A few thoughts

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Archive : 2007 : February : 18

A few thoughts
By 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! :cool:) 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/ideas/050316_Im_prepared_not_scared_NJASK_bag.htm