Tell me I didn't mess up...

[Newtothisnonsense]

Hi! I am new to teaching and suffer with anxiety. Today I got angry in class and slammed my hand on a student's desk, which made her jump - I did this because she was sitting back to front and wasn't paying attention. I am now paranoid I will get into deep, deep trouble for doing this. Please tell me I won't!!! I think I can see I won't, but this is the kind of thing that pushes my buttons really badly!

[TeacherBob]

Probably shouldn't have done it.

It happens.

Learn from it and move on :)

[Minispringroll]

Why would you get in trouble for that? You'd get in trouble if you had used your hand to slap her.

(I used to work with a DT teacher, who often slammed a large piece of wood on the table to get attention...)

I have done that with books before ...then took a deep breath and moved on.

[Newtothisnonsense]

spring I think I just worry that she'll complain and that they'll say I was intimidating her and being aggressive, because I made her jump and then said 'ssshhh'. I don't know why, but I've mostly managed to deal with these types of anxieties, except today. Today was shit.

[hollytom]

I don't think it's a problem try not to worry

[SaltyRock]

It's not great but I doubt you'd get in trouble, don't worry.

[Newtothisnonsense]

Thanks a lot everyone. I think the problem is that it's triggered my anxiety and pushed me into thinking a lot of very unhelpful things. Now just feeling shitty all around rather than about this in particular. Taking the evening off and trying to relax!

[Harvestmoonsobig]

In the unlikely event a request is made for clarification regarding your 'assertive'** gesture, you simply reinforce that the pupil was not giving the lesson it's due attention made clear from her reaction. Backbthis statement up with the reassurance that this is not your typical classroom practice.

Learn to bat it back. It can be 'guerilla war' sometimes. We're all finding it tough at the moment, pupils included.

As pp said, reflect and move on. Take care.

[Flisspaps]

If she'd been paying attention, you wouldn't have done it and she wouldn't have jumped.

You didn't cause her physical harm, are you getting appropriate support from work re your anxiety?

[Puffinity]

fliss (your username makes me haha) not sure about support. The school and all my colleagues are really friendly, but I guess I could do with a bit more reassurance that my experience is normal and I'm making the expected progress. I am the only person this new to teaching at the school so not many people I can have a moan to about shit behaviour. That then makes me feel like I should be on a par with my colleagues. None of this was helped by my uni supervisor telling to show my school supervisor there was no need to worry about me Not sure what that was all about but hey ho.