C62: Self-Management for Homeroom, Specialist & Supporting Teachers

As a child advances in age, it’s assumed that they know how to manage themselves, because they are quiet, sit still, and complete assignments.  There is so much more to self-management than that.  

When I think of self-management, I compare it to ownership as part of learner agency.  Both of them are more difficult to define, because it’s part of our being of who we are.  We can’t do a quick strategy to develop self-management skills, which means they must be done over again through a duration of time. For those who want it one and done, this is going to be a growth area for you as you delve further into making it a vital part of your daily process.

In this episode, we will look at ways to increase learner self-management, so they can build up resilience through life’s toughest challenges. All of these ideas will be applicable for grades 1-6 homeroom, specialist, and supporting teachers. 

But first, let's look at some of the skills we as educators need to model, so our learners are able to apply it to their own practice.

• Provide opportunities for students to monitor and manage their learning to make progress.
• Involve students in planning.
• Build resilience by ensuring that learning goals co-constructed with students are challenging but achievable.
• Create an atmosphere where students regard learning as a process of gradual improvement.
• Continually reflect on how they are supporting student agency as an intrinsic motivation to success.
• Support students to manage distractions

The self-management sub-skills help learners to know how to appropriately interact with each other.  The social skills are divided into two criteria:

• Organization
• States of mind

​When I am looking at these, my natural inclination is going towards states of mind.  This is an area that is seldom explored and I want to break it down into bite-size pieces.  Let’s go!

States of Mind

States of mind is such a huge area of focus with mindfulness, perseverance, emotional management, self-motivation, and resilience.  The one that pops out to me is resilience, since it is still a growing area in my practice with learners.  We will match up the ways that teachers can support learners with each sub-skill criteria. 

Manage setbacks

A setback is something that happens that causes a delay or prevents us from continuing.  There has been a lot of talk about the Millennials and how they cannot manage setbacks easily. When an obstacle gets in their way, they give up easily.  The questions that naturally pops up in my mind are, “Were they taught how to manage setbacks as a child?” and “Were they allowed to fail?”  It’s through the mistakes and setbacks that we learn life’s greatest lessons and build up resiliency for when it happens again. 

What teachers can do:  Provide opportunities for students to monitor and manage their learning to make progress.

• As teachers, we can support our learners to manage setbacks by giving them some agency to govern their learning.  But you are wondering how these are connected.  By allowing the learner  the opportunity to monitor and manage their progress, they set the goals and potential outcomes.  When certain setbacks occur, which is guaranteed, they have been trained to redirect their course to get around the setback or make a completely new plan.  If we control the entire process, they will continue to flail as they try to manage setbacks on their own. This will provide a healthier state of mind as they move forward with new learning experiences. 

Work through adversity

Adversity is a difficulty or an obstacle we must overcome.  It can come in the forms of physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, or financial.  Adversity is different from setbacks.  A setback can be something that delays or stops us completely.  While adversity is an obstacle that comes into our path that we must resolve in order to move forward. This helps to support our state of mind in moving and not allow adversity to stop our progress. 

What teachers can do:  Build resilience by ensuring that learning goals co-constructed with students are challenging but achievable.

• We can support our learners to build resilience by co-constructing learning goals with success criteria that are achievable.  Just like Goldilocks, we want to ensure the goals are just right for our learners.  When adversity in reaching the goal occurs, we will have prepared possible alternatives with the learners on how they best can resolve it on their own. 

What teachers can do:  Involve students in planning
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• Another way to support learners in overcoming adversity is by involving them in planning. How this looks is between you and your learners.  It may gradually increase throughout the year as your learners demonstrate responsibility and take on more of the planning process.  One thing is for sure, it is easier to manage adversity when you are in control of your learning.  When you have no say, you feel helpless and alone.  

Work through disappointment

Disappointment is a sadness for not achieving something we really want. This greatly affects our state of mind, because we yearn for something that will not happen or was not meant to be.  Disappointment comes in a variety of ways: loss of relationships, poor academic performance, family life, not achieving goals, etc.  The hardest part about disappointment is that it can stay with us for a long time.  We may not show it daily, but it sits in the back of our mind. 

What teachers can do:  Create an atmosphere where students regard learning as a process of gradual improvement.

• Our learners will feel disappointment on a regular basis.  How do we get them to deal with these disappointments in a healthy way?  One possibility is creating an environment where learners are able to take risks without a consequence.  The more risks they take, they will be better equipped to deal with disappointments that occur along the way.  In addition, it creates an underwritten rule that we are focused on growth over time, rather than an isolated incident.  This allows learners to deal with their disappointments head on, rather than pretending they don’t exist.  They eventually come back with greater consequences. 

What teachers can do: Support students to manage distractions

• Another way to support disappointment is allowing students to manage distractions.  When disappointment occurs in our lives, we become fixated on that singular event and stop momentum towards our goal.  We get distracted. How will your learners work through their disappointments?  Will they use a visual reminder?  Will they work with a buddy?  There are so many ways, but we must allow the learner to determine the best one for them. 

Work through change