More videos from Tom Bennett
Video transcript
okay it’s on fifth and final tip please final tip oh i thought we’ll run about two right okay that’s a good one um students need to again this is quite a broad one but i quite like it you are in charge of the classroom students need you to be in charge that’s the tip right now i’m going to impact that and that’s why i think it’s too important this is something which i think sometimes um troubles newer teachers because also trouble teachers in general which is that um they often feel uh an uncertain relationship towards their right to run the room as it were now um there’s an excellent book out there called running it’s available for all good bookstores and bad books um and it’s basically this idea that it’s your room so therefore has to run in your rules children need an adult presence they need an adult sense of authority in the room and it’s and it’s your right to run the room and and they find it weird when you don’t decide to take charge they find it weird when teachers are um shall we say far too democratic about the process of the classroom and we hear this quite a lot though you know you’ve got to get the children to agree to the rules in order for them to participate in the minute i couldn’t i couldn’t agree less i couldn’t agree less i don’t get to i go to the police officer who stops me for speeding doesn’t wait for my consent before i agree to submit to a parking fine or a penalty you know a speeding fighter penalty and you know those are the rules and and when you make them malleable and when you create a sense of you know if you really don’t want to do it then you don’t have to do it then most children will still behave but sadly a percentage of children will think oh this is great you know it’s my room my rules it’s the land of do as you please that shall be the whole of the law and that’s that’s that disastrous thing to teach children who are developing an emergent sense of responsibility some kids whether they’re four years old or 14 years old are incredibly responsible and you know you you could send them to the bank with your cat with your credit card and your pin code and they’d come back with the exact money and they wouldn’t touch anything else and other kids would be invented on before you know it and the point of this is you’re scaffolding responsibility for them by showing them what they should do until it becomes a habit now along the way you persuade them as well i’m not i’m not saying just tell them they should bloody well do it you’ve got to try and persuade them of why it matters that you care about them and that you want them to do well and that they’re important and because you want them to succeed and flourish and be safe these are the rules that we have to abide by but we will be abiding by them you know there needs to be that sense of you know this this isn’t a debate i’m not disgusting i’m just letting you know and we can have a discussion about it but that’s not going to take us anywhere different but i’m doing this because i care about you because i’m a grown up and i know what’s best for you and and you know after i said before i’ve taken uh six farmers on trips to to to to to and the west bank and stuff like that i can’t recommend that enough um and they need you to be a grown-up they still need you to be there and you can and it’s weird taking 17 year olds and they’re like you know they grew up here what do we do because because they’re they’re they’re insecure they’re anxious but what to do next so be the grown-up run the room and acknowledge the fact that it’s your right to run the room but it’s also your responsibility to do so and if you have to get that responsibility somebody else will run the room and it will usually be a group of the strongest dominant personalities which you’ll be very lucky if they’re also the nicest kindest wisest student so don’t advocate the responsibility don’t give away you know i acknowledge that you need to take the reins of the classroom and this is such a big point and i know that this is quite a broad and much like more vague abstract point but it’s such such an important point for people taking over classrooms i’ve seen endless pointless discussions about you know um we’re going to have a discussion about what the school rules are or the class rules are i just keep thinking myself are you a grown-up do you not know what the rules need to be in your classroom because because if you don’t then then don’t pretend you know don’t pretend you’re in charge because you’re not and that’s my fifth top tip i like it tom just a one quick follow-up to this then a bonus question if that’s okay so you follow up to the you follow up to this is does the um obviously it’s always important that the the teachers they’re running the room and is the responsible one does that change at all throughout the course of the year as the teacher gets to know the class um better does does that role change at all and does it change with different age groups of students would the way this would be done with the year seven differ to say a year 13 group that’s a great question craig um i i know that i will say that but it is a good question um yes and no yes and the yes is that as you scaffold the responsibilities they’re expected to assume for themselves like you know turning up in time and having the right equipment and doing their best and being kind to one another and not laughing if someone gets it wrong as you scaffold these things as you start to see it become a habit you can then take a step back in terms of constantly holding them accountable you can you know you can you can tone down the constant reminders you can tone down the you know the cues that you give people to this behavior because you notice that they’re doing it automatically but if they stop doing it and this you’ll never be able to completely abdicate that you know you’ll always have to remind them occasionally this is what we should be doing here and so you can take a step back and the joy of that then is that you walk into someone’s classroom who’s at that point with other students and the kids will all just be behaving and you’ll think what are they doing like what are they the teachers just doing nothing the teachers just you know asking them to do stuff and they do it or not even asking them when they do it and the point of course there is that it’s been habituated and the kids have been socialized and they also probably value the behavior and they also know what will happen if they don’t do it and there’s this wonderful kind of cultural assumption but you never give up the right to say right this isn’t working you never go to the right to say um brad notice you’re not doing what i need you to do and that’s causing you a problem because you can’t learn and you’re not safe and we can’t be in think we can’t have as much dignity in this classroom so therefore i’m going to step back up again as i said i would if this happened so you’re always under the auspices of the teachers authority but but you can of course you know take a step back as they become more autonomous which you know often six farmers can be especially if they’ve been with you for several years but you never take the foot off the pedal and never take your hands off the wheel fantastic and here’s your bonus question tom this is exciting so what i was interested what i’m always interested in is um is obviously when teachers are within a school they’re often slt will order in kind of external cpd and so on and it always frustrates me a little bit because there’s often real good expertise within the school itself and it’s often the case that teachers just don’t get chance to go into each other’s rooms and learn from each other but in terms of behavior just to go back on something you said there there’s a real danger isn’t that you as a novice teacher who’s struggling with behavior go into a room to watch an experienced teacher how they’re controlling this class and it’s it’s invisible what’s going on because they’re they just seem to be teaching as normal but the kids aren’t playing up or acting up or anything like that and it’s because these rules and routines have been established and and so on so i guess my question my bonus question is if you’re a teacher in a school wanting to learn from colleagues how to get better in terms of behavior how do you go about that is it worth watching more experienced teachers or not that’s okay very decent bonus question there and you know this all day right let’s say at the age of the grand old age of 50 which i am now i know i don’t like it you’re looking at me 49 maybe if i decided you know what i want to become a belly dancer i think what’s the what’s that male ballerina a ballet dancer yeah i think a belly dancer okay i don’t know i mean i could be a belly dancer but let’s say i want to be what i wouldn’t do is go to the royal opera house in covent garden and buy tickets to see darcy bustle’s revival of swan lake and watch her and go got it that’s it i’ll do that i’ll do that or in the same way if you want to become uh you know the next um zola brads or somebody but there’s an old reference for somebody there i can’t think of a more recent i don’t know many marathon winners um i wouldn’t just you know watch a marathon and go ah i get it now you just run for 26 watt miles um i wanted to get better at something i wouldn’t watch an expert um unless the expert was sufficiently versed in teaching the process and breaking them down and it’s why i mean i i was if i may say so i was very good at behavior management in school but no better than many other people though right no you’re no better than a decent teacher a behavior management and once i’d had a class for four or five years and some if someone said can i come along and watch your lesson for what you do video management i would say no no because i’ve had this class for five years and they all just behave because they know what to do and we’ve got a really good relationship and that relationship is the outcome of all these structured processes that we’ve laid down like train tracks for five six years you know this is this is this is not an act of of a moment go see a really good teacher who’s taking over new class yeah that’s what to do because a bit like the lloyds building in london the dirty knight building um it was a norman foster or richard rodgers designed it to have all of its outsides of its insides on the outside so all of its service hatches and lifts and so on all this governs the guts are outside the building it’s quite interesting going to see um you want to see you want to see the engine running with with the car boot open rather than just watch the ferrari race past you and you as you’re dumb struck by what actually happened if you want to know what’s happening stop the car and lift up the bonnet this metaphor is complicated mechanic at this point but um yeah so watch a great teacher with a new class and before you do that get them to tell you what they’re going to do with this new class how they lay these train tracks down this is what i’m going to tell them to do and this is what i’m going to do if they don’t do it and this is what i’m going to say and here’s how i’m going to react and that’s it that’s the skeleton that’s the architecture that’s that’s that’s the you know that that’s the iron mongering behind the architecture and that’s a really good thing to do and then have a conversation afterwards and if you can and i’m really pushing the ball here but you know we’re talking about optimal situations here film that situation play back little clips with your novice and with your expert together in a collegiate conversation of mutual respect and say this is what i was doing and let the novice say why did you do that and have that explanation have that discussion and that’s the best way to learn about it but you’ve gotta have a focus you’re gonna have a target don’t just watch dumb struck as magnificence is performed in front of you otherwise i mean i’m gonna go see derren brown next week i can’t wait i do like darren brown i think he’s gonna go see him in show you know i can’t watch him and go ah now i know how to do it because i’ve seen somebody do it it’s just like that it’s all going on you know behind the curtain