Thread: Getting Over a Bad Day

Good question !! Maybe those who have the answers here are those who manage to remain teachers . I guess everyone have survival-skills - developed over the years. However - what works for one teachers may be a wrong recipe for the teacher sitting next to you. I too would like to hear if anyone have ideas here. Personally - I have made a rule : I never - ever- bring work or trouble home. When I close the door at school - my work is OVER. In that way - I never loose any sleep. (I do however come to work extremely early. Working 2 hours before the other teachers arrive gives me the time I need to sort out truobles and misunderstandings.)

My background is from kindergarten - where we used to work following "the dead mouse ped." This has helped me trough 15 years at school. (The principle is easy : whe you're out in the woods with toddlers - planning to look at the trees - whatever- and you have planned this for days, everything works untill a child discoveres a dead mouse . Then you have to switch to the mouse as a topic instead of clinging to your fixed plan. After a while you can return to the tree-subject. This works in school too -

I have a simple answer here. You go home, pour yourself a glass of wine and go sit outside in the sunshine if it's pretty or you curl up with a good book if it's winter. Works for me every time.

What if you have small kids at home as well??? Then doing quality-time may be difficult.... Otherwise I totally agree. It's a question of how to unwind !

I run into this problem all the time. I have a hard time shaking off a bad day and it really stresses me out. Wine sounds pretty good though!

I think about my favorite moments or when things have gone well. I pull out artwork that kids have made for me over the years, and that always serves to perk me up.

You can not always have good days, so when a bad day happens, I just try to work through it. I have had to rethink lesson plans quite often, so I try to think ahead and have backup plans. If I have a student that is extremely rowdy, I ask them to leave the class. If you let someone keep interrupting your class, they will continue to disrupt. You have to nip it in the bud, as soon as you see it. The student usually gets the point, and starts behaving.

It's a problem for many of us, I'm sure. You just can't control the way your day is going to go and unwinding after a hard day, for me, involves writing. I write everything in a journal. I let out my frustrations and I talk about the good things too. It helps me sort out my feelings and I get to come up with solutions too.

Wtiying is a great idea ! Nothing beats this when it comes to sorting out impressions and thoughts. I have written a diary for a very long time - Reading old notes can help me to do what RTB suggests - coming up with solutions.

I found when I was organized and had my work caught up, the day and week went more smoothly. When I had varied lessons that kept the students interested, on task and accountable, there was less time or inclination for them to resort to drama. It was usually something outside my classroom that interrupted my class and caused a bad day for me -- like an unannounced assembly, or another teacher or counselor keeping my students after class and cutting into my class time. Teachers should not do that.