Home > School Issues Channel > Fit To Be Taught Archive > Fit To Be Taught, Vol. 45

Acting Out Could Be Sign of Stress

Children who bully others or act out in class may be reacting to trauma rather than a lack of self-discipline, according to http://www.reachingdifficultkids.org" target="_blank"> Barbara E. Oehlberg, an Ohio-based education and child trauma consultant. Youngsters today are growing up with more stress and uncertainty than in the past, and if they have no other outlet for their anxiety, they tend to misbehave, according to Oehlberg. Not only that, but stress and anxiety can prevent these students from doing well in school.

Oehlberg discusses some approaches teachers can use to help students release stress in her book Reaching and Teaching Stressed and Anxious Learners in Grades 4-8: Strategies for Relieving Stress and Trauma in Schools and Classrooms. Too often the root causes of a child’s anxiety is not addressed, so both behavior and learning suffer, she maintains.

Oehlberg talked with Education World about ways teachers can help stressed children, not by trying to be therapists, but by incorporating activities into their lessons that allow for self-expression.

Read the full article on Education World

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New P.E. Stresses Fitness for Life

In the last four years, significant progress has been made by the Spokane (Washington) School District in restructuring the fitness and health curriculum. Following an initial program review, an overarching goal was developed: to provide a developmentally appropriate, integrated fitness and health program implemented equally for all students to help them to move toward a self-directed wellness lifestyle. Instead of the old P.E., the program is now based on teaching students how to make healthful choices in nutrition, exercise, and life. The program serves about 30,000 students.

By employing heart rate monitors, fitness centers, and meaningful curriculum, this program has changed the culture of physical education classes in Spokane schools. Fitness for the individual, not skills’ development, is now the goal for these classes. All students can now enjoy the chance to address their own fitness needs at the rate and the level that best suits them. Students no longer are intimidated by learning skills that only the top athletes could master. Students are now taught why they need to be fit, are allowed to do appropriate fitness activities, and are given immediate and long-range feedback regarding their own fitness progress.

School staff members do yearly fitness tests with all students that are enrolled in fitness and health classes. Individual fitness reports that include the students’ own goals are sent home every year. These reports show students’ individual progress as well as the average fitness levels for other students of the same age in the district and in the nation.

Read more about this program at: Spokane Fitness and Health .

Click to learn more about Action for Healthy Kids.

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