Simon Currigan: 0:44

Ever taught a talkative class? I'm talking about classes here that talk to the extent that there's too much noise, and you see lots of off task behaviour and learning time that's, well, just going down the drain. I feel your pain. And that's why in this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we're going to be looking at strategies for managing those classes successfully. Welcome to the School Behaviour Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Simon Currigan. My co host is Emma Shackleton, and we're obsessed with helping teachers, school leaders, parents, and, of course, students when classroom behaviour gets in the way of success. We're gonna share the tried and tested secrets to classroom management, behavioural special needs, whole school strategy, and more, all with the aim of helping your students reach their true potential. Plus, we'll be letting you eavesdrop on our conversations with thought leaders from around the world. So you'll get to hear the latest evidence based strategies before anyone else. This is the School Behaviour Secrets podcast. Hi there. Simon Currigan here from Beacon School Support, and welcome to this essentials episode of School Behaviour Secrets. In these shorter episodes, we revisit a key strategy or insight from an earlier show giving you practical ideas that you can apply straight away in your classroom and with the students that you work with. Because sometimes, we all need a reminder of those core techniques that make a real difference. I really do believe that we need reminding as much as we need training. If you find today's content helpful, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. So today, we are taking a look back at original episode number 80 where Emma and I discussed techniques for managing chatty classes where students are engaged in lots of off task chatter or their talk is getting in the way of getting the work done. So this isn't about silencing and stifling kids, but using techniques that successfully harness their energies and make sure their talk is purposeful and related to their learning. So let's jump into those strategies.

Emma Shackleton: 2:55

One thing that a few teachers that I know have tried is using that noiseometer and then actually employing probably the noisiest member of the class to be the monitor for the class. Because if they are allowed to come out and move the dial to wherever it needs to be, that really helps to cement for them what the expectations are as well. So that's quite a nice little tip. They can be the monitor of the noiseometer. So what we're looking for is clarity around the noise levels, making sure the children understand the expectations explicitly. And then as soon as they are doing it right, as soon as they are getting it, lots of recognition. Don't wait. They need short feedback loops. So as soon as they're getting it right, make sure you recognise and acknowledge that. Using proximity praise is helpful too. So if you've got the majority of a table of children working at the right level and maybe one who's getting a bit too noisy, you've got a choice there. You can either turn and focus your attention on the one who's being too noisy and draw attention to somebody who's getting it wrong, or you can choose to draw attention to somebody nearby who's getting it right, thereby saving everybody the humiliation of maybe an unnecessary telling off and highlighting the behaviour that you do want. So often just turn into the person next door and saying, 'Billy, I like the way that you're working at number 2 there. I can hear that just the person sitting next to you can hear your voice. You're nailing it. That's exactly right.' And then maybe the person next to Billy who was talking a little bit too loudly has had that little reminder and understands that they need to adapt a little bit too. Don't expect an immediate payoff for this, by the way. Some people stick a noiseometer up on the wall, talk the class through it once, and then they fiddle with the dial and they expect that the children will just get it. And they get frustrated or disappointed when it doesn't work. Like many, many things with behaviour and classroom management, it's training. You're going to have to keep on reinforcing this behaviour over time to get more of what you want. But you will get there. You will do it.

Simon Currigan: 5:04

Absolutely. Tip 4, and this is for younger children, use settling games. Right? So when you're teaching younger children, I'm thinking about primary aged kids here. When they come in from, say, playtime or when they first come in during the morning or when they come back from lunch, they might not be in a physical state where they are ready to learn. So if they're overexcited, if they're stressed, if they're anxious, they're gonna find it harder to sit still, to pay attention, and absorb information from the adult. And we know this is true from neuroscience. If your brain isn't calm, if you aren't biologically in a state to listen and pay attention and learn, then you won't do it. And it can feel like as a teacher, sometimes you're trying to almost push the learning forward, and you can feel the kids, they aren't ready. And it's a mistake. If they're not physically ready to learn, then just to plow on with your lesson is a recipe for failure. You can't fight the children's biology. So when they come in, if you recognise that they aren't physically ready for learning, instead of just plowing on, it's a great idea to use calming games. One that I particularly like that I've used from reception up to year 6, the whole length of the primary school is heads down, thumbs up. It's a very simple settling game. You can play it in a couple of minutes. The rules are very, very simple. All you do is you get everyone sat down in a chair and you pick 3 children. Then you tell the rest of the children who are sitting at the tables to close their eyes, to put their head on their desks, and to hold a thumb in the air. Then the 3 children that you originally picked, their job is to quietly walk around the classroom, and each child gets to pick 1 of the children with their eyes closed by just pulling their thumb down into their fist gently. And we say to the children that have their heads down and their thumbs up, we say, your job is to listen to the footsteps. Listen as the children walk around the room because if you're picked, you want to try and follow with your ears and your eyes closed the sound of their footsteps back to the front of the room. When the 3 children who are choosing have finished, they go to the front of the room, and we tell everyone to open their eyes and look in this direction. And we say, if you were chosen, if someone put your thumb down, stand up, and you'll end up with 3 children standing up. And we go to the 1st child, and we say, who do you think chose you? If they choose correctly, the child who was originally sitting down switches places with the person who chose them. So next time they get a chance to choose, and if they get it wrong, then the chooser carries on. We work through all 3 children asking who they think picked them. At the end of it, we'll have 3 new choosers or it might be a mixture of old choosers and new choosers, and everyone puts their head down and thumbs up for another round. And we set the choosers quietly creeping around the class, pulling down one thumb each, and the game continues like that. That game, if you play it for 2 or 3 rounds, lasts 3 or 4 minutes absolutely maximum. But what we're doing is we're getting the kids quiet, we're getting them calm, and we're getting them listening. And that 3 or 4 minutes invested in a settling game will pay back dividends for the rest of the lesson because teaching and learning is now going to be easier. It's going to be more productive because the kids are biologically ready to accept the teaching material that you're presenting. Rather than fighting against kids who are overexcited or nervous and stressed, what we've done is we've paid attention to their biological state. We've got them calm and ready, and now we can settle back and enjoy the lesson both from the teacher's perspective and the child's perspective.

Emma Shackleton: 8:48

I really like the premise there of helping the children to feel regulated and be ready to learn. Because you're right, it's a absolute losing battle trying to shoehorn in learning if the children are not emotionally regulated and they're not in a learning brain state. Another really great way to do this is to use calming music to set the tone. I've seen lots of great teachers doing this, playing something gentle, something quietly as children enter the classroom. And there's evidence to show that our heart rates actually slow down when we listen to slow moving music. So that creates that calm and physical readiness for us to be able to pay attention and listen. And, again, it's all in the training. So it's not going to work just putting on some music really quietly and the class just running in and barreling in and fighting for their seats if that's what they've always done. So you'll teach them, you'll train them, you'll show them the expectation. Physically, stop them at the door, greet the class at the door, and physically manage the way that children enter the room. Perhaps you'll let 2 or 3 children walk in 1st. They'll walk in, see if they can hear the music that's playing as they calmly go to their chairs and sit down, then you'll perhaps let the next 3 in. You know, it's really, really controlled, and these are small basic classroom management techniques that we are talking about. But the effect is huge on the quality and the amount of learning that can happen. If you can get everybody regulated and ready to learn, then, logically, a lot more learning is going to happen.

Simon Currigan: 10:36

And that's where we'll have to wrap things up for today, but there's so much more that we haven't had time to cover. So if you want to know more about harnessing rather than squashing the energy of a chatty class that you're working with so that their talk is not a barrier to a success, but a function of their success, then be sure to listen to the full episode. That's podcast episode number 80. I'll put a link in the episode description so you can easily access it. If you've enjoyed today's episode, we'd appreciate it if you could rate and review us. Think of it as your chance to hand out an Oscar to your favorite education podcast, I mean us. We'd really appreciate it if you do. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on School Behaviour Secrets.