What do You do When You’re Having a Bad Day in The Classroom? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher column.
Feel free to leave your responses there or in the comments section here.
Long time readers might remember that I asked a similar question here four years ago.
I go home, pour a generous glass of wine and watch stupid tv (Housewives of anywhere-). Then I go to sleep.
I know I am supposed to be reflective, I know I need to review my lessons and see where it went bad. I know I should try to figure out who has something going on that’s setting him/her off. At some time I will do all that but first I have to forgive and forget and move on.
Once I figured that out it was so much easier to get up and out of the house the next morning.
Humor has certainly saved the day many times. When tension mounts, it dissipates it. I’ll use my acting skills and become a new persona by changing my voice or speaking through a puppet. The puppet may become the fussy inspector of the messy room, while I assure Mr. Puppet that the students are normally neat and orderly. I work with second graders, so it’s easy to make them laugh and feel that tomorrow will be better.
Then I go home, drink wine and play Candy Crush Saga. 😀
Whenever I’m having a bad day at school, I do one of two things–and if it’s really a bad day, I do both. First, I keep a file of thank you letters from parents and students. On bad days, I take a couple of minutes to re-read these. Needless to say, it’s uplifting and motivating. My second strategy: I look over my class roster, find a student who has made great strides recently, and call his/her parents. Of course, the parents and the student are pleased to receive such a positive phone call and I’m inspired, reminded of the positive impact I can have and energized to tackle whatever is thrown at me.