1. TARGETS  

Overview:  

Many students find it daunting and off-putting when presented with what they perceive to be 'too much' work as part of a lesson task- particularly text-based work. The idea of 'Targets' is to give students 'chunked' tasks - an achievable amount of work which must complete in a set amount of time  

Instructions:  

Targets can be issued to students before or during t...

Let’s face it, some students seem completely unable to work independently, either because of their own perceived self-belief that they can’t do it, or because they just refuse to work alone. Of course, not every activity can be a group activity, and you can’t be holding students’ hands at every turn. So, what can we do to promote independent study?  

1. Set small, manageable tasks and praise thei...

If you struggle with chatty, noisy students, these strategies will certainly help. Teachers using these classroom management ideas can gain immediate attention in any lesson with noisy young people aged 6-16, just like these two ladies did...  

“It made my naughtiest student as quiet as a mouse!” 
 
“Thank you so much for the superbly wonderful videos! I benefited a lot from your creative secret ...

This is one of those seemingly unimportant management issues which is often swept under the carpet by a teacher who is frantically trying to concentrate efforts on more serious issues. In a lively class, when you’ve got Mary and Matilda cat fighting, Liam smoking, Carl spitting on Graham, Steven chucking text books at Johnny, and Paul making lewd comments about the support assistant’s chest – all ...

A lesson doesn’t necessarily have to be totally silent in order to be a success – unless you’re Marcel Marceau delivering his famous ‘a life in mime’ lecture – but if noise levels rise to the point where they are affecting others, it’s time to take action. Here are some things to consider.  

1. Assess your delivery.  

Have you been talking too long?  Almost all my early lessons consisted of a re...

Classroom management can be especially hard when you’re a supply or substitute teacher.  You don’t know the class, so don’t know the malleable students from the challenging ones.  What’s more, these students don’t know you and some of them are going to test your boundaries.  They’re going to find it fun to see how much they can get away with.   

So how do you manage to gain respect in the classro...

This is a very simple classroom management strategy which I use at seminars and workshops to demonstrate the power of giving students responsibility for their own behaviour. Not only can this technique get a group of students quiet in as little as 10 seconds, it also strengthens staff/student relationships, injects a little humour into the session and gives challenging students the attention they ...

A student who has no interest in lessons (i.e. anything you say and do) can have a terrible impact on the rest of the class. What you must remember however is that this student probably wants to succeed – most do, at heart – but has virtually given up due to a succession of failures, discouragement and low self-image. It may take time to reach this student and help them see life (including your le...

I started teaching more than 25 years ago – and despite nearly three decades worth of experience, the incredible power of positive feedback for correcting or redirecting a child’s behaviour still utterly amazes me. 

It's like a switch. Once you flip it, behaviour improves pretty much straight away. 

Here's a quick story about me 'flipping the switch' at home...

My daughter had her best friend a...