• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

October 9, 2015 Classroom Management

Why Emotions Matter in the Classroom

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Teresa

Teresa Cooper is a 30-something divorced mom and teacher from North Carolina. She has a Masters of Science in Education for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment from Walden University and a BA in Psychology with a minor in Creative from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Having struggled with anxiety and depression most of her life and later having birthed a child with autism, she is passionate about spreading awareness and acceptance of mental illness and autism. After 13 years in education, she has a wealth of knowledge to share on education and bonding with children.
  • PTSD in Teachers: Yes, It's Real! - August 19, 2018
  • Teacher Anxiety: How to Cope With Anxiety Under Stress - July 29, 2018
  • Depression Kills Teachers if Left Untreated: It Should Not Kill Their Careers - July 23, 2018
  • Amidst Declining Mental Health in Teachers, What Can Administrators Do? - June 30, 2018
  • 5 Things I'd Tell Myself in My Earlier Teaching Years - October 15, 2017
  • How Class Dojo Saves My Sanity Daily - October 1, 2017
  • Surviving the School Year: Game of Thrones Style - August 27, 2017
  • What to Change Behavior? Start With Class Meetings in Special Education - August 20, 2017
  • When Your Administrator Doesn't Like You - July 3, 2017
  • Conquering Teacher Biases Against Disabilities: Important Strategies - May 8, 2017

A teacher's job is about more than just knowledge of content area. At times, it seems that so much of what we do every day has more to do with teaching social skills and everyday life skills than what our subject matter. Is it a waste of time to focus on the emotional well-being of the children in your class? The answer is that emotions matter! Research shows that the time you invest in making sure your students feel safe means more than you think.

A failure to thrive.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]In today's American classrooms, 81% of students actually graduate high school--a number that has come up from just over 60% in 1999. Click To Tweet

But is that enough? Should we applaud the fact that 19% of students in the United States fail to graduate from high school? Sure, it's better than 35-40% of students dropping out, but is that enough? To put it into perspective, if you tried a new medication that touted that only 19% of people died after taking it, would that be okay? I guess that's up to you to decide, but I sure wouldn't!

Why are students failing to learn? Think about the children in your classroom. How many of them have gone through some traumatic, transformative event in their lives? Perhaps one of their parents are in jail, or their dad died, or their mom is addicted to drugs or alcohol, or no one is ever home with them, or something unspeakable has happened to them. Sometimes we don't even know what goes on in the lives of our students because they've not yet trusted anyone enough yet to tell them. Let's face it. Our students are not in the best shape emotionally and they need our help.

The time you invest in making sure your students feel safe means more than you think. Click To Tweet

Why worry about emotions? Our brains do not separate cognitive and emotional thoughts when it comes to processing information. It all gets processed the same. Further, it has been shown that social rejection impacts the same areas of the brain that physical pain effects with one very important distinction. Social rejection also makes the prefrontal cortex of the brain less active. This part of the brain is what helps us make moral decisions but it also has to do with executive functioning, intelligence, memory, and language. In other words, if a child in your class feels threatened by his or her peers or otherwise rejected, it may have a serious impact on his or her ability not only to relate to others but to even learn and retain new information.

So what do you do about it? One of the most important things a child in your classroom can feel is trust. Students need to feel emotionally safe to do the kind of thinking expected of a rigorous classroom environment. They need to know that making mistakes is okay, that they are cared about, and that someone is glad to see them.

How do you accomplish this? There are several things you can do to proactively create an emotionally safe classroom environment.

First, remember that equality and equity are not the same thing. Strive for an equitable classroom, where students all get what they need. Equality means every child gets the same thing. Equity means every child gets individualized (differentiated) education to optimize learning.

Next, build relationships in your classroom. Create instructional tasks that allow students to learn from each other and emphasize the importance of drawing from personal strengths while appreciating that everyone also makes mistakes. Make teams based on what you know about the strengths in your classroom to help facilitate team-based learning.

Finally, show gratitude. This takes practice to make it a habit, but find a way to compliment your students for the little things they do to help you throughout class so that you can thank them at the end of class. Before they come in, greet every student that comes through your door and let students who were absent know how glad you are to see them.

All students can learn. Sometimes it takes a little extra caring to get them where you want them to go. Emotions matter. Let's not let 19% of our students kill their educational opportunities. The time is now! Reach out to your students, make them feel valuable, and see how far they'll grow!

 

There is more information on this topic at ASCD.org if you want to know more.

And if you want to help out my students, please visit my Donor's Choose page and help fund one of my projects.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailOctober Is Learning Disabilities Awareness Month Default ThumbnailInspirational Educators: Valerie Hegarty A Call for National History Day First, We Must Educate The Heart
« Close and Critical Reading: So What?
[Episode 9]: Should Teachers Get Their Doctorate Degree? »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.