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who here has come home from school
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feeling exhausted and stressed
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anyone
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i know i have
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talks with teachers and friends made me
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think about it even more
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and it made me start to question that
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so
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when i found out we were making ted
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talks i thought it would be a great idea
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to provide solutions to this problem so
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my peers and i will have a less
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stressful school day
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so
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through research i found that other
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states and countries have different
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methods of supporting their students
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which i would like to try
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and here i am today to share them with
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you
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first i'd like to talk about improving
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stress management in middle schools in
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america
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according to the scholastic news article
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tame the stress monster
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77 of teens are super stressed
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it also says that the number one thing
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stressing teens out is school
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here are some side effects of being
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super stressed
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crying more often or being mad over
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nothing ditching old friends and family
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to hang out with new people
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and eating less
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being super stressed also leads to
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depression
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that upsets me because school's great
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and has lots of opportunities but i can
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see where this is coming from
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for me the top thing that stresses me
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out is homework
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sometimes i spend hours on homework and
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extracurricular activities and i won't
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be able to do anything for the rest of
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the night
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i get very grumpy and tired after
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which affects my peers and i don't want
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that
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there's more to life than academics we
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have family and friends to hang out with
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sports to pursue
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and new experiences to try
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if academics keep us from doing those
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things
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where would we be when school ends
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what we need is balance
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at the beginning of the year i had a
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hard time finding that balance
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as juggling around
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sports clubs extracurriculars
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and learning an instrument
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family and homework to top it off
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eventually certain clubs were done with
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but that's when the homework got rough
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like i said i spent a really long time
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working on homework pretty much until i
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went to sleep
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it took a toll on me
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i believe it caused me to be less
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productive
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and i haven't been able to do what i
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love which affects my mental health
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from a pbs article faced with outside
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stress these baltimore students learn
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how to take a deep breath
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baltimore students from paterson high
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in baltimore maryland
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did something to help their students
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stress levels because baltimore has high
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unemployment and violent crime rates
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almost twice the national average
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these things add significant stress in
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students so several public schools are
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helping to stop that by doing
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mindfulness programs
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the people who are in the mindfulness
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group in paterson high
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few love the group and feel more relaxed
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when they walk into the room where they
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practice practice mindfulness through
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yoga
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it is a place where students go when
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they're stressed and need a break
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a student in the mindfulness program
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said
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my day is so stressful
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as soon as i walk into the room i don't
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even need to do exercises there's just a
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big smile on my face because i'm here
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so an option could be that clinton
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middle school or other american schools
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can have a recess group involving
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mindfulness yoga
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or an after school group that would run
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every day because you never know when a
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stressful event would pop up
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i can definitely use some mindfulness
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yoga methods while doing homework or
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take a break and do a few stretches we
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learned in the club
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i assume it wouldn't be hard to do
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during wreck because really what the
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teachers need to do is just open up a
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room and supervise the children who want
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to do it
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and the children in the club can
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come up with their own strategies or
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look up videos on youtube
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next i believe american middle schools
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can foster more creativity in the
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classroom
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a british author sir ken robinson once
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said in his ted talk do schools
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co-creativity
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our education system is predicated on
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the idea of academic ability
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and the consequence is that many highly
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talented brilliant people
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think that they are not because the
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thing they were good at at school
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wasn't valued or was actually
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stigmatized
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based on the article creativity in
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schools what schools do or don't do from
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education weekly
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korea is an example of a country
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emphasizing creativity critical
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critical thinking and character building
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in their curricula
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since 2009 korea expects its schools to
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foster creativity is equal as part of a
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quality subject based learning
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but also devote 10 of overall school
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time to projects and other activities
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that foster creativity
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since we can't do something as big as
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korea we made an art wall in our school
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where students can display their artwork
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for their peers to see
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based on the monthly positivity trait
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for example this month's trait is humor
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i love art but sometimes i don't have a
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reason or the motivation to make it so i
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don't
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this would definitely get my creative
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juices flowing
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last i want to talk about the topic of
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sleep because i believe it also impacts
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how well students do in middle school
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jim davis from harvard stated
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if the goal of our educational system
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includes high functioning healthy
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students
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then educators have to prioritize
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something alongside academic mastery and
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social wellness
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we have to prioritize sleep
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well
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we obviously cannot have teachers pull
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out blankets and pillows and we fall
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asleep on rows of desks
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but the atlantic said in finland classes
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start every day between 8 and 9 a.m
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with a hot lunch served every day and
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minimal homework after school
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teachers typically give students a
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15-minute break for every 45 minutes of
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instruction
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research has shown that this keeps
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students fresh and more focused
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throughout the day
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however doing this would be hard to
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accomplish so a different option is that
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maybe at the end of the school day we
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can have a one to three minute stretch
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and talk
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doing doing this may take time out of
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students learning but we could always do
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the talk
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talking based on what the students just
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learned
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a couple other options i brainstormed
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were to allow students from
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to stand from sitting all day in front
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of a computer or in school
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during quarantine this would have been
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especially important because children
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are staring at their computers 28 to 42
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hours a week
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not including homework
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i was completely online for
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three-fourths of the year last year and
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i definitely got very antsy from sitting
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all day
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if we go back online and try one or more
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of these techniques
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i believe i'll be less antsy and i'll be
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able to focus more
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not to mention coven 19 has taught us so
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much and we cannot forget it
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it uprooted underlying problems in the
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school system such as students mental
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health
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and we cannot forget about it covet has
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been traumatic but the only way to
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improve is to look at the problem
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straight in the face and make time to
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fix it
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that being said there are some things we
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can do to help the stress levels in
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schools
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but in the meantime an article from
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science daily says
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research has shown that chewing gum
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can improve concentration and visual
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memory tasks
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so maybe our first step can be as simple
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as teachers letting us chew gum in class
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thank you for listening to my ted talk
