NOTES FOR SELF-IMPROVEMENT

• There’s no such thing as a stupid question is one of the more important principles your best teachers endorsed. Don’t let frustration, speed or inconvenience allow you to undermine that principle in your own classroom.

• If teaching is making you unpleasant, terse, jaded, then either quit teaching or do it better. Don’t lose yourself because it’s easier to manage behaviour through fear than through kindness.

• Kindness is always better. Always.

• Remember what you hated as a student yourself. Don’t do that. Even if there are justifications and rationales for being awful in the classroom, remember what it feels like from a student perspective and what impression will last.

• Note down the good things pupils do. Acknowledge them. To yourself. To them. To their families.

• No more behaviour or achievement points. They are a false currency.

• No more endless detentions. Brief discussions on what went wrong are ok, immediately following the incident. Two mins is more effective than an hour two days later.

• No rules - just clear expectations. Flexibly interpreted but consistently reinforced.