Learning isn’t just about what's in textbooks and on computer screens.

Wareham Middle School health teacher Harriette Sullivan decided earlier this year that she wanted to help her students deal with stress and anxiety. Now, for the first five or so minutes of each of her fifth and seventh grade classes, Sullivan leads students through a rotating list of activities such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, stretching, guided meditation, and what she calls “compliments and kindness,” where students spread positive vibes toward one another and talk to each other about their problems.

So far, the students have responded.

“It teaches them different strategies for dealing with different situations,” said Sullivan, noting that the idea of her classes are not just to promote better physical health, but mental, social, environmental and emotional health as well. “The wonderful part about it is that some of the students have come back and told me that they’ve used the exercises when they're having a hard time in their life — it makes me happy as a teacher to know these things are working for them.”

Sullivan said she got the idea from professional developmental training aimed at relieving stress and anxiety in students, which is especially prevalent in today’s society.

“When somebody is stressed, their IQ literally drops 40 points,” she said. “People make poor decisions when they’re stressed.”

Sullivan said she then researched stress relievers, and implemented some of them into her everyday lessons.

So far, the students have enjoyed parts of each of the exercises, and have especially enjoyed the guided meditation.

“The kids really like that,” she said.

Sullivan said that by learning these practices at an early age, they’re less likely to turn to drugs and alcohol as alternative sources of stress relief.

“If you have these strategies in place, you can deal with the pitfalls in life,” she said. “I’m hoping different ones will work for different kids.”

“My favorites are the deep breathing and muscle relaxation,” said fifth grader Justin DeMarino. “Those make me calm whenever I'm stressed.”

Fifth graders Alyssa Collazo and Hannah Schulze said they particularly like the compliments and kindness exercises.

“It makes people feel good,” said Collazo. “It gives you a chance to express your feelings to people.”

Sullivan said the strategies aimed at the students have also helped her, as well.

“It works for me too—it gives me a few minutes to be quiet and relax. I don't think we get that now. It's just go, go, go.”