Slide outline for Lesson 3.8. Twelve slides. Slides 4 to 9 are one per tool, each with the steps as numbered pictures and the time; the timer runs on the slide. Sal picks the instrumental track for slide 7 (no lyrics). The tool names should match the health teacher's if health teaches the same ones.
Stress Management Toolkit
- Lesson 3.8: Self-Concept, Peers, and Stress
- Unit 3: Growing Up, Getting Along
- Do now: baseline. Rate your stress right now, 1 to 5. Write your first body signal from yesterday's map. This is your starting number for every test today
Teacher notes
Private. No debrief.
Which three work?
- Yesterday most of you said school and friends
- Today: six tools, tested on whatever number you just wrote, right here
- Rate each one. Honest numbers. "It did nothing" is a true answer
- By the end: your top three. Not the three that sound good. The three that worked
Teacher notes
Image: a small open toolbox drawn plainly, six tools inside.
The test rules
- Hear the steps. Try it for the timer. Rate after (1 to 5). One word on how it felt
- No talking during breathing and walking
- You may sit out any tool. Write "sat out" and one word why
- I am not grading whether the tool worked. I am grading whether you tested it
Teacher notes
Partners for tool 5 are the Lesson 3.6 skit teams. Confirm now.
Tool 1: Box breathing (lungs and a square)
- 1. In through the nose for 4
- 2. Hold for 4
- 3. Out through the mouth for 4
- 4. Hold for 4
- Four rounds. Gentle. 90 seconds
Teacher notes
Image: a square with the four sides labeled in, hold, out, hold, and a small arrow moving around it.
Say "gentle" before the first round; students hold too hard. Count the first round aloud, then let the square on the screen count.
Tool 2: Two-minute walk (footprints)
- The loop [Sal: the taped loop in the room, or the agreed hallway loop]
- No phone
- No talking
- Notice your feet. 2 minutes
Teacher notes
Image: a loop of footprints around a rectangle.
A student who cannot walk the loop does a seated stretch: shoulders up, hold, drop; repeat.
Tool 3: Brain dump (a pencil and a pile)
- Write everything in your head onto the scrap sheet
- No order. No sentences. A list, a scribble, whatever
- 2 minutes
- Then fold it. Keep it, or put it in the shred box. Nobody reads it
Teacher notes
Image: a sheet with a jumble of short words and arrows.
The list does not fix anything on it. Ask afterward why the number might still drop.
Tool 4: Music or movement break (a note)
- The track plays [Sal: your instrumental pick, about 90 seconds, no lyrics]
- Stand and stretch, move, or sit and listen
- 90 seconds
Teacher notes
Image: a music note and a figure stretching.
Headphones allowed for a student who has them and needs a different volume.
Tool 5: Talk to someone (two faces)
- Partners. One talks for 45 seconds about anything stressing them, or anything at all
- The other only listens. No advice. No "you should"
- Switch
- 2 minutes
Teacher notes
Image: two figures facing each other, one with a speech bubble, one with an ear drawn large.
Watch the room. A student who cannot stop crying or goes silent and stays there needs the who-to-ask list today, not the card. A student may talk in their first language with a partner who shares it.
Tool 6: Sleep and food basics (a bed and a plate)
- Not a live test
- Did I sleep in my window last night (Lesson 2.6)? Yes or no
- Did I eat something real today? Yes or no
- Rate how you think you would feel right now if both were yes
- 2 minutes
Teacher notes
The only tools you cannot use in the moment. They set the baseline every other tool starts from.
Compare and build the card
- The tool that dropped your number the most is your number one
- Rank your top three
- Toolkit card: three tools, the situation each fits, and one line: "If number one does not work, I will ___"
- Situations: before a test; after a fight; Sunday night; on the bus; when the chat is going; when I cannot sleep
- Cut the card off. Keep it. 8 minutes
Teacher notes
Whiteboard first: hold up the number of your best tool, 1 to 6. A spread is the right result.
Two more tools you already have
- The self-talk swap (Lesson 3.5)
- The sleep window (Lesson 2.6)
- Either can go on the card
- Hands if your number one surprised you
Teacher notes
Grade 8 stretch: one tool as a three-line card a younger student could follow, and one sentence on which tool works in a job (the crisis day in the Investor Challenge).
Exit line and tomorrow
- On the test sheet (turned in): 3 tools with after ratings; 2 you are keeping; 1 sentence on why number one is number one
- The card stays with you
- Tomorrow: your online life, then the Stress Plan, the check for this topic. Bring the card
Teacher notes
Keep the test sheets until the Stress Plan is scored so a lost card can be rebuilt.