Although our school is in a rural community, we have a diverse population of students. Many of our students are fairly new to our country and are just learning to speak English. Some of our students live in poverty while others come from wealthier homes.
My classroom is a place where kids can come together to learn and have fun regardless of their differences.
We work with the motto, "We can do hard things!" During the course of our one short school year together, we learn a lot and become family!
My Project
I'm requesting a Spire Stone: Stress Management and Activity Tracker. The Spire is a new activity tracker that uses the way we breathe to monitor our emotions and stress levels. Breathing is the only autonomic function that we have control over so it can give us data about our stress and we can also use it to help control these emotions. The Spire has been created with extensive research and algorithms based on clinical interventions that are proven to alleviate anxiety, reduce blood pressure, and help heart rate.
Many kids have not yet developed productive ways of controlling their own emotions or monitoring their stress levels.
The Born This Way Foundation lists ten ways to help manage stress and the number one idea on the list is to recognize the stress. Some of us are able to recognize the things that are causing us stress but sometimes we need help.
The new Spire can help make my students more aware of the stress they feel throughout the day as well as the quality of sleep they're getting each night. This could be revolutionary in helping middle school kids develop the skills they need to appropriately handle the stress they face on a daily basis!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Bell and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.