Students with challenging behaviors are very deft at engaging teachers in power struggles as a way to either feel empowered, obtain attention, or escape an unpleasant task. The more frustrated that teachers permit themselves to get, the less capable they are of responding in a therapeutic, productive fashion to students' challenging behaviors. The purpose of this article is to describe a system, based on principles of rational-emotive therapy, to help teachers stay composed when dealing with disagreeable students. Emotionally controlled teachers have greater access to behaviors in their repertoire for responding effectively to students' challenging behaviors. (Contains 4 tables.)