Stressing Over Health: Student Comments

During this school year, I've written several blogs about our health project: Stressing Over 8th Grade Health. At this point, two groups have completed their stress imovies and have either written reflections (first group) or blogged about their imovies (second group). Currently, the third group is still working on their imovies, which have been delayed due to the cancellation of school because of the current political situation in Thailand. So based on the first two groups, here's what the students have to say about stress and how they deal with it.

What causes stress in ISB 8th graders : Overwhelmingly, students reported that their own stress is school related, mostly homework, projects and the pressure to earn good grades. After these items, body image and how they look was most often cited as a stressor.

"Homework and school are the major stressors in my life."

"Stress has always been my major weakness; I am constantly worrying about school, grades, friends, family problems, and my own personal concerns regarding my own self. I am a victim for stress so, therefore, my dealings with stress aren't very good... "

"The major stressers in my life are the future and body appearances. My parents always nag me about grades and I'm hard on myself on the way I look."

"The major stressors in my life are homework, and keeping my appearance looking good. I really care about my appearance and I stress alot over the fact that I am not as skinny as I would like to be. "

How they deal with stress : Overall, music, friends and physical activity are the ways ISB 8th graders deal with stress.

"I deal with my stress by playing basketball or hanging out with my friends."

"I get stressed out by lots of things such as homework till the end of grade test as well. I deal with the stress by listening to music, and chat with someone so that my stress can faint away. "

"I deal with my stress usually by running around the lake or just exercising in general. It helps when I listen to music, mostly calm soothing music which helps me to calm down as well. I also dance out all the stress I have or mixed up emotions inside me. "

"Usually I would ask my mom to help me with my stress or listen to music and take a break."

"To deal with this, I try to start my homework as soon as I get home so that it is finished before dinner. I also sometimes listen to music while I do homework and this relaxes me. "

"I like to talk to my friends on MSN and discuss the stress because they can make me laugh about it."

"I deal with stress by working out till I can't possibly move anymore. It soothes me. "

"To deal with my stress I like drawing (only sometimes) and when I don't have time to draw, I watch TV, go on the computer, listen to music, and eat as much as I can fit in my tummy."

"To deal with my stress I usually exercise to really loud heavy metal music and the music and the adrenaline rush gets all the anger and stress out of me. If I am REALLY stressed then I sometimes go up to my room and jump on my bed to loud music that I sing all the words to than I scream into a pillow. Getting active helps me deal with my stress. "


What helped them learn about stress : Most students either said that that working on their movie helped them learn the most about stress or watching all of the imovies helped them learn the most. Often students said that both of these activities combined helped them learn the most about stress. Furthermore, many cited the group work that went into making the movie as helpful to learning.

"What helped me learn this the most is creating the project and listening to other presentations."

"I learned most about stress when doing my video. My group taught me a lot and I won't forget what I learned for a long time. "

"I learned soooo much from this stress project because I had a great teacher and friends who can help me with it."

"We all had to work together and contribute ideas to the video; we all had to take part. What helped me learn about stress the most was actually making the movie. "

"Watching the videos helped me learn about stress the most because every video had a different problem and a different solution."

"Making the movie about stress made me really think about stress. To really grasp the project my group and I had to think about all the ways stress can come in our life. I'm glad I did this movie about stress, since I understand the topic a lot more now. "

"I think that the diversity of the ideas of the videos is what taught me the most. Also the ideas that my group came up also taught me the different ways stressed is caused and dealt with. "

Additionally, some students offered :

"While working on this project I learned that stress can be handled and solved in many different ways."

"The aspect of the project I found particularly interesting was that WE needed to think of the problems and the solutions by ourselves, because usually teachers give you everything already ready ..."

"This project has made me realize that I am fully capable of tackling stress with very simple strategies but very effective results; there are many people out there that I can talk to, and sports and friends are a very good way to keep my mind off of unpleasant things."

Photo from Flickr Littlesilver