After a year with so much upheaval, here are a few tips I have shared recently with students to consider over the winter break to highlight the importance of prioritizing well-being.
Take a real break. Lift your mood with some funny TV shows, unplug by playing games or puzzles with your family, exercise by doing something you love, and find time to catch up on sleep! Get more tips for Playtime, Downtime, and Family time (PDF) here.
Help someone else. Serving others in big and small ways is a great way to support your own well-being. Do chores around the house, prepare a meal for your family, write a note to a neighbor, bring groceries to seniors, or participate in a socially-distanced service project.
Reflect on what worked and what didn’t work during the first half of the school year. Consider the habits that seemed to work for you during remote, hybrid, or in-person learning. Make a list of a few that you want to keep doing, and then determine which habits might have held you back.
Make a commitment for change. Commit to one behavior or practice you want to change in January. You have a better chance of making a permanent change when you focus on one change at a time. Don’t overload yourself with goals that will only last a week. Need some inspiration?
Denise Pope, Ph.D., is a Co-Founder of Challenge Success and a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. She is the author of, “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, and co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids. Dr. Pope lectures nationally on parenting techniques and pedagogical strategies to increase student health, engagement with learning, and integrity.