Mike and Mr. Matheson

the emotions and feelings seen in students, the teacher can help students process their emotions and de-escalate (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Minahan, 2019).

Allow Time to Process

If reflecting on emotions and verbal discussion aren’t helpful for students who appear escalated, or they simply need time to gather themselves, allow other ways for them to process and manage their emotions. Accordingly, allow time for them to process at their own pace and with mild, preferred activities, such as journaling, drawing, or simply sitting quietly and using meditation or relaxation techniques. Once students have reduced their agitation or anxiety, engage them in a debrief to help them understand that despite experiencing some uncomfortable emotions, they were able to process and return to a normal, less heightened state. Help them see the growth in this, as students with histories of trauma may have difficulty recognizing small moments of growth in emotion-regulation skills (Knight, 2019; Minahan, 2019).

Use Short, Clear Directions

Students who are escalated or feel anxious may also have a hard time processing and understanding the situation they’re in. Accordingly, simple and clear directions are better over multistep or complex directions. Provide direct, clear, and easy-to-do directions, one at a time, to students and wait for completion after each one. Giving multistep directions may escalate and confuse the student (Ingram, n.d.). For example, saying, “Why can’t you just do your work?” is vague and doesn’t communicate a direction—it hints at one, but it mostly communicates frustration (Forehand & McMahon, 1981). Also, saying, “I need you to sit down and stop arguing. Your paper isn’t out, it should be on your desk, and you need to clean up your work from earlier. You need to complete your work and stop being disruptive,” is an immense amount of information to give a student. The student will likely get lost weeding through all that information, so it’s best to provide one clear direction at a time. Tell the student simple directions that won’t be misinterpreted (Burns et al., 2017; Forehand & McMahon, 1981; Ingram, n.d.; Pickens & Tschopp, 2017).

Interrupt the Heightened State

Another approach can be offering the student a coping skill to interrupt his or her heightened state (Norris, 2003; Pickens & Tschopp, 2017; Yoder & Nolan, 2018). In doing so, the teacher shifts the focus away from the student’s anxious state or defiant behavior and onto de-escalating. This break from the escalation allows the student to self-regulate and bring down any elevated emotion (Goleman, 2005).