The topic of students usually comes up when talking about anxiety in the classroom. A discussion of our students and how we can lessen and handle their anxiety usually concludes every conversation.
What about educators, though? Do we ever experience anxiety ourselves?
This discussion will center on teacher anxiety and provide some advice on how to feel less anxious while instructing.
So, how to be less nervous when teaching? You need to understand the root of your nerves, get organized and be prepared, know your students, practice speaking in front of an audience…
Read on for some tips on surviving if you’re a student teacher, new teacher, or teacher who suffers from anxiety while teaching.
Table of Contents
How To Be Less Nervous When Teaching?
Understand The Root Of Your Nerves
Understanding why you get nervous in the first place is the first step in learning how to be less nervous when teaching. You can start focusing on solving those particular problems once you are aware of what makes you anxious. Nerves can be brought on by a variety of fears, including a fear of public speaking, a fear of not being good enough, or a fear of being judged.
Get Organized And Be Prepared
Being as prepared as you can is one of the best ways to calm nerves. Check to see that you have more than enough supplies for your lesson. By doing this, you can concentrate on your students rather than fumbling for a worksheet or worrying about what will happen next if you do become tense.
Make sense of how you want to arrange your materials and resources, and try to have a backup plan for everything. For instance, if you’re concerned that you’ll get lost in your notes, highlight a few important points, make a PowerPoint presentation, or use Google Slides to keep yourself on track.
Know Your Students
Getting to know your students is another way to calm your nerves. It will be simpler to get them interested in learning if you can establish a personal connection with them. Get to know them by name, ask them about their extracurricular activities, and allow them to get to know you on a personal level. By doing so, rapport will be strengthened and everyone will feel safe in the classroom.
You can build relationships with your class by engaging in icebreaker activities that give everyone a chance to speak. It’s important to establish a connection with your class, whether they are elementary school students or teenagers. Why not, for instance, have a brief introduction session on the first day? Alternately, ask them to discuss something they did over the weekend in small groups as part of their morning work.
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Practice Speaking In Front Of An Audience
It’s common to be afraid of public speaking. Talking in front of a crowd can be nerve-wracking, but there are ways to get over it. One way to become more at ease with the material is to perform your lesson or lecture in front of others prior to it. Try practicing your material first in front of a mirror before performing it for a relative, a friend, or even a coworker.
Breathe And Calm Down
Prior to your class, take a deep breath if you are anxious. In particular, deep breathing helps supply oxygen to your brain, which is more important than oxygen supply to the rest of your body.
You can think and reflect more clearly when your brain has enough oxygen to function properly, which will be very helpful when imparting education.
Accept Your Feelings
Recognize your feelings of apprehension if you experience them. Try to foster positivity within yourself rather than forcing it. The first step in solving one’s problems is to acknowledge them.
When something isn’t even real to you, it’s impossible to try to work on it. To help yourself feel less anxious when teaching, it is therefore not only constructive but absolutely necessary to acknowledge your true feelings.
Don’t Force Yourself To Be Perfect
One experiences anxious feelings when they believe that only perfection is acceptable. You only make your anxiety worse if you put pressure on yourself to be perfect. Making mistakes is part of being human.
Since perfection is impossible, education empowers people to be confident rather than perfect. A person is said to never learn if they never make mistakes. Furthermore, making mistakes occasionally and experiencing anxiety are completely normal in classrooms.
Harbour Positivity
Convert your negative feelings into uplifting ideas. Do not believe that if you make a mistake, you will lose your job. Even if you make a mistake, remember that you are still worthy.
Self-correction is always an option. Don’t overstress yourself as a new teacher because you have unlimited potential to learn and improve. New teachers get better with experience.
Think Rationally
Our minds have a tendency to exaggerate things when we’re under stress. As a result, our bodies and minds often experience more tension. Overthinking is a stressor that can exacerbate our nervousness. Thinking logically and constantly reminding oneself not to believe everything their brain tells them are necessary stress management skills.
You must be aware that when you are under stress, it’s possible for your brain to malfunction and give you false information. To avoid acting irrationally, you must be aware of these false beliefs. When under a great deal of stress or anxiety, you should exercise restraint.
Relax Your Body
Without realizing it, we frequently hunch our shoulders, clench our jaw, and curl up our toes when we get caught up in the vicious cycle of anxiety. Actually, this causes the body to become rigid, and the rigid body causes the rigid mind.
Without your conscious awareness, when your body is uncomfortable, your mind will follow suit. When you hardly speak, it is impossible to expect your students to learn any meaningful concepts. Yoga and pranayama are recommended by experts as ways to teach your body to regulate its own nervousness.
Don’t Be Too Serious.
In life, we encounter new things, gain new knowledge, and—most importantly—have fun. The fun is already gone if you take your work too seriously. The advice of great personalities to concentrate on enjoying life is frequently given.
It can be unfamiliar to some people to work as a teacher, so it’s important to unwind and take pleasure in the experience. You’ll perform better at work and be able to teach with a positive attitude and charm if you adopt this type of mindset.
Meditate
The best way to relax and fend off all negative thoughts is through meditation. It can ease your teacher’s tension and aid in your ability to concentrate while delivering your lesson.
You’ll be able to relate to your students better if you can keep your attention solely on the teaching process and not on any unfavorable thoughts.
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Practice Deep Breathing Exercises
When you’re dealing with any stressful situation, deep breathing can help. To a miraculous degree, taking a few deep breaths can help you relax. Once you learn how to do it correctly, you can practice deep breathing on your own and teach it to your students. The teaching process will be improved.
You can learn the proper way to practice deep breathing from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in this video.
Be Well Prepared
If you feel ready, you will be confident and maintain your composure. Your ability to remain composed has a big impact on how people view your instruction. Only when you are calm and composed can your teaching techniques operate at their peak potential, which is something you can achieve by doing your homework in advance.
In order to engage your students in the lesson, carefully plan the course content and incorporate relatable anecdotes.
Exercise And Focus On Your Health
Your mental and emotional well-being are also factors in determining your level of health. When someone is under too much pressure, their bodies are also impacted. For any task to be completed effectively, a healthy breakfast and regular exercise are essential.
Exercises help you stay calm and give you more control over your physical behaviors, so a teacher needs to do them frequently. Teachers who lead healthy lifestyles set a great example for their students and are themselves healthier.
Body Language Can Either End All Or Be All
Your body language is the first of the most crucial factors that will be considered when judging your public speaking performance in a classroom, with what is being taught coming in second. Prepare yourself mentally for a variety of situations that typically make new teachers anxious.
Although not everyone does this, many of your students will form an opinion of you as a new teacher by evaluating you during the first few minutes of the class itself.
Therefore, if it’s your first day teaching, remember to look your students in the eye while you’re talking to them and make it a special day.
Cut Off Your Caffeine Intake
Caffeine has been shown to increase anxiety in people who do not typically experience anxiety, but it can exacerbate existing anxiety if you are worried about teaching in a classroom.
Caffeine commonly results in people experiencing tense muscles, elevated blood pressure, and a tingling sensation in their stomach. If one is anxious, these symptoms may worsen.
Change Your Thought Process
In stressful circumstances, we frequently have a tendency to think negatively and worry ourselves by only considering the worst-case scenarios. You need to empower yourself and speak positively to yourself if you want to overcome social anxiety.
You must exercise positivity and reason. Since an unmotivated teacher can often come off as overly strict and cause misunderstandings in the classroom, it results in students who are uninterested and dull.
Expose Yourself To Situations That Make You Nervous
This approach is very effective at reducing nervousness and anxiety, despite how counterintuitive it may seem. Only after overcoming his fear of public speaking and developing a sense of self-assurance can a teacher forge genuine connections with his students.
This can be accomplished by participating in public speaking events, which will prepare you for speaking in front of students while imparting knowledge in the classroom.
Listen To Cheerful Songs
Putting on headphones and listening to calming music is a great way to reduce teacher anxiety. You can greatly benefit from the calming effects of upbeat music to manage your anxiety. Any student would value its ability to help them develop a positive mental story.
Self-affirmations Are Important
It’s important to believe in yourself and to affirm your abilities. Self-affirmations and encouraging self-talk assist in fostering self-assurance. You should tell yourself that you are enough and that your worries are unfounded and shouldn’t be the cause of your self-esteem issues.
You’ll be a better teacher and be able to respond to your students’ questions with intelligence and dexterity if you adopt this attitude.
Faq’s For Teacher Anxiety
Where Can I Learn More About The Tapping Method?
Where can I get more details about the tapping method? Basic, free resources for tapping are available from The Tapping Solution.
I Want To Use The Employee Assistance Program. How Do I Do That?
Speak with your administrator and request information if you feel comfortable doing so. Speak with your HR department instead of your direct administrator if you prefer. For additional information, you can also check out the HHS website.
Where Can I Get Assistance Creating Schedules And Routines?
Speaking with mentors and colleagues who are familiar with the school’s culture is the best way to accomplish this. Consider how you want your classroom to run as you reflect on yourself as well. An excellent source for that is this article.
Final Words
There are numerous strategies for managing anxiety while teaching, and the majority of them are common sense solutions. The most important thing is to treat yourself fairly and rationally in the end.
Preparation and self-care should be enough to help you get over any minor anxiety you may be experiencing.
If you are having more difficult times, look for a mentor or enroll in a speaking course.
And if your anxiety is really getting the best of you while you are teaching, don’t be afraid to get help from a professional!
I appreciate you reading.
