BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
Classroom Management Mini Course
How to PREVENT and DEAL with Behaviour Problems in the Classroom
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
Rob Plevin is an ex-deputy head teacher, behaviour management specialist and relentless optimist. He runs the websites www.behaviourneeds.com, www.classroom-expert.com & www.lesson-ology.com and presents training courses internationally on working successfully with challenging young people for teachers, lecturers, care workers, prison officers and parents. His live courses and INSET sessions are frequently described as unforgettable (by attendees with proven high standards of memory) and he was rated as an outstanding teacher by the UKs Office for Standards in Education. "I found Rob Plevin's workshop just in time to save me from giving up. It should be compulsory everybody in teaching should attend a Needs-Focused workshop and meet the man with such a big heart who will make you see the important part you can play in the lives of your most difficult pupils." Heather Beames, Teacher, London course attendee To book Rob for INSET or to enquire about live training please visit the help desk at www.behaviourneeds.com/helpdesk OR CALL 08452712818 (UK)
Other available products
Lesson-Ology Novel resources to make lessons engaging, active & FUN http://www.lesson-ology.com Confident Classroom Management The complete online behaviour support site for education professionals http://www.confidentclassroommanagement.com Free Classroom Management Mini-course http://www.behaviourneeds.com/minicourse
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
Introduction
Before I begin - thanks for subscribing to our free classroom management mini-course. You will receive the first part tomorrow, and the others will be hot-footing their way to your inbox over the next week or so. Youre going to receive some useful information so I strongly recommend that you print these emails out and put them in a folder. Also, feel free to forward the messages and resources, give copies to other teachers (staff meetings, staff room, pop them into your Christmas cards etc). Just remember to look out for emails from ***Behaviour Needs*** so that you don't miss our goodies. And now, on with the introduction... In a moment Im going to give you: a) a very simple and logical explanation as to why you currently experience behaviour problems in your lessons, and b) a very simple, logical way of preventing them. But before I do so, let me bore you with a brief story. Once upon a time, when mobile phones were the stuff of science fiction and the internet was made of wood and got switched off at 9pm every night, a fresh-faced young teacher emerged blinking from Teacher Training Camp, armed with only his dreams of putting the education world to rights and a burning ambition to be the most popular teacher in the world. Yes it was me! And I have to admit I found the real teaching world a bit of a shock. Dealing with teenagers who didnt want to be in school wasnt easy and I soon realised how ill-equipped I was in terms of practical classroom management strategies. Ill be honest and tell you I really struggled with some students and I was pathetic at keeping the more challenging groups under control. To be fair, it was the same story for most other members of staff, this was a tough school after all, but there were one or two magicians who seemed to have the respect and adulation of even the hardest students. These were the teachers the kids absolutely loved. Theyd walk down a corridor and students would make a bee-line to greet them and chat to them, the mood in their classroom was almost always upbeat and as soon as they began to teach... a respectful hush would immediately descend. THATS the kind of teacher I want to be! I thought, Now to find out how they do it
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
I found that the simplest way was to ask them the students that is, not the teachers. I wanted to hear them tell me what it was they wanted to see in a teacher. So I compiled questionnaires for my classes, all ages between 11 and 18, designed to root out the answer to that one big question: What makes the best teacher youve ever met? I used the questionnaires to probe deeper than that, of course. I wanted to know what these teachers said, what they did, what teaching methods they used, what strategies they used to help kids when they were down, how they used humour in the classroom, how they encouraged them to work harder, how they got them to follow instructions, what they did that made them smile. Call me obsessive but there was a hidden agenda. I had watched these teachers in action for some time before it hit me: these teachers were enjoying their careers far more than their peers. The teaching day wasnt a grind to them, it wasnt the gruelling endurance test that some teachers would have me believe. Here were teachers enjoying coming to school to teach students who enjoyed being taught. I wanted to be one of these teachers, not the jaded moaner grumbling into his coffee in the corner of the staff room every break time. So, dear patient reader, that is why I spent so long questioning my students. The results wont surprise you, as they didnt me. All the expected criteria were there. The following list represents the features that the pupils said they most wanted to see in their best teacher. They were, in no particular order: They treat us in a courteous, friendly manner They acknowledge it when we do something right They know how to have a laugh They give out information in a fun and interesting way They trust us Theyre firm and fair with the same rules for all They are always in control They are there for us, they care, they listen
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
As I said, no surprises; yet it took me a long time to realise just how important this short list really is and why it is the key to both preventing and dealing with behaviour problems in the classroom. Years after compiling my little questionnaires it dawned on me that the reason these teachers were having such an easy time in the classroom was not only because they provided interesting lessons and were firm and fair. There is an important reason why the key attributes listed above, taken as a whole, are so effective in preventing problems and making students feel content: they satisfy three crucial psychological needs. Most people will be familiar with Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory. It suggests that we all have basic needs and that once a group of needs is met or satisfied, we move up to the next level. The lowest level consists of our most basic needs - shelter, food and water. Our needs for safety are the next level. Then we progress into the realms of psychological needs, under which heading psychologists list a wide variety of needs from the need to achieve through the need to contribute, to the need for love and a whole host of others in between. These needs must be met in order for a human being to feel content and whole. At Behaviour Needs weve broken down these psychological needs into just three groups to make life easy. Let me explain what the three groups are and why they are so crucially important to classroom management. The first group of needs falls under the heading Empowerment and includes recognition, freedom, autonomy, achievement, contribution, choice and competence. Second is the need for Fun and includes the need for curiosity, interest, growth and learning, adventure, amusement, surprise, variety. Finally is the need to Belong to be accepted, valued, appreciated, needed, related to or connected with something beyond oneself. We cant function properly without adequate control, choice, autonomy, freedom, recognition and a sense of achievement (we need to be Empowered); we cant live happy lives without at least some variety, humour, colour or laughter (we need Fun); and we feel isolated and alone if were not valued or appreciated by others or connected to them in some way (we need to Belong). When these three needs are NOT being met - when they are missing from our lives we feel frustrated and discontent. Thats when the problems start. Consider the following scenario: imagine if you will a thoroughly boring lesson. You know the type I mean a teacher handing out worksheet after worksheet, standing at the front of the room, like a shop-window dummy going through the motions. There is no engaging warm-up activity to grab the attention, no variety in terms of lesson tasks or level of challenge, no novelty or intrigue, no humour, no laughter, no sense of discovery, no
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
interaction or movement around the room, no music, no curious props, no energiser, and no attention given to differing learning styles. Its the kind of lesson that makes kids want to get up and walk out. What happens in a lesson like this? You guessed it: students misbehave. It might start with fairly innocent activities such as doodling or passing notes, but left unchecked the activities become increasingly disruptive: getting up and walking around, throwing things, shouting silly comments, dishing abuse to the teacher, not doing work, tapping pencils, refusing to follow instructions, dictating their own terms etc. What has resulted is the typical behaviour problems arising from frustration and dissatisfaction from needs that have not been met. Remember, our psychological needs are crucial to us and must be satisfied they are a primeval, subconscious thirst which must be quenched and as important to us as water and sunlight are to a plant. If the teacher doesnt provide a means to meet these needs as part of regular day-to-day practice, students will seek satisfaction in less appropriate ways of their own devising. In other words if you dont give them fun, theyll make their own fun. (And that will include antics such as throwing things round the room, being generally disruptive and then filming you with their mobile phones before putting you on Youtube when you get annoyed. Great fun). If you dont give them a sense of Power, they will assert themselves in their own way. (Its very empowering to argue with the teacher). And if you dont make them feel valued they will opt out, form trouble-making splinter groups and bonds with the other misfits. Throughout this mini-course we will present ways of satisfying the three needs in order to help you prevent a large proportion of problems from ever arising in your classroom. I call it the Needs Focused Approach. I dont claim that all your problems will be solved but by adopting the strategies and ideas that follow you will definitely see a dramatic reduction in the number of incidents youre currently dealing with on a daily basis. We will look at ways of making students feel a sense of belonging by making them feel part of the classroom community, by strengthening peer relationships and by building positive, mutually respectful student-teacher bonds. We will look at ways of empowering students by providing them with realistic chances to achieve and experience success, by giving them a degree of autonomy and choice and by ensuring their efforts are recognised and acknowledged. And we will look at ways of improving motivation in lessons by making lessons more interactive and appealing, more stimulating, more relevant and more fun.
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
BEHAVIOUR NEEDS
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MINI-COURSE
Introduction
Hi Rob, Just recently your tip about showing kids with baggage that you support them. It is sooooo true. I experienced your words in my head with a student who was giving me a hard time. I just kept pushing through, thinking show support, show respect, show you care, etc. etc. when deep down I just wanted to say get out to the principals office etc. It finally worked and he ended the group session on a positive note but it was your words of letting them know you support them which helped turn him round. This also worked for me in my class, with a group of 10/11 year old girls who were whining about boring. I was deep down wanting to get cross with them, but I pushed through and it paid off. I know its the relationship stuff that works, but when a teacher gets busy, its often a short cut, quick fix at the time to be drastic but long term it doesnt work. Thanks , sorry about the long email but I was pretty excited about how this is going. Jillene Haaja - Teacher Of course nobody can prevent all problems and there will still be incidents that need to be managed so we will also be presenting you with some incredibly effective responses for dealing with problems as they occur without compromising those needs in a way that students actually respect and appreciate. I hope you enjoy the rest of the mini-course and the tips which follow. Rob Plevin Director Behaviour Needs Ltd
2011 Behaviour Needs All Rights Reserved www.behaviourneeds.com
