Category: Blog
A permanent teacher has the opportunity to build trust and respect with their class. They get to know individuals and what they need to stay engaged and on task. There is no such luxury when you provide cover and are walking into the unknown. It’s a challenge to quickly build rapport, so which strategies help supply teachers with classroom management?
Here are our tips:
Consider Your Position in the Classroom
Standing behind the desk can feel like a safe place to be when you are in an unfamiliar classroom. However, it creates a barrier. Our first tip is to start the lesson at the door, greeting the students as they come in. This welcome sets a positive tone and helps you to read the emotional state of the students. It’s a first step in building rapport.
Throughout the lesson, move around the classroom. This offers the opportunity to observe how students are coping with activities. It enables you to discretely support those who may be struggling, praise those who are fully participating and address disruptive behaviours.
Employ Change Management Strategies
It’s important to acknowledge that a new teacher is a change, which can be challenging for some students. Therefore, you can adopt some change management communication strategies at the start of the lesson.
Firstly, explain why you are there and confirm when their regular teacher is expected to return. Secondly, introduce yourself, the goal for the lesson and your expectations for what they can achieve. Thirdly, break the lesson up into milestones to retain focus and momentum.
Set a Positive Tone
We all respond better to instructions when the people delivering them are positive, assertive and relatable.
At school, we all had supply teachers who were authoritarian, intimidating, and quick to jump on bad behaviour. This shuts down any engagement with the class and limits collective learning and understanding. On the other end of the spectrum, there were the overly lax supply teachers, who didn’t seem to care what happened during the lesson. This also hampers learning.
Striking the balance with a confident and collaborative approach, which favours praise over punishment, is a skill. Yet, when you master it, you are better able to quickly build rapport.
Having said this, we advise you to familiarise yourself with the school’s behavioural policy. If a student is intentionally disruptive and fails to respond to your efforts to engage them, follow the policy. This allows other students the opportunity to learn.
Appeal to Different Learning Styles
As a supply teacher, you have minimal insight into the learning styles in the classroom. However, you can account for this by using a range of resources or activities during the lesson. For example, a class or pairs discussion can help to spark ideas before a piece of writing. A video or audio clip could be used to demonstrate an experiment or raise an alternative perspective.
Although you may have minimal time to read the lesson plan, let alone prepare resources, having some activities or ideas to apply in any lesson helps you to retain engagement and energy.
Use Names Whenever Possible
Using people’s names is an effective way of personalising interactions, so how can you build this into a lesson with a class of unknown students?
One option is to provide name cards for them to complete and place in front of them on the desk. Equally, you might see a student’s name on a book as you check their understanding as you move around. Or you can ask the person’s name when they raise their hand to ask or answer a question. Then thank them for the point they’ve made, using their name.
What classroom management techniques have you found effective as a supply teacher?
Vacancies for Supply Teachers
As education recruitment specialists, we are looking for teachers and experienced teaching assistants to fill roles in Buckinghamshire primary and secondary schools. We are happy to support semi-retired, newly qualified and overseas applicants into suitable temporary roles.
If you value the flexibility of supply work, register your interest as a candidate on our website or contact us to discuss your availability.