What are Emotions?

What are Emotions?

What are emotions and do they affect those we relate to in our daily lives. Webster’s Dictionary describes emotions as an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, or the like is experienced. One can easily see emotions are a strong surge of feelings. These feelings could be happy, sorrowful, joyful, and anxious. You know these feelings and have probably experienced them all from time to time. Different situations will affect our emotions and cause them to change, but can our emotions affect the people that surround us? Do people adjust their attitudes and emotions according to those they are around? In Alice Walker’s, “Am I Blue,” she is deeply affected by the horse and the different emotions it displays. Blue’s emotions affected the way she was feeling. If she felt that he was happy, then she too felt happy. In Walker’s essay, she speaks about Blue’s reaction to loosing his companion and how he grieved. Although he was in a beautiful place, with thousands of acres to run, he had no one to share this with; therefore he became devastated and sad. After reading this article, a pre-school/kindergarten teacher decided to see how her moods and emotions would affect her students. Would their actions and behavior depend solely on the emotions she was experiencing? After watching and observing them over a period of time and experiencing both good moods and bad moods, this is what she found.

Emotions or one’s emotional state definitely affects how we function and interact with others, especially children. When a teacher is in a good mood, he/ she will exercise more energy and will display more patience with his/her students. This will have a positive affect on the clas...

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...y will ask someone else. If the teacher continues to be in a state of emotional stress, his/ her students will begin to have fear. Also, they may not have the eagerness to learn; they won’t ask questions because they’re afraid to ask. Whether the teacher is in a good mood or a bad mood, their emotions will affect those they are teaching.

In conclusion, one can tell emotions affect everyone in both positive and negative ways. On order to be a good teacher, one must exude energy, patience, knowledge, and creativity at all times. Therefore, it is very important for a teacher to try to leave any negative emotions; he/she may be feeling at home. If a teacher displays negative emotions, it will not only affect his/her students, but it will also take away from one or all the qualities he/she should posses in order to be a good and affective teacher.