Stress is not only bad for your health, but it makes you a worse teacher.
It causes you to . . .
Lose your cool.
Raise your voice.
Be unlikable.
Worst of all, however, is that stress brings tension and excitability into your classroom, which is one of the biggest causes of misbehavior.
Show me a stressed-out teacher and I’ll show you students bouncing off the walls. They go hand in hand like hot weather and mosquitos. But is it really possible to teach in a perpetually calm state?
Yes, it is.
Here’s how:
Rely on your plan.
To avoid stress, you must allow your classroom management plan to do all of the dirty work of curbing misbehavior for you. Your only job is to follow it.
Visualize.
Before every school day, take a moment to visualize yourself keeping cool inside and out no matter what happens—even if a troop of flying monkeys were to swarm into your room.
Refuse friction.
When you refuse to create friction with students (i.e. lecturing, questioning, berating, glaring, etc.), you remove a massive amount of stress. You’ll also build effortless rapport.
Tidy up.
It’s no different than your own home. Get rid of the clutter and you’ll breathe easier. A tidy room has also been shown to calm students and help them focus.
Be ready.
If your personal life is a mess, so too will be your work life. Get your sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Prepare efficiently so you’re not in a rushed and harried state.
Simplify.
Simplify everything. Your lessons. Your routines. Your directions. Your objectives. Clarity and certainty soothe the mind and free you to slow down and enjoy the job.
Breathe.
Forcing yourself to meditate can bring on its own stress. All you really need to do is breathe through your nose and allow your exhales to linger. This stimulates the parasympathetic system and relaxes the body.
Get away.
To be at your even-keeled best, you have to get away from school. As soon as you leave the parking lot, shift your focus to family, friends, and hobbies. Get away early if you can and keep your mind on other things.
Unrealistic?
No, it’s not unrealistic. Staying stress free, or nearly so, takes some discipline, to be sure, but it’s doable for anyone.
SCM is built for you to enjoy teaching. It’s specifically designed that way.
Classroom management is key, after all. When your students are well-behaved and appreciate the learning experience you’ve created for them, life is so much better. Teaching is fun. The kids are cool to be around.
And each day you can leave it all behind, and get on with your life.
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This is completely “easier said than done!” However, I can also completely attest that it is true!! It is 100% worth the effort! May all of you have your best year yet (assuming you have the same school schedule as me). 😉
It’s the chairs and desks flying that somehow staying calm through it all seems unrealistic.
I love this post. These are such wonderful reminders. I’ve been teaching virtually for four years. I am going back to a traditional high school next year. There were no behavioral problems for 4 years! I need to be ready to deal with behaviors and create a calm and productive classroom environment.
Here are some things I took away from your post.
1. Tidy Up. This one strategy goes a long way! I’m excited to get into the building, find my classroom, organize it, bring in a floor lamp, fan, and living plants but keep other clutter out of sight.
2. Be Ready – I plan to ride my exercise bike in the morning before school and pray.
3. Get Away – I am thinking of going back to practicing the piano after school. To give me something to focus on other than school.
I have a question for you or any of your readers. Is there an alternative to “points” for the classroom management plan? If a student does not meet an expectation, other than losing points, what else can be done?
I try to make sure they’re grade is a reflection of what they actually know. It’s standards-based and heavily weighted on assessment scores. Students can use their notes on all tests and quizzes. They are also open textbook. This helps stimulate how easy it is to find information in the real world. It also encourages them to take good notes. The tests are designed to show application of skills and knowledge and not just basic recall.
Behavior is dealt completely separately. Get to know the students and have a relationship. Have one-on-one conversations privately to find out what might be causing a student to not engage. Carefully plan your time so that the lessons are engaging and interactive. I play a class competition game where each class is competing against my other classes for best behavior. A lot of positive reinforcement is given in this gaming process.
Keeping those two ideas separate is vital. The kids lose trust in you if you penalize their grade for a behavior instead of their knowledge. Constantly encouraging them to do the practice so they can show all they know and giving multiple opportunities to retest can usually get my most difficult students on board.
I don’t take points from students for inappropriate behavior. I tried to just reinforce the behaviors I want, you can just get points written incentives when students are doing what they are supposed to be doing, but not take things away when they are not focused on the positive, and reinforces the positive behaviors you are looking for. Be sure to let the students know what behaviors they are getting the points for and reinforce those.
My key to success is my “Stepford Wife” face…. no matter what the kids are doing, or what homicidal thoughts are swirling around in my head, I can just give back a calm, eyebrows-raised, “Really?” expression and it does all the work for me. Try it!
I am currently rereading The Classroom Management Secret as last year was the worst year of teaching in my 15 years I see what my errors were and vow to be consistent this year. I m wondering if anyone has an example of the form letter sent home” when rule is broken for the third time. I teach 3 rd grade
There is a sample in this article.
https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2010/07/03/why-a-letter-home-is-an-effective-consequence/
I’ m a substitute teacher. Do you have any words of wisdom for me? I’ve been doing this for over 10 years. I don’t have a teaching background. However, I do have an undergraduate degree and an MBA. I’m aware that these degrees have nothing to do with education. My wife is a retired Certified Speech and Language Pathologist. She helps me a lot.
I’m retired. I thought my experience in the corporate world would be an asset. I follow the assignment sheet that I’m given each day that I sub. I have been shocked at the behavior of some students. There appears to be no respect, accountability or caring for other classmates.
Thanks for those good tips. I am retired and plan to substitute teach again in 2024-2025.