Why Your Students Learn More When You Take Care of Yourself

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And What That Means For The Language Classroom

A Teaching Day That Feels Good

Picture this: You walk into the classroom, rested and prepared. You feel calm — and even a little bit excited about the lesson. Excited to see your students again. Excited to help them engage with the next step in the curriculum.

You feel this way because you got enough sleep. You nourished yourself before work. You planned the lesson — yes — but you kept it simple: a clear aim, a couple of practice tasks, a post-it with the language you want to focus on so your students can use it while they work.

You are ready. When you enter the school, your colleagues light up at the sight of you. When you step into the classroom, you’re greeted with smiles — or at least a quiet, calm sense of expectation. An atmosphere of trust.

You begin.

Doesn’t that sound nice?

This is a visualisation I sometimes use to mentally prep myself before teaching. It’s not about perfection. It’s about showing up grounded, human, and real.

So let’s talk about why this happens — and what makes it possible.

The Science Behind Your Emotional Weather System

Psychologists call it emotional contagion — the idea that emotions aren’t just personal, they’re contagious. Research shows that we absorb and mirror each other’s feelings through facial expressions, body language, and even tone of voice, often without realising it. This process happens fast, unconsciously, and is driven by mechanisms like mirror neurons, which fire when we see someone else perform or feel something. In fact, emotional contagion has been shown to activate similar regions in the brain as direct emotional experience.

What does this mean for the classroom? A lot. Teachers — as emotional leaders — often set the emotional tone of the entire group. If you walk into a room feeling grounded, calm, and open, your students are more likely to reflect that. But if you’re anxious, resentful, or burnt out, students tend to absorb that too. In this way, a teacher’s internal state becomes a kind of emotional weather system in the classroom. And while positive emotions can spread, studies show that negative emotions are often more contagious and influential.

The problem is, this all happens whether we intend it or not. You don’t have to “do” anything for your stress or joy to be picked up on. Emotional contagion is automatic — and that’s why teacher wellbeing matters so much. The better you feel, the safer and more emotionally regulated your students are likely to feel. And only in that state can real, lasting learning happen.

Fake Positivity Doesn’t Help And What Does

There’s a growing awareness that teacher wellbeing affects student learning — and that’s a good thing. But this awareness can sometimes twist itself into another burden: the pressure to appear well for the sake of your students. To smile when you feel resentful. To stay calm when you’re boiling inside. To pretend you’re fine because “your mood affects the class.”

This kind of emotional performance is called emotional labor, and research shows that it’s built into teaching — especially in schools where expectations are high but support is low. There are different ways we perform emotional labor, but the most harmful is called surface acting — when you fake an emotion that you’re not really feeling. Smiling when you’re furious. Reassuring when you’re panicking. It might look like professionalism, but over time it leads to burnout, emotional exhaustion, and disconnection.

It’s also important to remember that the root of this problem is systemic. Many students arrive at school already carrying anxiety, trauma, or emotional upheaval — and teachers are expected to absorb that impact without support or recognition. We often act as emotional buffers, softening the blows of a system that doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. But when we’re asked to manage the emotional load of an entire classroom without space to care for our own wellbeing, something breaks. Usually us.

Your students pick up on this, too. Emotions are contagious, but so is dissonance. A teacher who constantly fakes being “okay” doesn’t actually create safety — they model self-erasure. And students mirror that.

What really supports learning is authentic emotional regulation, not performative cheerfulness. That doesn’t mean venting or falling apart in front of your class — it means learning to name and accept your own feelings, working with them, and showing up in ways that are real. Not perfect. Just true.

Because fake wellbeing doesn’t help students thrive. But your real, regulated presence? That absolutely does.

Wellbeing Is Pedagogy, According To Science

We often think of language learning as a purely cognitive process — about memorizing vocabulary or drilling grammar. But decades of research in neuroscience and education show that it’s much more complex. How learners feel directly affects how well they learn.

One major player is the HPA axis — our brain’s central stress-response system. When activated by short-term stress (say, a pop quiz), it can sharpen focus and aid memory. But when it’s activated chronically — due to anxiety, fear of mistakes, or a tense classroom climate — it actually disrupts memory, narrows attention, and makes emotional regulation harder. In a language classroom, this means stressed learners are less able to absorb and retain new input.

Motivation also matters. Research highlights four psychological drivers of successful learning: self-efficacy (belief in your ability), perceived control, intrinsic motivation, and perceived value of what you’re learning. All four are heavily influenced by the emotional tone set by the teacher. And this is where teacher wellbeing becomes part of pedagogy.

Because of emotional contagion (the unconscious spread of emotion), a teacher’s mood and regulation are “picked up” by students. Burnout, stress, and resentment are felt, not just seen — and they can ripple through the class. But so can calm, joy, and curiosity.

And here’s the heart of it: language learning requires risk. Our students need to try, speak, make mistakes — publicly and often. They simply can’t do that without emotional safety. If the teacher isn’t emotionally regulated, students won’t feel safe enough to take those crucial risks.

This is why teacher wellbeing is not a luxury — it’s a teaching tool. A regulated teacher creates the emotional conditions where real, lasting learning happens.

Practical Steps Toward a More Grounded Teaching Life

Listen. I know I’ve loaded lots of information on your shoulders right now. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, just take a deep breath. You do not need to change everything about your teaching life to move closer to being authentically, genuinely well in the classroom.

All you need to do is not turn away. Letting these ideas percolate in your mind for a while is already a first step.

However, if you’re ready to try taking little steps in the direction of a full, meaningful teaching life where you are true to yourself and the best, most helpful teacher you can be, here are a few ideas you can try out:

1. What’s mine / what’s not mine

After a stressful class or day, take a moment to pause and sort through what just happened. What was within your control? What wasn’t? This simple act of separation helps reduce self-blame and re-centers your energy on what you can actually influence. It allows you to take a step back and look at the situation more objectively. Once you are aware and accept what is, then you can work on your own state to show up as the best teacher-you that you can be for your students.

2. Music to move to a different (calm? energized? trusting?) state

Music is one of the fastest ways to change your nervous system state. Create a playlist for transitions: something calming between classes, energizing before work, grounding before sleep. Use it like a switch when you need to settle your own inner state so that you’re grounded and present for your students.

3. The colleague chat

Make space for a regular, short talk with a colleague you trust - someone who listens without jumping to solutions. Whether it’s venting, laughing, or just naming the hard bits, this builds emotional resilience and prevents the pressure from piling up in silence. It helps you and it helps your colleague: the shared stories normalize how hard teaching can be, and you make space for further shares and more honesty. Keep it kind, and keep it safe.

4. The “bare minimum” day plan

Have a pre-planned teaching day that protects your energy for when you’re depleted. It might mean lower-prep tasks, less speaking, or a quiet writing-based class. You’re still doing your job — just with realistic expectations for your energy and limits. Write it on a post-it (or some other small bit of paper to keep you ‘bare minimalistic’.)

If you’d like help putting these ideas into practice (with support and in community <3) my Live Well Teach Well coaching program is designed exactly for that. We take small, thoughtful steps toward sustainable teaching, together.

Where to Read More

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Categories: : teacher wellbeing, artofelt, language teacher, emotional regulation, emotional labor, teacher burnout, student success

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