Colorado High Schoolers Use New Learning Tool Geared At Mental Health Stability To Calm Minds
(CBS4) - For many students, school has become even more stressful in the midst of the pandemic. Some schools have started using a new learning tool geared toward mental health stability. Asset Education is an online curriculum teachers can use. It contains leaning exercises for students that take between 5 to 10 minutes. They can be used before class and the goal is to get students to calm their minds and stay focused.
We have a curriculum of 60 plus tools and each tool is designed for students to be really easy to remember," said Tessa Zimmerman, the founder of Asset Education.
One of the students using Asset's tools is Sarah Van Hook, a sophomore at Denver School of the Arts. As she was recently preparing for her first dance recital, her anxiety got the best of her.
"It was definitely nerve wracking because it was our first online performance and I had choreographed a big piece and edited all myself," Van Hook said.
Before her big performance she used a tool known as a "body scan" to calm down her nerves.
"You basically just go head to toe and try to be present with every part of your body. And again, it just grounds you to the present moment," she said.
The breathing exercises have caught on throughout the state. About 40 schools within Denver Public Schools and the Jefferson County School District are using Asset and are seeing positive results.
"If you know the tools, you can you have all the power that you need to control your stress, your anxiety, you have everything that you need to feel happy and at peace with the situation," Van Hook said.