Stress Awareness Month: Nine Ways to Combat Stress

April is Stress Awareness Month, and Education World has you covered when it comes to finding the right information, tips, and advice teachers, administrators, and students can use to combat stress in and out of the classroom. 

Here are eight resources and articles educators can read to share with their students or use on their own time:

1. How Do You Spell "Stress Relief"?: In this article, several stress reduction experts share what practices they take to relieve their stress in the classroom. 
2. Principals Offer 30 Ways to Fight Stress: Administrators can grab any, or all, of these 30 tips to help them reduce their stress at their schools. 
3. Learning to Tap Away Stress, Anger: In this article, teachers can learn about the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and how to use it in the classroom with their students. In the article, psychologist Dr. Lynne Namka offers tips on how educators can use EFT to help children release unhappy feelings. 
4. A Laugh and a Half: Students Make Funny-Poem Mobiles: With this lesson plan, students can:

• read a variety of funny poems
• share those poems within their groups
• choose their favorite poems
• use those poems as inspiration as they write funny poems of their own
• create smile-mobiles on which they display their favorite funny poems
• present their funny poems to their classmates

5. Striking Out Stress: A 'Gallery Walk' Activity: With this lesson plans, students can:

• identify situations that cause feelings of stress
• determine and discuss positive/healthy ways to cope with stressful situations

6. 20 Teacher-Tested Tips for a Stress-Free Year: This article offers stressed out teachers 20  comical tips they can use when dealing with stressful situations in and out of the classroom. Here are a few:

• Inform students that extra credit will be given for silence during class discussions
• Keep your desk drawer well-stocked with chocolate and Tums
• Encourage parents to visit your classroom often. Casually mention the piles of papers that need correction-- and your hope that they will also be willing to help out with cafeteria and recess duty. 

7. Prevent Stress in the Classroom: 5 Tips: This article grabs five tips from HeartMath, which is known for its science-based stressed solutions. Educators can take a self-stress assessment and learn how they can combat their stress. Some of the tips include spending time with nature, and taking time to do the things you enjoy doing. 
8. Saving Kids from Stress: This article looks at efforts schools and universities across the country have done in order to help reduce stress among students. 
9. Top Tips for Stress Management and Self-Care: In this article, EducationWorld looks at a variety of book excerpts from Stenhouse Publishers. These books look at ways teachers can reduce stress, and the article is filled with tips and advice found in the book. Here's some:

• Learn to recognize the things, people, and situations that cause you stress, as well as your personal signals of stress, such as a headache or quickness of breath.
• List the moments of happiness, peace, and joy you have had in the past week. If these are few, you may have reached your stress quota. Insist on taking a time-out; one of the best ways to do this is to go for a long walk. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor