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Stress Management?

Does your child need stress management? They're 8 years old and they need this garbage?

Or, maybe it's not about your kids. It's about keeping teachers healthy. So the insurance companies save money.

Experts tell overstressed teachers: Laugh now or pay later

By Douane D. James
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

December 11, 2006

For the sake of their health, Broward County teachers are urged to add laughs to their lesson plans.

"Laughter is the shortest distance from stress to relaxation," entertainer Gail Choate told about 60 teachers in a recent workshop at Embassy Creek Elementary, in Cooper City. "If you look for joy and laughter in your classroom as well as in your own lives, you will find it."

As March FCAT exams draw closer, so too does test anxiety. Educators say when students who worry about their performances feel stressed, their teachers will, too.

The stress-management workshop is one of many programs that the Broward school district's health insurers sponsor for employees, said Tina Severance-Fonte, wellness coordinator for Broward County schools.

If the workshops succeed at unwinding employees, it could keep them from burning out, she said.

Choate, who has visited more than 70 Broward campuses at the schools' request, showed Embassy Creek teachers activities that would add humor to class. In one exercise, students alternate miming whatever activity a partner suggests. In another, students bow to each other in the laughing pose, meaning everyone repeats the chuckle, "ha, ha, ha, ha."

Among other tactics, Choate encouraged teachers to wear outlandish headgear such as Dr. Seuss, viking, or Indiana Jones-style hats when transitioning between subjects.

Part of a school's status depends on its annual accountability grade, which is determined by student results on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

"As you get into January and February, testing becomes the focus from first to fifth grade," said Embassy Creek Principal Robert Becker, who requested the workshop to help teachers and staff learn more ways to loosen up. "When the kids are stressed out, the teachers are stressed out."

Cari Rodriguez, third-grade teacher at Embassy Creek, said she liked Choate's idea of using silly hats to lighten the mood during class. She agreed the test prep during January and February can be taxing, but said it helps students feel prepared for exam week.

The FCAT determines which third-graders are promoted and which high school students will graduate.

Often, teachers' reputations rest on how their students achieve on the reading, writing and math exams. Science teachers in select grades will start to feel similar pressure, as scores in that subject begin counting for their schools' grades this academic year.

"[Teachers] carry the accountability on their shoulders," Becker said.

As teachers make up the biggest share of the school workforce, it's in the district's best interest to keep them healthy, Severance-Fonte said.

"People under a lot of stress [tend to] have health problems," she said. District staff monitors insurance claims for growth in items such as antidepressant drugs and hypertension medication, she added.

The district's health insurers, Vista and Humana, pay for prevention measures such as flu shots, gym memberships, mammograms, and cholesterol and blood-pressure screening, Severance-Fonte said.

"It's a proactive approach to health care," she said. "You either pay now or you pay later."

Douane D. James can be reached at ddjames@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7930.

Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel