Managing my feelings: Emotional regulation in the classroom – Elna Coetzer

Elna Kurtzer’s session, “Manage My Feelings: Emotional Regulation in the Classroom,” defines emotional regulation as understanding, processing, and expressing feelings. She stresses its importance for personal, professional, and student well-being. Regulation develops through modeling, observation, experience, and direct learning. Key strategies include naming emotions, identifying their physical location, and a “think-feel-act” process. Practical classroom applications involve creating calm spaces and teachers modeling these behaviors. Elna concludes that emotional regulation is fundamental, linked to the brain, and develops over time, rather than being a fixed trait.