Equipping Students to Manage Strong Emotions

Social and emotional learning has always been important in the classroom, but for many of us, this post-pandemic era has left our students with even fewer skills and tools to navigate their world.  If students come into the classroom with dysregulated emotions or problematic social situations on their minds, they will not be able to focus on academics.  Therefore, even before preparing lessons to increase their phonics skills or understanding of historical events, we need to consider the internal state of our students. Below are some suggestions for how you can help them manage emotions they experience.

FOR ALL GRADES
Pray Together
Model for your students how to bring Jesus into everyday situations.  If several in your class are struggling with focus or acting-out behaviors, it could be an opportunity to pause together and say, “We’re having a hard time right now, and we could use God’s help.”  In older grades, it might be appropriate to narrate some of your mental state coming into class and pray together that God would help you.  For example, “Class, I’m feeling distracted and sad today because my dog is sick.  Before we start our lesson, I think it would be a good idea for me to pray that I can teach you well even with everything going on right now.”  Then, prompt students to take a minute or two and pray silently about what is going on in their world.

FOR LOWER GRADES
Peace Corner
In elementary classrooms, a Peace Corner (also known as a calm-down corner) can be used to give students a break when they are having trouble regulating their emotions.  Even for us as adults, we sometimes need to step out of a situation or use a strategy to calm down, and our students are no different.  By creating this space in the classroom, it provides all students with access to a productive way to calm their bodies and reflect on their emotions.

Here's how it works:

• Set up a designated place in your classroom, preferably with some kind of comfortable seat (bean bag, cushion, rug).
• Include a variety of objects (soft toys, fidgets).
• Provide cues for relaxation such as breathing exercises.
• Supply a timer (5-minute is recommended) for the student to regulate their time there.

A couple other tips:

• Teach the whole class how to use it.
• Have students practice using the calm corner when they are already calm.

Emotion Regulation Curriculum

Having words to explain emotions means that behaviors are not the only mode of communication that students have. The Zones of Regulation is one curriculum that provides students with language to describe how they are feeling and tools for self-regulation.[1]  You could use these principles schoolwide or just in your own classroom.  The framework describes emotions in 4 zones:

• BLUE – low alertness (sad, tired, sick)
• GREEN – medium alertness (happy, focused, calm)
• YELLOW – medium-high alertness (nervous, excited, frustrated)
• RED – high alertness (panicked, elated, enraged)

After teaching students how to identify what zone they are in, follow up with explaining tools to help regulate their alertness and get them “back to green.”  For example, if they are in the blue zone, they can ask for a hug or walk to get a drink.  For yellow, they might move to the calming corner or squeeze a stress ball.

FOR UPPER GRADES
Check-ins
Even your older students are walking into class feeling something – disappointed about their performance on the test in their previous class, elated that a certain boy/girl talked to them in the hallway, distressed by conflict at home.  Knowing that, you can do a check-in with students at the beginning of the period.  Here are a couple ideas:

• “Fist to 5” – ask students to show you with fingers (0-5) reflecting how ready they are to learn. 
• Showing an emotion wheel or page of emojis, have students pick one or two that best describe where they are at in that moment.

If many students are expressing strong emotions, you may want to address this at a whole-class level by:

• Giving students a couple minutes to write about what is on their mind.
• Allowing them to share with a classmate.
• Leading the class in some deep breathing or grounding exercises or prayer.

It may feel like this takes away from valuable class time, but remember – if students’ bodies are tense or shut down, their minds are not ready to learn.  Think of it as an investment to create more productive class time.

After setting a calm and ready-to-learn environment, there still may be students who experience strong emotions in your class.  A few other strategies you can recommend are

• Fidgets for extra energy;
• Breaks to walk and get a drink; or
• More deep breathing.

Our students’ social and emotional state is an important aspect of their readiness to learn. As we pay attention to where they’re at emotionally, we have the opportunity to help our students learn to take their emotions to God, growing in relationship with Him, and learn to deal with their emotions in healthy ways, helping them build skills for relationships with others.

Kelly Crandall
Kelly serves as a school psychologist at Faith Academy in Manila, Philippines. She previously taught in the middle school at Faith. Kelly has a specialist degree in school psychology and finds it rewarding to develop plans to help all students grow. She also enjoys eating good food and playing card games.