When Teaching gets Tough
Working in schools can be tough and seems to be getting even more challenging. Each year things seem to get tougher! Changes in the curriculum, increased accountability, demanding or absent parents, poor student behaviour, changes in society, tightening budgets and a push to do more with less all contribute to increased pressure in schools. We work with people every day and people are unpredictable. Many of the great staff who work in schools express their frustration that working in schools is tougher than it used to be. I’d argue that working in schools is tough and has always been tough. Have there always been so many stressed out staff? Research undertaken for my Masters back in 1995 highlighted high levels…
Can Optimism Change Reality
Educators have long been aware of self-fulfilling prophecies. Recent research on brain activity from Dr Tali Sharot’s book ‘The Optimism Bias’, clearly illustrates why our expectations of our students are so important. The problem with pessimistic expectations, such as those of the clinically depressed, is that they have the power to alter the future; negative expectations shape outcomes in a negative way. How do expectations change reality? To answer this question my colleague, cognitive neuroscientist Sara Bengtsson, devised an experiment in which she manipulated positive and negative expectations of students while their brains were scanned and tested their performance on cognitive tasks. To induce expectations of success, she primed college students with words such as smart, intelligent and clever just…
The Toxic Staffroom
What I am about to discuss here occurs in many staffrooms that I have worked in. You have been at work a few hours and it is time to head to the staffroom for lunch. Let us say that it is Monday morning and everyone wishes it was Friday. I have been here a few times! You sit down with a group of fellow teachers and discuss your weekend, usually on a positive note and then the conversation turns to work. Is it a positive conversation? Not usually. The staffroom in my experience is usually an opportunity for people to complain about their problems, whether this is home or work related. Have you been involved in this type of conversation?…
Play to YOUR Strengths!
We all have strengths, even people who seem to have more than their fair share of personal flaws. But there is a negativity bias that most people have where we tend to be more aware of our own and others’ weaknesses. It has been suggested that this bias towards noticing what is wrong has helped our evolution by avoiding possible dangers. But some people become stuck in focusing too much on the negatives. When people do this in personal relationships, it tends to attract negative responses in return. When people focus too much on the negatives at work, it also drains motivation, affects performance and at its worst, can create a toxic workplace culture. While there is a time to…
Is Stress a Necessary Evil?
Working in schools just seems to get busier! Quiet times in schools no longer exist (I’m not sure they ever really did!) There are always a lot of things to be done, new initiatives and procedures to implement and demands on limited time and resources. It therefore isn’t surprising that staff in schools commonly experience ‘stress’. Whilst we usually use the term with negative connotations, Hans Selye (one of the founding fathers of stress research) observed “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative, successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental”. Today a more commonly held definition of stress is “a condition…
Less Stress Behaviour Management
Student behaviour can add a layer of complexity to the school environment. At times students can be unpredictable, even irrational. It is this unpredictable nature that adds to our stress levels. If only they’d behave the way that we want them to! Ultimately we can’t control anybody else’s behaviour, only our own. Behaviour management plans and policies are designed to encourage students to make better decisions and to take responsibility for the decisions they do make. Poor choices lead to consequences that are less attractive to the student. Consequences of unacceptable behaviour need to be fair, appropriate and consistent. Whilst they need to be stern enough to act as a deterrent, they also need to be realistic and relevant. Thinking…
Why are relationships so important?
Relationships serve our survival: There is no doubt that human beings are social animals. Our ability to support and provide for each other has ensured our survival as a species. In families that function well, they protect and help children become the best they can be and provide and support for each other. Even at the friendship level, we tend to look out for each other. Relationships meet a basic human need: Psychiatrist, William Glasser, says that all human beings have a psychological need for connection – for closeness with family and friends, to be heard and understood, for touch and to fit in and belong. Glasser says that while all human beings have this need, some people have a very…
Developing a Growth Mindset
Dear Teachers Your students do have natural talent, abilities and intelligence in some areas but that’s not the end of the story. These things are not fixed traits. Some may have a gift for story writing, art, maths or sport, but it needs to be grown. Some may not be good at science, history or working with others…YET! Whatever the case for each student in your class, the reality is that natural talent, abilities and intelligence are developed over time. Through effort, persistence, practice and focused attention. The brain is a highly adaptive organ – it changes like a muscle through a process called neuroplasticity. From the cradle to the grave our brains are always changing. The malleable brain is…
Excel Text to Columns
Many of the day to day activities and decisions in schools rely heavily on data in Microsoft Excel. Like a cave with secret passages, in Excel there are lots of hidden ways to fast track things you do regularly, you just need to know the ones you need when you need them! When I present at events or professional development days, one of the items I demonstrate that always gets ooh’s and aaah’s is taking data that is in one column in Excel, and splitting it into multiple columns. The tool we use to do this is called Text to Columns. Have you ever had parent details that are all in the one cell ie. Donna Hanson? You generally need…
5 Top Tips for Lowering Stress
Working in schools can be very rewarding but it also can be stressful and demanding. The following 5 tips can help to lower stress at times when you feel under pressure. Choose a positive attitude – our attitude has a HUGE impact on our stress levels and our effectiveness each day. It is vital to realise that our attitude is NOT imposed on us. We have a choice each and every day. We can choose to be positive and enthusiastic or negative and at the mercy of others. The choice is ours! The attitude that we have is probably the most important decision that we make each day. On tough days, when things just don’t seem to be going our…
How Engaged are Your Students?
It’s not surprising that one of the most consistent findings in educational research demonstrates that the more times students spend engaged, the more they learn (Gettinger & Ball, 2007). It also won’t surprise that the more engaged students are, the less stressful it is. Instead of trying to ‘manage’ students to comply, engaged students are on-task and ‘in the zone’. As they are interested and actively involved in the learning experience they don’t require ‘management’. This lowers the demands on the teacher and reduces our stress level. Reflecting on the level of student engagement that exists in your classrooms is worthwhile. Schlechty (2002) defines five levels of student engagement: Authentic Engagement—students are immersed in work that has clear meaning and…
1000 Awesome Things
In “The Book of Awesome”, author Neil Pasricha provides a catalogue of universal little pleasures we all share. The book is intended to help us focus on the many little things that give us pleasure rather than the few things that annoy and frustrate us. In his book Pasricha offers a hearty cheer for all the things we take for granted. This philosophy applies in schools too! Inspired by the book I have started a list of things that happen in schools that add pleasure to our day… feel free to add to the list! A thank you note from a parent The first five minutes after 3 o’clock A ‘free’ afternoon when an after-school meeting is cancelled A staff…