IYT Session 4

Session Four

June Term 2

Mel and I attended session 4 of our Incredible Years Teacher Training last week. We are slowly moving up the pyramid, and this in session we are beginning to look at the orange section, focusing on managing misbehaviour: ignoring and redirecting.

Incredible Years Pyramid

The session began with a brief discussion about behaviours in which we could ignore from student, vs behaviours that we could not. This generated a bit of heated discussion and it was interesting to hear different viewpoints about which behaviours could be ignored. Lots of us didn't agree, and we found that we each had quite different limits and expectations about acceptable behaviours.

Some of the behaviours that we could ignore were:

• Students calling out
• Standing up when supposed to be sitting on the mat
• Whistling/Tapping
• Off task and wandering around
• Disruptions when in a group

On our "couldn't ignore" list, we found that there were a few overlaps:

• Calling out
• Tapping
• Misuse of devices
• Physical harm
• Distracting others
• Disrespect

Ignoring is when: teachers give no eye contact or attention to a student, give students privacy of a space to calm down, you remain calm in both voice tone and facial expressions, and you be consistent. The most important part of the ignoring process is that you re-engage with the student when the ignoring is over.

Ignoring is a skill that is not often taught so we modelled a lesson that we could teach to our students on how to ignore behaviour. Mel and I talked about how this would fit in well with the behaviour teaching that we are incorporating at the moment, as this is a key skill that our students so often need. We modelled the lesson using puppets, Y charts, brainstorming, talking about 'ignoring muscles', and we were also taught a breathing exercise to try with students. This will be an interesting one to test out and help slow the heart rate down to reduce impulsiveness. 

We were also shown a discipline hierarchy of steps for non disruptive and disruptive behaviour. We had to talk to teachers at other schools about their behaviour system and what they do. I found it interesting, having only worked at Gilberthorpe, that other school don't have one of these systems and that if a student misbehaves there are no clear steps or guidelines for a teacher to follow. 

Our school behaviour system fits into this model, and as we are in the process of adapting it this model could be quite helpful!

Another great session, over halfway through the course now and I would recommend it to any other teacher. I have learned many valuable strategies and ideas to implement into the classroom and my teaching and the food is pretty good too!