Strong influencer

Key Points

This strategy is to support you to identify constructive ways in which you can let out the frustration you may feel with managing students who can behave in challenging ways

How is this tweaked for flex?

Children can be frustrating and cause you to feel negative emotions. Unfortunately, we know these emotions can spread and can lead to others having negative ideas about a child even even before they've interacted with them. This can set them up for failure. We want to avoid this, while acknowledging that it's normal and OK for you to need to vent and debrief with colleagues

Plan

You probably already know that talking negatively about your students around some other staff can create cycles of frustration and annoyance, which impacts on the way that other staff (and you) behave towards a student
Have a look at the a little negativity goes a long way comic to see the impacts that can happen for a student depending on where you vent your frustration

Use the activity template to identify how you currently let off steam, and consider new ways or options that you could use for any that are not ideal using the strong influencer suggestions or poster
Next time you are getting frustrated about a student, remember “ready, steady, hold!”
Decide which of the options you are going to use from the activity template to let it out, and when you can do this

Review

This one might be tricky to remember, especially if you have some habits already in place
After you have tried one of your new options, use the reflection template to consider what went well and what you can do differently next time
Have you noticed any differences in other staffs’ attitudes towards students you used to share negative feelings about?
What changes can you continue to make to get into new habits to vent your frustration?

Resources