Managing Upwards
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
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…
The ‘Happy’ Tonic – Your Free Antidote to Stress
AAGHH!!! – stress, frustration, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed….you know the feeling, especially at this time of the year? Stress and anxiety increase your levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, within your body. In excess, these hormones dampen your immune system, leaving you exhausted and reducing your capacity to think clearly. Not a great combination! So, what can you do to combat the detrimental effects of an overload of stress in today’s busy world? The answer lies in the ‘Happy’ tonic! The three, simple, proven ‘Mind tools’, to lower your stress levels, increase your longevity and increase your inner happiness are: 1. STOP and Breathe (Try not to breathe! – it doesn’t work very well does it?) Next time you are…
Can Kids Count on You?
Do you have the trust of those you teach? The bottom line and absolute truth is that humans — whether adults or children — don’t learn if we don’t trust. Children easily vibe when adults lack trust with each other and they aren’t blind to the hypocrisy of those same adults telling them to trust their teachers and fellow students.That said, trust is not a given. It has to be earned. According to educational consultant and author of Trust Matters, Megan Tschannen-Moran, in a hierarchal relationship, those in power — teachers, in the case of the classroom — are responsible for building trust. Keep it Real Sure, mix it up and add a few new slogans to your repertoire of…
Efficient Email
Email is meant to make our lives easier and improve our communication by being fast, easy to use and ‘stockpiling’ messages for when WE are ready to read them. However, we are all too aware of the downsides of email as well. Email creates a sense of urgency and immediacy. We assume that other people have read our email almost as soon as it has been sent. We expect a quick reply and become frustrated when we don’t receive a timely response. As well as this feeling of frustration, this immediacy can also hijack our predetermined priorities. An incoming email is not just another task added to our ‘To Do’ list, it becomes THE task that I need to do…
Find Your Marigolds
Working in schools can be challenging, especially for new graduates. I recently came across a brilliant article by Jenn Gonzalez on her website Cult of Pedagogy titled, Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule For New Teachers. The article, highlights the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. By finding the positive, supportive, energetic teachers in your school and sticking close to them, you can improve your job satisfaction more than with any other strategy and your chances of excelling in this field will skyrocket. Just like a young seedling growing in a garden, thriving in your first year depends largely on who you plant yourself next to. THE MARIGOLD EFFECT Many experienced gardeners follow a concept called companion planting:…
Are they Attention Seeking Or Connection Seeking?
The next time you call a kid “attention-seeking”, change it to “connection-seeking” and see how your perspective changes. The people who need connection the most are often the hardest ones to give it to on any given day. Kids are hardwired to turn it up louder and louder until we meet their needs and assist them in making sense of the world. Author of the great book, “Kids These Days”, Dr Jody Carrington explains that behind every mad is a sad. She says she has never met an angry, cranky child who is mad with the world, who wasn’t sad. She says there is always a sense of loss, a sense of something that is not okay and they are…
Outcomes That Count
Feeling pressured by expectations placed on you in the classroom? It’s not just you! We’re in the midst of a stress epidemic and it’s showing up everywhere. So how do we minimise it? It could come down to the questions you ask. Questions worth asking are: ‘How do I sustain myself?’ and then, ‘How do I work towards outcomes that are sustainable and satisfying for my students?’. Both of these can be answered by focusing on outcomes that count in the long run. Can you remember your own school years? Which teachers do you remember? What was it that you remember most about them? Was it the score you received for a particular assessment? Probably not. Was it the type…
The Joy of Change (Part 2)
In part 1, I talked about the neuroplasticity of the brain and the importance of the heart level emotional connection of the “what’s in it for me if I change” component. Learning If we want someone to do something different, we have to give them enough information, knowledge and training to feel supported and confident that they can do what is being asked of them. Learning makes a huge difference. It is also the way to keep our brains young and vital; and not just simple stuff – we have to learn things that are completely different or something we have never done before. Even before I learned about this, I had always had a dream to play the harp.…
The Joy of Change (Part 1)
This is my next mission – to help people understand that change is possible and can be joyful. The good news is that science says we can change! We are not hard wired. A leopard can change its spots. Well, maybe a leopard can’t, but we can! Essentially, neuroplasticity describes the brain’s ability to set up new connections – everything in life is about connections, at a brain and heart level. The Brain Level and the Power of Focus and Attention I somehow knew this when I was 23 and practicing as a new, enthusiastic, and excited physical therapist. I was working in the neurological ward and I used to explain to my stroke patients that the first time they…
Successful Parent Information Sessions
Parent information sessions are often the first point of contact between parents and teachers. They present a unique opportunity for teachers to showcase their own strengths and those of the school. Maximising this opportunity can improve the quality of communication and cooperation between parents and school staff. This can set us up for success throughout the entire year by building solid working relationships with parents, enhancing the professional image of the teacher, showcasing the school as a well-organised and high quality learning environment and demonstrating the teacher’s commitment and enthusiasm. Many teachers present confidently in front of their students but are nervous about presenting to adults. It’s important to be clear on your intentions for the session and to think…
Relationships Are Important in Behaviour Management
I’ve often heard the statement ‘students don’t learn from people they don’t like!’ In ‘Kids These Days’, author and psychologist Jody Carrington says, “Kids won’t learn from people who they think don’t like them.” This statement resonates with me and is consistent with behaviour management guru Bill Rogers’ position that the best teachers are warm-demanding. They have that balance where they have the warmth to relate to students but are also demanding and have clear expectations of their students. Teachers who are too warm and want to be every students BFF are unlikely to be respected. However, teachers who are too strict and gruff (don’t smile until Easter), are unlikely to engage students. The sweet spot is somewhere in the…