During the weeks between Thanksgiving break and finals week, students can feel enormous amounts of pressure and stress. It can be hard for teachers to help students feel confident and prepared for big tests in the coming weeks.

Some teachers have found a way to help their students feel at ease, like Brad Boyle, a physics teacher here at Air Academy. Though he has only been working at Air Academy for 4 years, he is already known by many for some of the traditions he engages in every year around the holidays.

“I feel like it is my responsibility to help reduce stress for the students. Moments of levity and small breaks can actually help clear the mind and improve performance, as shown by various studies,” said Boyle.

Some of the activities that he does to help students include dressing up as Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, having students make hand turkeys with different designs, artwork or videos.

All of the activities can be completed for extra credit.

Despite Boyle only working here at Air Academy for a short time, he has been teaching and engaging in these traditions for all 27 years that he has been a teacher. Before his transfer to AAHS, he worked at Chatfield High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. It was at that school where he picked up some of the traditions from another teacher.

Boyle said that,”Air Academy is a special place and the students here are different than those at other schools. This creates an environment where there are so many friendly and open people that help my traditions thrive.”

A large part of the culture built at Air Academy is gratitude, according to Boyle. “If you approach everything with gratitude, it can open up anything for you. I try to put up inspirational quotes up on my whiteboard up front everyday, and right now there is a great one about gratitude because I believe it so important to have and show your gratitude for things.”

Boyle believes that the students here respond better to some of the things that he does, as far as the artwork for extra credit, and their engagement in this process helps relieve the stress that is built up.

Kameron Hooker, a junior in one of Boyle’s physics classes, said, “Mr. Boyle is a really cool guy. He is always doing things that are fun and help keep me focused with his class.”

In addition to the activities that he does at school, Boyle also has many things that he likes to do on his personal time each and every year.

Boyle said, “The holidays are a time for friends and family and reaching out to some people that you might have lost touch with recently. Every year I will scan some of the hand turkeys that the students make and send them out to some of my old teacher friends because I like showing my students talents and they can cheer people up.”

All of these traditions are very important to Boyle and he plans to continue them for the years to come.