Managing time and STRESS

For many students at AHS, day to day requirements go beyond the demands of basic academics.  The lives of these students are jammed packed with sports, clubs, work and social events that can lead to a loss of focus on academic performance.  But in many cases, by making some sacrifices, students manage to balance it all out.
 
Senior Emily Koppelman works hard to balance out band, track and a heavy workload from four IB and one AP class.  Her situation is not uncommon among AHS students.  With programs in music such as band or chorus, sports ranging from soccer to golf, and clubs such as Just World or Theater; extracurricular activities are in no short supply for AHS students.
 Koppelman, like many others, does her best to stay on top of the demanding schedule extracurricular activities create.

“As soon as I get home I try to get things out of the way or get work done during school,” said Koppelman.  After struggling with time management freshman year, she has found she is now able to keep ahead of it all; although on some occasions, she is unable to complete school work in order to give necessary attention to other activities.

 “Some of the work just doesn’t get done.  You need to prioritize and decide what you put off and what get’s finished,” said Koppelman.  Many students at AHS find extracurricular activities equally distracting from school.

“At the beginning of the year no one [on the football team] does home work,” said senior Adam Mohammed, a varsity AHS football player.  “My parents say I need to get more work done.  My teachers’ sometimes say I need to get more work done”.  With practice from 4:00 in the afternoon until 6:00 or often as late as
7:00, finding time to get school work done is difficult.

To facilitate students with finishing their homework, many sports provide a designated time before practice to complete home work.  Football, for example, provides 30 minutes before practice directly after school to complete assignments.  This relatively short period of time makes a significant difference.  “You’re tired after practice so that’s why it’s so important to get things done during study hall,” explained Mohammed.

In addition to this, in an attempt to prevent sports from taking priority over school work, AHS has adopted the official policy of requiring coaches to suspend players if academic performance drops noticeably.

“They’re [student athletes] supervised by the coach.  If their coach notices a class has dropped a few letter grades they’ll have them sit out.  Usually there’s communication with the teacher, so if the teacher notices improvements they’ll let the athlete back in,” explained director of student activities Angelo Helios.
This system seems to be effective at bringing students to budget time and stay focused on school.  “After a few weeks into the season when Coach Adams gets out his grade book we all start doing our work,” said Mohammed.  In some cases, this system works as such a positive motivator that it leads to students showing better academic performance while participating in sports than while they are not.“My best grades of the year are during volleyball season,” said sophomore student athlete Teppi Shultis. “Our coach pressures us to be good student athletes,” elaborated sophomore Grace Franjie, another AHS volleyball player.  “He wants a 3.0 GPA or higher.  If you have D’s you’re on the bench, and if you have F’s; don’t even bother trying out”.

Other activities have a similar policy regarding grades. Extracurricular groups such as marching band or student government require a minimum GPA, and the AHS theater department holds that any student carrying an F in any class will be required to sit out.  These policies seem effective at maintaining student GPAs as most extracurricular groups do not commonly have issues with student grades.

 Along with these extracurricular activities, many AHS students have part-time jobs which serve as just another difficulty in balancing time.  Senior Richard Schonenberg attempts to budget his time between IB and AP classes as well as a weekend job.

“I have trouble balancing work and school.  I usually don’t get enough sleep, but Papa wants me to work,” he says.  Like many other students, he often finds it stressful attempting to keep ahead of both school and work.  Although, “the stress doesn’t get to me, I just get tired,” said Schonenburg.

Packed schedules often lead to sleep deprivation and fatigue.  Over a quarter of all high school students sleep on average less than six and a half hours every night; three hours a night behind the medically recommended nine and a half hours.  Just as alarmingly, less than 10 percent of high schoolers report reaching this recommended number of hours every night.

This lack of sleep has immediate consequences on students, such as adding to stress levels and causing behavioral changes.  Students reporting a lack of sleep commonly display irritability, anger, depression and in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts.  Longer term problems are also caused by a lack of sleep.  Without enough sleep, a students brain is not able to fully develop from adolescence.  School’s have begun taking notice of this problem and are beginning to change policies to allow students more time for sleep.

High schools in the Washington area are beginning to experiment with later opening times to provide students an hour or two of extra time for sleep.  Some high schools are also mandating homework-free weekends in order to allow students to catch up on rest.  However, these policies are still being reviewed and are likely to not be implemented for several years.

The combination of lack of sleep, fatigue, and frequent anxiety from school can, in many cases, lead to stress on a chronic level.  High school students are increasingly enrolling in more higher level classes as well as participating in more extracurricular activities.  Consequently, harmful stress levels are becoming more common among students.According to a survey conducted by the Washington Post, nearly 40 percent of high school students in the Washington D.C. area experience frequent negative stress.  Furthermore, almost 60 percent said school was the primary reason for these stressful feelings.  To deal with this, schools are implementing policies designed to lighten burdened schedules and calm the frequent stress experienced by students.

Not allowing students to take part in multiple extracurricular activities as well as limiting the number of AP, honors, or IB classes a student is enrolled in are techniques becoming increasingly common with Washington area high schools.  Voluntary group meditation and yoga sessions at school are also becoming popular reactive remedies for the common stressful lifestyle of students.

Whether students are able to handle school and activities or not, the difficulties presented in balancing each aspect serves as a significant learning process.  
Time budgeting, stress management and short and long term planning are all skills picked up by high school students that pressure themselves to go beyond the minimum requirements of basic learning.  For many students, even after these traits are learned, handling activities while staying focused on school still remains a challenging balancing act.