You are teachers. Stress comes with the territory. However, the stress we’re under this year feels different. It’s more complex. There are multiple sources of pressure and there isn’t an end date on the horizon. It’s one thing to handle the stress that comes and goes in a typical year; handling chronic stress is something else entirely. The pandemic has compounded the effect stress has on your students, to the point where you’re likely to see more unwanted behavior crop up in your classroom this year.

In this month’s Teach by Design, we offered up some ideas for how to combat the stress levels in your classroom. In this episode of Expert Instruction, we’re diving a little further into the topic.

Today, we’re talking with Dr. Geovanna Rodriguez, an assistant professor of school psychology at the University of Oregon about how to manage the stress happening in your classroom this year—both your students’ and your own.

Find out how creating safe, predictable classrooms means creating a space where your students feel confident enough to leave their stress at the door. Dr. Rodriguez also shares how important it is to take care of ourselves and how her own perspective on “self-care” has changed over the last year and a half.