The Unteachables Podcast

#170: 5 classroom management moves I am obsessed with (and you can use immediately)

• Claire English • Season 8 • Episode 170

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0:00 | 20:40

Classroom management can feel like this big, intangible, confusing beast that no one can seem to nail down. Claire gets it — and this episode is her antidote to that.

Five non-negotiable moves. Five things she'd hand you immediately if you came to her tomorrow and said "I'm struggling, what do I do?" No fluff, no theory — just the actual things that are within your control and that you can take into your classroom today.

Because here's the thing: you can't control your students' behaviour. You can't control what they're dealing with at home, or how they're showing up. But there is so much you can control — and that's exactly where this episode lives.

In this episode, Claire covers:

  • Why classroom management feels so overwhelming — and the one reframe that changes everything
  • The five non-negotiable moves Claire comes back to again and again: 
    • Ready-to-go scripts — one-liners that keep you regulated when a student pushes every button you have
    • Routines — not just toilet passes, but the actual bones and heartbeat of your lesson
    • Buy-in first — why engagement and connection have to come before everything else
    • Community building — dripping in little moments of felt safety and belonging every single lesson
    • Crystal clear expectations — and knowing exactly how you'll respond when behaviour happens
  • Why leadership telling you to "get your class under control" is the wrong ask entirely — and how to feel proud of what you are doing

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Welcome And The Core Mindset

SPEAKER_00

Oh, hi there, teachers. Welcome to the Unteachables Podcast. I'm your host, Claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama, and a big old behaviour nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behaviour and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game-changing strategies, and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode. Hello, teacher friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Unteachables Podcast. It is wonderful to have you back here, and today I'm going to be talking about five classroom management moves I am absolutely obsessed with because classroom management can feel like this really big, intangible, confusing beast of a thing that no one seems to be able to like nail down and help us with. That's why I love doing this work. I like to take the big and the difficult and the confusing and make it just really clear and common sense and something that you can take into your classroom and use immediately and not have to go like, okay, well, what do I actually do here? Yes, I know that I need to be trauma informed, but what I what do I actually do? Yes, I know that, you know, a restorative practice approach to practice is important, but what do I actually do? Yes, I know that I have to build the relationships and, you know, foster community in the classroom, but what am I actually doing? So that is what I'll be talking about in today's episode. Just five things that are just non-negotiables in my practice. Five things that if somebody came to me tomorrow and said, Claire, I am struggling, what do I do? I would give you one of these things as like a next step. Everything I teach, right, boils down to one core idea. And that is that we can only control what we can control in the classroom. And like a lot of stuff that we're expected to do as teachers, a lot of the pressures that we feel, you know, standing in a classroom going, oh my gosh, like looking around, going, I can't, like I just don't know what I'm supposed to do here. Like all of these behaviors are out of control. I'm worried that my principal or my head teacher is gonna walk into the room and think that I'm a bad teacher because I can't control my class and they're bouncing off the walls. And what does that mean for me as a teacher? No, that is why I make sure I always reiterate the fact that as a teacher, we can only control what we can control. And that is not the behavior of your students because you can't control it. I'll go into that more later in the episode. You can't control how they're showing up to class, you can't control what they're dealing with at home, you can only control what you can control. And these are the five things that all are within our control to do. I mean, there's many, many, many things. Luckily for us, we're just not taught about them as much as we should be, you know, taught about them. But uh, these are all things that are within our control, which make us feel so much more empowered as teachers when it comes to classroom management. So here are the five moves. The first thing is having really explicit, ready-to-go scripts in my brain for tricky behavior situations because it really stops me from reacting and escalating things. It is the best way to keep regulated and credible in the moment when a student said something, and again, you can't control what comes out of the mouth of our students, but you can control how you respond to that and how you are feeling about that. So I like to make sure that I have some really clear, easy to pick from one-liners when I feel dysregulated by something that somebody has said because we're human beings, and to say a student tells you to F off, or you know, no, I'm not doing that, or blah, blah, blah. Like, if that happens, us staying regulated is so important because you don't want to be escalating the situation. You don't want to be coming across as really um power over because it's just not going to help you in the moment get back to teaching. It's just gonna make things harder for everybody involved. So having these phrases, having these one-liners is just golden for my nervous system because I know that if something happens, I can say this and I can walk away. It's kind of like the same as when my three-year-old hits me and I have, you know, those one-liners in my brain that I want to shout, I want to scream. And I'm to be honest, sometimes I do because I'm not perfect and I really do struggle with my own regulation. But I know that I can say, I can't let you hit mummy, or I'm gonna hold your hands because I can't let you hit me, or, you know, hands are for clapping, or hands are something, you know, hands are um, I can't even remember what I was gonna say. But you get what I mean, right? Like having those one-liners helps us to stay regulated when we need to stay regulated the most. Because I know that if I shout at my daughter for using her hands, it's gonna get worse, right? And I'm not teaching her any skills. So, for example, these are the kind of one-liners I use in the classroom when I am dealing with defiance or tricky situations that keep me calm and regulated. The first one is have another think about what I've asked. I'll come back in five. Really good for when they've just said a blatant no for your to your request. Um, the next one, let's just take a moment and we'll try again in a second. Again, just like walking away and giving it space between you and the behavior. Um, I'm not here to argue with you. Let's just take a break and return in five. Most of these are providing me with the opportunity to just like put space between me and that student because I know that if I continue going down that road, I will lose it. Uh, the next one, you've got two choices. Either work for me, I'll come back and see what you've decided. Um, you can feel frustrated, that's okay, but I still need or expect this to happen, validating those feelings, but also holding that expectation in the moment that like I still expect this of you. I actually have a bunch of these one-liners in my free calm scripts PDF. So if you would like to download that as a PDF, there's I think there's about 20 in there. My recommendation is just to read through those and pick two that are your favorites and hardwire them, like practice them, make sure they're in your brain. Because when you need to access them, you want to be able to access them really quickly. That you they need to be something that you don't require like to go upstairs into your prefrontal cortex to get because you're likely going to be triggered. Your amygdala is going to be firing. Because like classroom management by nature is incredibly triggering. And I don't think people talk about that enough. And I think that's really annoying. Um, so I have a bunch of those. Give it a download. Um, I don't know what the link is off the top of my head, but I will pop the link to that in the very top of the show notes for you just to go and download that to help you in the moment. Okay, the next one. My second like behavior management move that is a non-negotiable that I am obsessed with is just routines, routines, routines. If you've listened to my podcast for any amount of time or followed me for any amount of time, you will know that I am absolutely obsessed with routines. Not like, oh, you know, when you need to use the toilet, come and grab the pass. I am talking like the bones and heartbeat of your lesson, your entry, like how they come in, how they settle, the transitions, the early finishes, the exit routines, the non-frigging negotiable routines that really act as the heartbeat of your lesson. Think about it like having extra teaching assistants in the room running it for you. I have a bunch of podcast episodes about this, so you can just scroll through and find um find some about routines. But if you're overwhelmed, if you are constantly chasing your tail with challenging behaviors, especially low-level disruption and low-level behaviors, you need to start implementing routines that work the room for you. You need to start making your routines work harder than you're working in the room when it comes to those low-level behaviors. I do have a huge bundle that covers all of those routines and has like all the resources you need for those routines and it will make your teaching life categorically easier. So I'll pop the link to that in the show notes as well if you want to check it out. But where to start? Just like think and ask yourself when students are coming in the room, what are they doing? How are they entering? How am I creating that invisible barrier? So when they come to the room with high energy, they've just come from lunch or they've come from PE or, you know, anything where they're a little bit high energy, or if they've come from somewhere where they've had a fight with somebody, like how am I creating that invisible barrier to entry so students know when they come in, this is what's expected and they settle. When students are transitioning, like what are the visuals I'm using? How am I making this easier on myself so I'm not constantly shouting out over the noise? When students finish their um task early, like am I having to constantly go around and individually task students what they need to do? Or do you have a system in place where students know where to go, what to grab, what to do? With your exit routine, do you feel like you're the bouncer at a nightclub and you're holding back all of these people who just want to bolt out? It is just a non-negotiable to have these kinds of routines in place. Can you tell I am incredibly passionate about routines? Some people say, like, Clay, could you imagine yourself doing this job for another 20 years, like teaching people and talking about this same stuff for 20 years? Heck yes, I could. I am the biggest routines nerd in the world, and I am absolutely obsessed with how it impacts our teaching in our classrooms. Okay, the next thing, the next classroom management move that I am obsessed with is just the understanding that without buy-in, I have nothing. Like buy-in has to come before everything. This means I focus on things like novelty, on gamification, on connection, on teaching through concept, on actually like explaining things to students, the why behind why I'm doing it. Like, hey, like I'm approaching it in this way because I know that it switches your brains on, or I am approaching it in this way because you need to understand this. If you haven't um listened to last week's episode on the four games that you can use to boost engagement, no matter what the time of the year is, no matter what you teach, make sure you go back and listen to that immediately because that will give you four really great ideas to embed a little bit of novelty and gamification, especially if you're at the end of the school year or like in the middle of the school year and you're really struggling to keep students engaged, it gets so much buy-in, especially with those tough classes. So just ask yourself like, do I have buy-in right now? Even on like a more granular level, like if students aren't buying into the way that you're approaching their behavior, you're not going to get them to reflect or to take accountability or any of that stuff. So buy-in really has to like come before a lot of the stuff that we're doing. Okay, number four, community, sorry, continually dropping in little nuggets of community building. So the classroom becomes a place full of felt safety and belonging. Your classroom should feel for students like a place where they're seen for more than just what they can produce work-wise. If your students think that their only value in that room is how they're behaving and what they're producing in terms of like their subject material, they're not going to feel that sense of belonging. And belonging is such a huge basic need, especially for students of that, like kind of, you know, pre-teen and teen years. Like it's just so important. So I use things like little games as brain breaks, you know, like five-minute things where they can laugh. I use my chit-chat slides, like just little questions that I can give students up on the board, um, so they can like have little chats. Uh, I have like dorky little handshakes that I can use, music from their class playlists that I can use for transitions, like just so many little things that are drip-fed over the whole year. Community building isn't a one and done at the start of the year. It can't be. That's a lot of friggin' pressure, especially when students see the whole idea of like icebreaking as a bit of an eye roll. Oh, we have to do this again. Okay, let's go around the class. Let me tell my thing. We need to be doing it like over time. And this isn't something separate to the learning. You can embed it within the learning. It can be something that helps you to then, you know, get more engagement for the learning. So, for example, they've just moved from an individual task to a group task, and you need to change that energy from one that's more like downregulated, and you want to like, you know, like upregulate them a little bit and get them excited to talk and to engage, which, you know, you're switching them from one mode to the other. You've got to like get that pendulum swinging from one side to the other. Uh, regulation, it should be like hovering around the middle. Like, if you're swinging too much one side or the other, you're not going to get optimal learning. But sometimes you do need them to be a little bit more upregulated and like a little bit more excited and a little bit like that you call like higher arousal and low arousal. Um, so if I'm transitioning from, you know, a really calming, like quiet individual activity to one that requires them to do a lot more talking, I'll pop a three-minute chit-chat question up on the board where they have to debate it together or they have to talk about it. Something really simple where it's like a three-minute investment. And the other way it works as well, where they've done something that's more high energy and you're trying to bring that energy back down, um, you're swinging that pendulum really intentionally. So that is all community building. Like you can drip it in. That's still linking, like you can really justify why you're having those brain breaks. But those brain breaks are also something that help with connection and community. So just really strategically thinking about that. And the last thing is having really, really crystal clear expectations and processes for responding to behavior that are used consistently and fairly without being punitive. And this ties into that buy-in point as well. If they see that the things that you're doing when it comes to their behavior are really punitive, it's not in their best interest, it's not actually having an impact. Our students are savvy, they know that. And if it's not fair, if it's not consistent, if they're getting in trouble for something someone else isn't, um, of course there is nuance to that. I'm not saying it, but we need to have buy-in for that. And having those really clear, consistent, and fair processes is just so important. So, for example, students know without a doubt that if something big happens, they will be required to make some kind of amends, that there will be some repair of some kind, there's some reflection of some kind that is needed to happen. That's why I use my consequence cheat sheet. I don't call it my consequence cheat sheet. I call it like my um, oh, what is it, making it right. So that's like the title of it. But it lays it out so clearly that there's like different pathways when big things happen. So if I break it, I'm gonna fix it or get, you know, help fix it. If I cause harm, I need to reflect and make amends. If I mess it up, I'm gonna clean it up. If I have a conflict, I need to work that out with the person who I had conflict with. If things aren't changing, if this behavior pattern isn't changing, I need to work with my parent or carer and teacher to make those changes. It's clear, it's fair, and then everything builds on that. By the way, I would not do that with low-level behaviors. Like this is just for the big stuff. Um, this is like, you know, a student standing up and throwing something at the wall and going, like, F you, I'm leaving. It's not like having a bit of a chit chat or not listening to you quick enough because you will be spending your whole life having conversations with students if you're not mitigating the low-level behaviors, then you're not filtering them out. So you end up spending all of this time dealing with things that probably didn't need a big conversation. So those were my five classroom management moves that I am obsessed with. Just to recap, let's see if I can remember them off the top of my head. It was having some really easy scripts in my brain ready to go for tricky situations. If you need some of those, remember, go and download my free PDF of those 20 Calm scripts that you can use. Pick one and then just like practice, practice, practice. Make sure it like gets absolutely like embedded in your brain so you can access it even if you're feeling really dysregulated. Routines, routines, routines. If you haven't got routines for things like entry, exit, transitions, early finishes, that's a non-fricking negotiable. You need to have those. Uh, understanding that buy-in is so important and it has to come before everything else. Uh, continually dripping in little nuggets of community building and having really clear, crystal clear expectations and processes for responding to behavior. These are all things that you can build into your practice without relying on whether or not you're going to get support from school or leadership, or, you know, like whether or not someone's going to come in and help you with your class. You these are things that can work regardless of what's happening at home for students. These are things that you can take control of. These are things that you can do, which is why I'm just obsessed with them. So many teachers come to me and they feel so out of control, so lost, so unsupported. They're told that the behavior in their classroom needs to change. And yeah, like they're right, the behavior in the classroom probably does need to change. But when people are told that the behavior in their classroom needs to change, and they're told that by their leadership team or somebody that's coming and they're supposed to be the ones that are supporting them, what that actually means is them saying, you need to control this behavior right now. You need to get in in control of this, and you need to, you need to change it. Well, we can't control behavior. That's not our job. We can only control our own behavior. We can't control that student's background, we can't change that, we can't change or control how they feel, how they present to us. We can only control the environment that we create and the way that we approach those students and how we show up, that's literally it. And if behavior still isn't changing because that student, whatever the reason behind it is, has incredibly complex needs and you have somebody say, Well, what's going on in here? You can then give them a list of things that you are doing that are within your control and you can feel really freaking proud of that. I really hope you do, because I think there's just so much pressure put on teachers to control the behavior. And if we aren't controlling that, then it's our problem, it's our fault, and we feel like crap about ourselves. But please focus on what you can control and remember that you are such a badass doing this job and showing up because it is the hardest thing in the world. So I'm gonna leave it there for today. Go and try those moves. If you do, as always, I say it all the time. Come and tell me, let me know, come into my inbox on uh Instagram or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. And until next time, lovely teacher, keep sprinkling that classroom management magic all over the place. Bye for now.

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Claire English

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