My Best Stress Relief Advice for the Drama Classroom

The drama classroom can be a stressful place. Between an ever-changing, dynamic curriculum and the daily demands of classroom teaching, it’s easy to find yourself in a perpetual state of anxiety. While self-care and meditation are important, when it comes to eliminating the primary source of stress in the classroom, one strategy towers over the rest:

Be prepared.

Understand that when I say this I am not being smug or snarky, I am being honest. I have seen my fair share of teachers who wake up every day stressed out and miserable at the thought of driving to school, because they know that they are not prepared: not prepared for class, not prepared for rehearsal, not prepared for their responsibilities as a teacher. Being unprepared is a terrible feeling, and it can eventually lead to the end of your teaching career. Here’s how:

Teaching is not a profession where you can make it up as you go along. You might get away with being unprepared once or twice, but you can only improvise for so long before students call your bluff. After that, cracks will appear in your daily classroom operations: Classroom management slips, students become disrespectful and disengaged, assignments are dropped, grades get fudged. Eventually, word gets out that your classroom is in disarray, and that’s when administration gets involved. Before long, you’re placed on a required district “improvement plan,” complete with increased administrative supervision and mandatory goals. From there you have two choices: Get your act together, or get out.

The good news is that you have the ability to prevent this stressful situation. Starting today, make being prepared a priority. Write out your lesson plans at least a day in advance. Assemble materials ahead of time and have them ready to distribute when students walk through the door. Anticipate potential difficulties or disruptions and develop strategies to keep them at a minimum. The more time and effort you put into preparation now, the smoother things will go when it’s time to execute those plans. At first, it may be taxing to prioritize preparation as part of your daily teaching responsibilities, but like any skill, the more you practice, the easier it will get.

Preparation is the foundation of stress-free teaching. Start taking steps to decrease your stress by increasing your preparation.