How to Reduce Stress in the Workplace - Top 7 Revamping Tips for Teachers

Screaming children, flying paper airplanes, the intricacies of students’ developmental needs, instructional preparations and deadlines can haunt a teacher.

A study published in the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions revealed that teachers who experience high levels of stress and burnout have different means to cope up and to strengthen self-awareness.

Notably, this study analyzed how teacher stress affects student academic performance and behavioral outcomes. 

The negative effects of teacher stress on student learning are research-based. Teacher stress is real.

Teacher stress must be reduced. There are many ways to manage stress effectively from a teacher's perspective.

Let’s begin in the teacher’s workplace - the classroom.  

Top 7 revamping tips for teachers to reduce stress in the classroom

I am a teacher and I have just shared a piece of my daily life. Working in education can be very stressful.

Although I am very passionate about my work, I feel so drained at times that I pivot around my extremes to deal with everything as sensibly as possible.

In 2019, the Teacher Well-being Index revealed that 78% of education professionals across the UK experienced an unprecedented rise of work-related stress. 

I believe that it is high time to address teacher stress.

Fortunately I have gathered awe-inspiring master plans from teachers that I know. I have included mine too.

In other words I will be sharing crisp schemes directly from my plate. It is first-hand experience and I hope that this is going to be a helpful read.

1. Make a plan and keep your priorities

The more consistent you are in planning classroom activities and routines, the better prepared you will be. Be organized and set priorities. Learn to keep them.

The more you do this, the more time you will have to give what’s best for the learners.

Being organized doesn’t only cater to arranging your essentials on your desk and shelves. It also involves classroom planning and keeping track of essential tasks all of the time.

When you just let the day flow without a plan of action, you will pick anything up as the moment dictates. This can make your overall efforts less effective.

This can result in poor results and will eventually cause a lot of stress. 

As you work your way forward without careful planning and set priorities, you’ll experience a significant amount of stress.

Unknowingly, the rise of stress levels will take its toll on your physical and mental health.

Plans help you to encapsulate two things at a time - being organized and keeping priorities.

In this way you can be more productive. You have the power to plan what you want to do in advance.

This will stop chronic stress from destroying your means of coping up and self-efficacy.

2. Build community in the classroom

Fostering a strong relationship with your students can give you peace of mind and a sense of calmness.

In this light, you can ultimately set the tone of the classroom.

You feel overwhelmed if you can’t get along with your students very well. 

With their diverse backgrounds and interests, you have to interact with them and know them better so that you can establish a strong connection with them.

As you get along with your students properly, it will be easier for them to share their difficulties with you.

The learning environment becomes safe and nurturing for them too. You and your students can benefit a lot from this technique.

Each of your students is an individual package of unique personalities and skills.

For this reason, you need to establish a healthy student-teacher relationship to promote a nurturing and stress-free learning environment so that students can learn effectively.

When a strong relationship is established between you and your students, you also feel better and happier.

3. Enhance classroom management strategies - establish a routine

One of the essential aspects of effective teaching and learning is classroom management. It’s a great way of reducing stressful incidents in the classroom.

This builds a soothing classroom climate. The adoption and application of effective classroom management strategies help to build a positive learning environment. 

As a teacher, you know how important effective classroom management is for optimal learning. Create a safe learning space.

When students are guided very well on how to go about in their daily classroom routines, it is less stressful on your part too. It’s a win-win solution for promoting lifelong learning in your classroom.

Do physical exercises in your classroom.

You can do simple physical exercises in the classroom with your students.

You can embed classroom exercise breaks as part of your classroom management strategy. This will help to elevate your own mood and also boost students’ performance.

Before you begin the lesson each day; include light physical activities like stretching, walking, jogging in place or dancing in your preliminary activities. 

Make sure that everyone in the classroom feels good and that none have any serious health problems.

Exercise breaks are proven to have a positive impact on students’ concentration and focus.

Classroom management directly affects students’ classroom performance and behavior.

Take time to enhance how you manage your classroom so that you feel good in your immediate workplace.

If management strategies are well-implemented, you will become a happier teacher.

4. Think positively and eat healthy

There are many healthy snacking tips that teachers can use to stay healthy.

Disruptive students’ behavior and all of the other challenges in education delivery can be very stressful and draining.

You can’t change things overnight. It requires patience and resilience. Think positively and take care of yourself by eating a balanced diet.

Positive thoughts and staying healthy reduces the effects of stress.

Even though the whole world seems to be on your plate, think of the good things in life and treat yourself to healthy and favorable things.

Think of healthy school lunches and drag your students along with you. Well-balanced meals can keep you enthusiastic and full of energy.

When this happens, good things will happen in the classroom as well.

Why is it important to eat healthy and stay positive?

Healthy eating and positivity go a long way and impact your overall performance. This can increase your productivity and amplifies the chances of success for your students as well. Why not try it for yourself and see how it helps?

5. Create a work and life balance

As difficult as it seems, teachers should know how to balance their professional and personal lives.

Failure to do so can affect student learning and triggers personal life problems as well.

Even though expectations for teachers may seem impossible to live up to, things shouldn't confuse you.

Maintaining a work-life balance can be very overwhelming, knowing how demanding the teaching profession is, but you should try your best to do it to manage confusions and stress effectively. 

Having been in the profession for years, I know how challenging teaching really is.

We have to think of the bigger picture of everything. This has an incredible impact on student learning and increases your chances of having a happy and successful career. 

With my years of experience, the value of discernment and reflection helps me a lot to maintain a work and life balance.

I learned to say no on certain things if it won’t affect my students’ well-being. Doing so helps me to fend off unnecessary stress.

Of course when I reject offers, I’m sure to have reasons. I’m just being true to myself. 

I give myself time and learn to take a break. It’s a matter of spending time sensibly wherever I am.

If I’m at home, I should feel like I'm at home. Similarly when I am at school, my mind and body should be literally at school.

6. Love your passion

When you enjoy what you do, you are passionate about it. Teaching really is my passion. I am certain about it. The more I love my passion, the happier I become. 

If it feels wonderful and fulfilling to teach children how to read and write, then teaching must be your mission in life.

Do you imagine the feeling of being reluctant to do what you’re expected to do? It’s very stressful and it causes anxiety.

Being passionate about what you’re doing brings meaning to your existence and gives satisfaction to those around you. 

Stress might be out of the question if you are certain that you really love to teach.

The love of our work reveals the sincerity of our actions. I hope that this adds an appreciable pep to your stress management strategy.

7. Be adaptive

Learn to adjust and control your emotions to stave off stress from the workplace.

Improve your emotional intelligence and learn to become aware of how your students feel.

Adaptability in the classroom is the most important. You should know how to handle situations in the classroom and in the workplace in general.

It calls for profound maturity, patience and resilience. 

Learn to adjust and get along with your students and with your fellow teachers.

The more adaptable you are, the better equipped you will be to face new challenges. When you practice this, your surroundings will be a motivating place to be.

Having this renewed mindset can help you adjust to new situations in the workplace and make you even more enthusiastic as a teacher.

In a way, this gives your students emotional support because you're projecting versatility and adaptability.

On a final note

As teachers, we have the fulfilling roles of helping our students to become successful in the future.

Consequently, our well-being is supremely important.

We should take care of ourselves so that we won’t fall prey to the tentacles of stress and continue to perform our duties and responsibilities effectively. We should skillfully deal with our stress responses to improve our self-efficacy.

As we continue to lead through education, we should situate ourselves and our students in a stress-free environment and deal with the mounting pressures in the workplace with utmost patience and resilience.

Ideally, our students can benefit from this too. 

To increase our student performance and enhance our teaching capabilities, we should manage our struggles, problems, and concerns very well.

Hopefully the above-mentioned practical tips make sense and can lessen the impact of stress on your life.

Together, let’s manage stress and be our best productive selves ever. 

Learn to cope up and recover.

Meet Karen Pao.

Karen Pao

Karen Pao is a public secondary school teacher and a writer of https://teachersarethebest.com/.

She is happy writing about her best teaching practices and wishes to collaborate with other educators in the world. Follow her on Twitter.