The Unteachables Podcast
Welcome to ‘The Unteachables Podcast’, where your host Claire English is NO stranger to challenging classroom behaviour. And if you’ve found your way here, it’s likely you aren’t either. This is a podcast that is dedicated to making you feel a hell of a lot less alone in these struggles, whilst giving you the knowledge, support and strategies you need to not only survive the chaos, but truly thrive in teaching. Each week, Claire gets real on some tough teaching topics, explores student behaviour, interviews real teachers, with real human classroom moments, and has plenty of laughs along the way. Think about it as getting a dose of relatable, actionable and enjoyable professional learning straight into your ears. So whether you’re in early years, primary or secondary. A beginning teacher, an early career teacher, a teacher in training, a teaching assistant, an experienced teacher, a leader in teaching, a WHATEVER teacher, plug ‘The Unteachables Podcast’ in on your commute to work and let Claire be the ‘down in the trenches’ mentor every single one of you deserve. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
Show episodes
45: Are you classroom managing like a fist, or a palm? A game-changing metaphor that will shape the way you approach behaviour in the heat of the moment
In today’s episode, I am going to be giving you a visual metaphor to approaching challenging classroom behaviour that can be a game changer. This is something that I was taught way back in my first year of teaching and it has stuck with me ever since. It is one of the things that started to really build my own classro
#44: The one thing you need to do during the holidays to improve your classroom management in 2024.
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-resource
#43: 2023: The year I became a mother, a wife, and an author. Reflections, regrets, and lessons learnt.
2023 has been one of the biggest, and most transformational times in my life. Both professionally, and personally. It has been a year where too many dreams decided to show up at once (I understand how much of an oxymoron that is). So I just had to lean into the beautiful chaos of it all and MAKE it work. I had a baby.
#42: Want to do some laid-back learning at the end of the year, and STILL maintain a calm and controlled environment? This is what you need to know.
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 u
#41: What Is the Conscious Competence Ladder, and Why You Need to Know About It for Learning, Behavior, and Your Own Professional Development.
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
#40: Want a Calm Lesson? You Need a Calm Start! The 3 Proactive Classroom Management Strategies Every Teacher Should Know!
The first 5 minutes of a lesson can absolutely be make or break for behaviour. What you do in this time and how you prepare for it can be the deciding factor between a productive, calm, controlled space where students can learn, and a lesson that very quickly continues to descend into chaos. So how to make sure those f