Teachers are under constant pressure to teach the entirety of the curriculum, maintain a positive and productive classroom culture, manage all manner of behaviour management issues and support their students to achieve at a high academic rate. It is a massive task that we willingly shoulder because in the end, teaching is our passion. But it is not sustainable.
So how do we avoid becoming martyrs in the education system? By using a series of smart strategies to better manage or even reduce our workloads. In another blog post, I’ll go into detail about time management and mindsets I’ve implemented to find a great work-life balance. For now, let’s focus on the one approach to teaching that you can take into your classroom tomorrow.
Be the best role model for the children. Um…duh? We already are..? But hear me out! This is something that is a greatly underrated teaching tool, something that we know we are doing but often aren’t mindful of its true power. Kids don’t listen to what you say, but to what you do.
Implementing these opportunities for role modelling can save you time in the long run. You could build a stronger basis for behaviour management, integrate social emotional health lessons into every subject and set your students up to be successful, self-regulating learners.
1. Role model thinking aloud
This might be something you have come across in your studies to become a teacher; the power of teachers thinking aloud. I learned how to do this in teaching the writing process, so that students could ‘hear’ what might be going on in my head as I wrote a story. It was also an effective strategy when I wanted children to move into higher-order thinking, by putting a statement out there that started with “What if…” or “I wonder what would happen if I…”
Not only is thinking aloud a great academic tool that is simple to put into practise in any lesson, but it also gives children the opportunity to start building self-control skills. That is, their ability to think before acting or speaking. If children can see a role model (i.e. teacher) pausing to think before continuing with what they were doing, they can observe self-control in a real life situation rather than in a separate, disconnected social emotional health lesson. They will be more likely to replicate what they see their role models doing rather than following their spoken words.
The thing I really find helpful is when a situation comes up where a child gets stuck with something, you can refer to your own process: “Remember when I stopped writing because I saw there was a problem with…so I thought about changing…and then I kept going.” This demonstrates to the child that people deal with similar problems and gives the child context rather than just giving them advice on what to do next.
2. Role model how you deal with daily stressors
I mentioned this in my blog post about building strong teacher-student relationships, and it really does change the way children interact with you. If they see you dealing with conflict or stress in an appropriate, manageable way, they subconsciously acknowledge you as ‘human’ rather than a teacher on some unspoken hierarchy. We teachers feel negative emotions, too. And if we showcase this, the children won’t see this as a weakness. They will feel safe to share their emotions and conflicts in the same way you disclosed to them.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you go into a long-winded and emotional speech in front of them about everything. Remember, you’re modelling what you want to see if children are struggling with a stressor or conflict (and children already know how to give impassioned speeches – tantrums – about how they feel). Speak calmly and honestly, name your feelings and what you’re going to do to help manage them in that moment. You won’t need to plan and teach a formal lesson and its impact will be just as strong. Check out my post on this blog to read about an example of role modelling how I dealt with a stressful situation.
3. Role model classroom conduct
Most classrooms have a treaty, a set of guidelines or rules, an agreement of some sort that binds children to acting and speaking a certain way in their shared environment. Be a teacher who is also liable to these structures and make it clear to the children that you are just as bound as them. Why should you be exempt? Because you’re the adult and they’re the child? Because you know how to act in a shared space and the guidelines are inherently part of your conduct?
How do you think you came to understand these guidelines in the first place? You learned from teachers, from home or from others who had learned from better role models than you might have had in your life. In any case, you had to learn it. You weren’t born with it.
So if you want to teach a lesson on keeping the classroom clean, for example, knock a pile of stationery over and stop what you’re doing to clean it up. You might get a few keen helpers, so acknowledge them out loud by saying something like “Thank you, this class is lucky that it has helpful students to clean up a mess!” Another suggestion could be to light-heartedly talk about how you had to stay a little late after school yesterday because your teaching area was messy, and you know you share the space with all of them so you had to make sure it was tidy before the following day. After this comment, the next time your class is messy, remind them of when you had to clean your space because of the agreement you had all made at the start of the academic year. Keep your tone matter-of-fact and humble.
Little comments and actions like this can have a big impact. It avoids teacher direction – the ‘do as your told’ mentality which children are often more resistant to follow – and fosters learner agency. Less work for you in the long run!
4. Role model making a mistake and owning it
Taking risks and increasing the chance of making a mistake is not something that comes naturally to most children. I have written a blog post on what it means to be resilient and how important it is to teach this to children. We all want to get things right, but mistakes are unavoidable in learning new things. Teachers have a great responsibility and opportunity to help children see their own errors in a different light.
Let’s not forget that being a ‘role model’ does not mean putting yourself up on a pedestal where no one else can stand – you’re not perfect and nobody can live up to near impossible expectations. So if you make a mistake that is appropriate to share with the class, openly admit you’ve made that mistake. Acknowledge how it feels and what action you’ll take going forward. This has made some teachers feel uncomfortable and even some teachers refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, opting to divert attention away from this to avoid accepting what has happened in front of their students.
Kids don’t listen to what you say, but to what you do.
In some cases, it is understandable that teachers don’t want their students to see a certain type of mistake because it doesn’t benefit their students to know about it. However, next time you do something as simple as forgetting to photocopy something or misspelling a word on the board, own it in front of everyone. I can’t express to you enough about how powerful this is for the children to experience.
5. Role model humour
Children aged 6-12 especially respond to humour and appreciate when their teachers take part in a good joke. When we share in a positive, fun experience with our students, we can make connections with each other that overflows in the day-to-day running of the classroom.
I had a student who was very resistant to following any instruction I gave the class to the point where he was outright defiant and refused to do work. I tried acknowledging him every day, picking my battles carefully, giving options where I could and generally giving positive reinforcement when I noticed him fulfilling the smallest of tasks. But the thing that helped us move through this tough patch was sharing in a humorous experience during some outdoor education one day. After laughing together, something seemed to shift for us and it became a little easier to work together. It helped reduce the need for behaviour management and started to change the way he viewed coming to school, resulting in an increase in his motivation academic performance.
Who knows, this might be the missing component for a teacher reading this – I hope it helps with some of your more difficult students. The power of a shared positive experience should not be underestimated!
Just remember that the teacher needs to know when it is appropriate to make a joke and when it might isolate a child or incident in an insensitive way. The better we know our students, the better we are at judging this.
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