Who relates to finishing explaining a task to students only to have a hand pop up and ask… ”Sir/Miss, what are we doing?!” If you had a dollar for every time you had just explained a task and you get a question that if they were really listening, they wouldn’t need to ask in the first place, or that was irrelevant, or that forced you to explain what you had just explained, how many dollars would you have? If you asked me this in my first year of teaching, I would have had many dollars. But that ...
Mar 28, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 16
DO YOUR BEST, FORGET THE REST! If you’re looking for a permission slip to truly embrace the teacher you are, then look no further than this amazing interview with Ceri Sandford. This passionate woman behind the powerhouse Wine with teacher club and podcast goes deep with me as we discuss some of the challenges of teaching. We discuss some commonly shared feelings amongst teachers such as: Am I the only teacher who feels like im winging it all of the time? Am I the only teacher who has cried in f...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Welcome back to season 2 of The Unteachables Podcast - Woooo freaking hoo! And I am back with a brand new co-host, my 2 month old daughter Ava. Despite me training her up for 9 months, she didn’t contribute much, but I might just let her stick around. This episode I go through my journey in teaching, from the rapid growth of my first few years from beginning teacher to middle leadership. To burning out, quitting, and skipping the country. To the eventual progression to senior leadership. This ep...
Mar 14, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Wow, teachers, 2022 has been a BIG year hasn’t it?! But let me ask you something… how do you really feel about it? Are you measuring yourself backwards and really appreciating how far you have come, OR have you gotten yourself in the habit of measuring yourself forwards to goalposts that are always changing? This concept is from the book ‘The Gap and The Gain’ by Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy, and is so useful in helping YOU see how you can transform your idea of success in the classroom in...
Dec 13, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 13
If you could sit across from your first year teacher self, what would you say? Well this episode is me exploring that very question for myself. If you’re a teacher in the making or a teacher still early in their career, I hope my reflections over this episode help bring a little validation, support and clarity. And if you’re an experienced teacher, this episode will be an exercise in reflection, to see just how far you’ve come, to look back and consider what you would say to your teacher self wh...
Dec 06, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Who feels like they are crawwwwwwling to the holidays? That end of year push can feel impossibly exhausting. And it’s obvious why it is hard…. We are tired, we are burnt out. Buttttt as you know, being a teacher is pretty multifaceted, there's a lot of reasons why this time of year feels really tough, after all it's not just us at a computer getting through that last bit of work. It is us, plus 30 other human beings, who are also exhausted and counting down those days. So in this episode I'll be...
Nov 29, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 11
I don’t need to sit here and tell you that building a positive relationship with a student is a pretty important part of the work we do. I am sure you also know that the students who really need that relationship the most to trust you and learn from you, are also sometimes the ones who display the most challenging behaviours! This is why it is SUCH a double edged sword, because you will then NEED to address more of their challenging behaviours. And every time you address a challenging behaviour,...
Nov 22, 2022•26 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Mistakes, blunders, slips, errors… all of these are NOT dirty words… ESPECIALLY in teaching. In fact, I celebrate mistakes, I encourage mistakes, I welcome the vulnerability of teachers standing there and just doing their thing in the classroom KNOWING that mistakes are a part of the learning process. When it comes to classroom management in particular, there are some very common patterns in the mistakes that we can make that actually FUEL low-level behaviours with our students. The good news? T...
Nov 15, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 9
When I ask teachers what their biggest classroom behaviour challenges are, MOST of the time I will hear…. Low. Level. Behaviours. *SHUDDER* For SO many teachers, these behaviours sit in this difficult grey area. They are annoying enough to completely derail a lesson, but not quite severe enough to warrant a big response. They are the behaviours that stop the learning, and make you want to chuck in the towel and run screaming out of the lesson! The calling out, the talking over, the tapping, the ...
Nov 08, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 8
So many classroom management strategies rely on a foundation of not only relationships and rapport, but solid routines and a whole lot of consistency to be effective. But what if you have absolutely no opportunity to do this because you have either chosen the path of, or are currently in the role of, a casual / supply / substitute teacher (whatever you call it in your patch of the world)! I know how incredibly hard it can be teaching one of these lessons, you don’t even know their names! Let alo...
Nov 01, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 7
I am sure you have heard this being said before, ‘don’t take it personally.. it isn’t about you’... Well, if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of incredibly personal, harsh, nasty student comments, you know that it is something that is so much easier said than done. This episode will unpack the truth in the ‘don’t take it personally’ advice, but ALSO give you the much needed knowledge and support to protect your peace and manage these really difficult moments in the classroom. In this episod...
Oct 25, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Teacher well-being, or the lack thereof, is absolutely no joke. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves… and teachers are usually people who don’t join the profession on a whim to begin with, I’d say we usually have a pretty solid ‘why’. So what is going on here? I have a special guest Jodi also known as @thebusyteachersclub on Instagram, who is in the middle of launching her teacher well-being course, Ditch Burnout and Thrive. You can head to her Instagram for all of the details, or the f...
Oct 18, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Why are we always comparing ourselves? It is such a trap that we can all fall into as teachers, especially when we are simultaneously battling with imposter syndrome… If you’re a bit of an introvert, if you’re a bit awkward, if it takes you a while to warm up, if you don’t have the strongest ‘teacher voice’, that is OKAY! This episode will bust any preconceptions around what it takes to really lead a classroom, and teach you how to embrace your teacher personality no matter what type of person y...
Oct 11, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 4
<p> Welcome to Episode 3 of the unteachables podcast! Today one of my best teacher pals Chiara and I dig into some of the top tier memories, biggest struggles, and biggest triumphs of our first years of teaching together. Through our own experiences of our shared chaotic class, we reflect on what it takes to engage the most challenging to engage classes. </p> <p> This episode is chock full of top tier memories from our first years of teaching, as well as diving into a bunch of ...
Oct 06, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Today I am going to be talking about something that reallllly grinds my gears… when you have a really challenging class, a student who is displaying some really challenging behaviours, you’re at the very bottom of your goodie bag of teaching strategies, you go and seek some support, and the only thing that you seem to get back is something about needing to foster that relationship. Well.. it certainly is the core of our behaviour management approach, BUT, it isn’t the magic bullet. This episode ...
Oct 04, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 2
We are humans… who also happen to be teachers… responsible for 30 other humans… That leaves a LOT of room for ‘human moments’ in our day to day work. In today’s inaugural episode, I am going to dig into some very human moments of my own recently in the classroom, hear from some of you about yours, and of course, give you a few little nuggets of teaching know-how to take away. This episode covers: A very big human announcement! Our different phases and seasons of teaching and why we need to honou...
Oct 02, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Coming Sunday October 2nd: 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. Teaching the Unteachables 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, Cl...
Sep 19, 2022•2 min0
