Procedure
	The actions of students and teachers and the interactions among and between students and teachers:

In this Learning Experience students learn about preventing and relieving stress. They conduct self-assessments, plan a stress clinic, research community resources, and write a reflective essay.

1. A most important detail of this unit is to allow student input into the dates of class time that will be used to plan a culminating event, a stress clinic for students and staff. Attendance is part of the grade.

• Distribute a Blank Calendar, explaining that good stress managers plan ahead.
• Review the long-term plans with the students and have them circle the crucial days that they need to be in class for. See the Unit Plan.

2. Activities that introduce the topic and provide a foundation:

• Use Type B Personality/Type A Personality and Stress Self-Inventory.
• Ask students to respond to a sign, "Young people don’t know what stress is!" Discussion that includes a definition of stress follows.
• Complete sheet What is Stress? graphic organizer. Your textbook will include a list of psychological stressors that students can use to rate themselves.
• Use Stressed Out? graphic organizer.
• Make signs and hang around the room: #1, #2, #3, #4, and Panic Button. Students can silently get up and stand near the sign that indicates the degree of stressfulness of each stressor you read from a list of assorted stressors, such as homework, upcoming dance, important athletic event, playing music, end of school day, etc.

3. Volunteer students can wear electronic heart rate monitors to demonstrate stress levels in a more concrete way. The number of heartbeats per minute is indicated on the watch face. The teacher tells them what the current pulse number is and the resting heart rate in the morning before the stress began. The pulse is a physical stress level clue.

• The teacher can lead a Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise and follow-up with checking heart rates of relaxed volunteers.
• Debriefing: include discussion of relaxation as a healthy habit; alcohol and drug abusers are often seeking an escape from emotional pain and move away from the natural ability to enjoy the simple pleasure of relaxation.
• A crossword puzzle Healthy Ways to Deal with Stress can also be used and follow-up with checking heart rates of relaxed volunteers.

4. In a single class session small groups:

• Cut out and sort into categories, an assorted collection of Responses to Stress using the graphic organizer Physical, Emotional and Behavioral Signs & Symptoms of Stress.
• Groups will discuss and compare viewpoints

5. Individually complete the Physical, Emotional and Behavioral Signs & Symptoms of Stress and complete the graphic organizer.

6. Create a personal poem, a Stress BIOPOEM using a structured form as a guide. The poem form requires students to write about their stressors and their reactions to stress. Students are encouraged to word process the final copy using a computer outside of class. When the poem is introduced, model BIOPOEMS are read to give them examples of a quality product. (See samples of Student Work in this website.)

7. Individually, complete exercises:

• Given twelve stressful problems, students are asked to predict who/where they would go for support for each problem. Afterwards, students look for a pattern in their responses.  People I Can Count On
• Community Agencies That Can Help is an activity where students are purposely put in somewhat of a stressful situation, struggling alone using a telephone book to get help, within a time limit (with a clicking timer and a crying baby), locating numbers for community organizations or agencies. Problems to find multiple alternatives for are:

• a friend who may have a sexually transmitted disease
• is drinking regularly
• is thinking about suicide
• may be pregnant
• is being sexually abused

• If time is short, allow students to work as a team. A blank business card is a great place to record important emergency numbers for the wallet.

8. Using Community Resources is a follow-up homework assignment that requires students to actually visit or conduct a telephone interview to gather information about a community resource/agency.

9. Plan authentic stress clinic:

It is very important to have the dates for clinic planning decided and have students construct a calendar of the lessons at least a week ahead to give students an opportunity to reschedule music lessons, dental visits, etc. because the group advocacy experience is very difficult to make up if missed.

10. As a class:

• Introductory activity:  Keeping Cool: Positive Ways to Calm Down When You’re Upset graphic organizer is a list that students must individually complete with positive ways to reduce stress. In a whole group, students help each other add to their list until the sheet is full. Individually, star their Top Ten and later prioritize their Top Ten using the same graphic organizer.
• Review the expectations
• Review the Planning the Stress Clinic Scoring Rubric
• The Organizational Chart, and Resume and Job Application for stress clinic volunteers are available in student packets. Date, location and method of stress clinic registration is needed for group work.

11. Small groups:

• Each small group will be given a specific graphic organizer that provides a job description and a place to record progress of work done on one of the following tasks:
• Accountants (Top Ten Number Crunchers)
• Public Relations Staff (name the clinic, PA announcements, advertisement)
• Interior Designers (Rx for Coping, other ideas)
• Research and Development (planning a relaxation activity)
• Office Administrators (prepare organization position name/computer)

12. Stress clinic volunteers meet after school within the next few days to discuss the progress in the planning of the stress clinic event to occur in about a week.
13. Hold actual stress clinic (Date was previously determined by the class.)
14. Write a reflective essay about the My Response to Stress Learning Experience.

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