Teacher, Tim Taylor reflects in this article on his early days of working with challenging children for whom the standard BM techniques didn't work too well and once all used up , simply get repeated, but with more power against the child. So, thinking in a different way and using a coaching approach, he successfully helps an 'at risk of exclusion' 10 year old boy to start managing his own behaviour.
He says 'Once I'd run out of ideas with Kyle all I could do was repeat my repertoire. This was even less successful second time round and he had to be removed from class more often, giving us respite in the short term but doing little to change things for the better. I realised the strategies I was using put Kyle and others like him in a position where they required continuous direction from adults.'
I'm sure this is a scenario repeated all over the world in schools restarting this September and children feeling like they are helpless victims of the system that judges them, not so, it really can be changed so the children themselves become the managers of their own behaviour, it just takes some change of thinking by teachers and managers and real determination to make it better, day by day.
He says 'Once I'd run out of ideas with Kyle all I could do was repeat my repertoire. This was even less successful second time round and he had to be removed from class more often, giving us respite in the short term but doing little to change things for the better. I realised the strategies I was using put Kyle and others like him in a position where they required continuous direction from adults.'
I'm sure this is a scenario repeated all over the world in schools restarting this September and children feeling like they are helpless victims of the system that judges them, not so, it really can be changed so the children themselves become the managers of their own behaviour, it just takes some change of thinking by teachers and managers and real determination to make it better, day by day.