Picture this. Your district supervisor walks in the door ten minutes before school starts for the day and requests an on-site inspection visit to see how you handle stress at school. You get up from your desk and lead the way with confidence.
Leaving the office, he sees hallways flowing smoothly with students. She hears kind voices in the air and feels a comfortable peace. Despite the smile tugging at the corners of your mouth, you maintain your dignity as you lead the supervisor down the hall. In each room, he pauses, opens the door, and presents a serene atmosphere. He does not even hesitate in the baths, sure that none of the five senses will be offended.
You are in a dream, right?
No, it’s reality, the kind of reality I learned to create when I myself had the privilege of serving as principal and managing stress at school.
Innovative ways to manage stress in schools
Principals must manage stress in schools, but how can they do it? With drugs, weapons, and a host of more common stressors, how can you be expected to handle stress in schools? How can you even master all the techniques for managing stress in schools?
Let’s look at some innovative ideas to help you get started. For the sake of global readers, I will use simple English on purpose.
1. Courage of convictions
Top directors have the courage of their convictions. They strongly believe that a principal must manage stress in schools. They exercise the courage of that conviction.
Make managing stress at school a priority. Set a goal for when and how stress will be managed at school. Let nothing and no one stop you from achieving that goal.
2. Be proactive
Thinking principals are proactive in learning to manage stress in schools. They don’t wait until stressors create massive anxiety. They expect to handle stress and are determined to do so.
Take steps to manage stress before it is born or in childhood. Find ways to avoid stress. Meet it head on. Recruit school staff and students in proactive efforts.
3. Manage your example
Successful principals manage personal stress and hope to control stress in schools. The best way to help students and school staff manage stress is by practicing stress management techniques yourself.
Get control over your schedule and workload. Force yourself to take a 5-minute break every hour to stretch and breathe deeply. Maintain a tidy office with peaceful images and soft peaceful music.
4. Manage your environment
Capable principals recognize the importance of a positive atmosphere in managing stress in schools. They know that noise and confusion are stressors that need to be controlled.
Reduce noise in hallways and bathrooms by playing quiet classical music over your PA system. A school that introduced classical music to a building full of rude and rowdy students dramatically reduced noise and brought tangible peace to the daily atmosphere. Use positive words and phrases on signs, serene wall hangings to manage stress at school.
5. Manage security
Wise principals recognize that one way to manage stress in schools is to provide safety and security. They seek to address all areas, including but not limited to bullying, hazing, drinking, terrorism, violence, drugs, and safety on the playground or on campus.
Assess your school’s security needs. Ask students to anonymously list security issues that concern them. Ask parents for their perspective. Have an independent consultant evaluate your school. Then take steps to control safety inside and outside the school. Reducing security issues is a great way to manage stress in schools.
6. Clarify expectations
Distinguished principals, like large corporate CEOs, clarify expectations for students, teachers, and other school personnel. They provide written job descriptions in addition to regulations, knowing that when everyone knows what to do, it helps manage stress in schools.
Students, especially, are likely to respond positively to written job descriptions, rules, and schedules. Draw a parallel to the world of work and point out that your school is a workplace for everyone involved. When everyone does what they expect, according to their job descriptions, things move smoothly and you manage stress in schools.
7. Control of Concessions
Intelligent principles know that a vital human desire is control. Lack of control is a stressor. The more control you can give students and school staff, within reason, the better able you will be to manage stress in schools.
It grants a measure of control in matters such as discipline. Let students choose between staying after school, tutoring a younger student, or reading to very young students. Gives a measure of control in academic goals. Students who set their own goals with guidance will work with less stress than those who are set goals.
8. Make Neon Boundaries
As leading experts, you know that limits are vital. As much as students may feign annoyance, they are more pacific with boundaries. They don’t need to be fences or walls, just make behavioral boundaries shine as brightly as if they were high tangible walls painted in neon.
Boldly set inescapable boundaries on unwanted behavior. Practice Zero Tolerance With Love – Tough Love. Students and teachers who have clear boundaries and stay within them have less stress. It takes a steady hand to erect those boundaries, but they will prove indispensable in your efforts to manage stress at school.
The eighth point is perhaps the most powerful tool in your effort to manage stress in schools.
You are probably familiar with the “limits” study done many years ago with a kindergarten class. The school playground in the studio was surrounded by a chain link fence. The children were allowed to play anywhere on the playground, and they did, right up to the fence itself. Every day, they ran and played happily, using every inch of the large playground.
Then the fence was removed. The children went outside to play as usual, but they soon became stressed. They sat or stood close to their teacher. When he urged them to run and play, some moved away, but not very far. Some began to cry and clung to their teacher. When he urged them to run and play again, several did, but none of them moved away from the teacher. The big playground had become scary because they no longer knew where the limits were.
How do principals handle stress in schools? There are a plethora of ways, but these should get you started.