Blog 6- Mindfulness
Importance of Mindfulness in the Classroom for Both Students and Teachers
Mindfulness.
Many would think it is a very simple thing to do and implement into their lives. But, for students and teacher it is not a top priority.
Mindfulness is used as a way for people to relax, learn how to calm themselves and just take a minute from themselves to “escape” the real world momentarily. Mindfulness has really gained a lot of popularity in the last couple of years and has been used in school districts and classrooms across the United States in order to help students and teachers.
In this day in age young children are being put under a tremendous amount of pressure to be perfect, get the best grades and to be the best at all times whether its in or out of the classroom. Although these pressures should not be placed on children, they are and there needs to be ways for children to cope with this pressure in order to ensure their well being is maintained. Students are facing all different type of issues that could cause pressure, anxiety or stress including trauma, neglect, feeling isolated in groups and being distracted (Mindful Schools). Students are constantly having to battle with these issues and usually do not reach out and find help. This is very detrimental to the learning and well-being of young school aged children. There needs to be a way to help… mindfulness is just one of the many ways that students can get the help, resources and support in order to help them with whatever they are battling or struggling with. School districts need to integrate wellness and mindfulness into schools and the classroom to demonstrate the importance of mindfulness.
Personally, I have always struggled with balancing things and getting caught up in the pressures of performing in school. My parents have always pushed me to get good grades, always work hard and as a young kid as much as it was nice to have parents that wanted me to succeed, I began to put these pressures on myself. I have always been a very good student and I directly correlate this to my parents encouragement, but I have also always had a lot of pressure to always get good grades. If I did not do as well as I should have or did not do great, there would be consequences and that is an added pressure that I should not have had as a young child. My parents tell my siblings and I all the time, they wish they could go back and have done things a little differently because now my siblings and I all get very anxious and stressed when it comes to school. As a young child, mindfulness was not necessarily important or a thing. I wish as a child I had some sort of way to cope with these stresses in order to better myself as a young adult. I understand that my case of not having mindfulness is not the worst, but no matter the severity of ones issues, it is important to have something like mindfulness to alleviate or cope with the situation.
I really enjoyed the film for this week’s module called, “Room to Breathe”. It was about how a school district was able to have mindfulness training/learning for a group of their students. The students in this group all struggled in some way which included, bad behavior, struggling with schoolwork and their grades, etc. This training taught and introduced the group of students to a bunch of different strategies for coping with their struggles which included anxiety. I think that by this school district bringing in resources and tools for these students, the school is making an impact. Mindfulness is impactful on students and teachers as well. It is so important at this point in time for schools and teachers to introduce different mindfulness methods for their students and even for themselves. As much as the focus is on the young students, it is also important to acknowledge teachers, administration and staff.
People who work in schools, no matter the job title have some of the hardest jobs in the world and it is so easy to get burnt out or feel like you can no continue on. I have felt this way before with both school and work. I work as a nanny/babysitter and probably interact with more children under the age of 8 than people my own age. Which don’t get me wrong is so enjoyable for me being that I love kids. But, it can get really exhausting and there are days where I don’t feel like going to work or don’t feeling like dealing with all of the things I need to do. It is important for adults to focus on their well being and mindfulness as well. I had the opportunity to download and use the app, Headspace. This app is a free mindfulness app that offers different ways to promote and use mindfulness. One of the features that I loved the most during the week was the music playlists that it gave me. I love my solo time in the car on the way to work or to campus where I can just relax and listen to music. The music that is on the app was so relaxing and really helped me to destress. There were so many different types of playlists that I was able to use, Breathing playlists, organizing thoughts playlist and even a study playlist to help me focus. I really enjoyed using this app and have actually continued to use it because of how great it made me feel.
I have been saying this whole blog that it is so important to include mindfulness in the classroom and as a future educator I can not wait to do that and make a difference in my students’ lives. In an article by KQED Mindshift, it says to “Think of Daily Mindfulness Interventions” as one of the points(Schwartz, 2019). It goes onto to explain how it is so easy for teachers to implement mindfulness into the routine of the day. It can be as simple as asking how your students are feeling or by having some sort of dance break, brain break or meditation for five minutes. It is that simple and it is so effective/impactful on the students. In a school in the Harlem, the principal has implemented a mindfulness program that uses the ideas from the Yale RULER program. One of the aspects of the program is the “mood meter”. This is used to help students more accurately describe their feelings without using generic answers such as “I’m sad or mad”. Principal DeCosta states,” You want them to be able to better pinpoint how they feel, and the mood meter is a square with these quadrants that are different colors and show how much energy a student has at a given moment and how pleasant they’re feeling“(Robinson, 2018). This is just another example of a simple way to implement mindfulness into the classroom. I might even steal this idea for my own future classroom.
I usually write relatively long blogs but this one is especially long due to how prominent the topic is. Mindfulness is especially needed during these more rigorous and hard times for students. It is so easy to take little steps and do little things that could really help the mindfulness of students. Same thing goes for teachers, teachers are worked so hard while not getting paid a proper amount of money. Teachers do so much and get so little, it is so easy to become burnt out. Mindfulness is just one simple step that can be taken by school districts across the country in order to better the lives of students and teachers.
References:
Schwartz, K. (2019). Nine ways to ensure your mindfulness teaching is trauma informed. KQED Mindshift.
Robinson, S. (2023, November 9). Meditation and mindfulness: How a Harlem principal solves conflict in her community. Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2018/7/16/21105342/meditation-and-mindfulness-how-a-harlem-principal-solves-conflict-in-her-community/
Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Mindful Schools
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