Welcome to this week's Education Echo:

A Weekly newsletter which endeavours to share insights and education about the trials and tribulations of being a 21st Century Teacher in the UAE

Firstly, a personal update:

I tore my Achilles tendon, or, so I believe. I'm always asked about the BEST ways to meet new people and make the most out of the 'Dubai experience' so I took a note from my guide 2 and went somewhere to make friends: basketball. I tried out for a new team in Dubai but while my mind was telling me yes 'go for it!' my body... well, it had other plans. Thankfully, in Dubai, the medical services are fast so I'm well on my way to recovery but I've been teaching from, resting my leg, for much of this week which reminded me about an old video of mine.

The Key to behaviour management was an old video where I vlogged the week sharing some insights into the things I do to support behaviour. The last 4 minutes of the video are gold (I'm biased though).

Here are 3 key takeaways I've imported this week:

Set the ground rules regularly: Keeping it strict but fair is incredibly important for all children.
Respect is a two ways thing: If a child has done something wrong, shouting does very little to support behaviour. Instead, an open conversation benefits mutual respect, working towards a better, honest outcome.
Reward > punishment: While I'm guilty of asking a child to leave when they're being outright disruptive (so that I can speak to them without the pressure of class), I couldn't do that this week due to being sat down. Instead, rewarding all of the positives as much as possible helps streamline class behaviour overall.

If you want to see the full video, Click here.

In other news, it's been a pleasure to receive lots of positivity around the moving to Dubai guide as people start to ramp up preparation to move here.

This week, he says optimistically, I am finally going to be launching new videos and I have a couple of stories to tell.