Kategoria: Stay Calm

Virtual mobility

Because of an epidemic situation in Europe none of the countries is willing to take a risk and organize a mobility. That’s why we decided to set up virtual mobilities. All the details were agreed on during a virtual meeting of all the school coordinators and the Italian team offered to organize the first one. Since it was supposed to concern relationship, emotions and their positive influence on our mental health, we decided to organize it in Christmas spirit just before the Christmas holiday. Before the meeting students uploaded some short information about themselves on the common padlet and they made collages presenting things which make them happy. 

During the meeting we took part in the following activities organized by the Italian team:

  • quizzes about relationships, naming the stages of relationships
  • discussing reasons for our feeling emotional
  • making ’emotional alphabets’
  • brainstorming for qualities which are crucial for being a loyal friend
  • shortlisting the essential traits of a good friend
  • considering possible causes of anger issues 
  • checking how well we know our Christmas customs by playing a Kahoot quiz on which we all collaborated

Both the teachers and students were happy to see their friends and listen to them. Technology this time was almost on our side so we were able to participate fully in the planned activities. We finished the two-hour long meeting wishing each other Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  

World Mental Health Day

We celebrate the World Mental Health Day by organizing lectures for children. All the lectures, delivered by school psychologists, concern the typical problems adolescents deal with, such as managing emotions, prioritizing, rejection, peer pressure. All of them can result in serious mental problems, so school time is a proper time to develop social and emotional strategies which would help them to cope with these problems. These include: adopting a regular schedule of activities, ability to tackle problems and developing interpersonal skills. We also created a padlet with a collection of video clips, articles, lesson plans and other supplementary teaching materials as a resource for class tutors to use during the form time.

The lectures and the resources engaged students in discussing the following topics: 

  • dealing with peer pressure and bullying
  • exploring one’s own identity   
  • resilience to stressful home and school life, 
  • disparity between a teenager’s lived reality and the pressure to be perfect in social media 
  • symptoms of depression, dealing with psychic inertia
  • an impact of regular physical activities on the quality of life
  • other risks to mental health

You were born to be a player

A Frog’s guide to mindfulness

For people who practice sport on a daily basis, as they do in our school, motivation is the vital element which pushes them forward. It is a key factor which helps them to fulfill their potential. This time we invited a psychologist from Gdansk Universityof Physical Education and Sport, Dominika Wilczyńska, who conducted a lecture for parents of young sportsmen to help them understand the complexity of motivational techniques.

Parents were told how to help their children:

  • Practice mindfulness 
  • Manage psychological pressure
  • Set achievable long-term goals 
  • Find a sense in repeating mundane drills
  • Overcome feelings of incompetence 
  • Come to terms with the failure 
  • Find and establish relation between their behavior and expected outcome 
  • Define challenges which will stretch them a little bit further than they have been stretched previously. 

All the parents taking part in the workshops found the tips useful and convenient. They asked many practical questions about positive self-talk, the role of extrinsic prize in a process of shaping motivation and specific problems such asinjury, non-selection or amotivation. 

World Mental Health Day

Mental Health Day, celebrated worldwide on 10th of October is an opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues and advocate against social stigma. During various classes, such as biology, physical education, citizenship and form time students were encouraged to talk about mental health. All the lesson plans and materials for speaking activities were shared on one common padlet. https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/v4hdqb44r5ex0hvd

The objectives of the classes were:

  • making students understand and empathise with anyone burdened with mental health issues
  • realizing the lengths of effects it can have on the people around them
  • portraying various disorders and their symptoms
  • encouraging students to looking for professional help in case of noticing any symptoms of mental disorders
  • promoting activities they are engaging in to keep up good mental health and well-being
  • helping children distinguish between mental health myths and reality

Students were involved in discussions, watching films, lectures with the school psychologist and psychotherapist, they took part in role playing and they learnt some simple mindfulness techniques.

World Health Days

This year for the fifth time our school has celebrated the World Health Day. This spring, because of the lockdown, we had to organize it online. The team of teachers in charge of arranging the event were collecting the resources which afterwards were uploaded on the paddlet and students ask well as their tutors and parents were continuously encouraged to make themselves familiar with the resources. All the materials were classified into:

  • recipes for healthy food, which included video clips presenting healthy snacks made by the teachers
  • video clips about motivation and controlling emotions
  • presentations about the effects which smoking has got on the human body
  • tips on the healthy diet
  • pieces of advice on being fit and boosting stamina
  • some information about preservatives and coloring food

https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/nca6z5evyuuhzbd9

Italian students developed presentations about the new rules which they are obliged to follow according to the Covid -19 regulations. All the works were collected in one publication. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFKzv4S_Ak/WnO0pXT3iFfrKHCKIOcidA/view?utm_content=DAFKzv4S_Ak&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=homepage_design_menu

Finally, students took part in the virtual breakout game, during which they could check how much they had learned during the classes and from the resources collected. They did like the game and managed to break out from the surgery.

Stand up for your rights!

Disrespect and feeling unsafe — are one of the crucial factors for school and home stress. Self-esteem ranks really high as people, regardless of their age, gender and race value dignity and respect most. School – related stress trigerred by lack of respect and security may have an extremely destroying effect and it is said to have increased in the past few decades. Thus, students participating in this performance tried to defeat criminal acting and sustain the process of responsible civic behaviour.

    Negative effects of stress

    In order to find more about the negative consequences of long-term stress we invited Łukasz Warchoł, a psychologist and a psychoterapist, who delivered us the lecture about:

    • the most common causes of stress, which include overworking, low self-esteem, too high expectations, too much responsibility, feeling insecure, lack of support from family and friends and fear and uncertainty
    • the symptoms of stress, such as chronic headaches, losing or putting on weight, low energy, insomnia, aches, pains, and tense muscles
    • the long lasting effects of stress, that is mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, obesity and other eating disorders
    • preventing stress-related health problems, thinking positively, relieving stress, finding one’s own personal ways for managing stress which is everywhere and, to the point, may be motivating and pushing us forward.

    Students enjoyed the lecture and eagerly took part in it, answering the questions and asking them themselves. After the lecture they made sketchnotes about teenage stress and recorded the podcast presenting all the information they learned and found.

    ASAPodcast Negative Effects of Stress

    Stress relievers

    Since sport and creating artwork are considered to be one of the most effective stress relievers all the exchange students took part in craft and phisical activities. They started from brainstorming for the words and phrases related to calmness, peacefulness and quietness in their own languages. Then, they made Christmas decoration boards with the words and Christmas symbols. Creating art takes our mind off the most stressing things we have to tackle on the daily basis and it lets the steam off. Others relieved their emotional pressure in zumba dance. It is a form of cardiovascular exercise involving various active movements that help in improving mood and the energy level of a dancer through the secretion of hormones that induce stress relief. As the effects of zumba on supressing the stress causing hormones are commonly known, the zumba practice is held regularly during breaks in our school.

    Ice breaking activities

    We started our first meeting from ice breaking activities which involved checking how well students know the human body, its systems, nutrients, and vitamins it is made of. Escape room games do never bore people — puzzle ideas have no limitations in terms of creativity and entertainment. Not only did they break the first language barriers between them, but also were able to develop cooperation and creativity skills as the objects and clues were hidden and discovering them demanded some team work. Some Christmas decorations were also used as hints to feel the atmosphere of the holidays appraoching.

    The Human Body Race instructions: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xtQhPxZ6tDaDnFHJvVMKi03Ddhjh3OUY?usp=sharing