Taking flight with the Jets
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This article was published 07/04/2015 (3803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Mental health is as important to many these days as eating healthy or going outside for a jog.
Students in two classrooms at Anola School know this well.
Each day they take what’s called a body check. Whether they gather for laughing yoga, try an Aboriginal dance or practice their rhythm, they take time to decompress.
They are only children but they have stresses and worries too, explains Grade 6-7 teacher Cristy Smith.
“There are a lot of things going on,” she said. “When kids start growing up, they’re hitting puberty; they have more of a voice. Friends are important, they have extra-curricular sports, they have homework, there are a lot of demands on the kids.”
Anola is among the 43 different settings in the province taking part in Project 11, an initiative of the Winnipeg Jets’ True North Foundation that originated earlier this year.
The project is inspired by former Manitoba Moose player Rick Rypien, formerly No. 11, who suffered from mental health issues and lost his life. The program wants to remove the stigma of mental health by talking about the subject broadly and teaching how to cope with your struggles.
Smith said she had a valuable discussion with her students about mental health when she gave them the background of Rypien’s life. When she said he never got to play with the Jets after signing a contract, they came to their own conclusion.
“We had a discussion on it, about going into depression and what can happen,” she said. “There’s a program because we want positives. When you’re feeling down and blue, there’s some things you can do.”
Every day in class a short video plays—their ‘body break’—featuring Jets defenceman Mark Stuart. Smith teaches a lesson plan each week, too. In Grade 6, stress, communication and self-reflection are taught.
So far it has helped.
“It’s funny, we were practicing some laughing yoga and then in class if they were starting to get stressed…they’d start laughing,” she said.
Some students are even writing their thoughts in their journal and covering it up with a note so their teacher doesn’t read it, she said.
“The journal is theirs, and it’s something they had to get out,” said Smith.
Mental health is as important to many these days as eating healthy or going outside for a jog.
Students in two classrooms at Anola School know this well.
Each day they take what’s called a body check. Whether they gather for laughing yoga, try an Aboriginal dance or practice their rhythm, they take time to decompress.
They are only children but they have stresses and worries too, explains Grade 6-7 teacher Cristy Smith.
“There are a lot of things going on,” she said. “When kids start growing up, they’re hitting puberty; they have more of a voice. Friends are important, they have extra-curricular sports, they have homework, there are a lot of demands on the kids.”
Anola is among the 43 different settings in the province taking part in Project 11, an initiative of the Winnipeg Jets’ True North Foundation that originated earlier this year.
The project is inspired by former Manitoba Moose player Rick Rypien, formerly No. 11, who suffered from mental health issues and lost his life. The program wants to remove the stigma of mental health by talking about the subject broadly and teaching how to cope with your struggles.
Smith said she had a valuable discussion with her students about mental health when she gave them the background of Rypien’s life. When she said he never got to play with the Jets after signing a contract, they came to their own conclusion.
“We had a discussion on it, about going into depression and what can happen,” she said. “There’s a program because we want positives. When you’re feeling down and blue, there’s some things you can do.”
Every day in class a short video plays—their ‘body break’—featuring Jets defenceman Mark Stuart. Smith teaches a lesson plan each week, too. In Grade 6, stress, communication and self-reflection are taught.
So far it has helped.
“It’s funny, we were practicing some laughing yoga and then in class if they were starting to get stressed…they’d start laughing,” she said.
Some students are even writing their thoughts in their journal and covering it up with a note so their teacher doesn’t read it, she said.
“The journal is theirs, and it’s something they had to get out,” said Smith.