[LindaR]

With so much talk about teachers being stressed out from the NCLB requirements, I am curious as to how we are helping out students handle it as well. Many of my sixth graders have begun to feel the stress (we have District-required tests every three weeks, not to mention our regular classrrom tests/asssessments), and I want to help them through it as much as possible. We are also gearing up for our State tests in May!

Yesterday, one of my students asked me if I had ever heard of a stress ball. He said that he needed one, so I plan to look for some fun-looking ones this weekend. I think the kids would enjoy them....

...which brings me to the need for humor in the classroom. It's easy to "humor" sixth grades. They get it and like to add to their own brand of humor.

One time I had a student, D., whose mom had just dropped off goodies for our after-school homework club. I told D (in front of the class) that she had the coolest mom in the school, but told her to not tell S. because I told him that HE had the coolest mom. We all had a good laugh.

Although we are very serious in our learning, and I am considered a very firm teacher, I do hope that my kids will remember our times of laughter as being their "salvation" for those times of stress.

What do you do? I think we need to get a list going, so we have something to pull out of our bag of tricks at the right time!

LindaR

[Risa]

First of all, I teach my students about relaxing their tensed muscles. In order to insure that all muscles are relaxed, we tighten and then relax each group. They sit up at their tables, uncross their hands feet, put their hands on their laps or on the table/desk. We start from the feet (or toes), tightening up the muscles for a count of 5 (or 10) seconds and release. I think we go in the following order, but, of course, you can change it to focus on any muscle group: toes, feet, ankles, calves, thighs, buttocks, stomach, back, shoulders, arms, neck and the most fun, is scrunching our faces and then releasing. I've done this many times, personally, when I feel I can't relax or when I need to 'de-stress' from a full day at work.

Next, we practing deep breathing. I tell them that it's important to concentrate and breathe deeply so that their brains get the oxygen it needs. We go through several minutes of just relaxing with inhaling and exhaling slowly to insure deep breathing from the lungs. Usually I do this with my students after we've gone through the muscle relaxing routine.

I always tell them that the two tecniques suggested above can be used any time, at home or at school when they are feeling nervous, stressed, very sad or just plain 'out of sorts'.

(A cute side story happened when I got to work late due to a major traffic accident. I called in and had someone take my students in to the room. As soon as I got to work, I rushed to my classroom and just blurted out my apologies for being so late, explaining what had happened on the freeway. I was in such a 'tizzy' trying to explain, when all of a sudden, one of my students, very quietly, from the back of the room motioned to me to calm down and then slowly whispered a couple of times "Brrrreeeathe... Breeeeeathe" to remind me of what I had often told them! Sure enough, I just stopped and while the whole class watched, with some joining in, I did a couple of deep breathing 'cleansing breaths'... and felt MUCH better! Whew!)

Another thing I do is have my students create and use their own affirmations. I give them a strip of paper and have them to write a brief message as if they want to encourage a little brother, sister or cousin. (If they write to themselves, they don't seem to be as considerate, but if it's to someone else, the affirmations seem to be more sincere. Go figure! ) I tell them that when they start to feel tired or discouraged, they can read this little strip of paper, along with their breathing exercises, to get themselves re-focused on what they need to do.

The site below is what inspired some of these ideas. It looks like a site for high school or college, but I pulled out what was applicable to my fourth grade students.
http://wc.pima.edu/~carem/TESTTIPS.html

Another idea I found online
("I'm prepared, not scared")
http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com..._NJASK_bag.htm

[Risa]

I take my students on a 'guided visualization' where they first go through the breathing exercises to get into a calm mood. Then I ask them to close their eyes and continue being aware of their breathing. (I don't have a pre-made script since I change it as needed, but I guide them through with word similar to the following...)

"You and a couple of friends are at a movie theater. You are sitting, talking and waiting for the movie to start. Soon, the lights are dimmed and everyone is quietly looking at the movie screen.

"You notice that the opening scene is of a classroom. Children are walking in, talking calmly but eager for the day to start. It seems they are getting ready for a test. The teacher hands out the test booklets and reads the directions to the class as they follow along. The camera shows some of the students' faces. You see that they are confident and focused on what they need to do. As they begin the test, you notice they are going through some of the routines you've learned about good test taking skills.

"As you watch this movie you suddenly realize that this is your classroom. You see yourself among the students taking this test. You can see that you are calm and relaxed. You have a look in your eyes that says you are ready and prepared for this test.

"You are reading the directions carefully. On this reading test, you quickly skim the test questions first. You go back to the reading passage and begin to concentrate on what you read. You pause when you come to a word you don't know and then go back to re-read the sentence so that the context clues will help you. You go to the questions, and eliminate the more obvious wrong answers. Then you remember that you can go back and skim the passage to find support for the answer you've chosen. You confidently mark your answer choice and move on the the next question.

"You find yourself feeling proud that you are using good test taking skills in this movie, knowing you will do the same whenever you take a test in your real classroom. You continue watching this movie, noticing that all of the students are confident, focused and alert the entire time they need to complete this test. As the movie fades out and the lights in the movie theater become brighter, you actually do feel that same confidence and eagerness that you saw in this movie.

"Keep this good feeling in mind as you continue your breathing... inhale.... exhale.... inhale.... exhale.... and when you are ready... open your eyes."

(Hope this made sense!)
I googled the terms 'visualization test-anxiety' and found, among many others, this page that has a similar suggestion for college level "test-anxiety reduction"
http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/acapro/test_anxiety.shtml