Thread: Role of Emotion in the Classroom

Could you elaborate a bit more? Are you talking about teacher emotion, student emotion, anger, joy, sadness, frustration, etc.? I know you said this is open ended, but I am not sure what direction you are attempting to move in.

I'm talking about any display of or change in emotional state that may or may not correlate with course material (seminar in English can get pretty intense). Don't you sense "beats," if you will, throughout a day or week or semester of class - minor to major changes in everyone's attitude/confidence/level of happiness? Although I'm also thinking of more simple things, like... hugging. Teacher emotion, student emotion, anger, joy, anything you can think of. I'm not really trying to move this in any direction. (And, y'know, it's not gonna kill me if the thread doesn't flourish.)

I show emotion in my classroom as I am naturally an expressive person. At the last place I taught (public school) I tried to refrain from hugging students or touching them, but i still expressed emotion. In my current (private school) setting, I still am leery of hugging and touching kids, but when one needs a hug, I am free to give that. My classroom is a happy place unless my students choose for it not to be . And most of the time, it remains a happy place. We laugh alot.

When I taught at a private school, I showed emotion, probably because my emotion was generally something positive. I felt a lot of excitement, passion, concern, and even love, and I showed it regularly. Because I was generally respected, I also felt empowered to share if I felt upset, disappointed or frustrated by something that was happening in the classroom - students would respond appropriately and generally changed their behavior out of respect or sometimes even a kind of love. On their evaluations of me, students often commented that I was very passionate about the subject and that made them feel passionate about it. Many students also wrote comments about how they appreciated the fact that I cared so much about each of them. I remember that a good day was a day in which something almost spiritual happened as my students and I shared a sense of awe or wonder in the face of what we learned about humanity.

Now I am at a public school, and unfortunately my emotions tend to be much more negative. I find myself feeling angry, hurt, disappointed, disgusted, frustrated, sad and even embarrassed, which are all emotions that I don't think I should show too readily, especially since my students don't have much respect for me as a teacher or as a human being. The population of kids that I teach is generally pretty unhappy. I think that because their lives are so difficult, it is hard for them to share in positive feelings and so anyone - teacher or student- who appears to be too passionate or excited or just plain happy is generally insulted until that spark is gone. Then any negative feelings that are shown by any student or teacher are celebrated and mocked. It is like a game and victory is to see someone else show anger, frustration or - the ultimate prize - tears. I won't give them such prizes. There is a lot of laughter in my school, but most of it is mean-spirited, so strangely (and quite the opposite from my old classes at the private school) I find myself squelching even laughter in the classroom. I know my students need to see loving, caring adults in their lives, and I wish I were the saint that could be that adult for them, but I am not. The negativity is pervasive and it is catching. The best I can do is be polite and professional, and that in itself takes a lot of emotional control. Some teachers are downright insulting and sarcastic right back to the students, so I guess I can feel proud that I have managed this much self control. But anyway, now I find that I am a much colder teacher than I used to be. I am very reserved now and there is definitely a wall between my students and me. I still try to smile and show enthusiasm, but it is rarely genuine anymore. A good day is now a day that I can get through without feeling much emotion, since any emotion I do feel tends to be painful. Sadly, I'll bet that is the goal of most of my students, as well- to feel as little as they can. Almost everyone at our school seems to be working to become as numb and inhuman as possible.

I don't remember being taught anything about emotion in my education courses. I guess there was an underlying message that we should love the kids and see their success as our success and their failure as our failure and yet somehow not take it too personally. Heh. That was all very easy to do at my last school. I don't think my courses in education were designed for teachers in my current district, however. I probably should have gone to a police academy or something to learn how to teach these kids.

Wow. I can't say I've experienced a school attitude like the one you describe. Hats off to you for teaching in that atmosphere without imploding. (You're not, are you? )

No, I haven't imploded. But I am looking for other work!

I believe that emotions have their place in the classroom. Growing up in a family that either denied or held the emotions in check, I still work on identifying and dealing with some emotions in a constructive manner.

Students come into the classroom with their emotions, as do the teachers. To deny or ignore emotions will impede the instruction. As one professor told me, once the social being is taken care of, the academics will fall into place. I believe that. Too many of my kids come with issues that are not dealt with at home, so they come looking for an adult to help them address what is on their mind. Emotions come into play when the issues are strong. Emotions can be positive or negative, but not wrong.

Quite a few students need to identify their emotions and learn what to appropriately do with them. The impulsive thought is not always the appropriate action to choose, so guiding them through other options is a learning experience. Not all will get this from home. This is a process, and making more appropriate choices might feel very awkward or unnatural. Repetition helps to make it feel more comfortable and a better response.

Students also need to see their teachers as whom they really are. Teachers model their emotions and how they handle them. Teachers can identify and inform their emotion to the students, and show how to handle the emotion. If the teacher makes a choice and regrets it, there is a lesson in adults making mistakes, apologizing, explaining the situation, and trying again. Students know if a teacher is genuine or insincere.

I have even shed a few tears in class. Only for just a few moments, and I would have preferred to keep them within until alone, but sometimes they are stronger than my ability to keep them buried. It can be a powerful moment. I cried a few times in front of my 8th grade girls when I got a call, twice in one week, to leave last month and get up to my mom. It was unusual that I would even take personal calls during class time. We left it that Mom was pretty sick, and I needed to get to her. I got a hug or two, got a kleenex, and then went into instruction mode with the students so they knew what I expected while another teacher was found to cover.

These girls were a bit uncomfortable seeing me hurt and afraid, but most of them have brought pictures of a very dear loved one, as well as funeral cards, to share with me in the loss of their loved one. We have a bond concerning grief.

So, there is a time and a place, although I know to hold things in check. If I were going to sob hysterically, I would have stepped into the hallway until it subsided as that would really be difficult for the girls.

Of course, a teacher has to be him or herself in dealing with their emotions and the emotions of their students.

I don't get it. Do you have a stiff for a teacher. How can a person not show or sense emotion?

are asking if we are taught to shift emotions in the same manner a teen ager does? If so, then no and i would not want to learn it. I lived through it and have no desire to go through it again. We are taught to keep things consistent yet be sensitive to the sporadic, chaotic, uncotrollable, hormonal rollercoaster called the teen ager.

Originally Posted by Mark

are asking if we are taught to shift emotions in the same manner a teen ager does? If so, then no and i would not want to learn it. I lived through it and have no desire to go through it again. We are taught to keep things consistent yet be sensitive to the sporadic, chaotic, uncotrollable, hormonal rollercoaster called the teen ager.

As I was reading previous responses, I was thinking how I will write something like this, but Mark was here first :P

The other day I did some online test about emotional intelligence and they mixed up questions about recognizing emotions shown by other people and questions about your response to these emotions. They said my EQ is 96 or something like that. Most other persons on that forum (they posted the link to the test site) had scores in 130-ies and 140-ties; I guess they react to every emotion shown by anyone else by rushing in and meddling.

I think the key IS to be consistent like Mark said, and the result of my test shows that I learned that lesson well.

Too many of our middle schoolers in this school overreact emotionally to simple stimuli and if I stopped the instruction every time to discuss their feelings, we would never finish any lesson. In most cases, redirection and confusing them so they stop whining does the trick.

I think that many of these kids can not recognize their own emotions; for example they may not know if they are feeling upset or energetic when they experience the :idea: lightbulb situation (when they suddenly understand the idea in the class content) - some of them become disruptive at that point.