AUT25-106 Building a Culture of High Behavioral Expectations in the Geography Classroom

Date:     Thursday, 18th September 2025
Time:      7 - 8 pm
Venue:   Online via Zoom

Target Audience: Post primary Geography Teachers

Creating an environment where students can truly thrive begins with one key principle: the classroom must be orderly for learning to take place. But high expectations go far beyond just silence and neat rows, they create a space where every student feels psychologically safe, encouraged by their peers, and supported in thinking deeply and staying focused.

In this session, Lee will cover nine concrete and actionable strategies for establishing high expectations around behaviour, all rooted in practical classroom experience. He will look at how to develop routines that honour each student’s desire to learn, even when motivation dips, and how to build a culture where attention, effort and respect are the norm, not the exception.

The strategies covered are grounded in a balanced understanding: while teachers can and should shape classroom conditions, Lee also tries to acknowledge that students possess autonomy and moral agency. That means we reject the unhelpful notion that poor behaviour is simply a result of a teacher "not being engaging enough." Instead, this session equips teachers with tools 

that help them influence behaviour without accepting blame for it.

Whether you're a PME, NQT or an experienced educator looking to reset the tone in your classroom, this session offers practical tools to build the kind of geography classroom where learning, focus, and aspiration is at the forefront of the room.

Presenter: Lee O`Donnell

Lee O’Donnell is a teacher of Geography & History at Woodbrook College in Wicklow. He is the Author of ‘The Natural World’ LC Geography book with Edco. Additionally, he is the co-author of ‘A History of Change’ JC History textbook with CJ Fallon. .Geography/History Methodology Lecturer at University College Dublin. LC History content creator for Exam Revision. Host of the Leaving Certificate revision podcast ‘Skin in the Game’. Additionally, he holds an Assistant Principal I post in his school.