5 Tips for Helping Students Stressed by Tests- by Eva-Maria
Nineteen year old best-selling author of the book ‘You Shut Up!’, international speaker and certified coach Eva-Maria is living her dream: she is on a mission to help improve 10 000 000 relationships between adults and teenagers around the world. Here Eva shares her tips for teachers from a teenager’s perspective. 1. Acknowledge that exams are stressful When I was studying for exams, as I’m sure many teens can relate to, I thought the teachers were out to get me and wanted to push me to watch my brain start oozing out of my head. Reassure them that you’re really on their side. You are there to support and encourage them to achieve their potential. You want them to achieve…
Thriving in the Challenge of Change
Emotional resilience – is it just another trendy fad, designed to sell books and amuse uni students, or is there something tangible to it that we can learn from, adopt and develop ourselves to be more optimistic? I’m in the happy camp here in that I prefer to lean to the latter statement. Emotional resilience comes from the field of Positive Psychology – the study of strengths, virtues and what goes right. Following World War II, psychology took the route of focusing on what goes wrong, on mental illness and pathology. It wasn’t until the start of the new millennium that pioneers like Martin Seligman brought credibility and validated research to the study of happiness. Are you one of those…
Outcomes That Count
Feeling pressured by expectations placed on you in the classroom? It’s not just you! We’re in the midst of a stress epidemic and it’s showing up everywhere. So how do we minimise it? It could come down to the questions you ask. Questions worth asking are: ‘How do I sustain myself?’ and then, ‘How do I work towards outcomes that are sustainable and satisfying for my students?’. Both of these can be answered by focusing on outcomes that count in the long run. Can you remember your own school years? Which teachers do you remember? What was it that you remember most about them? Was it the score you received for a particular assessment? Probably not. Was it the type…
Alternatives to Collective Punishment
I suspect many teachers have had an experience like this: A paper airplane, ball of paper, or pencil flies through the air, or somebody makes an obnoxious noise. The object is probably aimed at another student, and it may or may not hit the intended target. The noise is just meant to be funny. You can tell the general area it came from, but you don’t really know who the culprit is. It’s frustrating because that kind of behaviour does not contribute to a learning community. What do you do? It’s not uncommon for teachers to first yell something like, “Who threw it?” No one admits to it, and then the teacher will punish the entire group. Here’s a definition…
Which temperament are you?
Understanding your personality and therefore how you respond to situations can help you to manage things like stress levels. People differ from each other in exciting, fundamental ways. That is a given. We hold different beliefs, are moved by different things, perceive “facts” differently and generally behave in ways not always in sync’ with those around us. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to reconcile these differences. We may feel bad about the way we do things or conclude that others are strange, wrong, or just don’t care about us. Instead of seeing the differences in human behaviour as a gift of natural diversity, we often judge people and desire to make them more like us, or try to make ourselves…
Watch For SPEED BUMPS
Things rarely go according to plan. Nearly everything you do is vulnerable to interruptions, unforeseeable changes or problems that can disrupt time frames, budgets or resources. However, these ‘speed bumps’ can actually assist in getting through your day more efficiently and effectively if embraced the right way. I am an optimistic person by nature but at times a series of events on a particular day can seem to be too well punctuated with disasters. At one point I asked myself if ‘anything else could go wrong’? Well, you know what they say…’be careful what you wish for’, sure enough more things went wrong. I began to wonder if there was someone out there secretly testing if I could apply the…
Use Encouraging Language
November is undoubtedly a busy month in schools. End of year events and accumulated fatigue can lead to short fuses and an even shorter supply of patience. This can lead to short, sharp responses that damage relationships. Making a concerted effort to use encouraging language can make a significant difference to the school climate. Encouragement builds wellbeing. It expects the best for the other person. The language of encouragement is open to all. It is easy to learn. You can start right away. Give a compliment – You “look, are, give, make __ ” fill-in your own word to give a sincere compliment to those you work with everyday. Praise an action – Praise you earn is powerful, crammed full…
Time Management Reminders
One of the scarcest commodities in schools these days is time. Each of us only has 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. It’s been like that forever! These tips for time management aren’t new. Their effectiveness is governed by how disciplined we are in applying them. They are listed here as reminders. Keep Your Desk Clean – The surface of your desk needs to be uncluttered and should only house the current items you need. Treat desk space like valuable real estate. Use a TO-DO list – it’s a major time saver if you use it well to prioritise. Take time at the end of each day to write out your list for the following day in…
The Big Question of Student Behaviour
We all know that there are demands associated with teaching – writing reports, programming, marking student work and managing grumpy bosses (I’m one of them so I can admit it!) just to name a handful. But even so, all of the worldwide research tells us that the number one factor influencing teacher stress is student behaviour. More than this, it’s often the aspect of our work that we spend the most time dealing with. Conversely, we also have a habit of spending the least time planning to handle it. After all, planning is for teaching and learning … right? This is our first moment to pause and ask ourselves a big question. Can great learning occur in a toxic culture,…
Teaching is 9 to 3!?!
Sadly many in the community only see the “9 to 3” part of the day in which teachers (and other staff in schools) work. They don’t see the myriad of other commitments that school staff make. Everyone thinks they know what teachers and staff in schools do – after all everybody went to school, as a student! However we all know working in schools is far more than 9 to 3! Working in schools means waking in the middle of the night and worrying about the real reason ‘Billy was upset today!’ Working in schools means staying late to coach a team Working in schools means going on camp and sleeping with one eye open waiting for someone who needs…
School Staff Stress – the Facts
The stress of working in schools is widely recognised. Numerous studies in Australia and overseas have addressed its causes. Teachers are leaving our profession in increasing numbers and a high proportion of those who remain in the job freely admit their dissatisfaction and distress. This not only causes concern for the well being of the teachers themselves but also the educational well being of students. Why is working in schools so stressful? Jobs that bear a large amount of responsibility for the welfare of others are more stressful Staff in schools deal with a wide array of personalities and cater for a wide range of educational and human needs Students often rely on staff in schools for stability and support…
Positive Worry Builds Resilience
Schools become less productive when staff stew over problems that they can’t change and dwell on the hardships and difficulties in the problems that they can change. Worry, self pity and pessimism create a septic tank of negative energy that drains energy, enthusiasm and initiative. The solution requires people to flip their worry into positive expectations. Pronoia (defined as “the opposite state of mind to paranoia”), is the philosophy where you have the sense that there is a conspiracy that the world is set up to secretly help you. In other words, that others are conspiring behind your back to help you. The principle was coined by Fred H. Goldner in 1982 and has since been published in Psychology Today…