Mindfulness in the classroom
(mindful: Marina Zlochin/AdobeStock Ashley Britton/SheKnows)
Nowadays, there is so much pressure from society to do well in school whether that be taking hard classes, maintaining a certain grade, homework load, etc. Not only does this pressure apply to students, but teachers too. Teacher burnout has been increasing as the years go on. All this pressure creates stress and anxiety for students and teachers. A way to help reduce stress and anxiety is to practice mindfulness. “Mindfulness is a way of supporting students and educators so that they can not only survive, but thrive” (Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Mindfulness has many benefits such as decreasing stress and anxiety, strengthen cognitive health and attention, model compassion and kindness, cultivate awareness and balance, foster empathy and compassion, and grow resilience (Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Although mindfulness has many benefits, it is important that it is done with some consideration depending on the individual. For example, if someone has gone through trauma, it might not be the best for them to close their eyes and be sat in a certain position. This could bring up uncomfortable feelings and can be psychologically dysregulating. This also ties into making sure the individual feels safe. Mindfulness allows for the student to be vulnerable so if they don’t feel safe, no deep mindfulness practices should be done (Schwartz, 2019).
A way mindfulness can be used in the classroom is through sensory experiences. This can include listening to calming sounds or music. A fun way you can use sensory experiences in the classroom is to have the students create mind jars. Mind jars are when the students put a strong smelling familiar scent in a jar and the other students have to guess what the smell is. It is a fun and calming way students can decrease stress while being in school (Shardlow, 2015).
In the documentary Room To Breathe, it gives us a look into a 7th grade classroom. In the classroom, all the students were talking with each other, not paying attention to the teacher, and gave up on trying. Not only was this one classroom this way but the whole school. They had Megan Cowan from the organization mindful schools come in to teach mindfulness twice a week for 20-30 minutes. She said that practicing mindfulness increases impulse control that allows us to have more choice around our actions. Megan was there 15 times and in the beginning the class wanted nothing to do with mindfulness and she had a hard time getting them to behave. At the end of the 15 days, the students had more of a tolerance for mindfulness and the students that were in danger of failing passed 7th grade (Long, 2012).
For the past few days, I’ve been using the app Smiling Mind to practice mindfulness. I chose this app because it gave an array of free options without having to start a free trial. I liked using this app. I liked that you can select who you are. For example, you got to choose if you were an individual, educator, doctor, etc. Then there are catered meditations based on what you are looking to achieve. I appreciated how the meditations varied in time length so you can choose how long you want to do it for. I do think this app would help me as a teacher to help prevent teacher burnout. You can set yourself as a teacher and do work meditations if you need a pick me up throughout the day. I also think using this app when you get home can help prevent burnout. I can use this app with my future students because there is a category geared towards the youth. I can play the meditation and have everyone listen to it.
References
Hogan, B. (2022, September 7). Quick mindfulness tricks to deescalate a terrible, stressful day. SheKnows. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/2341635/quick-mindfulness-tricks-deescalate-bad-day/
Long, R. (director/ producer). (2012) Room To Breathe [film]. ZAP Zoetrope Aubry Productions.
Schwartz, K. (2019). Nine ways to ensure your mindfulness teaching is trauma informed. KQED Mindshift. Link
Shardlow, G. (2015, November 18). Integrating mindfulness in your classroom curriculum. Edutopia. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/integrating-mindfulness-in-classroom-curriculum-giselle-shardlow
Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Mindful Schools. Link
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