This week, The Secret Teacher calls for fewer raised voices and more empathy in the classroom.
If you make the effort to know your kids, have a laugh with them, have rapport with them – and this is the crucial thing – when things go wrong, if a kid tells you to go f*** yourself, it’s never personal.
When they come in the next day it’s a fresh start, so you don’t take them outside that first period and go ‘We’ll have no more of that like we had yesterday’. Someone else has probably had that conversation. You give them a fresh start and a fresh opportunity.
Make mistakes in front of your kids, show them that it’s okay to be vulnerable. The amount of spelling mistakes that I’ve made on my whiteboard, and I don’t try to smudge it out and hide it. I ask ‘Who can spot the spelling mistake? Who can tell me where I’ve done something wrong?’ and you own it and you make it fun. These are all little things that you need to do to build a relationship.
I’m known in my school for having a safe, comfortable classroom environment. That doesn’t mean I can’t be strict when necessary, or firm, or clear with my expectations, but your default should always be friendly, accepting and non-judgemental.
