Mental Wellbeing Check-in Activity - Highs, Lows, and Buffalos

 Week 2 Mental Health & Well-being Activities

1. Questions from the lecture

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2. High, Low, & Buffalo

High - the high point of this week/the day

Low - the low point of this week/the day

Buffalo - random/unexpected things that happened

(retrieved from http://whimsicalseptember.com/2019/10/how-to-play-high-low-buffalo.html/)

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3. Mindfulness Practice - https://youtu.be/TXNECaIJPDI

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4. Integrating music into the classroom

https://youtu.be/f9dUXPzLDUc

Every Wednesday is a mental health practice day for preservice teachers. It would be nice if we all met face-to-face, but many students are already working and taking classes in other states, so we are meeting and working with some students living on campus.

One of my favorite activities is, "high, low, & buffalo". It is an activity that allows students to share and empathize with difficulties or joys in their daily life. One of the things that have increased with the increase of online non-face-to-face classes is the difficulty of maintaining students' mental health. Already last year, when schools were closed for a long time, the results of a survey of students showed that loneliness caused by isolation increased, and opportunities for relieving stress by meeting with friends and sharing daily life decreased. That is why I think it is very important to have an opportunity to share everyday life with students during class.

After asking a question, it is important not to have the students answer right away, but to allow the students to think about it for about 5 minutes and write it down in their notebooks.

I think that a class that starts with sharing every day like this creates a more comfortable atmosphere and gives you an opportunity to let go of the stress you have to face in real life, rather than participate in the class full of stress.

At the end of the class, we decided to listen to the Ost of "Our beloved summer" with the students, which we have been enjoying so much these days. Of course, we also had time to discuss how to use music usefully in class and how to use background music in general classes, rather than just listening to music.

I hope that what I experienced through the class will be a good resource that can be used in the classroom later. Rather than simply passing the time, I hope that the memories and ideas left in that time will help them improve their professionalism in the future.