When You Have One of Those Days....

 

This week, I was speaking with some colleagues about their day.  Some related their frustration with certain student behaviors that interfered with what the teachers had planned for the class.  If you have been a teacher for more than a week or two, you know exactly what I'm referencing.  Some related their frustration with the administrative team who did not discipline students who clearly had done the wrong thing in the presence of many witnesses.  They were a "case dismissed" situation and the students returned to class gloating.  Some related their frustration with parents who do not avail themselves of the resources the teacher provides to assist their student.

Frustration is one of those emotions that can upend you and that can send lesson plans out the window.  Frustration can make you snap at your students, give group punishments when only a few need it, and make you say things that are nonsensical.  ("If you can't behave we won't do this fun learning activity."  If it is a teaching activity, you really need to use it, but you threaten that you won't, knowing you can't follow through on your threat.)

Frustration can rob you of your personal joy and your enjoyment of your contribution to future generations.  Frustration uninterrupted can cause a teacher to despair and give up teaching all together.

How can you deal with repeated frustration without it affecting your love of teaching?

1.  Take a deep breath and slow down the pace of what is going on in the classroom.  For example, you can ask everyone to stand, touch their toes, stand and stretch, pat their head and rub their belly (or the other way around-I can never remember.)  This will interrupt the negative energy and negative flow of behavior and unify everyone-even if momentarily.  It will also give you a moment to regroup.
2. Identify the specific frustration rather than clumping everything together.  In a class of 24, if 3 children are disruptive, that means 21 are not disruptive.  If the administration of your school is demanding or annoying or unfair, is it all of them or is it only one?  When we allow our vision to be colored by what is wrong, we often miss what is right.  As teachers, we are in the business of identifying what is wrong and creating plans to make things right.  We need to do that for ourselves.  Breaking things into chunks is what we do for students, and we need to do that for ourselves.
3. Once you identify the things you can change, create a plan to make it happen.  For example, the frustrating student may benefit from a desk change, or an entire seating chart change with desk rearrangement may be in order.  Frustration dissipates when you take control.
4. Pray.  If you are a person of faith, and I am, take a moment to pray.  If you are not one who prays, consider something to picture that calms you.

This is not the only way to deal with frustration, but it works for me.  I hope it can help you as well.

First published November 11, 2017