Week 7: Managing Overwhelm: One Step at a Time
Calm focus conquers challenges.
Objective: Students will explore strategies to manage feelings of overwhelm by breaking tasks into manageable steps and practicing mindfulness techniques to stay grounded and focused.
Why It Matters
Feeling overwhelmed is common, especially when faced with complex tasks or challenges. Teaching students how to manage these feelings equips them with lifelong skills for staying calm, focused, and effective in the face of adversity.
Main Activities
Class Discussion: What Does Overwhelm Feel Like?
- Start with an open-ended question: "What does it feel like when you have too much to do or don’t know where to start?"
- Facilitate a discussion to normalize these feelings and explore their impact:
- "What happens when we feel overwhelmed? How does it affect our ability to think clearly?"
- "Why is it important to learn strategies to manage overwhelm?"
Break It Down: Task Management Workshop
- Select a science-related example of a large task (e.g., completing a group project or studying for a test).
- Walk students through breaking it into smaller, actionable steps:
- Define the goal.
- Identify the steps needed to complete it.
- Prioritize the steps by importance or sequence.
- Assign a timeline for each step.
- Walk students through breaking it into smaller, actionable steps:
- Activity: In pairs, have students practice breaking down a personal or fictional task using this framework.
- Reflect: "How does breaking it down make the task feel more manageable?"
Mindfulness Techniques for Overwhelm
- Introduce mindfulness as a tool to stay grounded when tasks feel overwhelming.
- Teach simple techniques:
- Deep Breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds.
- Visualization: Imagine completing a task step-by-step with calm focus.
- Gratitude Pause: Take a moment to think about something positive or someone supportive.
- Practice: Lead the class in a brief mindfulness exercise using one of the techniques.
Journal Prompt
"Reflect on a time when you felt overwhelmed by a task or situation. How did it feel, and what strategies did you use to work through it? If you didn’t have a strategy at the time, what could you do differently now using the techniques from today’s lesson?"
Mindset Mantra
"Big goals start with small steps."
Teacher’s Note
Encourage students to apply these strategies in real-life situations, both inside and outside the classroom.
Share a personal story of when breaking down a task or using mindfulness helped you manage a challenging situation.
Reinforce that learning to manage overwhelm is a skill that improves with practice.
Optional Visual
Create a class poster titled "Managing Overwhelm" with key steps and techniques from this lesson for students to reference.
Acknowledgment:
This lesson plan was developed collaboratively with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, blending expert insights with creative tools to support educators in fostering growth mindset concepts in the classroom.