This is a very simple classroom management strategy taken from my main classroom management title, ‘Take Control of the Noisy Class.’ I often used this in class when I was a teacher, and now use at seminars and workshops to demonstrate the power of giving students responsibility for their own behaviour. Not only can this technique get a rowdy group of students quiet in as little as...

After 25 years of working with emotionally damaged and ‘difficult’ children, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is just one true key to successful behaviour management. It really doesn’t matter how many ‘proven’ strategies you have in your arsenal because without this, your efforts will almost certainly come unstuck.

The secret ingredient, sadly...

Students are most motivated when they feel they are part of a community in which they feel accepted and in which individuality is encouraged. By definition a community is a group of people who work with one another building a sense of trust, care, and support – kind of like a family. This means that in our classrooms, part of our job is to provide opportunities and structures by which...

Here are some ways of improving praise so that it creates the kind of positive changes you want to see in your challenging students.

1. Make praise descriptive and specific

Real praise – the kind that actually makes a difference – comes from genuinely noticing when someone puts effort into something or has managed to complete something they wouldn’t normally manage to do and...

Whenever you have to issue a consequence to a student you will almost certainly provoke some eye rolling, muttering, complaining and other secondary behaviours. Don’t get drawn into these attempts to start an argument; it will escalate until either the student does something that will cause you more stress or you will explode and embarrass yourself. Either way you can’t win by...

1. Create a block of time during free periods and other non-teaching time to handle paperwork. Schedule this in your planner and stick to it. Chatting with colleagues is an effective way to let off steam and relax but it is more enjoyable doing so when you’ve first got some paperwork out of the way. Get some books marked first, then chat. Or, if you prefer, mark the books at home – I...

Would you like to know about a teaching strategy you can use at the start of ANY lesson to gain instant engagement and participation from all your students?

I can sum this strategy up in just ONE WORD. And when you apply this word at the start of your lesson you are virtually guaranteed to hook your students straight away, get them interested and increase buy-in for the rest of your lesson...