Welcome to the 8th Grade Team!

AREA OF KNOWLEDGE (AOK) COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Mind and Body Wellness

Our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. In other words, our minds can affect how healthy our bodies are!  Stress is ‘taken’ by the individual and not ‘given’ by the pressure of everyday living. It is not about how much pressure one has, but how they react to the pressure. In fact, some people welcome stress, as it acts as a motive to get things done.

Stress is a natural part of life and we cannot eliminate it altogether.  Instead, we must learn to control or ‘manage’ stress to avoid the negative symptoms by which we are threatened.  Stress is not always a bad thing, having stress in our lives can actually benefit us in some way or another. This course will include stress management skills and techniques and will combine a fitness component to promote the well-rounded “whole” individual.  Students will identify and describe stress symptoms and the effects on the body, as well as their own physical fitness level and activity. Students will recognize when their stress levels are high. 

Some of the techniques/tools that will be taught are:

• Stress management action plan
• Stress Diary
• Relaxation Techniques (Progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic relaxation, meditation, relaxation response, diaphragmatic breathing, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, etc.)
• Physical activity (aerobic exercise, weight lifting, yoga, tai chi, games, etc.)
• Stress management tests
• Guided imagery
• Diet and Nutrition
• Medication
• Doing things you enjoy (hobbies)

Sparking Courageous Conversations

This course aims to center discussions about race and racism. Digital texts, picture books, articles, essays and other types of texts will be used to spark conversations that help students recognize individual, interpersonal, and institutional racism.  Essential to these courageous conversations is the racial literacy skills students will acquire that help them to recognize, name, and challenge various forms of everyday racism.

Common Core Connections: In compliance with Common Core Literacy Standards, this course provides students with frequent opportunities to analyze texts from diverse cultures and time periods, and contribute accurate, relevant information during discussions about race and racism. As a result, students will build a foundation of knowledge and utilize the vocabulary and tools demonstrated in the AOK class to speak about issues of race and racism  in developmentally appropriate ways. 

Students will:

• Understand that racism exists in many different arenas and capacities
• Understand that biases are often not obvious or immediately present on the surface
• Learn key racial literacy vocabulary such as: race; ethnicity; racism; racial justice; antiracism; allies; assumptions; colorblindness; discrimination; equity;  identity; individual, interpersonal, and institutional racism; marginalized; microaggressions; narrative; counternarrative; oppression; prejudice; privilege; supremacy; systems; social, economic, and political conditions; stereotype
• Learn conversational strategies to discuss racism
• Learn tools to challenge topics
• Learn strategies to deconstruct canned, racial narratives and acquire counternarratives that provide perspectives that have been silenced

Theater Arts