Teaching Emotional Regulation in the Classroom

Access Editable Essential Skills Slideshows HereAmanda continues her Empower Students Now series with short classroom slideshow lessons available via email sign-up here by focusing on emotional regulation. She defines it as noticing emotions and body sensations, understanding triggers, using strategies to reduce intensity, and choosing responses rather than reacting—emphasizing it is not suppressing feelings or forced positivity. She explains why it matters for today’s overwhelmed students and developing brains, notes alexithymia (difficulty identifying emotions) and how ADHD/autism can make regulation harder, and urges teachers to view meltdowns as nervous-system overwhelm, not tantrums or kids choosing to be difficult. She shares practical tools (STOP, feeling wheel, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, energy check-ins, thought records) and guidance for teaching proactively through emotionally safe classrooms, modeling, individualized supports, and de-escalation. She also covers co-regulation, introduces emotional labor, and cautions that “regulation” shouldn’t mean students—especially girls and students of color—must stay pleasant or manage others’ comfort.00:00 Welcome + Grab the Free Classroom Slides for This Skills Series02:28 What Emotional Regulation Really Means (and What It’s Not)07:21 Why Kids Struggle: Overwhelm, Brain Development, and Today’s World08:49 Step 1–4: Awareness, Triggers, Coping Strategies, and Self-Compassion14:50 Neurodivergent Learners: ADHD/Autism, Meltdowns, and Misread Behavior19:34 Practical Tools to Teach: STOP, Feeling Wheel, Grounding, Thought Records22:46 Make It Work in Class: Emotion-Safe Culture, Modeling, and De-escalation28:33 Co-Regulation: How Calm Adults Help Dysregulated Students31:31 Emotional Labor: The Hidden Cost of “Always Being Pleasant”34:38 Reflection Questions + Final Takeaways and How to Support the Show