A Retired Art Teacher Tells All

Anger is an emotion you must learn to recognize at its beginning. The sooner you can derail your temper tantrums the better. I cannot say that I have not lost my temper. I have. When I have “lost it” it is usually when the majority of the class is misbehaving and I cannot get the classes’ attention. This is an extremely frustrating situation! If I briefly raise my voice in anger, the students hush quickly. They are not used to me being angry. I will enter the center of the room and I will purposely look at each student as I calm down and I sternly explain exactly the reason for my anger. I take my time. Once again, I spell out what will happen if this classroom behavior continues. Some special classroom privilege may be taken away if the misbehavior continues. I explain once again what the goals of the class are for this particular day. Things will begin to settle down and if one or two students continue with the misbehavior, I can issue punish work to these students. Let us discuss anger. I believe if we keep our students informed about our expectations we are less likely to blow up. Most anger comes about when we feel we are being used, ignored, discounted, ganged up on, or disrespected. We may feel like a boiling pot for days, and we don’t sleep at night. We have nightmares about students who are out of control. The same behavior goes on in class day after day. We don’t know what to do about it. This is a formula for an explosion and when we explode, we can say things we should never say to students. Here is the worst part of it. If you are called into the office for speaking inappropriately to your class, you will have nothing to stand on if 25 students say they heard you! Into your permanent file it all goes. In my school system, a teacher can get a layoff notice at the end of each of the first three years of teaching, before earning tenure. The system absolutely has to give no reason for your dismissal. I know many young teachers who were not asked back because of their anger. It scares your supervisors because they do not trust you. Thought Provoking Questions… I want you to think about your anger. Remember occasions where you made poor decisions because you were out of control. Can you identify your symptoms and signs that let you know that you are about to explode? Make a list of the telltale signs that your emotions are getting out of hand.