A recent phenomenon has been sweeping the teaching twitter community – #movemeon. This is a concept created by Doug Belshaw to allow teachers to pass on hints, tips and advice via twitter, with the hastag movemeon as a way of consolidating the info. More info can be found at Doug’s Blog. The results are fantastic and visible tweets shows them off really well.
I was thinking that #revisontips might be another great way of sharing hints and tips, but this time aimed at our pupils. If we use it in the same way as the #movemeon tag, and have the same response….our pupils will obtain a fantastic resource.
A while back we had the pleasure of Jason Bangbala for INSET. He is an ‘expert’ in behavior management, although he wisely states that nobody can actually claim that status.
His delivery style is pretty much stand up comedian, with lots of anecdotal stories. The best thing about the whole day was that you didn’t feel like you were being preached too, but instead given a refresher course on behavior management and common sense.
If you decided to take on board his strategies it was easy to see how they could have an impact. Some of his statements were obviously going to make some staff feel uncomfortable.
For me the most powerful message he gave is below.
“The zone of influence are all those you can influence to have a positive impact on pupil performance like having positive relationships, establishing ground rules, having clear instructions, making lessons interesting and engaging, being assertive, praising, rewarding etc.
The zone of control are those things beyond your control that you have no influence on such as class sizes, time of the lessons, where they live, what their diet they eat, how long you have been teaching them, whether they have learning difficulties, what their family background is etc.
The most effective staff will focus on the zone of influence and look at things they can do to make an impact.
The least effective staff will look at the zone of concern as they will make excuses that the reason why pupils perform the way they do is beyond their control and has nothing to do with their attitude and skills.
For me the zone of influence is the key because in the vast majority of cases the same pupils with the same baggage will significantly perform differently from one member of staff to another. It is therefore our competence that is the biggest factor in pupil performance. This is where the quote of the teacher as the decisive element is the basis of everything.”
However, some of his other hints and tips are also powerful tools in dealing with behaviour management…
Praise, praise, praise and more praise. Do not underestimate the power of praise. Praise has a massive impact on behaviour management and pupil self esteem. You cannot praise too much. For some reason the British psyche is set up to be critical first….this is a shame. If your Head of Dept or Head teacher told you how well you were doing, would you like that? would you want it to occur infrequently?…its the same with our kids. Use postcards, stamps, tell them… but back it up. Kids aren’t stupid, make sure your praise has meaning and purpose
“What should you be doing?” – use this instead of “what are you doing?”..the second statement will probably get an honest answer rather than the pupil going back on task. I have used this lots and it works everytime
Maybe…but. Pupils making silly statements… Maybe that’s true, BUT I’d like you to get on with your work…
There are lots more..I will probably add them in time, but to be honest I do not do Jason justice. Your best bet is to get him into your school. It is one of the most influential INSETS I have attended. If you want more info go to his website.
I have set up a twitter account for school: @BudeSchool. I used it infrequently to post info about school events but never really used it effectively. Also, followers were few and far between. However, twitters popularity has increased massively with our students and also the parents. (Twitter is now the second most popular form of communication with radio 1). So I have now revisited our account. Still need to get the pupils and parents to follow us, but it is slowly increasing.
This time I decided to use the functionality of socialoomph (used to be tweetlater). I have now set up the whole school calendar to auto tweet, and the account also auto follows and sends a “thank you for following” DM.
One caveat, if students follow you, then you see their tweets. This has caused me a few issues.
1. Do I really want to see their thoughts about their lessons?
2. Do I need to see their creative use of language?
3. Do I need to know what they are doing?
I am also going to show the Head how to use it so that he can have the opportunity to update. The next question is, who else needs to have access?
