Educator Resources

Anxiety is useful in certain situations, some of the time. But how can educators know when a student may be struggling with an anxiety disorder? In some cases, it may be obvious. For example, a young student who still cries and clings to their parent each morning at drop-off and is repeatedly tearful for the first hour of each day. Or a student who lost a loved one and now withdraws from others, has difficulty concentrating, is jumpy, and skips class. Or a student that spends 30+ minutes in the bathroom several times a day and has red, chapped, bleeding hands. These are more obvious examples of anxiety disorders in the classroom.

However, anxiety can be an invisible disorder, not always noted by the busy educator. For example, a student who is performing below their capacity, is late to school most days, and is reluctant to read out loud in class.

Or a child who is known as a “dream student”, but secretly spends 6+ hours daily doing homework to perfection, has trouble sleeping due to fear of failure, and refuses to engage in any non-educational activities for fear it will rob them of essential learning opportunities. These students also struggle with anxiety disorders.

Students spend between 25+ hours in school each week. As a teacher or administrative staff, you’re in a position to play an essential role in identifying and assisting students with unwanted anxiety.

The first step is to learn how anxiety disorders look for students within a classroom setting. Specialists have identified that when a child or teen experiences anxiety more often (most days/ for months at a time) and more intensely than their peers of the same age, it’s more likely that they have an anxiety disorder.

The frequent and intense symptoms that students with anxiety disorders encounter can create significant disruption in their lives, interrupting or even stopping a student from participating in various typical school-based experiences, such as:

• Attending classes and school on a daily basis
• Completing assignments
• Joining social, athletic or recreational clubs
• Learning
• Making friends
• Participating in class

If you believe a student is experiencing symptoms of anxiety that are excessive, intense, and disruptive, we advise that you begin by consulting with your school counselor or principal.

Once you have done this, you may consider scheduling a meeting with the student and/or their family to gather more information, and to provide resources such as the MindShift CBT app or My Anxiety Plan (MAP).

You can also use The CARD™ system (Comfort, Ask, Relax, Distract), a science-based, proven framework to help prepare your students for stressful events, like school-based vaccinations, presentations, and examinations. A free CARD™ Toolkit for Educators is available for download here.

Help students recognize anxiety in their lives with our ‘Caretoons‘ animated series, a fun and educational way to introduce mental health topics to your class. Using humour and heart, Drexal the alien and Chris Crust the time-travelling pizza slice give students a chance to learn about their mental health and know that it’s okay to feel anxious. These short, entertaining animations help students to learn coping techniques and realize that they can ask for help.