Subject Area: HEALTH: Managing Your Stress Grade Level: High School Special Education Day 7 and 8 Overview

and Purpose: It is important that students are able to recognize what stress is and where it is found. It is even more important for them to know how to manage their stress. Teenagers endure a considerable amount of stress, whether it is; getting picked on, getting good grades, getting on a sports team or extracurricular activity or having chores at home. Knowing how to handle the stress when it comes is essential in ones life. State Standards: Demonstrate behaviors that foster healthy, active lifestyles for individuals and the benefit of society. Demonstrate leadership, integrity ethical behavior and social responsibility in all environments. Objectives: The students will be able to create a list of ways to manage their stress. Students will identify ways to control stress and reduce tension. Timeframe: 2 periods (120 minutes) Materials: Personal Inventory Worksheet Personal Survey Vocabulary Handout Pencil Paper Formative Assessment: Students will be completing a formative assessment, along with a summative assessment these class periods. The formative assessment will be the Think, Pair & Share and the summative assessment will be a skit that they and a partner will put on, at the end of the second class. When the students are acting out a situation, they will demonstrate their understanding of coping skills. Detailed Procedural Steps: 1. We will start class off by discussing the vocabulary words. After that, I will ask the class, by a show of hands, who thinks stress is always a negative thingCan some stressors be good stressors? If the students all think that stress is a negative thing, I will give them some examples of some happy things that may cause stress (graduating from high school, new baby in the family, starting your first job). 2. I will then ask the students to participate in a Think, Pair, and Share activity. The students will first create a list of things that make them upset or can cause stress. They

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will then compare their list with a partner, seeing if there are any duplicates, between their lists. Next they will compile a new list of both of their stressors and come up with ways to cope with or manage their stress. Some of the ways to manage their stress would be to go on a walk, write their feelings down, talk to someone about them, and take deep breaths. Once they have that done they will share them with the class. I will be writing them on the black board and tallying how many of the stressors are common through out the classroom. After our class discussion, I will bring the class back to me. At this time, I will explain that expressing your feelings to someone is one of the best ways to relieve stress. Acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable with confronting someone, but it is an effective way of handling stress. Express that this can be done in private or they can write their feelings down and give it to them. We will then complete a Personal Inventory worksheet on skills for managing stress. This worksheet will allow the kids to write down their reactions to situations. They will also be able to reflect on previous situations and the ways they have coped with the stress. After that, we will take the 4 or 5 most popular scenarios and act them out. The scenarios will probably vary from; my little sister is wearing my clothes without asking, having so much homework, parents want me to do so many chores. As we are wrapping up, if it is not previously said, I will ask my class if they think that working out or exercising would be a stress reliever. I will explain the importance of physical activities in their lives and how it affects stress.

Differentiation: Students that are not able to get up, and perform in front of the class, will meet one on one with me. Here they will verbally tell me ways of handling common stressors, focusing on ways to avoid the stress in the future.

Managing Your Stress (Vocabulary)

OptimismThe tendency to focus on the positive aspects of a situation. PessimismThe tendency to focus on the negative aspects of a situation. PerfectionistA person who accepts nothing less than excellence. ResilienceThe ability to bounce back or recover from an extreme or prolonged stress. Mental RehearsalPracticing an event without actually doing the event. BiofeedbackPeople learn to control one or more body functions by monitoring their bodys responses.