Scheduling Anxiety in Advance?

So we made these "mood trackers" in class on Friday.  I borrowed the idea from bullet journaling because I want students to reflect on how they feel in a quick and painless way.  This method allots just a square or two to each school day. Students create their own color-coded system and they decide what "feelings about school" they want to track.  I suggested "smart," "confused," "included," "creative," etc. [As you can see from the example, some students were quite creative in deciding what to track.]

Creating a chart of the entire school year allowed us to get a big picture of just how little time it really is that I have to help these citizens in training prepare for what lies ahead.  
One students' response however threw me for a loop and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I inquired as to why she had added color already to the next week of the chart. Maybe she got thrown off? Was it a mistake? No. We had just watched a news story about Hurricane Dorian hurtling towards Florida and the fires burning in the Amazon.  She knew that she would be upset about these things for at least the next few days.

She had scheduled her anxiety in advance.

Anxiety levels are on the rise and while it's easy to blame teens' overuse of social media and lack of sleep, they are telling us WHY they are anxious if we just listen.

So, I'm listening and I'm taking action.  We tackle a lot of challenging subjects in my class. History doesn't have a happy ending or silver lining most days but I need to end each day with a CHANGE AGENT MOMENT.  

I need to remind students every day that what makes American history so captivating are the people who refused to give up and whose slow, determined, steady march towards progress has made us a better place.

My very last class at Alverno College focused on terrorism and our professor made a point of reminding us-to the point of having us hold LED lights and stand in a circle-that we can be a light in the world. There is darkness but we have to hold onto the light. 

We will continue to reflect regularly this year but we will also hold onto the light because it is always there, even in the deepest darkest night.