by Kathleen Castner
On March 26th, the day before spring break, BTHS students experienced their third Wellness Day. It was not only a replacement for a school assembly; Wellness Day exceeded it. Each grade participated in the step challenge and listened to the Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz presentation. Most importantly, the highlight of the day was the guest speaker, Jordan Burnham. Finally, almost every grade level attended a variation of a wellness session led by our school’s Climate & Culture Committee. The day finished up with a school-wide viewing of the Happy Movie. Here is a recap of each of the sessions:
The Wellness Forum was led by the school Culture & Climate Committee. This is a professional learning community that involves administrators, teachers, and students from all grade levels. Its mission? Improve student morale, bolsterBTHS’s atmosphere, and strengthen the relationship between students and teachers. For Wellness Day, the committee planned different forums for each grade level. For the freshman, committee members gave them an in-depth tour of Biotech and answered questions about their upcoming sophomore year. In particular, they were curious about the activities in a normal school year. Besides the freshmen, the sophomores were supposed to learn about the IB curriculum and BTHS electives. Unfortunately, a miscommunication derailed this plan. Regardless, the juniors were able to ask questions about college applications. Finally, seniors met with Biotech alumni and asked about college life
Then, Dr. Rogers and Mrs. Kempton led a session called, Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. This highlighted facts and myths regarding sleep and insomnia. For example, they surprised students with the fact that cutting down on screen time does not solve all sleep problems. Also, there is a lack of “high quality” evidence that blue light glasses improve sleep quality. Furthermore, the program informed viewers of the four stages of sleep. That deep sleep that we all crave is called REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement. The typical human goes through four to six of these cycles a night. On an optimistic note, we learned that 20-30 minutes of napping a day may be in our best interest. After all, it improves memory, learning abilities, and emotional stability. Next, the presenters talked about habits that may improve sleep quality. However, they added the caveat that habits are unlikely to solve sleep problems. Additionally, people will respond differently to different habits. Some of these interventions include meditating, writing a sleep journal, drinking chamomile tea, and using weighted blankets. Moreover, Dr. Rogers and Mrs. Kempton advise creating a calming environment before going to bed. They recommended avoiding. At the end of the day, Dr. Rogers sent out a sleep intervention challenge form. If you try a sleep intervention, make sure to fill out this form and get a brain eraser.
Here is the link to the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzp7G1exLeunhAjWmAjntW-EnpLOpN3AaIsMvLONd297q8Og/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&gxids=7628
All grades had the privilege of listening to “Minding Your Mind” presented by Jordan Burnham. Jordan shared his journey from elementary school, to middle school, to high school. Early on his battle with mental health became prevalent in his freshman year of high school. His grades started slipping, he turned to drugs, and he did not feel comfortable going to guidance. In tenth grade, his parents encouraged him to go to therapy. At first, it was torturous because he felt he couldn’t relate to the therapists. It took months for him to find the right one. Though, he was diagnosed with depression at the same time. Unfortunately, it cultivated a pessimistic attitude since he saw his diagnosis as a label. Jordan shared his interpretation of the difference between depression and feeling depressed. He maintained that feeling depressed is to know why you are depressed, but depression means that you do not understand why you're sad.
Eleventh grade was not any better. He squabbled with his friends, and that is when he started questioning what their lives would be like without him. Jordan had an incident when he contemplated overdosing on pills. Finally, he admitted he needed help. He was sent to a behavioral hospital, though he didn’t think his problems were valid. Now, however, he is thankful for the advice that a therapist told him: he should never minimize his mental health struggle. Eventually, Jordan returned to school. Still, his troubles did not end. In twelfth grade, Jordan had suicidal thoughts. Vivid in his mind was his “depression” playlist humming on the way to school. Moreover, his senior year was also the year he attempted suicide. Jordan can recall all the events the day he tried to end his life. Yet, he has no recollection of the jump out of his nine-story high bedroom window. He remembers how disappointed his parents were when they found alcohol in the back of his car. Jordan’s recovery took months. Because of his coma and broken bones, he languished in the ICU. Still, he persisted. Luckily, he was able to walk across his graduation stage.
A couple of months after his attempted suicide, Jordan agreed to do an interview with a newspaper. Specifically, he hoped his story would encourage action and support those struggling. Currently, Jordan is a public speaker who talks about his depression and how he continues to fight it. Most importantly, he loves his job and hopes to inspire others. As for BTHS, Jordan has certainly touched BTHS and contributed to a successful Wellness Day.
An hour of Wellness Day was allotted to the Step Challenge. This challenge ran from March 26 through April 5. As for implementation, students had to download the Pacer app and sign up with a join code. After that, all they had to do was walk. 149 people joined the challenge. The top walker was Erika Kan with a total of 330,000 steps. The most exciting part was that the top twenty people were awarded homework passes!
To conclude, the whole school watched a documentary called Happy. In Happy, Roko Belic travels around the world in search of the meaning of happiness. Spanning across countries and cultures, it examines the diverse definitions of what happiness is. Overall, the March 26th Wellness Day was fun and informative, and students look forward to future Wellness Days.