Hi again
Another day, another conversation – makes a change from me writing in response to a newspaper article! This conversation brought to mind an aspect of my classes that I consider vital to successful behaviour management.
I met a lady earlier who used to work in junior schools, then as an assessment officer making decisions about support for children in schools. She’s now in a large senior school that has gone through a tough time but is now becoming far more successful and forward looking.
I hadn’t seen her for ages so we stopped and chat – mainly about schools. When she asked me how things are in my job, I found myself stopping to think and I answered that, at present, I’m pretty disillusioned with quite a number of aspects of the job.
Why? Well, I’ve always said that the kids aren’t the problem! Yes, I know, they’re out of control this, violent that and confrontational the other… But they’re not when they’re in my classes. Yes, I can hear you say, but that’s in a unit, in small groups - but believe me 10 so-called out of control kids could be chaotic, but it’s not… When they’re managed properly they’re fine. And don’t forget that many schools have failed to manage them on a one to one or even 2 to 1 basis!
‘So, what’s the problem?’ she asked me…
‘It’s the adults!’ I replied. ‘But I can’t blame them for not getting it right because there isn’t enough training around that teaches them to manage children’s behaviour. Plus, vast amounts of money is being wasted on giving kids support, but even with the extra money the adults still can’t manage the behaviour the whole thing collapses…’ It’s a disaster and I find it very frustrating!!
It’s the old problem - kid has behaviour problems, it’s not dealt with correctly and the precedent is set that the kid believes they can behave that way with impunity… No consequences, no deterrent… No action by adults to alleviate the problem. A downward spiral of misery for everyone involved…
She agreed. Plus the problem that in classes, a support worker allocated to a child doesn’t have the knowledge or authority to manage problem behaviour. A number of teachers apparently feel undermined if a support worker does anything to manage problem behaviour in class.
But, think about it… If the said teacher could manage the behaviour themselves then the problems wouldn’t have risen to the level where a support worker was needed. So, in order to help with the problem behaviour they have the support worker but then feel undermined!!! Doesn’t make sense, does it?
Which brings me to what I consider a vital aspect of effective and successful behaviour mangement.
I have many visitors in my classes. They come to observe what I do, how I manage situations and particularly how I prevent behaviour problems from happening… Far better to prevent a crisis than manage one. After the class I’ll answer their questions – it’s important that they know why I do certain things, why I acted at that time and in that way.
Many visitors are amazed by the interactions between myself and colleagues in the classes. They actually don’t know who’s a teacher and who’s a teaching assistant and that’s how I think it should be. I don’t care a jot who manages behaviour in my classes. If I see something that should be dealt with then I deal with it. If a colleague sees something then they deal with it. Nobody feels undermined in any way.
Support assistants I work with can take my classes and manage them as well as I can. We rarely need classroom support for behaviour problems but for learning. So many of the children coming to my classes are severely undereducated and have become too dependent on adults – they’ve trained previous adults to think for them!!! That’s a big no-no in my classes! Use your own brain child, not mine…
When I lead workshops or lectures I always tell my audience that what I’m about to teach them has very little to do with being a teacher, teaching assistant, head teacher or any other professional rank. It’s do to with being an adult. As far as I’m concerned children have to learn to respect the authority of adults, regardless of their professional standing.
Until teachers accept this fact and work in a way where the people they’re employing to help alleviate behaviour can be effective then they won’t succeed. Until teachers and support assistants work closely together, supporting each other to improve classroom behaviour and achievement levels they won’t get the results they want.
As long as classroom assistants are cowed into believing they can’t address behaviour problems that they see in classrooms without teachers feeling undermined then they may as well not be there. Once children realise – and they very quickly do! – that the adults aren’t going to effectively address behaviour problems then that’s set the standard – but at a level far lower than you’d want!
If a child knows that you’ve seen them behave inappropriately and you’ve done nothing to address the fact then you’re on a hiding to nothing. Bad behaviour with no adult action – BAD NEWS!! No good for anyone!! You can’t afford to ignore potential behaviour problems or dither about when you’re dealing with them.
Food for thought… Liz Marsden @ Behaviour Bible will enable you to manage behaviour effectively