Healthy Schools Network Story Template
Date: June 19, 2015
School Name: Spectrum Community School
School District: Greater Victoria
Contact Name: Vicki Hasler
Contact Email/Phone Number: vahasler@sd61.bc.ca/250-479-8271
Did you receive an Activity Grant or an Inquiry Grant?
Inquiry Grant
PART 1: Tell us about the learners at your school. (Gathering Evidence/Scanning)
(E.g. what did you notice about the experience of your learners that was most important to your
work? Are you a rural, urban or new school?)
We are an urban school.
We noticed an increasing number of students were experiencing anxiety. Our
counseling department wasn’t able to keep up with the needs of all the students in
one-to-one sessions. The anxiety was causing real distress for students and may have
contributed to absenteeism and avoidance of work as well as lower grades on tests
and assignments.
PART 2: What did you do? (Focus and Plan, New Learning)
(What keys areas of health and learning did you focus on? What were your driving questions?
What contributed to the need to address health and learning at your school? What did you do
to make things better? What tools/resources did you use?)
We focused on mental health, specifically, anxiety management. We looked for
evidence-based research that described the best way to teach larger groups to
1
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
manage anxiety. We hoped this could be a classroom practice that would prevent
many students from developing the kind of anxiety they needed to see a counselor for.
This would leave counselors free to help students who still struggled. Our driving question
was: ”What does current research indicate are the best practices for classroom/group
based mindfulness/anxiety management activities?”
PART 3: How did it go? (Taking Action)
(E.g. What actions or strategies did you decide on? Who was involved? What type of support
did you gather? How were students involved? What new areas of professional learning did you
explore? What difference did this make for students and the school community? How did this
impact students’ learning?)
What actions or strategies did you decide on?
We decided to base our experiment on the PH.D. thesis of Robin K. Buchler, 2013,
Western Michigan University. Mr. Buchler used The Relaxation and Stress Reduction
Workbook by Davis, Eshelman and McKay (2008), and Progressive Relaxation and
Breathing Audio CD (1986). Over ten sessions, students from 3 Learning Strategies
classes (N=36) learned a number of calming and energizing breathing techniques,
progressive muscle relaxation, and positive self-talk. Before and after each session,
students responded to prompts in writing and pictures. Educational Assistants in the
classes also participated in the activities.
2
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
Who was involved? How were the students involved?
Students participated in breathing techniques:
Students participated in progressive muscle relaxation:
3
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
Students participated in positive self-talk:
4
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
Students wrote or drew their responses before and/or after the sessions:
5
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
Not everyone enjoyed the activities (or having their picture taken):
What type of support did you gather? What new areas of professional learning did you
explore?
We had support from students and staff at the school. Some staff broke off into a
smaller group and met a number of times throughout the year to look at various areas
of concern/interest around anxiety in our school. We presented this information at a
Pro-D day to the rest of the staff.
6
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
In addition, our school based team participated in a Mental Health fair for our three
local school districts, community partners, and MCFD staff and were able to explore
and discuss programs in different schools, school districts and the communities in our
area.
What difference did this make for students and the school community?
The breathing techniques, progressive muscle relaxation, and positive self-talk helped
reduce anxiety in the students. In addition, students were more willing to discuss their
anxiety about things (in and outside school) and the strategies gave us a common
language where we could encourage each other to breathe, or say positive things to
ourselves or each other, or check in with how tense our muscles were. Students were
more aware of signs of anxiety, felt them earlier and knew they could do something to
help manage the feelings.
Teachers were more aware of student anxiety and what causes it. Presenting
information at the Pro-D day opened dialogue about student anxiety. I will follow up
with the results of these experimental sessions at a future Pro-D day.
How did this impact student’s learning?
Students were able to focus more on their work and during tests because they could
stay calm. Even if they still experienced anxiety, they identified it earlier and had several
techniques they could use to reduce it.
7
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
PART 4: What are your reflections and how can you build on your efforts? (Reflect &
Evaluate)
(E.g. what change was evident? What did you use as a baseline for evidence of change? What
did you learn from the inquiry? What is most important for you to learn to build on your efforts to
sustain changes for your students and in your school? What advice do you have for others?)
We used a pre and post-questionnaire to measure the results of our anxiety
management sessions.
The questionnaire revealed that students learned, used and understood all three of the
anxiety management Techniques (Progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises,
and positive self-talk).
Even students who didn’t like the techniques admitted they were effective in reducing
their anxiety and said they could see the value in them.
Most students liked the breathing techniques the best and indicated they used them on
their own/ outside the classroom to reduce anxiety.
The sessions provided us with a common language and open dialogue about anxiety
and the things that made us anxious and how we managed the feelings.
The students caught onto the techniques fairly quickly and some were bored by the
seventh session or so. In the future, I would reduce the number of sessions from 10 to 7.
By the seventh session, many students had mastered the techniques and were
becoming tired during the sessions (perhaps because their anxiety was already lowered
by this point?).
The advice I would give to others is to explore anxiety management techniques with
your students. It provides a common language and encourages open dialogue about
managing normal feelings. In addition, students catch on and become proficient with
the techniques fairly quickly. Knowing they can do something about anxiety is
empowering and helps them feel in control of themselves which allows them to take on
greater challenges. The breathing techniques were the most popular among the
students but the positive self-talk also provided us with an opportunity to explore how
we encouraged ourselves and others.
This was a fun activity. The students celebrated their participation with a pizza party and
the end of the ten sessions.
Thank you for your sponsorship.
8
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
Please share this story on the Healthy Schools BC Stories Map. Remember to share pictures
and/or videos too!
9
*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)