"Stress is a constant in our lives and cannot be avoided," says Dr. Tallie Z. Baram, the Danette Shepard Chair in Neurological Sciences at UC Irvine School of Medicine. Research shows that the brain needs some level of stress in order to function; however, chronic high levels can be dangerous to the brain as well as the body. The hippocampus is where the brain's earliest learning and memory are located. A seahorse shaped region of the brain, it arranges, delivers, and connects the memories with their rightful areas of the cortex for long-term storage. Dr. Zhen Yan, Professor of Physiology and biophysics at UB, says that, "Stress hormones have both protective and damaging effects on the body." This becomes an issue when the high levels of stress cause the hippocampus not to function properly. The brain cannot take in any new information or take the information, which already exists, from the short-term to the long-term memory. If the stress continues long enough, eventually, the information can be completely lost.

There are many things a teacher can do in the classroom to lower the stress level. Even though the classes are short, the teacher has to give his/her students time to reduce and in some instances, eliminate stress levels. Students have many issues to deal with outside the learning environment: things at home, in another classroom, or just with friends in the hallway. In the classroom, students have a hard enough time learning new information, especially if they are not interested in the content area. Simply because of this, they have so many subjects and each subject requires a student to learn several new skills, they cannot possibly process all the skills successfully; this leads to the constantly stressed out student.

One method that I have found works well in my classroom is to "Write It Out." At the beginning of class the student that is having a problem or something that is consuming their thoughts, sits down and writes out everything they need to say. If they need more time or they did not get to say it all, they come in after school to continue writing or to talk. It does take time, but students cannot learn anything new until they get their minds empty enough to put in new information. If the mind is clogged, they cannot learn new information and that makes more stress.

Writing has been known to be therapeutic. Karen Balieke, Clinical Psychologist and Post Doctoral researcher with the Black Dog Institute and School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, said, "Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations." Writing takes away stress, therefore, improving mood, attitude, and brain function. By giving a student an outlet the teacher is allowing the student to thrive, have good behavior, and improve their learning. Making happier and less stressed out students.

I have been teaching for 5 years. I have been in education for 10 years. I have a Bachelors in English Studies and I graduated from Wayland Baptist University in 2004. I presently teach in Pasadena, Texas at Pasadena High School.