The Unteachables Podcast

A very special bonus episode coming to you from the That'll Teach 'Em Private Podcast!

On today's episode I answer Michelle's 'question' (well - I respond to her comment).

"This can’t start quick enough - I wouldn’t even call myself a new teacher but I am drowning in behaviour and whenever I reach out for help, and I'm not shy in doing so I’m so keen to learn and improve, my head of department always umms and ahhs, makes excuses, and has never actively observed me, supported me, or really answered any questions around classroom management. I am so happy to be a part of the That'll Teach 'Em community and to finally feel like I’m not alone."

I know this is something that many of you are experiencing, or have experienced. So if this is you, this episode is definitely worth a listen.

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.

JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website

Today I am joined on the podcast with Em Gentle, a graduate teacher mentor, fellow edu-podcaster, and founder of the grad guide where she supports new teachers adopt a trauma informed approach to teaching.
In today’s episode we go on all the rants including:

• What teachers should be taught in teacher preparation programs before entering the profession
• Our 'inherited' classroom management and teacher guilt around it
• What a trauma informed approach looks like in action
• What we see new teachers struggle with the most (self-doubt, overwhelm, a lack of behaviour support) and
• What things we would recommend for new teachers to know and do with their classroom management and teaching and learning.

Although new teachers are definitely the focus for this episode, it is just as valuable for all teachers.
After all, it is simply about great teaching.
Find more of Em's work on instagram: @thegradguide_

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.

JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website

I spent the first 5 years of my career feeling like I needed to be ‘all over’ every single facet of the lesson to contain and reduce challenging behaviours. This meant working through almost every weekend and break that I had.
Yes, it helped my classroom management! I was able to create lessons that were well-resourced, pitched right, scaffolded brilliantly so students could access them, relevant... all of the things that support us in mitigating some of the challenging behaviours that we may see.
What I didn’t release at the time was I was taking two steps forward and three steps back. I wasn’t resting, I wasn’t filling my cup, I wasn’t investing in myself, and I was BURNT OUT. Worse yet, I was on the brink of full-blown compassion fatigue after spending years absorbing the traumas of the young people I worked with.
This meant I was missing the biggest piece of the classroom management puzzle.
Ensuring I was okay, that I was regulated, that I had the capacity to co-regulate, stay calm, and influence the energy in the room. As cliched as it sounds, I wasn’t putting my own oxygen mask on before fitting it onto those around me.
So as we head into the holidays, this episode is a big reminder that resting is the most important thing that you can do, because the efficacy of your teacher self, is reliant on the health and wellbeing of your real life self. If this sounds like something you need a little bit of a reminder around, or you struggle to set boundaries, then this is the episode for you.
This is the last episode of The Unteachables Podcast for 2023 - I will be back Tuesday 8th January! I can’t wait to continue to support you in 2024.

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.

JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website

As the year draws to a close, things start to get increasingly challenging.
You have your head teacher telling you that you need to keep learning until the last minute, even though you KNOW your students are checked out (and let’s be honest, we’re teetering on that edge too).
Your students are becoming more and more unsettled. The energy shifts. The disruptions, and the general volume, within the class, increase.
Yep, that countdown starts to drag, and drag, the closer we get. We feel like we should be on the wind down to the silly season but the expectations on us get higher whilst it feels like it gets lower for the students.
This episode is all about WHY these challenges emerge at this time of year (because there are multiple culprits at play), and what we can actually DO to keep some semblance of control over our classroom spaces.
It’s all about being able to inject some much needed fun into the end of year whilst still maintaining a sense of calm amongst the excitement.
In this episode I discuss how to set the stage for more laid-back learning, and explore a structured start to keep your students engaged. It’s all about thriving in the lead up to the holidays, not simply surviving!

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.

JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website

One of the things that used to really grind my gears as a teacher was when I was trying to teach a new skill to students, whether it be an analytical response or a piece of creative writing, and they would say something like the following:
“I know how to do this already”
“This is baby work, I did it in Year 3”,
Or the worst one...
“Why do I have to learn English, I already speak the language!!”
Of course as a teacher I COULD spend a chunk of the lesson explaining until I am blue in the face about how there is a progression of skills, how English as a subject permeates everything we do, how the writing they did in Year 3 is not the writing I am expecting of them.
And I did. Often.

Now? I understand that all of us, human beings in general, simply don’t know, what we don’t know!!

So what do I do instead?

I teach them about the conscious competence ladder (not necessarily using that lingo).

Listen in to this week’s podcast as I go over what the Conscious Competence Ladder is, and why it is such a valuable theory to support us in teaching our students, and applying in our own practice.

Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!

Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.

JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE

RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:

• Shop all resources
• Join The Behaviour Club
• My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
• The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
• Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'

Connect with me:

• Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
• Check out my website