School can be very stressful along with after school, activities, and maybe even jobs. It’s hard to even get six hours of sleep when students get home at ten and still have homework that’s due the next day. Scientists have been researching ways to easily calm your mind and ease up some stress. Along with that, doing your personal interest and giving yourself time to do whatever eases the heart and breath at your own pace.

According to Mayo Clinic, you need to get active, assert yourself, yoga, get enough sleep, laugh more, and etcetera. Be active in any way, physical activity can pump up your feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that enhance your sense of well-being. Exercise also refocus your mind on the body’s movements, which can improve your mood. Try Yoga, yoga brings together physical and mental disciplines which may help you achieve peacefulness of body and mind. It can help you relax and manage stress and anxiety. Try and get enough sleep, the quality and amount of sleep can affect your mood, energy level, concentration, and overall functioning. Even if you struggling to fall asleep thinking about all the things you need to do, listen to soothing music and relax until you fall asleep. Laugh more even if it’s a fake one. Laughing does not only lighten your mental load but also causes positive physical changes in your body. Laughter fires up and then cools down your stress response.

When the workload for school gets too hard and you have to choose between sleep and good grades. Instead, tell your teachers or even a counselor that it’s too hard and you’re struggling to keep up, they may give more time to finish projects or help you more within the class. During passing time or lunch play some music that can help smooth and relax you during the day. As you sit at the lunch table and don’t feel like talking or your friends are on a field trip then watch a video and distract yourself from the fact you are at school. I always listen to music as I go through the halls and cafeteria, even if I am walking with someone I play music because music makes me happier than realizing I’m surrounded by a bunch of people. I don’t have to be music if you like sports then listen to a sports person commenting over a game. On the weekend put homework on the side for one day and do whatever makes you happy. Making yourself happy is the best way to ease stress and doing the things you love can lower stress.

Ted Waterson’s classroom usually filled with students learning science, turned into a classroom used to learn Chinese by students and a teacher, with two Chinese students who teach them.

 “I was surprised that our school doesn’t offer Chinese classes and these Chinese students approached me were looking for someone to sponsor the club. And so it was the students who started the club and I thought it sounded worthwhile,” Waterson said.

The teacher Ted Waterson helped student Si Tong He create her Chinese club. Waterson who has been a teacher for 24 years, was not always interested in

learning Chinese. He never took a Chinese language course, but he did take a Chinese music course in college. 

“I loved it, they would have people perform on these ancient instruments, their sense of scale and harmony and what’s what we would consider off-key they consider on key. And I just, I really enjoyed, kind of immersing myself in their music, all the way from the ancient music to their current popular music,” Waterson said.

He thinks that learning another language is interesting and what words they emphasize. His favorite part of the Chinese club is when they talk about the slang and the English translations. He finds it really funny and quite amusing that the slang terms in Chinese and how they translate to English. It says a lot about their culture. For example 单身狗 (dān shēn gǒu) it literally means single dog but is used to poke at themselves or someone else for being single. 单身 (dān shēn) means being single and 狗 (gǒu) means dog, 单身狗 (dān shēn gǒu).

 “Here [America] they like to drink cold water and in restaurants, they only serve cold water and Chinese people like warm water, they think it’s good for health,” Si Tong He said. 

He got inspiration from her friends to create the Chinese club, her friends kept telling her that they wanted to learn Chinese and she decided to create the club. She believed that the few 2-3 people who come to the club are interested in Chinese culture and history. While learning about China’s school system, we began to learn the big differences between China and America. Like the schools, we go to elementary for 5 years, then go to middle school for 3 years and high school for 4 years. In china they have elementary for 6 years, then go to middle school for 3 years and high school for 3 years. For classes in China, they don’t switch classrooms unless it was for P.E., music, or art. 

“At night there are no people on the street and it’s so quiet. I feel like not a lot of people are walking on the street, they like to drive,” Di Zhu said.

Something as simple as an empty quiet street can make a huge difference. In China (or any Asian country) people tend to walk around and be loud even at night. Even a simple greeting is different. It was brought to my attention during the interview that Zhu said that when people in America greet they say ‘Hi, how are you?’ She was surprised, they say it every time as in China all they say is a simple Hi.

 “Last year I went to China and I saw that people didn’t bring their wallet. They just use apple pay or like wechat pay or something,” Di Zhu said.

Chinese people like everything to be a fast pace, to be done quickly, and to be handled simply. They would expect things to come the same or next day when they order something, and it normally does happen that way, they like to convince. On the streets, people can rent bikes and scooters to ride. While trying to go to another province they may rent a bike when they don’t have a car or the bus left or too full. Even when they are just walking around windows hoping they can rent one out.

“They are interested in Chinese culture and want to know more about Chinese history. It’s pretty important and if you are interested, I think it is also helpful to learn about the language,” said He.

At Ladue Horton Watkins High School, there are many new teachers during this year 2019-2020, the transition of becoming a new teacher.

“It but feels like an old dog trying to learn new tricks and does not have enough time to play with it, all the tech it’s been a challenge,” said Steve Boyd.

Although Boyd misses teaching golf he loves his new students.

 “It has been interesting the students are polite and say thank you more often,” Boyd said. 

For phones, Boyd says he doesn’t want to use the yonder pouches so that the students can learn responsibilities with handling their phone, so they can learn now rather than later. Like when students start driving they will need to pay attention to the road and not their phones, unlike, Senior student, Jill Goldwasser.

“Kids should be able to be responsible enough to put their phones away,” Goldwasser said.

The senior student Goldwasser thinks that yonder pouches are really stupid. She thinks students should be able to try and be responsible for their phones to be able to put it away and to be respectful to the teacher. Goldwasser likes her new teacher, who teaches with another teacher who has been there longer.

 “The new teacher is nice and funny and helpful in our class,  Goldwasser said.

In an article in the New York Times says that a new teachers excitement is increasing. New teachers are more excited for the first day of school and their first class.

“I wanted to go into math to try to change people’s perspective on how they see math on a day to day basis, and let them recognize the usefulness and no longer hated and they don’t have to like it, but I don’t want them to hate it,” Jacob Jagodzinski said.

Different from both Boyd and Goldwasser, Jagodzinski thinks that the yonder pouches are a good resource for the students who can’t stay off their phones. Jagodzinski is a math teacher he started teaching math because when he was in high school he had always met teachers that he did and didn’t help him understand, a lot of his friends gain a distaste for math as a result. 

He makes sure students understand by walking around seeing how they are doing on the examples and general communication. He tells his students that they can email or come to him for questions. “How they’re comparing what I did versus what they’re doing, checking that as we go along, as well as just general communication like I’m just encouraging that for the students,” Jagodzinski said.

One thing Jagodzinski and Boyd have in common is their love for seminar. For Boyd, he had 90 minutes classes and could not get to questions and make sure everyone understands. So now with seminar, he can pull students who he feels need a helping hand and help the students. 

Jagodzinski says “It’s a good opportunity, it allows them to sign up ahead of time, so they can kind of prepare themselves for what they need to do, versus what they want to do. 

As well as it gives the teachers the opportunity to tell students that they need them or was required to take a quiz or to take a test, it allows us to kind of get that extra ability to make sure a student comes. Overall the new teachers like what Ladue has to offer, everything is new and eye-opening. 

“The classes are comfortable and a happy environment,” said Boyd