On Thursday Ann Brand came into class to talk
to us about “mindful” teaching. This presentation was very interesting as Ann
talked about how to be mindful in the classroom as well as how to manage our
stress through mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, in the
present moment, non-judgmentally. It is a particular way of paying attention,
as it requires the “whole experience” through thoughts, feelings, body
sensations and senses.
She talked a lot about taking time for
ourselves and how this can benefit our students also, “When caring about
yourself, you care for your students.” To have mindful attention is to be self
aware and aware of others. I believe this can help with classroom management.
By being mindful we can increase our overall positivity in the classroom and
increase our health. This stress reducing practice would also help with
managing difficult situations, stresses while modeling good behavior. For
students who have difficulties managing their own stress, mindfulness could
help them cope and deal with issues when they are stressed themselves. Leading
by example mindfulness could be implemented into your classroom within a short
time.
Ann gave some good practice tips on how we
could implement mindfulness in our classroom:
1.
5 minutes of mindful breathing
2.
Take a breath before answer phone
or email
3.
Stretch for one minute before
grading
4.
Noticing jaw or shoulder tension
or tightening
5.
Count breaths at stoplight on
your way home
6.
Mindfully eating your lunch.
Some benefits of mindfulness in education
1.
Enhances classroom climate
2.
Enhances academic performances
3.
Enhances attention and working
memory
4.
Enhances social-emotional skills.
Within a matter of time these practices could
be implemented in our daily routine. It was a great and mindful presentation as
I learned a lot. Some of these techniques we already implement, but do not
understand why, as Ann clarified some of that up for us. It was good!
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