Welcome to the show everybody! I'm Renata Salas, and I'm here with Colin Whitfield. And Colin, I want to start with a piece that came out on April 12th, 2026, in Cult of Pedagogy by Nathan Maynard. It's titled, "The Replacement Skills Approach: Teaching Behavior Instead Of Managing It." And there is this one line in there that absolutely stopped me in my tracks: "most common misbehaviors in schools are typically the result of skill gaps, not character flaws." "Skill gaps, not character flaws." That is quite a paradigm shift, isn't it? Because the default reaction when a student blurs out or disrupts is often to treat it as a compliance issue. A choice. But Maynard is suggesting they literally do not possess the self-regulation tool in that moment to do anything else. Yes! Exactly. Like, take my third period ELA class. I have this student, Leo. Brilliant kid, but he cannot stop blurting out. Every time I ask a question, boom, he's talking. And for the longest time, I was getting so frustrated because I thought he was just trying to dominate the room or ignore my rules. But when I read this, I realized... Leo doesn't actually have a usable move for when that intense urge to speak hits him. He's not being bad. He just doesn't know how to hold the thought. Right, the executive function required to inhibit an impulse, hold the information in working memory, and wait... that is a highly complex cognitive skill. It's not just "being good." And Maynard brings in Dr. Bruce Perry to explain why our reaction to this is so critical. Perry is quoted as saying, "A dysregulated adult can never regulate a dysregulated child." Oh, that quote hits hard. "A dysregulated adult can never regulate a dysregulated child." Because when a kid blurts, and our stress levels are already at a ten, our instinct is to bark, "Stop talking!" or "Wait your turn!" in front of thirty other kids. But that public correction just dysregulates them even more. Exactly. You're activating their threat response. If you want to teach a replacement skill, it cannot happen mid-lesson in front of an audience of their peers. It has to be a calm, private, proactive conversation. So how do we actually do this without adding three hours to our prep time? Maynard breaks it down into this incredibly elegant, ninety-second intervention. Step one: you pick just *one* student. You don't try to fix the whole class's blurting issues at once. Just focus on your one "Leo." Right, chunk the problem. And then step two is the ninety-second huddle. You pull them aside before class starts, or quietly in the hallway, and you say something like, "I notice you have so many great things to say, and I genuinely want to hear them. But we need a way to make sure everyone gets a turn. Let's agree on a secret signal." Yes! And the example Maynard gives is so simple: the teacher taps their own shoulder. That physical gesture means, "I see you, I hear you, hold that thought, and I will come right back to you." The student's only job when they see that tap is to wait. But here is the absolute linchpin of this entire strategy: the follow-through. If you tap your shoulder, you *must* go back to that student within two minutes. If you make them wait ten minutes, the system breaks. You go back, let them share, and then you say, "Leo, thanks for waiting for the signal." You name the successful behavior. It's so true. If you don't go back, you've just lied to them, and they won't trust the signal next time. Now, for teachers who are listening and thinking, "I love this, but I don't even know how to script that conversation," Maynard actually suggests using AI. You can literally go into ChatGPT, Claude, or MagicSchool and type a prompt like: "Write a 90-second script for a teacher and a student to agree on a physical signal for blurting out, including one signal option and the exact praise to use when they succeed." It's a brilliant use of the technology to reduce cognitive load for the teacher. But... and this is the former instructional coach in me speaking... the AI can only give you the script. It cannot give you the empathy. If you deliver those generated words with a cold, transactional tone, the student will see right through it. The tool only works if the human connection behind it is real. That is such a crucial point, Colin. The script is just the scaffolding. The actual building is the relationship you have with that kid when you look them in the eye in the hallway and say, "I want to hear what you have to say." Indeed. It turns a moment of frustration into a moment of teaching. Well, that's our quick take for today. Give the replacement skills approach a try this week, and let us know how it goes. Until next time, I'm Renata Salas. And I'm Colin Whitfield. Happy teaching, everyone.
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