Friday, August 05, 2016

Mindfulness in the Classroom

I just finished a teacher training for Mindfulness at a great place in town, and I am eager to bring it back to each of my classes. In addition to actually practicing mindfulness with classes all week, we discussed the benefits of the practice and why it's so vital to bring it to our students. You can do a google search on benefits, but a few that stood out to me:

* Increases grey matter in your mind.
* Increases compassion.
* Eases stress and anxiety.
* Boosts cognitive function.
* Allows you to focus more.

We also watched a 14:27 minute TEDx talk called, "Why Aren't We Teaching You Mindfulness" with AnnMarie Rossi. I recommend it highly for her arguments as to why this practice is so useful in anyone's life. 

I need to reflect on how I can consistently bring this practice into my classroom. I have a few ideas that I need to flesh out. If you do a search on how to bring mindfulness into your classroom, you can find way more than I know about. Here are some of my ideas:

First, I have just made my First Day Homework assignment. I can't spell school without homework. Here are the front and back pages of it, and HERE is a link to a download.






I also want to do something about test anxiety. I feel like before the first test, I can hand out a "fake" "challenging" test, and we can walk through a mindfulness exercise observing their feelings and body reactions and talk about strategies to focus.

I feel like I also want to incorporate small links or reminders in my homework calendar on certain days that will link the willing kids to various strategies and such regarding mindfulness. 

My final idea so far is to some days stand by the door (or always have a "stress bucket") for the students to drop their stress into (the bucket or my cupped hand) when they leave my class for me to carry or hold for them, since I won't feel their stress like they do, and they can "unburden" themselves to get ready for the next part of their day. 

And let the year begin .....

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:43 PM

    Shirleen, it's always great to get one of your posts in my RSS feed. This summer I participated in a Facebook reading group for Angela Watson's book Unshakeable 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day. Mindfulness is one of her recommendations. I'll be watching this TED talk next. Thanks!

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    1. Oh, I like the name of that book. Thanks for the tip.

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  2. I'd like to show my students something like that TED talk but shorter.

    You may like my guided visualization for students who'd like to lessen their test anxiety, Math Relax: http://mathmamawrites.blogspot.com/2009/09/math-relax-guided-visualization-for.html

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  4. Yes, I also revised almost all editions of Ted, I can say that they too helped me to change my view of many things and taught me a lot, especially regarding self-development. Especially it helped me to improve my writing skills and also this article showed me a lot of options for writing essays.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it helped me too. It also improved my skills my teacher said when i showed it to him! XD

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  5. Excellent post on an important topic, mindfulness in the classroom needs to be practiced daily!

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