave. And now Yeasmin’s been dipping into the padlet. And you’ve got loads to share with us, haven’t you, Yeasmin?
YEASMIN MORTUZA: Indeed. So thank you so much, colleagues, for all your contributions. If you haven’t looked on our two padlet pages, please do. There are lots and lots of uploads, amazing upload examples of recognition boards and positive note time. I’m going to quickly run through just a selected highlight of those. But it’s well worth spending five minutes, five or so minutes looking at those examples. And the links are at the top of the slide if you’ve forgotten where they are. So our first example of an upload is from anonymous. A lot of these are anonymous because people didn’t register their names. But nevertheless, good examples. And here for this recognition board, you can see that there’s a range of achievements.
And some of them are easier to get than others, for example, positive and respect for others. These can be achieved by any student who puts the effort into it, really. And it’s important that things we want the students to achieve are attainable. But you’ve got one or two tough ones there as well, such as team leadership. Have all of them are achievable through effort. So well done, autonomous, for that one. Next one comes from another anonymous participant. So again, really good example here, but I think the main feature is that it’s the students who make a note on a post-it, and they put it up on this board.
And they’re the ones who recognise each other for positive skills that they’ve noticed, in this case, good listening. And the teachers kindly have done a little breakdown of what good listening entails. So lovely example of student proactivity there. The next one, from Melanie– thank you, Melanie, for giving us your name as well. What a lovely, lovely way of acknowledging students. So I’ve got the picture there of what this might look like in class. So it’s a whole bunch of socks. I’m presuming that the socks have the students’ individual names on. And then teacher, all the students hang them up on this clothesline.
So in addition to being visually quite striking and interesting– I want to have my sock name up on the clothesline. What’s good about this is the teacher can actually change the emphasis on what’s being recognised. So she’s got the little box at the bottom. This week’s recognition station aim is boom, boom, boom. And you can keep changing it. And the good thing about that is you can really pick up on different nuances, aspects of behaviour management or positive behaviours for learning. And we can build them up over time. So thank you, Melanie, for that one. Next one comes from Estella. A lovely example, lovely colourful example. But again, we’ve got the different skills.
And what I like about this one is we’ve got all the things that we like that we know are linked to positive behaviour management, being helpful, being respectful, responsible, et cetera. But we can’t throw in the less obvious ones. Things that are more directly aligned to learning, such as creativity, in this case. But actually, you can pick up on anything you like. It can be, for example, in science. It could be good analytical skills, good graphing skills. So it could be anything that is achievable, attainable, by the students, as long as they apply effort. So thank you very much, Estella, for that one. Moving on to positive note time now. And we can see that they can be really simple.
They don’t need to be elaborate. This one is an example by Vicky. So we just need room for a personalised message that a student takes home. Or it can be sent home. So so-and-so has been praised for whatever the teacher wants to say, well done. It can be as simple as that. We don’t need to make them elaborate. However, for the creative ones out there, you can be elaborate, or you can be creative. So this is a science postcard. And I love the corny little joke at the bottom. I bet the scientists will understand. So, yeah, why not? And nowadays, there’s so many packages that create these things for you as well.
So thank you to anonymous again for the science example. I think I’m on– my last example comes from anonymous again. So this one, again, a room for a personalised message. A handwritten message is maybe so much nicer than a typed one. But what I like about this is the thing at the bottom, the invitation to further learning and next steps. What an opportunity. What a good opportunity. So we’re not just saying, well done. We’re saying, well done. How about you push yourself by doing this or by doing that? So it links it straight back to the learning. It’s not just purely about behaviour management. So do go and have a look at those padlets’ amazing examples.
Thank you very much for your contribution. So I’m ready to hand back over to Jane for next comment. Over to you, Jane.
JANE WINTER: Yep. So this is our last slide of today. And this is just a quick comment from Debbie about microscripts. And what we liked about this is it’s not strictly about behaviour issues. In their school, they’re applying it to a different situation, the situation we’re in at the moment, very unsettling for children. And this is actually being used to give reassurance to a child that is struggling to work independently. And they have noticed it. So they’re all using this microscript script with this child that he is building resilience and independence. So thank you for showing us how flexible they can be, Debbie. And then finishing off, just to remind you all that you can still post your questions.
You’ve got to do it by the 29th of May onto step 5.1. In the meantime, Yeasmin and I are still going to be reading your comments. Keep them coming. We’re really enjoying them. We’re learning so much. And enjoy the course. Bye!
Jane and Yeasmin recorded their second video diary for this course on 22 May 2020.
Reflection grid
Take a look at your reflection grid for this week. This week Paul provided techniques for diverting and diffusing difficult behaviour. You looked at the way micro-scripts can help structure deescalation approaches. Your classroom task this week was to practice and use scripted approaches.Fill in your reflection grid for this week now if you haven’t already done so.
We encourage you to share what you’ve learnt from this course with your colleagues. On social media, use the hashtag #FLSTEMBehaviour.
Q&A opportunity
We have our second question and answer session next week and now is the time to think about what you would like to ask. Look back at what you’ve learnt and reflect on what you might want to improve or develop.
Our question and answer opportunities are there for you to ask the educators to elaborate on the course content, particularly relating to your own practice. Look at your outstanding questions for this week and post to the Q&A step:
- Q&A with Tom Bennett (step 5.1) – post before 29 May 2020.
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