Communicating anxiety in interaction with children Children describe over anxious teachers as being jumpy.

Their tension promts them to jump quickly on behaviour which they perceive as being likely to interfere with their lesson, whether theis behaviour is likely to or not. They do not intervene in the effective ways that robertson (1981) has described, wich show the children that the teacher is in command. Their interventions , accompanied by criticism or exhortations in impatient tones, give the impression that they are nearing the end of their resources and not at the beginnig of them. They do not have the convidence to recognise wich bahaviour they might ignore , which would not continue anyway,and which calls for immediate intervention.it is often their reaction to the behaviour that prevents its disappearance and their eclamations that magnify some minor incident to aq major one.as rutter and his co_authorhave pointed out, successful learning and acceptable behaviour is more probable in classrooms where theachers make as few disclipnary interventions as possible (rutter et akl.,1979) As anxiety is circular in its effets, by behaving as they do, very anxious teachers affect childrens behaviour negatively. If they are noisy, the children tend to be noisy. If they are retless and over active, the children are likely to be retless , and retless and noisy children are not far from being disruptive. But the effects of treachers anxiety go further than this. They make children uneasy , because they sense their tension. The children who are most likely to be disruptive have quite probably a good deal vof anxiety of their own. We know that many children with problems of adjustment are more anxious than children who do not have trhese problems. Children who have dificulties in ciping with their own anxiety, without giving way to unacceptable behaviour , find it particulary difficult to cope with the anxietyof others. What they need is the reassuring presence of a teacher who shows that he cancontrol them. What they perceive in the teacher who is noisy , jumpy , rewtless and disorganised is someone who cannot contol himself and who is trherefore not very likely to be able to control them. As their anxiety rises, and the negative circle is complete. Over anxious teacher bring on just the bahaviour that they do not want and are least able to manage. They present the children with poor models of bahaviour. Thus whateversteps teachers can take to reduce their levels of anxiety benefit them noy only by increasing their own comfort, but also by increasing their effetiveness.