"Big Emotions" Mine and Students

This has been a bit of a rough week at times at the school and with several of my personal students. On Monday the teacher I accompany for had to leave before classes started due to his daughter's illness and we decided to move forward with me leading the classes with help from a Sub. We'll honestly the school didn't have enough staff, so 2 out of 6 classes I was the only adult in the choir room. 5/6 of the classes did very well, yet a 6th Grade Class became so disrespectful that I "lost it". Believe me I'm ashamed of my behavior, still carrying the burden. My concern is that I lost respect of the kids, no matter what other educators and administration stated. I was constantly told to not own their behaviors, just mine.

Also several of my Elementary Piano Students have been "yelling" or crying during the lessons this and last week. That doesn't always help me. In fact I told a student to not yell at me this morning, while he stated, "I don't like this piano solo". I just reminded the child to not yell at me. I didn't lose it, just stayed as calm as possible. The kids who struggled this and last week have been taking lessons from me for several years and thankfully the parents are helpful when the kids start having "Big Emotions". That's a plus, as they know their children very well. In fact, after the lessons, the parents and I have a quick conference about the situation and identify options to help their child be successful next time.

Depending on the child I will find a game or activity for us to do or talk about the situation and figure out how to handle it better next time. That includes if I lose it and I apologize for anything that I've done wrong. Yet most of the time we don't know what the child is dealing with prior to the lesson. Context clues can be observed, yet we may not see what's occurring all the time.

The only thing I can say is be calm and do better than I do at times. Mostly I'm patient, yet I have my moments I'm not proud of. Believe me I obsess about the situations over and over, trying to see what I could have done better. Yet in the moments of patience, I just let the kids have their "Big Emotions" and hopefully we can move on to other music and activities that will help them be successful.

We all struggle with emotions, yet if we can find appropriate ways to deal with it: tell those you trust, pray, seek guidance, take a long walk, play an instrument/sing/dance, do something else to get back to yourself.

What are you learning about "Big Emotions" and how do you handle it? Would like to know. Thanks for your support. Blessings.