OKOTOKS-Students learned a lesson that went beyond reading, writing and arithmetic at Okotoks Junior High School last week.
“School is about learning,” said Okotoks Junior High School Grade 7 student Julie Tait. “You need life skills and you come to school to learn those skills.
“Sometimes you need a day dedicated to other things where you can learn those skills.”
While life lessons are ongoing at OJ, the topic got amped up at its annual Wellness Conference on Jan. 31.
Grade 7 student Lola Paul attended her first conference and found some ways to escape from stressful feelings that come with being a young teen.
“It was really fun having the opportunity to do those different activities,” Paul said. “I went to volunteering in Okotoks and something called Stressballs! where you learned how to release stress.
“The last thing I did was an escape room, where you try to escape.”
Her favourite was learning about volunteering opportunities in Okotoks, something she hopes to take advantage of in the future.
While the Grade 7 students were learning about volunteering, the older students went out and did it. Several of the Grade 9s helped at facilities such as the Tudor Manor senior facility and the Foothills Country Hospice during the conference.
Grade 7 student Nathan Watkins took in the escape room and toppled some pins at Millennium Lanes.
“I feel like there is more to school than just writing, math, science and social studies – I feel it’s your overall well being of your health,” Watkins said.
He said the escape room helped him work with others to solve problems.
Tait said the day wasn’t about assignments.
“You were still learning, but it was in a fun more interactive way,” she said. “In the lock room (the escape room) I learned to collaborate with others. If we didn’t we couldn’t get outside the room or solve the problem.”
She also took in the Stressballs! sessions.
“You learned what stress is and how to manage it,” Tait said. “You can just take a few moments to gather your thoughts and reassure yourself that things will work out – when you think about it from a different point of view.”
The organizers of the event dug deep in finding the keynote speaker – cave explorer Christian Stenner.
“It is one of the last unexplored frontiers of our planet,” Stenner said in an interview. “We know so much about the surface of the world but we don’t know much about the underground. Yet there is probably as much life underground as there is above ground when you count microscopic life.
“We still don’t know where the truly deepest cave is until we get there.”
However, he stressed to students they don’t have to go into the depths of Mt. Rainier to make a difference.
“Everyone can contribute to the world in some way, they can find their own contribution with whatever their passion is,” he said.
Some of the sessions offered at the conference included Archery, Medicine Wheel and Circle of Courage, Drumming and Dance and Bouldering.
