Classroom Conflict:  Being in your Showtime Mindset

Children present with challenging behaviour in classrooms and schools for two main reasons: Task (sometimes Situation) Avoidance or Attention Seeking.   The dedicated staff who support those children during Classroom Conflict have seemingly limitless reserves of patience, compassion and empathy for them.    When we at Dynamis see a professional in contact with a distressed person and that professional is maintaining their emotional equilibrium in the face of abuse, aggression, insults and maybe even violence, we say that they are doing a great job of “staying in Showtime!” during Classroom Conflict.

Showtime is a central component of being able to talk people down because it describes a state that the contact professional (your teachers, TAs, SLT members or whomever) achieves and maintains in order to bring the child into safety from a place of chaos, instability and distress.

Here is a video about SHOWTIME! during Classroom Conflict:

Gerard O’Dea provides tailored Positive Handling and Classroom Conflict training courses for schools and education services providers around the UK, so that children and staff are treated with dignity and shown respect, even in their most difficult moments.  Combining respectful verbalisation skills with last-resort physical alternatives has been his specialty for over ten years as director of training for Dynamis [ www.positivehandling.co.uk ]