Feeling sad? Teach something!

Not long go I was watching a great video on how your body can shape your mind. It sounds rather obvious, but the conclusion is hard to believe: standing for two minutes in what is called a ‘high power pose’ can actually trigger the production of testosterone and therefore make you more confident to deal with stressful situations. (Link here: Your body language shapes who you are)

Of course I immediately started to think how this could be applied to the classroom.

Then I started thinking about those days that you don’t really feel like teaching. Every teacher has been there, secretly wishing that his/her one-to-one student doesn’t show up, or even worse when you actually feel like calling all your students to cancel a lesson.

I figured this wasn’t a feeling that belonged only to myself. I actually heard from a teacher trainer I had, in a moment when she was getting off her chest, who told me she wished the administrative staff understood that teachers need to be 100% to deliver a good lesson. That, unlike other professions, we’re just not good enough when we’re on a 70% level, for example. This conversation is of course used here without context, I’m not actually trying to crucify her or anything. I actually agreed to the statement at the time.

But what I realized with time is quite the opposite. Every time I had to teach a lesson when all I felt like was going home, the lesson proved to be a great mood twister. Invariably I left the classroom feeling great, many times wondering how much my mood had changed so much in so little time.

I think I may have found a reason for that. As a teacher, our goal is to deliver great lessons, making sure students engage, participate and learn something from the time we spend together. Our students don’t have anything to do with our mind set. They don’t have anything to do with our problems. They’re paying to get great service, so I guess the old ‘leave your problems at home’ do apply for us.

But after I watched this video, I wondered if by forcing myself to smile and be ready for my students actually had the power to make me feel better. After observing this phenomenon for a while, I am quite sure it does. I do believe that when you make an effort to keep you troubles aside in order to provide a great lesson for your students, you are actively working on your troubles. I would even say you might find some good answers after making teaching a good lesson.

I’ll go a bit further and reveal something about myself. When I first started teaching, I was actually recovering from a quite long and severe depression. At the beginning, many were the times when I felt like quitting because I felt I wouldn’t be able to deliver a decent lesson. Many were the times when I stood facing the director’s office, almost knocking on the door to reveal my weakness. But something always convinced me that I should go on and teach the lesson, and in case I felt like that at the end of it, then I would quit. Glad I did it, as never did I feel like quitting the job after a lesson. Quite the contrary, I actually thought to myself how I could possibly have thought about it some hours earlier.

Teaching can be a really challenging experience at times. It makes you turn all the engines on and makes sure your students are getting what they paid for. And I think this drive to excel and do a good job is a powerful tool for those days when you’re too comfortable feeling idle and miserable.

So my suggestion is simple: feeling a little bit under the weather? Teach someone.