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Teacher Stress and Student Behavior

by Mike Anderson on June 10, 2011

"Do School Cuts Lead to Stressed Students?", a blog post by Sue Shellenbarger at the The Wall Street Journal, caught my eye recently. Shellenbarger cites a study of 10,700 parents and teachers of first graders that suggests that when teachers are stressed, students have more behavioral and emotional problems. For instance, the researchers found that when teachers are exhausted, when they lack essential materials or resources, or when they feel disrespected, the negative environment that results has adverse effects on students. In other words, a teacher's well-being is directly connected to his or her students' success.

File 209I've certainly experienced this myself as an educator. When I'm stressed, my students are stressed. Since researching and writing The Well-Balanced Teacher, I've heard from many colleagues about similar experiences. What do you think? Have you seen this as well? What factors contribute to your stress levels at school? What do you do to combat stress when it starts to build?

Submitted by Lynn Majewski on June 13, 2011.

In my school district and several schools that I visited during difficult contract negotiations there was increased stress among the entire staff. This increased the negativity in the students as well. In those schools where district proposals would result in eliminating programs and jobs the anxiety was really heightened. In order to show unity across the district during on-going negotiations teachers wore their school shirts on Fridays. It was interesting to see the children's reactions. There were often more off-task behaviors and quicker negative reactions to those behaviors by their teachers on those days.

Submitted by Amy Prussack on June 23, 2011.

I feel very isolated at my school.  Responsive Classroom is not supported or understood.  It's all about the Reading and the Math Programs.  Plus, we're now including in K some very challenging special needs students who can be very disruptive.  In the words of the writer Dominick Dunne, this year was "A Season in Purgatory!"  The one light was a friend and reading Lost in School by Ross Greene.  But I am so demoralized about next year.  Any suggestions?  I'll look for the Well-Balanced Teacher book.

Submitted by Mike Anderson on June 24, 2011.

Amy—

I'm so sorry you had such a rough year! Feeling like your beliefs about education aren't valued at school can be really hard. (I've been there . . . it's no fun!)

It's good that you've got a couple of bright spots, though. Maybe next year you could nurture your friendship a bit more. Maybe the two of you could try a couple of projects together with your students. Is there also a way you could bring some Responsive Classroom strategies into the reading and math programs that are so important in your school? Could interactive modeling help teach some of the academic skills in those programs? Could you use Academic Choice to give students more control over their learning? Could you embed some of the math and reading skills into Morning Meetings? That might help you feel like you're using some Responsive Classroom strategies and staying in line with other colleagues. You might even help others see those connections.

In the meantime, I hope you've got some fun plans for the summer. This is a great time to recharge your battery so that you're ready to face new challenges in the fall!