Lost Temper in Front of the Class: Useful Strategies on Confidence Restoring

Elementary teacher expelled after losing his temper on one of his students’ this was the title written in the newspaper. Losing temper is a fatal mistake that could be done by a teacher inside a classroom. What could probably be a reason for a teacher to lose temper? How to regain control after losing temper? And how could a teacher avoid losing his/her temper inside the classroom? These questions are to be discussed in the following paragraphs.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ahmed A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Reasons for losing temper in class

There is no valid reason for teachers to lose his/her temper on a student, but it happens as we are only humans. So, why does a teacher lose temper inside a classroom? What could drive him/her to lose temper? There could be various factors for a teacher to lose his/her temper inside a class. Losing temper could be provoked by external or internal factors. Some of the external (outside the class) factors could include a family problem related to the teacher, being reprimanded by his superior before entering the classroom or simply the teacher could be sleep deprived., in other cases it could be an internal (inside the class) factor for an example, the student was being very disruptive or the student made fun of one of his classmates or offended one of his/her colleagues inside the class. All of these reasons could drive the teacher to lose temper. Such an attitude should be approved of as yelling at a student is a sign of loss of control; it may temporarily change a behavior, but has no lasting effect. Moreover, yelling or losing temper provokes fear instead of trust.

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How to keep them respecting you?

Gaining control after such an incident is crucial to maintain a warm, safe and structured environment inside the class. After losing temper, the teacher needs to regain control of the class, otherwise, he/she may lose respect in front of his/her learners. To regain control, a series of steps could be done starting by the teacher apologizing for his/her student in front of the class; he/she shouldn’t apologize in private. Moreover, the teacher should inform his/her students what made him/her lose temper to avoid such an issue in the future. Furthermore, the teacher should start to rebuild rapport with the student to maintain a healthy, friendly, productive atmosphere inside the class.

Restorative Methods

Avoiding such an attitude could be solved in more than one effective way. Some various methods or techniques could be done by the teacher to avoid yelling at his students. The teacher could start by establishing a set of rules that must be used and adhered to by the teacher himself/herself to promote respect inside the class. Also, the teacher should follow the school’s code of conduct instead of yelling.

Teachers also could do some activities outside the class to feel more relaxed as getting some exercise like physical activities, walking, running or going to the gym can help reduce stress. Moreover, teachers could take a timeout to be able to handle his/her class without getting irritated or angry. The teacher should separate his personal life from his work life; a teacher shouldn’t take his problems out on his students. He/she could try to calm himself/herself down by counting to 10 before taking any action that could lead to a negative consequence or he/she could try to relax by listening to some relaxing music before entering his/her class.

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Teachers could use a variety of classroom management techniques like using the 5 finger countdown where the teacher would start counting down from 5 till 1, or saying heads down and his/her students would put their heads down to their desks with absolutely no talking for a minute. The list is endless, but every teacher ought to find a suitable method for him/her to avoid losing temper inside the class and its terrible consequences that will follow.

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Lastly, losing temper will not resolve any problems but it will only make it worse. Teachers ought to be an example to be followed. When a teacher shows such an attitude inside the class, it will leave a negative impact on his/her students. It will build a tense atmosphere inside the class which could lead to a failure in the teacher’s main purpose. And eventually, the teacher will lose both respect and control in his/her class.

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