The SOLs and Finals had traditionally hindered the students’ ability to elatedly
countdown the days until the end of school, but the implementation of a stress less month
had greatly decreased the anxieties associated with the finals week.
Different from last year’s Stress Less Week, the school extended all the activities to
a month, dedicated to help students relax completely. “Last year, the students were so
stressed and by having the stress less activity on the last week before the tests did not give
them a chance to enjoy it very much.” said Ms. Parrott.
Not only has the duration of Stress Less activities was extended, many new activities
were added this year too. The administration surprised the students during lunch one day
by giving out popsicles. Then more surprises came along; there are three lucky students
chosen everyday who win free gift cards. There also was a pop corn cart set up during
lunch to distribute free popcorn to the students.
On Wednesday the 22nd, the school hired Mike the Magician to do magic tricks
during all lunches. “I am here to lighten the mood, make everyone happy, entertain them
and relieve the stress of the regular school day” said Mike the Magician, “People are liking it
and finding it a nice divergent from their regular routine; people are happy. They are doing
tricks with me, and they are enjoying it.” Students were awed by the amazing magic tricks
which allowed them to take their minds of the heavy load of school work.
The administration also kept some of the activities from last year. For example: pajama days, open gym, and yoga.
Most of the planning of the Stress Less month was done by Ms. Williams, Ms.
Barnsley, Ms. Parrott and the active mind club. Ms. Parrott was glad to see that more and
more students are getting involved in the planning, “Last year, since everybody was so
stressed, everybody is so busy; we had a little bit of difficulty getting the students to be
involved with active minds.”
The short relaxation of stress less month better prepared students for the upcoming
exams, and the most efficient way of studying is to balance the academic work with breaks
in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed and perform well on the tests.