Behaviour

On this page I have collected various bits and pieces I have written on behaviour. I think that behaviour is a massive issue in many schools, perhaps the most important issue, and have therefore decided to set aside an entire area. Hopefully the strategies will be helpful to you. I also do regular webinars on behaviour – you can see if I have any upcoming here, or you can add your name to this list so that I can notify you when I book the next one in.

In general, my approach is to balance the fact that teachers can do things to minimise or prevent poor behaviour with the fact that children have autonomy and moral agency to make their own choices about their behaviour. This means I don’t “blame” teachers if behaviour is poor, and that somehow they weren’t engaging or relatable enough. For more on that see here:

A reminder: poor student behaviour is not your fault, even if there is stuff you can do to prevent it that you didn't do. Put it like this: if I drive to Birmingham up the motorway, odds are good I might break the speed limit. Bear with me. 1/

— Adam Boxer (@adamboxer1) November 5, 2020

I have tried as hard as I can to make my writing on this as concrete and actionable as possible. For a broad overview of my approach, watch the video here, which leans heavily on Teach Like a Champion 2.0. Shaun Allison wrote a really helpful summary of the video here.

There are a couple of follow-ups to that video. The blog here deals with how you give instructions to ensure not only that students actually follow them, but that they do so without disturbing your lesson. The blog here deals with occasions where students may not be deliberately disturbing your lessons, but they end up doing so anyway.

In terms of making the ideas discussed actionable, though it isn’t limited to behaviour management, the blog here deals with how I write action steps for teachers in a way that is granular (detailed enough to be acted upon) and high leverage (makes a big difference in a lot of lessons).

There is a short thread on behaviour strategies for anyone struggling to maintain classroom presence here as well:

I echo the voices that point you towards @amymayforrester. In terms of techniques, I would suggest a couple that I've worked on with similar trainees:

Posture: we work on "squaring up" and making sure your posture shows you're in charge of the room, so no slouching

>

— Adam Boxer (@adamboxer1) December 27, 2021

Being honest, I haven’t got it right yet. I’m still – and probably always will be – working on my management. Maybe that makes me a bad person to opine, maybe that makes me a good person to. But there are things I’ve tried that definitely help, so if these blogs help you at all then that makes me happy. If you have anything in particular that you’d like me to think about more and maybe try and help you out with please just let me know.