EQ Boost

When I think about what teachers and schools need right now mindfulness is on my mind. Talk to a teacher or read an article about the current state of teaching and you won’t make it too far before hearing about burnout, stress, and anxiety. Those sharing their perspectives will discuss these issues with teachers and students. So burnout, stress, and anxiety are real issues facing teachers. These problems have always been present for teachers. However, the pandemic seems to have heightened these factors to a level that many within education are having a difficult time overcoming. The bad news is the emotional state that our students are coming to us in now will change anytime soon. The good news is that educators are not powerless in the face of what I’ll call emotional chaos.

Let’s face it. Teaching is tough. Teaching has always been tough and it’s gotten even tougher over the last few years. And, across the country, there are administrators like me asking teachers to do more with less. To engage students on new levels that gets them motivated and excited to learn. And many teachers who listen to these calls feel helpless and hopeless. They don’t know how to engage students in the ways that they’re being asked. They don’t have the answers that they need. I’m confident that one of the answers is completely controllable by individual teachers. By focusing on your emotional intelligence and boosting your EQ, you can change yourself and your students.

There are ways that all educators can boost their own emotional intelligence and change their classroom environment to be a positive, welcoming, and supportive experience. I’ll be presenting at the National Schools to Watch Conference in Washington, DC on June 21st. This post is related to that presentation and will provide a preview of what participants can expect.

Focus on Emotion

I believe that many of the issues with teacher burnout have to do with the emotional state of both teachers and students. Teachers are stressed. Students are stressed. And when teachers and students are both stressed bad things happen. Teachers, you’re in control. You’re in control of your emotional state and the emotional state of your students. You read that right. You can control your own emotions but also work to greatly influence the emotional state of your students. You have the power to create the exact classroom atmosphere that you desire and to build an environment that helps and supports all of your students. The path to taking back your classroom and your school and reaching your students in ways that you may have never thought possible is through emotional intelligence (EQ). EQ is a term that’s been around for over 20 years and you’ve probably encountered it a time or two. You can boost your own EQ and the EQ of your students to achieve the emotional and academic results you desire in your classroom.

What is EQ

Simply put, EQ is the intelligent use of emotions. You know what IQ is. And you may know that IQ is not all that matters in determining an individual’s success even though it’s treated that way in almost every area of life. The intelligent use of emotion has been shown to be as important if not more important than IQ in determining career and life success. So if EQ is so important, why don’t we focus on it more? I have no idea but I’ve chosen to focus on EQ and the ways that teachers and schools use emotion a great deal. EQ is the gateway to unlocking the potential of school and the influence that teachers have on students.

EQ encompasses four main components:

  1. Your understanding of your own emotions
  2. Your regulation of your own emotions
  3. Your understanding of others’ emotions
  4. Your understanding of others’ emotions

EQ Boost

The best news is that emotional intelligence is not fixed. EQ is a set of competencies that can be improved over time. There are five simple things that any teacher can do right now to boost their EQ and take back their classroom. They are:

  1. Mindful Classroom Visualiztion
  2. Daily Emotional Journaling
  3. Classroom Deep Breathing
  4. Empathy Mapping
  5. Student Talk

Each of these steps is related to one of the four components of emotional intelligence. They are a great starting point for boosting your EQ and creating the classroom that our students need. These components will be part of the conference session that I present next week. I’ll also do a blog post focused on each in the days to come.