What is at stake in the "teaching business"?

Day after day, teachers all over the world are faced with classroom situations that demand a great deal of self control and a high ratio in emotional intelligence (not to say "gut"!). This ‘business’ of the typical classroom setting can easily lead to feelings of cognitive overload. Students expectations towards learning have changed and sometimes teachers just cannot see what to do  to make their lesson plan meet this end. Taking a logical approach to course design and lesson plan, as well as interacting with our students is useful but it does not fully make us the teachers we are. It’s well known that students who feel valued and rewarded are more likely to approach their learning tasks with a sense of intrinsic motivation, whereas those who perceive less regard for their autonomy and competence are more likely to exhibit extrinsic motivation or to disengage from the learning process entirely.   True that, by and large, changes in lesson plan may be the key to success but there are a number of situations that will demand a little more from teachers...so I invite you to think whether you are able to teach with your gut and share some hints!

1) share your frustrations and expectations with more experienced teachers. Sometimes a person who sees a situation with the benefit of no emotional involvement may give you nice suggestions. Furthermore, a large factor determining how an individual teacher fares in this “psychoclutter” is amount of experience (Feldon, 2007).

 
2) ask a peer to watch your class. When we are teaching, juggling a myriad of things, we may not see something that is right between the eyes. On the other hand, an observer will manage to see many details and give precious hints.
3) talk to your coordinator or school counselor. Sometimes the situation you are facing with may require support from the parents.
4) research, read and study about the issue. Sometimes it is important to see that we are not alone and other people have been faced with similar situations worldwide.

For more information on the topic follow the link below:

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/march-11/teaching-with-your-gut.html