April 2023 – Happy Schools

The Power of Keeping your Cool

April 27, 2023

Many of us have done it. After losing patience, we’ve become a bit snappy with a room full of students or raised our voices a level or two higher than we should have. It happens. The longer you teach, the more probable an incidence (or two) becomes. Responsive, Not Reactive Once a teacher loses it with a class or student, it takes some time to rebuild that feeling of safety and trust within those four walls, so it’s wise to avoid heading in that direction. If you are a new teacher, it’s important to develop good habits around routinely using a calm and appropriate voice level with your students. (We’ve all heard the explosive teacher down the hall in another…

7 Types of Difficult People

April 20, 2023

Stevef

Teamwork

One of the challenges of working in schools is that we work with people. Each of us has people who we find difficult to deal with, whether they are fellow staff members, parents or students. Often they frustrate or annoy us! By identifying what makes their behaviour challenging, we can implement strategies to assist us in responding. Seven types of difficult people have been outlined with suggestions on how to respond to their typical traits. You may find you recognise elements of your difficult person’s behaviour in one or more types. After reflecting on this information try to identify specific strategies to deal with the people you find difficult. However, it is important to remember you cannot change anybody else’s…

Managing Upwards

April 13, 2023

Stevef

Communication

A recent poll of one million workers showed that the number one reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss. So what do you do if you have a supervisor you are unhappy with? You can leave or become miserable and make their life hell, but you can also attempt to influence positive change. The challenge is how to manage upwards. Here are six ways you can develop a more positive working relationship with your line manager. Get to know them. Look for opportunities to get to know them and build more of a relationship with them. Find out what is important to them in their personal life – perhaps their children or a passion they have. Building rapport helps to…

Rules of Engagement

April 6, 2023

Stevef

Engagement

Just as there are rules of engagement on the battlefield, there are rules of engagement in the classroom. The fight to get – and keep – students’ attention is the key to effective learning. Here are four rules to keeping students engaged in the learning process. Rule #1: Let Them Think. Learning occurs best when we deliver information in short bursts. This means offering new information in chunks of approximately 5-10 minutes, then allowing students to process and encode the information in memory. Once students have fully grasped an idea, we can build on that point and add more information. When we teach this way, the amount of material students retain rises dramatically compared to the more traditional approach of…