Stress

You and your students will go through the ups and downs of many different life experiences during each school year. Navigating these ever-changing challenges can be difficult. If you can deal with new experiences in your classroom in a positive way by using them as teachable moments for your entire class, you will help your students develop empathy towards others. As a member of a military family and a teacher, I have experienced the effects of military deployment both personally and in the classroom.

Stress management is an important lifelong skill we need to encourage and develop in our students. Teenagers and “tweens” face all kinds of different stressors in their lives. Between raging hormones, pressure to fit in with peers, and over scheduling, students need to learn how to relax! Joann mentioned 3 of the activities catalogued on The Gateway that help teach students how to deal with stress and anxiety. These types of activities help students deal with the stress in their lives by teaching them ways to manage and deal with stress.

Although it’s now summer, I know that many teachers are already planning for the coming school year, and thinking about ways to improve their classes. At an end of the year event last month, I overheard an elementary school teacher talking about how students in her class handled stress, and how over the summer she planned to do some research on students and stress management. That got me thinking.