Stress reduction in the adult basic education classroom

Throughout the Managing Stress to Improve Learning project, we experimented with a variety of strategies for stress reduction and for the promotion of mental health in the classroom. In this section, you can read more about what teachers did to create safe, stable classrooms and to introduce content and strategies relating to managing stress. We hope the lesson plans, descriptions of activities, and articles will give you ideas for trying some things out in your own classrooms. In addition, we have included excerpts from teachers' monthly reflection logs. These forthright and explorative musings will give you some of the back-story for how the lessons emerged.

For a downloadable pdf document providing a summary and overview of this section, please see the document Reducing Stress and Promoting Mental Health in the ABE and ESOL Classroom by Project Director Lenore Balliro.

• Introducing the Concept of Stress
• Routines and Rituals
• The Mind and the Body
• Setting Up the Classroom for Safety, Stability, and Well-Being
• Math Anxiety
• Nature
• Laughter