Challenging Behaviors

 Students, and children in general, are not perfect. If we as adults struggle to get through our work week without feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated, how can we expect the children in our lives when they have even fewer coping skills and experiences managing difficult emotions? How can we expect them to learn the lessons of self-regulation, if we as the adult role models in their lives have not? 

It is important that as teachers, and as parents, that we don't hold these children to higher standards than we hold ourselves, but to remember that they are human as well. They are fully capable, and entitled, to strong feelings, difficult emotions, and challenging behaviors. As the adults in their lives, it is up to us to get to the root of what is causing those behaviors, provide the supports necessary to assist them in changing those behaviors, and make sure we are modeling the appropriate reactions we expect out of them.