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A unique program introduces self-awareness and relaxation into local elementary schools’ curricula.
The best way to understand what RECESS is all about is by doing a brief exercise called a “cross over”: Stand up and check in for a moment to notice how you are feeling. Cross your opposite hand over to your opposite knee and repeat to the other side. Keep moving from side to side, touching opposite hand to opposite knee, for a minute. Notice again how you feel.
“Anytime we cross the midline part of the body, we are ‘tuning up the brain’ as well as calming ourselves,” says Elizabeth Barlow, director of RECESS (Resource Education for Calming, Energizing, Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation).
RECESS began in Tulsa in 2005 and is based on the national Yoga Ed. model, which develops health and wellness programs to improve academics, fitness, emotional intelligence and stress management for children, parents, teachers and other professionals. RECESS is available to pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students and meets Oklahoma’s PASS objectives. RECESS also offers professional development and works with agencies with youth in residence, such as shelter programs.
Barlow says bringing RECESS into schools is important because students should learn self-awareness and control.
“It’s a quarter to 12 in terms of teaching youth how to calm themselves down,” she says. “We continue to move towards a more anxious classroom and culture, and if we want to really educate the whole person, then we need to be teaching more inner, internal kinds of skills that allow the central nervous system to relax.” 
Kim Berns, principal of Grove Elementary School in Grove, Okla., learned of RECESS through the YMCA’s GO Club, which is offered at the school.
“I really wanted it here (at GO Club),” she says. “I like the idea of the students learning the stretching. We do a lot of high-energy things and need the relaxation. We love the yoga part and the kids like it.”
Jajuan Gibbs is a fifth-grader at Grove and participated in RECESS in GO Club last year. His favorite part of RECESS is the relaxation exercise: The instructor turns off all the lights except one; the students lie down on their mats, pretending they are very heavy like a bowling ball, and breathe. The more relaxed, the better.
The components of a session, which ranges from 30 minutes to one hour, include movement, age-appropriate games and guided visualization that is meant to reset the central nervous system in order to help the students become learning-ready, Barlow says.
“It helps with calming and teaches that we have inner resources within us to deal with things,” she says.
Other skills taught in RECESS include teamwork; nutrition; self-care; choice versus reaction; personal responsibility; and incorporating principles, such as respect, honesty, cleanliness, understanding and helpfulness, into life, Barlow says.
Project CREATES, a nonprofit program that offers arts integration in Tulsa public elementary schools, partners with RECESS to integrate movement into arts programs.
“We love the work of RECESS,” Project CREATES coordinator Deborah Bright says. “We use all the arts: movement, theater, music and visual art. RECESS is the movement part.
“Teachers tell us what the troubles are — discipline, testing, teaching certain concepts — and we make a plan to address the teachers’ needs. It’s not a set-in-stone curriculum.”
Currently, Barlow is working to meet the exponential growth in RECESS and is applying for funding for additional staff, teachers and a space for the administrative office — the RECESS office is housed in Barlow’s home in Tulsa. Currently, RECESS serves 16 schools in the Tulsa and Union school districts.
Barlow also wants to help fund the program costs for at-risk schools and expand to schools statewide. Currently, schools pay $35-$70 per hour for an average class or assembly, depending on how many RECESS teachers are required and the length of the session. Schools pay part of the fee for RECESS and community partners fund the other portion.
Anitra Lavanhar, vice board chair and outreach programming chair for Tulsa Children’s Museum, partnered with RECESS last year to add a health-and-wellness outreach program to the museum’s after-school curriculum.
“It gives them (students) tools to deal with their chronic stress from difficult challenges and circumstances,” she says.
Although schools meet the academic and physical needs of underprivileged students, through initiatives such as free and reduced lunch programs and tutoring, they don’t necessarily address how to deal with and combat stress, Lavanhar says.
Lavanhar says she received positive feedback from students and teachers in response to last year’s RECESS programs.
“The teachers said the kids were more focused and calmer afterwards,” she says. “They use it at home, before sports or homework. It’s such a great program. I think very highly of it.”
Barlow says RECESS is also partnering with the Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative to offer curricula in and out of school for families, making the school a hub of activity and broadening the learning community.
For more information, visit www.recessforhealth.com.
