Pressure-Free Classroom

Do you transfer the pressure you feel to perform onto your students? However subtle this transference is--or no matter how hard you try to hide it from your students--it can be detrimental to the atmosphere in your classroom and your students' learning. You have performance standards and expectations from your district and your school to meet. You must not pressure and motivate your students to learn so that they can pass a test and prove their worthiness to government bureaucrats. And you would do well not to succumb to such pressure. Forget about the standards and expectations! Teach what is required within the curriculum with joy and freedom. Allow your students to feel relaxed and not under the thumb of expectations. If you are a good teacher, then they will do just fine on standardized tests. Do you care about your students enough to welcome them to a pressure-free classroom each and every day?