New ways for teachers to think about inner‐speech or self‐talk have the potential to impact either positively or negatively their feelings, self‐esteem, health, and behaviour. I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. — Hiam Ginott (1972)