5 Quick Activities to Reduce Stress While Teaching

Teachers have the toughest jobs! They multitask, handle a large number of children at once, are responsible for the learning outcomes of their students, and so on. The list is endless. It’s no wonder that teaching can be stressful at times. If you are finding it tough to get things under control and are deeply stressed out, here are 6 activities that reduce teacher stress. You’ll surely find them helpful.

Plan in Advance

When you are unprepared for a class, you may suffer pangs of anxiety. That’s because when you are unprepared, you may find it difficult to take total control of your class. You may have several fears, like how can you cover the lesson in the given time, what if someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, etc. It’s seen that teachers who plan their lessons ahead tend to feel less anxious during class. Hence, to reduce teacher stress, it is advisable to plan the day, week, month or even the school year in advance. Surely, plans change, but you will still be better off than not planning at all.

Breathe and Meditate

The benefits of breathing exercises and meditation can never be overstated. When there is a lot of chaos and noise around, practice deep breathing for 2-3 minutes and stay calm. It is one of the most effective strategies for reducing teacher stress in the classroom. If breathing doesn’t help, take some time out of the classroom and meditate for five minutes. You will regain your senses and feel in control. This will help reduce teacher stress in class.

Practice Distraction

You always ask your students to not get distracted? But for you, distraction is a good thing! Do not carry your classroom tasks with you home. Distract yourself away from classroom thoughts when you are outside the class. When teaching online, make sure you have specific times allotted for teaching. Do not think about it outside those hours, except when you have set aside a time to plan for the class. Distracting yourself away from the class is a good way of reducing teacher stress in the classroom.

Enforce Discipline in Innovative Ways

It is tough to enforce discipline among children, especially if they are young. In an online setting, this becomes even more difficult. But you can enforce discipline in innovative ways. One way of enforcing discipline in class is to give rewards for good behaviour. You can allot points to students for behaving well, and penalise bad behaviour by subtracting points. At the end of the week or month, students with maximum points get a reward. A well-disciplined class will surely reduce teacher stress by an order of magnitude.

Use Creativity in Your Communication

Another way of reducing teacher stress in the classroom is by bringing creativity into your communication. Instead of giving plain verbal instructions like “Stay quiet” or “Don’t make noise”, you can use special hand signals or even posters. You can create your own way of communication and explain it to your students. Children love being instructed in unique ways and will be happy to comply.

We have also covered 5 ways to reduce student stress in class. Follow these tips and you will see the difference! For more such tips, tricks and strategies, visit SuperTeacher or join the SuperTeacher Club on Facebook.