Reducing Anxiety and Stress for Students
This disrupted 2020-2021 school year can induce a lot of anxiety for our students. Stress impairs all learning especially in regard to attention, behavior, concentration, and retention of ideas. Stress and trauma can come from all sorts of places: home, school, society…. Currently students and people are dealing with racial injustice, political injustice, system inequality, pandemic stress, economic stress… the list is becoming endless at this point in time.
While we can’t change the world overnight, there are some things that we can do to help make this time a little bit easier for our students. It is important to create a virtual or real classroom where students feel safe, have predictability, rituals, and routines, and that remains a place of consistency. Here are some specific suggestions:
Make Connections With Students:
Send individual emails
Make phone calls
Leave voice notes on classwork
Create routines
Hold office hours
Respond to Panic, Fear, Stress, and Anxiety
Validate student dissent, concerns, and feelings
Have a calming presence
Be honest
Reframe negative comments
Look for others that can help
Notify parents and caretakers of student stress
Give Students a Sense of Control
Remind students what they have control over
Helping others
Social and Emotional Learning
Teach media literacy
Focus on gratitude
Grounding and mindfulness
Limit exposure to news when it becomes too much to handle and process
Curriculum Considerations:
Be thoughtful about your lessons and words that you use
Promote fun and the joy in learning
Give choice in learning
Create routines that are consistent and predictable