Lately, both at work and within this course, I have been engaged in many conversations about the benefits of reflective practices and ‘mindfulness’. My current place of work has just initiated its first ever mindfulness program. At the moment, being involved in this program is entirely up to the individual teacher and is facilitated by our resident mindfulness coach for anyone who is interested in learning more. In my personal life, I value taking the time to ‘quiet the mind’ and have felt the benefits of taking a moment to shut off the overworked brain. I believe it really does help to reduce stress and facilitates focused attention.
What I see as challenging, is motivating my students to get ‘on board’ with mindfulness activities in the classroom. Since not all of our teachers are open to implementing mindfulness activities into their lessons, it is hard to convince students that these practices are worth spending time on. Many students will groan when I mention that we will be doing a breathing activity or a guided meditation and some will go so far as to say “Mr./Ms. ----- thinks that it is a waste of class time”. I sometimes do feel that we are pressed enough for time as it is, but does course content truly outweigh mindfulness? Most educators agree that teaching and learning involves developing competencies that should include teaching students how to manage stress, how to reflect on experiences and how to explore and engage in what is important to them - how can we facilitate development of these competencies, if as an institution, we don’t view mindfulness as a priority? Should we be reforming education so as to include mindfulness in the curriculum?
Image retrieved from:
Mindfulness | University Health Service. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2017, from https://www.uhs.umich.edu/mindfulness
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI agree, teaching students to be mindful is no easy task. It requires a lot of effort and practice on the teachers parts for students I think to buy in. However, I think a simple place to start for teachers is to bring reflection into the class with their students. Having students reflect on an assignment, a task, a challenge, etc. can start them thinking differently. Reflection is part of the curriculum at our school, and although not easy to begin it now is common place for many students and something the have begun to naturally do. (And to some this comes easier of course.)
Cheers,
Sara
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I like reflection as a place to start. Something a little more tangible for the students to focus on. It is hard for a lot of students to wrap their head around the concept of focusing on quieting the mind. It can be valuable to learn how to focus in on one thing as well.
Thanks for the suggestions!