What to Do When You’re About to Lose Your Cool

We’ve all had those days.  The days where you are so frustrated at your class that you feel like you’re about to hit your breaking point.  Don’t let this get to you, it does not make you a bad teacher or person.  We are all human and sometimes we get frustrated with the situations that we are in.  Working with students can be exhausting!  Maybe you’re running off little sleep, and little Susie WON’T STOP TALKING during your lesson.  Maybe you don’t feel good and your class just isn’t listening!  There are so many situations that can bring out the worst in us and you can’t let it get you down.

Next time you are feeling like you are going to lose your cool, try these three things:

Take a Deep Breath

This seems really cliche.  But, at least for me, it totally works.  Take a deep breath and count however high you need to count.  I don’t know the science behind it, but I find that deep breathing really does calm me down.  It helps to relax me and gives me a moment to take myself out of the anger.

Focusing on breathing also takes your attention off of the situation at hand and puts it onto something else.  This detachment from the situation can help break you from the stress.

Remove Yourself from the Situation

Sometimes the best option, if possible, is to give yourself a time out.  This can be challenging because you can’t just leave your class unsupervised.  But when you are in desperate need to get away for a moment, hopefully, you have a co-teacher, but if not, is there a neighbor who can watch your class?  If they can, run to the bathroom for a moment and just give yourself a second to collect yourself.  And then you can come back calm and ready to deal with the situation.

Change Up What You’re Doing

Often, classroom management struggles are caused because the students are not engaged in the activities the way that you planned.  Change up the activity so that you can get different behaviors from the student.  Take a break from lecturing and have the students do something hands on.  Or if the hands-on activity got out of control, change it up and do something more structured.

Also, check out:

My Favorite Books for Self-Care

Getting Control of Your Class