How To Be A Better, Calmer Teacher With Visualization
Daily visualization will make you a calmer, more effective teacher.
And it works immediately.
Try it just once before school and you’ll have an easier day of teaching. Here’s how to do it:
1. Close your classroom door.
2. Sit or stand in place.
3. Breathe.
4. Visualize your day.
Visualization is nothing more than seeing yourself performing your job well. Whatever you visualize tends to happen more effortlessly.
It primes your subconscious to take the wheel, which frees you to enjoy your day without the typical strain and stress you’ve grown used to.
I recommend visualizing three areas:
1. Schedule
This is where you’ll watch your day unfold in fast motion. You’ll observe your students happily arrive and then listen, participate, and do their work until they leave for the day.
You’ll also see yourself at peace and in good humor.
Move chronologically through each period, ticking off your responsibilities. This will allow you to be more efficient and purposeful once the day begins. You’ll feel unhurried, as if you’ve been here before. Because you have.
2. Consistency
Here you’ll see yourself following through like a referee. Picture your most challenging class or difficult student and you fulfilling your promise calmly.
Come up with worst-case scenarios and you handling them with aplomb.
Visualizing this area will do wonders for the ease in which you follow your classroom management plan. The feeling is like being on autopilot.
You see the misbehavior and you enforce a consequence. Visualization makes you realize how simple it really is—and within the safety of your own mind.
3. Lessons
You can also run through your lessons chronologically. See yourself giving the introduction and the way you’ll capture attention. Choose a story or funny anecdote that you may use.
Watch as you model and explain the activity or assignment, check for understanding, and answer potential questions.
It’s no different than an athlete who visualizes their competition ahead of time, and just as effective. Whatever you rehearse in your mind’s eye will be easier and more effective when it comes to pass.
A Sure Way to Get Better
The biggest worry about visualization is that you’re adding yet another item to your plate. But here’s the thing: It takes only a couple of minutes at most, especially as it becomes a habit.
I can visualize my day in about 30 seconds and a lesson in half that time. It’s a fast-motion activity that very briefly touches on highlights and key areas.
The beauty of it is that it’s a surefire, practical way to get better at your job.
Again, it works the very first time you use it and without any extra burden. It also gets easier with time as you become a better, clearer, and more efficient visualizer.
See success, and that of your students, before it happens.
And that’s what you’ll get.
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