Ah, rudeness. Most college professors do not expect it from their students (or from anybody). The hierarchy in colleges and universities is pretty clear, and the stakes of messing with it are generally high for students. So what do you do when a student tells you to wait while they finish typing their text?

In other words, how does student rudeness affect teachers? Even if you handle the student effectively in the moment, what if you feel bad about it afterwards? Teacher mental health (everyone’s mental health) includes surviving boundary hangover, or the regret that can follow doing the right interpersonal thing.

In this episode, we hear some college professors in a Teacher Support Group wrestle with this very thing: setting an appropriate boundary and feeling bad about it afterwards.

We discuss

* Who’s in Charge: What to do when the authority structure gets flipped upside down

* The Class Placeholder: The possible ramifications when students scramble to change their course schedule

* Student Distractions: Do students need help fitting into your classroom reality?

* The Teacher Ego: Why it’s crucial to teacher mental health

* Objectification: What the antidote is to the common experience of being turned into an object for someone else’s use

You don’t have to be a college professor to relate to this story! High school teachers, elementary and pre-school teachers, even parents — everyone who interacts with other people, especially members of Gen Z, can benefit from hearing how these teachers work through their reactions to student rudeness. Teacher mental health is crucial. Check it out!

External links

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Connect & Share

Got a story to share? What shockingly rude behaviors have you encountered in your classroom? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and we might feature your perspective in a future episode!

Or send me an email! betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com.

Support the Show: If this conversation resonated, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Podcast Editor: Jasper Chua

Theme Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Interstitial Music: Brad Wells

Chapters:

00:00 Thank yous, then when students get under your skin03:58 A college student tells his professor "okay, go ahead"09:08 The group asks: was the phone really the problem?17:03 When students treat your class as a placeholder20:36 Getting paused like a phone, and why it stings29:21 Saying no to the replay, then the boundary hangover38:01 The plan: trust your gut and speak up42:44 A month later, plus takeaways for your own classroom

Welcome to Season 4 of Teaching through Emotions! We are excited to drop the first episode just a few days before World Teachers Day. October 5th is the day devoted every year to honoring educators the world over, specifically to draw attention to

* Teachers’ rights and responsibilities

* Standards for teacher education

* Expectations for teacher recruitment and employment

* Requirements for teaching and learning conditions

Consider Teaching through Emotions our paean to teachers and our regular commemoration of World Teachers Day!

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, you will meet some of the members of TTE’s High School TSG: Ann, Kim, Elizabeth, and Jane. Just one week into the school year,

they talk about

* Catastrophizing: What it is, why teachers spiral into worst-case thinking, and what to do about anxious thoughts and negative self-talk

* Body Snatching: Noticing and fighting against other people’s unwelcome emotions like stress, frustration, and impatience

* Self-Regulating: Sharing ways to calm down even in the heat of the moment, with practical emotional regulation and stress management strategies for teachers

* Stop Over-optimizing!: Or, to put it positively, Under-optimize! Let go of perfectionism to lower the pressure and prevent early-year teacher burnout

* First Week of School: How the first week back can be difficult even for veteran teachers

These are experienced teachers who are being honest about the tough emotions and experiences they had in the first week of school and share ways to combat them. With care and humor.

I think you’ll relate.

Connect & Share

Got a story to share? How was your first week (or month) of school this year? How do you deal with overwhelm and panic? I’d love to hear! Leave me a voicemail at (413) 239-4158 and we might feature your perspective in a future episode!

Or send me an email! betsy@teachingthroughemotions.com.

Support the Show: If this conversation resonated, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast app. Your feedback helps others find us.

Get full access to the community: www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Podcast Editor: Jasper Chua

Theme Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout

Interstitial Music: Brad Wells

Teaching through Emotions is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Season 4 of Teaching through Emotions is about to drop (on October 1st)! And it’s different. Really different.

In past seasons, I’ve shared teacher stories, many with my wonderful co-host, Joe Johnson. Here’s the most popular one from Season 3, btw: Handling Teacher Guilt: Are you being too judgmental of yourself?

All of these teacher stories came from Teacher Support Groups or work I did with individual teachers. All of them were told by me.

This season, we’re taking you right to the heart of TTE’s work. We’re cutting me out as the storyteller. Instead, we’re letting actual teachers tell their stories! That is, we’re recording TSGs and bringing teachers’ experiences to you fresh from their TSG meetings.

Speaking of which, looking to join a TSG? Contact me. I’ll put together a group of teachers from all over the world (if need be) to meet regularly online to talk about — and change — the realities of teaching.

Listen to the trailer and share it with your colleagues! your teacher friends! your other friends! The stuff we talk about is specific to teaching but valuable to anyone who’s in a relationship. Stuff like

* Becoming overwhelmed even at the very beginning of the school year

* Handling Gen Z device-enhanced rudeness

* Dealing with AI

* Setting crucial boundaries with students, colleagues, and parents — and surviving “boundary hangover”

and so much more.

Credits

Founder and Host: Betsy Burris

Producer: Jullian Androkae of PodVision

Audience Development: Andreea Coscai of PodVision

Podcast Editor: Jasper Chua of PodVision

Music: Tom Burris/Jabbering Trout