Supporting New Teachers with Student Behaviour | Anna Gregory

In this episode, Clare talks to experienced teacher, leader, educational coach, and Team Teach trainer, Anna Gregory, about supporting new teachers with behaviour.

They talk about some of the challenges new teachers face around student behaviour, and the importance of fostering safe, supportive environments in which early career teachers can learn, grow, and thrive – as well as make mistakes.

They also explore the role of rewards and sanctions, and what it means to be a ‘conscious practitioner’ when it comes to behaviour support.

Anna worked as a primary teacher and leader for almost 20 years. After leaving the profession in 2015, she set up her own educational training and consultancy, offering personal and professional coaching to teachers, in particular those at the start of their career.

Since then, she has gone on to become a Team Teach trainer, and is Senior Content Writer at Team Teach, as well as being part of the L&D team.

You can find Anna on LinkedIn.

She also shares three tips in the episode:

• Relying solely on reward systems and sanctions can mean that we miss out on opportunities to foster intrinsic motivation in students, and can end up managing rather than
  supporting behaviour.
• There is certainly a place for offering advice around behaviour, but often, effective mentoring means asking incisive questions, actively listening to the response, and encouraging new teachers to find the answers within themselves.
• It’s in everyone’s interests to develop ‘conscious practitioners’ who are fully present and continually reflect on every aspect of their practice.

The Team Teach podcast shares the latest thinking in behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use in your setting.