Stress
Stress Management
Stress can be good but too much stress causes anxiety. Teachers confront stress every day
in the classroom. The way teachers manage this stress will determine the dynamic of the
classroom. Stress also affects the students negatively and will result in negative performance
overall (Nagel and Brown, 2003). Strategies are highly effective and can help change the way
teachers react to stressors.
There are other stressors that may affect the teacher besides the ones mentioned in the
article. The teacher’s home life can cause stress including divorce, death in the family, and a
trouble child. Colleagues can cause stress by being unsupportive, or uncooperative. Teachers
may have illnesses that cause additional stress like cancer or diabetes. Financial burdens can be a
problem and create hardship and problems.
Johnny, a student in the fifth grade, will not listen to instructions and continually bad
mouths the teacher while the teacher is teaching class. The teacher cannot concentrate on the
subject being taught because Johnny is distracting the teacher and the other students. Some of the
other students join Johnny and make the teacher cry. This invigorates the students to misbehave
even more. The teacher has sent Johnny to the principal’s office but when the student returns
there is no change in behavior. The teacher loses her patience and yells at the boy causing a scene
to erupt.
The response to stress may be that the teacher needs to take a few breaths and think
clearly about what should be done. “Meditation and diaphragmatic breathing help create
emotional balance” (Nagel and Brown, 2003). At this point, the teacher could have a conference
call with the student’s parents or have the student sent home. She needs to set clear boundaries
for her classroom.
Stress
The article, The ABC’s of Managing Teacher Stress, gives three effective coping
strategies: acknowledge the stress, behavior modification, and communication (Nagel and
Brown,2003). Acknowledgment is coming to a truth about what is causing the stress (Nagel and
Brown,2003). Behavior modification helps a teacher retain homeostasis through exercises like
Yoga or running (Nagel and Brown, 2003). Communication “provides an avenue for teachers to
prevent stress or, when that is impossible, minimize the impact of stress” (Nagel and Brown,
2003).
The Biblical approach to handling stress would be to pray and ask for wisdom concerning
the stressful events. The Bible tells us to cast all our care on him because he cares for us (1 Peter
5:7, KJV). God also promises to give us wisdom liberally, all we must do is ask (James 1:5,
KJV).
Stress
References
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/
(Original work published 1769)
Nagel, L., & Brown, S. (2003). The ABCs of managing teacher stress. The Clearing House,
76(5), 255-258. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?
url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/abcs-managing-teacher-
stress/docview/196878004/se-2
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