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| Reflection | ||||||
| Personal comments on the learning experience: | ||||||
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One of the strong positive characteristics of this learning experience is that it supports the Language Arts curriculum. Students use information learned in a self-awareness activity as material for writing a poem.
There is a carryover to future units as students write more poems, and talk and write about stress in their reflections.
Listing personal support people seems to be especially helpful to the males in the class. Many males tend to report that when they have a problem they rely on "Just me", or maybe just their girlfriend. Through personal teacher comments and general classroom observations, I like to suggest that guys attempt to open up to more than one permanent person in their lives for support. The females tend to have a broad network of people they could call on. As students come to realize that there are agencies that they might go to for support, their community is increasingly perceived as safe and caring. I consider this learning experience a foundation for other health issues. The developmental assets targeted are actually listed on the reflection sheet.
Actually visiting or making a telephone call to a health agency and interviewing a resource requires that students step out of their comfort zone. Often, the resource person contacted doesn’t have time to talk and promise to call back later, frequently failing to do so. Discussion of the difficulty of being patient follows, comparing the student’s struggle to a person trying to get help for an authentic life problem.
Planning the stress clinic was a positive stress event. Multiple directions to groups working on very different simultaneous tasks were hectic. I found that the graphic organizers were a great help and revisions have improved the process.
The clinic was a culminating activity, a celebration of learning. The clinic was a public event that showed getting help in a very positive light.
Student quotes:
"There are many ways to react to and reduce stress without turning to alcohol and drugs for the solution." (Alishia)
"People can help you in stressful situations when you cannot help yourself, by going to support groups or community agencies or organizations." (Sarah)
"It’s important not to hold stress in, but instead find an activity that relaxes you or talk to someone about what is bothering you." (Curtis)
"Creating those top ten cool down ideas was a neat thing to do. It actually got you to think how you could become more in touch with yourself." (Kelly)
"Another idea that I never heard of before was community agencies. I knew they were there, but was not sure what they were there for." (Randy)
"Knowing about stress and having an ‘escape route’ for yourself to follow if you ever run into an emergency is a good idea." (Roy)
"People care about what happens to me, I know how to get help for myself and I am not the only person who has to deal with these problems." (Eric)
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