Via l’ansia con le “Pause di Salute”!

Durante il corso dell’anno, alcune classi del nostro Istituto, hanno potuto sperimentare per la prima volta il progetto “Pause di Salute”, ossia delle pause attive-dinamiche intercalate alle azioni didattiche ed organizzative che promuovono in classe il movimento con l'obiettivo di migliorare il benessere psicofisico, ridurre i rischi legati alla sedentarietà e incentivare sani stili di vita nell'età evolutiva e adolescenziale.

Il docente di scienze motorie, Prof. Peressutti, formato appositamente per questa attività, è entrato in diverse classi dello Zanon e, insieme al docente curricolare, ha spiegato (in inglese o in tedesco) l’importanza di una corretta respirazione diaframmatica anche tra i banchi di scuola. Successivamente, l’insegnante ha proposto degli esercizi di respirazione, di mobilità articolare, stretching, equilibrio e forza sia sul posto che in piedi alternandoli alla lezione. 

“Per una buona riuscita dell’attività, è utile capire le esigenze dei ragazzi e modificare gli esercizi e i ritmi delle pause a seconda delle loro necessità. E’ per questo motivo che cerco una connessione con gli studenti nei giorni antecedenti alle lezione  in classe”. Queste le parole del prof. Peressutti che, con molta dedizione, porta avanti il progetto.

Al termine dell’attività sono stati consegnati agli studenti dei questionari di gradimento in modo da poter capire come intervenire e migliorare al meglio in futuro. Dalle risposte è emerso che tali esercizi aiutano la concentrazione se svolti prima della lezione e aiutano a prepararsi al meglio alla lezione successiva se fatti al termine della lezione.

La docente di inglese, prof.ssa Tavano, ha raccolto i pareri degli studenti della 2B, una delle classi aderenti al progetto, attraverso delle lettere che essi hanno scritto a dei pen-friends. Di seguito alcune delle più significative:

Hi John, 

how are you? I hope everything is going well. Recently I had a lesson at school about healthy breaks. A physical education teacher came and spoke about that topic in English for an hour. It was very interesting, we also did some exercises. 

First thing first we watched a video and we did the first exercise. We put one hand on our chest and the other on our stomach. Then we had to breathe from our nose and exhale with our mouth a little bit open. These exercises help you to be more relaxed and I think this is very important. 

Finally we did some exercises to strengthen and stretch our muscles of legs and arms. 

I enjoyed this class very much, the next we’ll be on Saturday. I can’t wait! 

And what about you? Do you have any healthy breaks? How do you feel after that? Let me know! 

Sofia 

Hello John,

This morning I took a class on healthy breaks and breathing techniques. Today I learned to breathe better to reduce stress and anxiety during tests. 

In my opinion, healthy breaks at school are very important, first of all because you learn to reduce stress and are able to do better in tests but also if you have a panic attack at any time of the day.

Have you ever had a lesson on healthy breaks or breathing techniques?

If so, what do you think?

See you soon

Anna

Dear John,

This morning we did indeed have a class about healthy breaks and breathing techniques. 

A P.E. teacher from our school came to teach us about this topic and we started by watching a video about diaphragmatic breathing and we learnt that when you breathe with your diaphragm you become less anxious and more concentrated. After watching the video we obviously tried it and it was very useful. One of the last things that we did were some exercises for mobility, strength, flexibility and balance.

I learnt a lot of new things thanks to this class and it was very useful for me because I have problems with anxiety.

From your dear friend,

Amanda

Hi Joe, 

Today a PE teacher explained to us how to breathe when we don't feel good, or when we are anxious and when we can't concentrate. He taught us some breathing techniques, one of them was diaphragmatic breathing. He showed us a video from UCLA  and then some exercise to do during school hours. I think these exercises are useful for mental and body illnesses. Lots of students suffer from panic attacks, anxiety and depression. This technique is actually helpful because I tried it and it actually works. Then we did some physical exercises for mobility,  strength, balance and flexibility.

I hope I was helpful to you.

See you soon,

Sara

Hi John

Monday morning we had a class about healthy breaks and breathing techniques, in fact we learned some methods on how to have better breathing, which is also important to reduce anxiety and stress during our lives. We also said that we can do some healthy breaks between a lesson and another one. 

The teacher had arranged the desks in the shape of a circle to encourage the development of the lesson and communication. He spoke to us only in English and it was another interesting point of  this lesson. Finally I can say that I enjoyed this class and I think that healthy breaks can be useful at school.

Bye,

Giovanni

Dear John…

Yes, this morning we had a class about healthy breaks and breathing techniques with a sports teacher who is specialized. 

The first thing that we did was watch a video on proper breathing methods and do some exercises on that.  Then we concentrated on some parts of the body and together we did some exercises for the legs, shoulders, head and arms. 

During this hour of class, in addition to having learned the right breathing technique and various exercises to train our body in order to feel good, I also learned that doing physical activity, in particular simple exercises to activate the body as soon as you wake up, is very important to feel good and start the day right. I think that doing this activity every morning at school all together during the first hour of class is very positive because it would help students to concentrate more and feel better about their bodies. 

 I really liked this experience and I hope to do this on other occasions with all my mates because with those exercises I felt much better. Have you ever had this type of experience in your school together with your classmates? Did you like it? If you've never experienced it, would you like to try this experience?

I look forward to hearing from you.

From your mate Federica.

Hi John,

Yes, today at school in the first period I had a meeting to learn how to breathe better with some techniques.

I learned that every day we breathe superficially by inflating our chest, instead we should inhale through our nose and inflate our belly then pause and exhale through our mouth. This type of breathing fights anxiety, in fact at school it should be done at the beginning of each lesson. We also learned how to use this type of correct breathing while doing sports exercises and in fact we did some exercises and tried to do them with correct breathing.

What do you think of these breaks? Would you like to do them? 

Bye, see you soon.

S.