Self‐talk for teachers

Abstract

New ways for teachers to think about inner‐speech or self‐talk have the potential to impact either positively or negatively their feelings, self‐esteem, health, and behaviour.

I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.

— Hiam Ginott (1972)