Emotional resilience in our classroom

Emotional resilience in our classroom

The teaching profession is one of the most noble, but also one of the most demanding, due to the numerous challenges it entails: from increasingly complex curricular requirements to the diversity of student needs and social pressure. In this context, emotional resilience becomes a key factor for the success of both teachers and students.

Emotional Resilience Told Through Stories

Mrs. Popovici is a Romanian language teacher at a high school. She enjoyed her job but was well aware that it wasn’t an easy one. Teaching classes, interacting with students, parents, and colleagues, ongoing evaluations, and the pressure to achieve good results often created a sense of fatigue and frustration.

During an exceptionally demanding school year, the 10th-grade class she was in charge of seemed unresponsive to her lessons. The students were disinterested, noisy, and often rude. Mrs. Popovici tried various teaching methods, but nothing seemed to work. She began to doubt her abilities and feel disheartened.

One evening, while grading papers, she felt overwhelmed by exhaustion and sadness. She wanted to quit, to find another job—one less demanding. But deep down, she knew she couldn’t do that. She loved seeing her students discover the beauty of the Romanian language too much.

That’s when she remembered a book she had read some time ago, about resilience. She realized that she, too, needed this quality to get through this challenging period. She began seeking solutions, talking with more experienced colleagues, and attending professional development courses. She learned new teaching methods, worked on creating a more positive classroom environment, and tried to connect better with her students.

Emotional resilience allowed Mrs. Popovici to overcome this difficult time and regain her confidence. She learned that failures are a part of life and that what matters most is how we choose to face them. And most importantly, she learned that through perseverance and adaptability, we can overcome any obstacle.

What This Story Represents

  • Emotional resilience does not mean being immune to negative emotions but rather having the ability to manage them and keep moving forward.
  • A positive attitude and perseverance are key elements of resilience.
  • Seeking solutions and adapting to changes are essential for overcoming obstacles.
  • Support from others can make a big difference.

 

Mrs. Popovici’s story is just one example, but it highlights the importance of emotional resilience in a teacher’s life. By developing this quality, teachers can face challenges more easily, improve their relationships with students, and have a positive impact on their lives.

What is Emotional Resilience?

Emotional resilience is an individual’s ability to successfully adapt to stressful situations, overcome adversity, and maintain emotional balance. For teachers, resilience manifests in the ability to cope with burnout, maintain a positive attitude in the face of challenges, and build strong relationships with students, colleagues, parents, and the school community.

Resilience—achieving positive outcomes despite risks—was first used to describe high-risk newborns who overcame obstacles to achieve better-than-expected outcomes (Werner & Smith, 1992), individuals who adapted well to stressful circumstances (Garbarino, Dubrow, Kostelny, & Pardo, 1992), and those who recovered to some degree after traumatic experiences (Wolin & Wolin, 1993). The common thread is that people managed to lead more successful lives than anticipated, even though they were at a higher risk of encountering serious problems compared to the average person.

We become most aware of emotional resilience in moments of stress. A stressor affects both internal risk factors, such as genetic background, age, medical history, emotions, personality, values, or temperament, and external ones, like the environment, relationships with colleagues, salary, or workload. This interaction can increase vulnerability to emotional issues.

In such contexts, emotional resilience manifests through the activation of protective factors, such as social support, validation, harmony, problem-solving abilities, and similar mechanisms. The process of countering stressors and risk factors with protective factors contributes to maintaining personal well-being and creating a sustainable environment within the organizational culture.

Emotional Resilience in the Workplace

At work, fostering emotional resilience can be achieved through a series of well-targeted actions. These actions can be categorized based on their objectives:

  • Prioritizing Physical Health: Adopting habits that promote physical well-being, such as maintaining a balanced diet, engaging in regular physical activity, and ensuring adequate rest.
  • Developing Coping Mechanisms: Implementing strategies to manage challenges, such as mindfulness techniques, meditation, or creating an efficient work schedule.
  • Seeking and Leveraging Support: Engaging in social or professional networks that provide emotional support, open communication, and team collaboration.
  • Intentional and Focused Work: Approaching tasks with conscious focus, avoiding multitasking, and aligning professional activities with personal values.

 

By integrating these actions, a workplace environment that supports emotional resilience can be cultivated, contributing to well-being and long-term performance.

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