#55: Q&A. Help! I get ZERO support, advice, or mentorship from my leaders around the challenging behaviours in my class. [A SNEAK PEAK INTO THE PRIVATE PODCAST]

A very special bonus episode coming to you from the That'll Teach 'Em Private Podcast!

On today's episode I answer Michelle's 'question' (well - I respond to her comment).

"This can’t start quick enough - I wouldn’t even call myself a new teacher but I am drowning in behaviour and whenever I reach out for help, and I'm not shy in doing so I’m so keen to learn and improve, my head of department always umms and ahhs, makes excuses, and has never actively observed me, supported me, or really answered any questions around classroom management. I am so happy to be a part of the That'll Teach 'Em community and to finally feel like I’m not alone."

I know this is something that many of you are experiencing, or have experienced. So if this is you, this episode is definitely worth a listen.

Pre-order a copy of my book ‘It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management

Other ways I can support you in your teaching practice:

• Download the freebie '71 Behaviour Response Prompts'
• Download my free guide: Addressing Misogyny in the Classroom
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• Connect with me on LinkedIn

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, wonderful teachers. If you are an avid listener to the Unteachables podcast, you're probably thinking what is going on. It's a Friday, there's a new episode that is sitting in my podcast inbox, if that's even what it's called. Anyway, it's popped up somewhere for you here. It is a bonus episode, and the reason I've done this bonus episode is because inside of That'll Teach Em, which is my comprehensive classroom management course that is now enrolling for the 2024 intake, I have a private podcast and in that private podcast I am doing a weekly Q&A episode as well as uploading all of the lesson materials to listen to on the go, and I have done a Q&A this week that doesn't actually relate to the learning. It's something that I found really valuable to talk through, and I know that it'll be something that's really valuable for all of you as well. So I thought that, as a little bit of a bonus for the week, a little bonus episode in the the Unteachables podcast world, I would just upload that here and you can listen to it as well and enjoy it. Let me know what you think. I know that it's going to be really valuable, especially for those of you who have had this experience in the past, which is a bit of a sticky one, when you feel like you are at a school with zero support, zero mentorship, and you are craving any kind of support and you're just not getting it. I also tell a bit of a story about one of my old mentors who was rubbish when I was first teaching not even first teaching, I was still in my teacher training and how I kind of flipped that and learned from the negative. Okay, wonderful people, enjoy and I will see you at the normal time next week. Hello brilliant teachers, Welcome to That'll Teach them, the private podcast, and if you are listening to me right now, it means that you are a part of the Unteachables Academy team and a student of That'll Teach them. I am celebrating you. You're a trailblazer, a changemaker and a future leader of classroom management. What an absolute joy it is to have you here on this journey as you sharpen your classroom management skills and learn how to calmly and confidently reduce, respond to and resolve challenging classroom behaviours. Let's head into some learning. Hello wonderful teachers, Welcome to your first Q&A episode for That'll Teach in the Private Podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:20

What this Q&A session is going to be all about is just me. I think it's pretty explanatory, but me answering a question, but using the content that we have learned so far to answer that question. So we're kind of applying what we've learned along the way into different circumstances to make it easier for us to then really hardwire those skills. So everything in That'll Teach them this year is really strategically there to make sure that this course isn't something that you just kind of throw away and forget. It's a couple of tools, a couple of strategies that you forget about in a week's time. This is something that I really want to use to hardwire your skills for the rest of your career, and these Q&A episodes are going to be really vital, not just for the person who's asked this question, but for all of us to be listening to. It's kind of like just putting things into practice. So what I envision for this is that you know, either you can ask me a question inside of the That'll Teach Him community or privately through Instagram or my email, whatever you want to do, or we can even jump on a Zoom. We can record talking through the question Think about it as like almost a free mentorship session and we can upload that discussion and people can hear us talking through whatever sticky situation has popped up during the week. So if you are here for that, if you want to ask me a question, if you want to jump on a call and talk through that question, then just jump into the community and let me know as we go through. Obviously, I'm not going to be able to do all the questions in this format, but the ones that I can, it'd be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 3:55

So onto this Q&A episode. You're probably thinking well, we haven't actually learned anything yet because the course has not started. It starts on the 8th of April. The first sub module gets released, so obviously there's nothing really to talk about. Yes, I thought that as well. I didn't think I'd be releasing a Q&A episode this early, but the reason I have is because I did get a question this week from one of you that's already enrolled into That'll Teach them. We haven't closed enrollments yet, so there is still space for more people to come in.

Speaker 1: 4:19

But I had a question this week and can I just also say how exciting and inspiring it is that I've already seen so many of you in the community introducing yourself, sharing your stories, knowing a little bit more about you. It is so incredibly exciting and inspiring to be able to stand by you in your practice, metaphorically speaking and be able to support you, to support your students, to support your teachers. It's really, really exciting, Anyway. So the question reads it's actually not a question, to be honest with you, it's more of a statement, and I did ask her if it was okay for me to respond to it on this podcast and I thought it was a really important one to talk about. So, shout out to Michelle, this is for you and I'm so excited to be able to answer this question in this way for you. Again, not a question, it was more of a statement. But she said that'll teach him can't start quick enough.

Speaker 1: 5:11

I wouldn't even call myself a new teacher, but I am drowning in behavior and whenever I reach out for help and I'm not shy in doing so I'm really keen to learn and improve. My head of department always ums and ahs, makes excuses and has never actively observed me, supported me or really answered any questions around classroom management. I am so happy to be a part of that'll teach them and the community to finally feel like I'm not alone. Michelle, I need to say right now that you are definitely not alone and it's not just because you've joined that'll teach them. It's because this is something that is so common. I've experienced it myself. I have had so many people reaching out and expressing these same concerns about the support they're getting in their school, or lack thereof Teachers who are so open and willing and ready to accept whatever support they can. They want to implement new strategies, they want to take that into their classrooms and do amazing things, but they're not getting anything from the people around them. It is so common.

Speaker 1: 6:07

I have always said and this is the reason I do the work that I do it should not be a stroke of luck that you get into a school that has appropriate support. It should be a given. It should be something that is really closely monitored by the department. Like, do these teachers have appropriate supports in their school? And I'm not talking about just new teachers, even though that is a really important thing for us to be focusing on. I am talking about all teachers. No matter how experienced we are, we still need that support so that that head teacher that you're talking about, the head of department you're talking about when I found this throughout my career right.

Speaker 1: 6:43

When somebody ums and ahs about things, when they make excuses about things, when they never really proactively go into observe and support. What this says to me is that, just like you are feeling right now that you are out of your depth of behavior, you don't have support with behavior, you're not sure about what to do with behavior. That is true of the people who are also supposed to be supporting us in leadership positions. Just because somebody gets into a leadership position does not mean that they naturally and automatically are able to support the teachers around them with classroom management. I think a lot of people get into leadership positions out of their depth and they're not too sure what to do and how to support the people that are, you know, looking up to them and expecting more from them. And it's a massive flaw in our system where the leaders I think that because we're so short on teachers, people get into leadership positions they're not trained in leadership and they're also not trained properly in classroom management. So it's like this perfect storm where we have schools full of people who can't support each other. They don't know enough about classroom management, they don't know enough about behavior, so they've got people who are desperate for support and they can't provide that support. They don't have the means to do that and now I'm not making excuses for your head of department, by the way. It is on the shoulders of our leaders to be able to stand up and say you know what? I have staff below me and they are not equipped to deal with the challenges that they're facing in the classroom. I'm not equipped to support them with that because I don't have the skills myself. I need to go out and I need to find myself the resources to be able to support them in the best way that I can, instead of burying my head in the sand. So I am not making excuses. I am just speaking to this massive gap in our system where we're expecting teachers to go in and be mentored by people who were teachers very recently, who also didn't get training classroom management. So it's like this self-fulfilling prophecy of not being supported.

Speaker 1: 8:41

And I wanted to talk about one of my experiences During my teacher training. I did a three-month prac at a school and my mentor teacher was garbage, and I do not say that lightly. I do not sit there and say that any teacher is crap. I have a lot of compassion for teachers. I hold all teachers to high regard and want to support teachers, but this mentor was shocking. The second I walked into that staff room, she said to me everyone's really busy in here. Claire, you need to be not seen and not heard. I want you to go and sit in the library the whole time. So the whole time. Three months I sat in the library by myself. I wasn't allowed into the English staff room.

Speaker 1: 9:18

I taught her classes, but I you know how, when you're a prac teacher, you're not supposed to be in a class by yourself. You're supposed to be mentored the entire time. You're supposed to be there Someone's guiding you. I was in that lesson by myself. Most of the time she wasn't there to observe me. When I was observed by her and I was desperate for feedback I've always wanted to improve, to grow, to do the best that I can she'd say to me oh, I don't know, I'm learning a lot off you, you know. Oh, I think it's okay. So I was thirsty for more. I was thirsty for knowledge and for improvement. This was my career that I was going into and I knew, like we're not perfect teachers, I could go in there now and someone can have something to say about my practice that I need to improve on, and I'm open and willing to accept that. But she was not willing to give me any feedback and during one of the lessons she even got into her car.

Speaker 1: 10:14

I had one of her tough year eight classes. She got into her car and drove away and got her nails done. She'd frequently go into the English staff room while I was teaching her class to redo her lipstick or have conversations with people in the staff room. It was awful. I was lonely, I was miserable, but I was also so confused by what I was doing. I didn't feel successful, I didn't feel confident. It was a horrible experience. But that experience has taught me so much in the negative about what I don't want to do and the kind of teacher that I did want to be and the kind of leader that I wanted to be. So I think seeing that in action and seeing her in action in that leadership and mentor role has really shaped the person that I am today and the way that I want to lead you and the way that I want to support you.

Speaker 1: 11:07

So, also, looking at the leadership examples that you have in your school, if you're feeling like you're not supported, let that fuel you. You can go out there. Michelle, you're going to be going into that or teach them and you're going to be learning so much. I've had people in that or teaching that have gone on to lead classroom management in their schools, no matter how long they've been teaching for. So I want you to let these experiences that you're having right now, in this moment, fuel you to be the leader and the teacher that you are destined to be in the future, Because, by the sounds of things, you really really want to, just like I did back when I was being, you know, mentored by this teacher, you're thirsty for all of the knowledge, all of the skills, all of that professional development that you can possibly get your hands on. So I'm really happy to be able to support you in that. I'll teach them.

Speaker 1: 12:01

And, for everybody else, if you two are sitting there and learning in the negative and having experiences with leaders that are less than ideal, let that fuel you to be a leader in the future, and I'm not talking about school leader or, particularly in you know, an official capacity. You can be a leader with the people around you, within your classroom. You don't have to be an official leader. If that's not what your, what your bag is, if that's not your jam, that is also okay, but let that fuel you to be the person who supports those around you in a deeper and more meaningful way. I'm going to leave it there because I did say 10 minutes around you and it's hit 10 minutes, but I hope that's been helpful.

Speaker 1: 12:39

That was my first Q&A answer for the That'll Teach them 2024 cohort and I am so excited to actually bring you more of these when it's number one, a proper question and number two, when it can actually be applied to the learning that we're doing within the course, because that's where the magic will happen Us starting to apply things, us starting to really hone our craft, us starting to really start to. How many times can I say start to See? I'll just waffle on for the next 10 minutes now. Us starting to hardwire what we're going to for our entire career. Have a lovely week that'll teach them team and I will see you next time.