Toward a more mindful classroom
Here are some ways to bring mindfulness into your classroom and your teaching life. I hope you’ll find them helpful and even fun!
Set an intention (prime the pump). Most of the time, our curriculum and lesson plans tell us what we’re going to teach. Setting an intention widens the focus to consider how we want to teach. An intention is a statement of how you want to be in this next period. Think about your goals for the way you want the experience to feel and how best to facilitate the skills you are helping your students to master.
An intention might be a general one, such as keeping things moving calmly in the days before a high stakes test, or it might be as specific as responding to a challenging student or group with equanimity instead of going directly to control. The intention can be simple such as, ‘I want to be fully present.’
Check the environment. Some of the best teachers I know begin the day with a short sit in the classroom. There is something wonderful about starting together in silence, and even kindergarten kids enjoy it. Middle and high school students often protest that they’re not interested in these quiet few moments, but in my experience are the most insistent on the morning sit if it is forgotten. Some classes find that just after lunch or the end of the day is the best time for a few mindful moments. Experiment to find what works for you and your group.
After a brief (two to five minutes) sit, it can be helpful to get a short report from the students about how they’re feeling. Popular metaphors for these reports include a one-word “weather report” (sunny, stormy, rainy, etc.), thumbs up, down or sideways, even sports analogies. Don’t forget to include yourself and any other adults in the room!
These environmental check-ins allow the entire group to get a general idea of the overall ‘climate’ in the room. This is great information for each person. As the group leader, you may decide to adjust or even completely change the next activity, based on those reports.
The students also see each others’ responses, which informs them about how others may wish to be treated. A sweet surprise can happen in the form of one or more kids expressing heartfulness* for a classmate who has given a negative report. This is usually most immediate in younger grades, but can also happen away from the gaze of adults in middle and high school groups.
Sound Check. Sometimes it can be challenging to get back into our bodies, especially after vigorous social activity. To help integrate brain and body, you can use a bell, rainstick or another reverberating object. Invite students to sit quietly and listen to the sound of the object as you activate it. Ask them to raise a hand when they can no longer hear the sound. When all hands are up, invite them to notice how they are feeling. Don’t forget to notice your state of integration. It may be helpful to do another sound check, if the class still seems unfocused.
Mindfulness objects. Many classrooms have a signal of some kind used to bring everyone together or to focus busy minds in preparation for a lesson. A singing bowl is ideal for this purpose. When I teach mindfulness in schools, the students eventually take over ringing the bell and watching as the class focuses on the sound and comes into stillness.
Another favorite is a Mind Jar or Brain Jar. This tangible metaphor for how our mood goes from agitation to calm. You can easily make one with a plastic or glass jar, some water, glycerin, and glitter or glitter glue. There are lots of how-to articles on the web. Here’s a good one.
Gratitude practice. Millions of years ago when humans lived in the wild, our brains evolved to be alert to danger. Although most of us no longer face the existential threat of a wild animal attack, our brain still maintains that “early warning system”. We are experts at remembering bad stuff, but not so hot a recalling the good. Dr. Rick Hanson defines this ‘negativity bias’ as Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones. Gratitude practice helps us embody the emotions and sensations associated with positive experiences. It can guide us toward equanimity by balancing out our overall perception of what has occurred during a certain period, be it math class, the school day, or a particular event.
Gratitude practice is a simple way to share and to remind ourselves and others about the things that matter. It can be a lovely way to end the day, sitting in a circle and each sharing something we’re grateful for. This practice can be surprisingly informative. Don’t forget to include yourself in the circle.
Incidentally, these ideas shouldn’t be limited to your classroom. Employing mindful approaches to your relationships with your colleagues can bring great rewards and may even help change the culture in your school community. At a school where I worked for many years, we set an intention to treat one another in specific, respectful ways as a matter of course. Visitors frequently commented on how it felt to first enter the building and experience the authentic interactions among students and adults.
These techniques and practices can assist you in beginning (and continuing) the school year with authenticity, equanimity, and even joy. By employing them, we can expand beyond ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’, to ‘being’ as we create and sustain our learning community with intention, focus, heartfulness, and gratitude. May you be happy. May you be curious. May you find wonder in each day with your children.
