Op-Ed: Teaching Is as Stressful as an ER. These Calming Strategies Can Help.

This commentary was originally published in EdSurge.

There is something going on in the back of the room. Two students are fighting over a piece of paper. The paper rips. Shouting begins. All of your students suddenly turn their attention to the back and you feel out of control. There’s just five minutes left and you still have to cover one more important point in your lesson.

In this scenario, many teachers may have a similar response to Sandy, a teacher who faced this scenario during a workshop for a research project. “I would elevate to their level in an instant; just like that,” she says. “I would become totally angry, unable to make a good thoughtful decision about how to react.”

Now, consider some other types of responses that educators offer in these stressful moments.

Gabrielle “pulls her anger in and lets the emotional elevator go down.” Kasey “stops, grounds herself, and lets out deep breaths.” And Nadia “takes a step back, calms herself, and re-approaches the situation with a thoughtful response rather than an immediate reaction.” Through their composed approaches, these teachers help maintain a supportive learning environment for our nation’s students.

While these solutions seem simple in reflection, in the moment they can be a real challenge, especially if you work in a classroom environment, which researchers from Penn State say can be as stress-inducing as an emergency room. Teachers enter such an an environment every day, which sometimes feels like life-or-death. The teaching profession doesn’t just begin and end during class time. It’s increasingly defined by unrealistic expectations; extensive meetings and other instructional demands; and difficult conversations with principals, administrators and parents. While we must address the contextual issues that overburden our educators, we must also take the steps to build their resilience.

That is why, after a long career spent in education, I co-created the nonprofit program Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) more than a decade ago, equipping Gabrielle, Sandy, Kasey, Nadia and a growing number of educators across the country with the expertise, resources and time to perfect those solutions.

Read the full article at EdSurge.