Another disrupted week, another excuse not to do any mindfulness until 3pm on Friday afternoon, just before we finished off our Science experiment.
What we did:
Another body scan, following our breath.
What effect it had:
Minimal. The children were about to go home after a tiring week (more Viking related shenanigans leading to mild sunstroke in most of them.
What I'd like to do next:
When this series of Viking days is over to concentrate on having a daily mindfulness session. Perhaps one based on sitting, on based on an activity, one based on walking. I'll need to get in touch with other schools that carry out mindfulness sessions like this and ask them for advice.
As usual, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Hope you enjoyed the sunshine this weekend.
:-)
Saturday, 17 May 2014
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Admitting that I did no mindfulness on here last week made me feel guilty enough to try some this week. It's still something I feel awkward doing, especially with other adults in the classroom. I wondered if anyone (out of the hundreds of readers) have any tips or whether it's best just to ignore other adults and go for it...
Before stating what I did, a teacher friend sent me a couple of links about mindfulness in schools, one of which takes place today!
1 - A showing of a mindfulness documentary in London this evening:
Mindfulness documentary screening in London
2 - A link to a film of how mindfulness teaching changed the attitude of some children in a school in San Francisco Room to Breathe
So, on to my practice this week.
What I did:
At the beginning of Maths on Monday I asked the children to sit quietly, to concentrate on how their bodies felt (their feet, legs, stomachs etc), the sounds around them, their feelings and finally their breathing.
It was interesting that some children found it very hard to stay still and others seemed quite relaxed during the short experience.
There was only one comment when I asked how it felt: 'That was weird! We don't normally do it at the start of Maths.' I moved on to the Maths lesson.
Later in the week (which was really a bit disrupted by a wonderful Viking day and university researchers) the children came in from playtime and I asked them what they'd like to play. They said sleeping lions. So, ever mindful of an opportunity to bug them with mindfulness, this became another excuse for a body scan and awareness raising exercise. Some children, who can play sleeping lions, moved around much more than we would do normally as I was talking to them.
What the results were:
I'm not sure really, as usual. The children produced some really good writing this week on rainforest food chains and some wonderful videos on internet safety. Can I attribute these to mindfulness? Probably not. Did we have a good week? Yes. The gardening was great...
Before stating what I did, a teacher friend sent me a couple of links about mindfulness in schools, one of which takes place today!
1 - A showing of a mindfulness documentary in London this evening:
Mindfulness documentary screening in London
2 - A link to a film of how mindfulness teaching changed the attitude of some children in a school in San Francisco Room to Breathe
So, on to my practice this week.
What I did:
At the beginning of Maths on Monday I asked the children to sit quietly, to concentrate on how their bodies felt (their feet, legs, stomachs etc), the sounds around them, their feelings and finally their breathing.
It was interesting that some children found it very hard to stay still and others seemed quite relaxed during the short experience.
There was only one comment when I asked how it felt: 'That was weird! We don't normally do it at the start of Maths.' I moved on to the Maths lesson.
Later in the week (which was really a bit disrupted by a wonderful Viking day and university researchers) the children came in from playtime and I asked them what they'd like to play. They said sleeping lions. So, ever mindful of an opportunity to bug them with mindfulness, this became another excuse for a body scan and awareness raising exercise. Some children, who can play sleeping lions, moved around much more than we would do normally as I was talking to them.
What the results were:
I'm not sure really, as usual. The children produced some really good writing this week on rainforest food chains and some wonderful videos on internet safety. Can I attribute these to mindfulness? Probably not. Did we have a good week? Yes. The gardening was great...
Monday, 5 May 2014
Ahem, well that wasn't the most mindful week that was I'm afraid to say...
I could make excuses but the fact is that we didn't do any mindfulness based activities. I continued with my practice at home but not in school.
Does anyone have any advice for incorporating mindfulness into a daily routine?
So, as I haven't anything to add this week, I'd like to share some books I've been reading. Not just the the bodice rippers or Stephen King...
The first one that really warmed the cockles of my heart was 'State Schools Since the 1950s: the good news' by Adrian Elliott. As dry as this sounds, it really wasn't. In fact it helped me realise that we teachers are doing a good job by previous standards and by our students. This is not to belittle teachers from yesteryear but to say that there was not golden age. If anything, we are in the golden age so far. Yes, things could be better, but if we step back a generation or two, they were far worse.
If you want a vision of better education systems 'The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence (Corwin, September 2012) is it. I can't recommend this book highly enough to Michael Gove. If anyone knows how to get him to read books, please send him a copy. Perhaps he could learn it by heart...
Finally, and I just picked this one up the other day in our PPA room, 'How to talk so kids can learn at home and at school' is full of comic strips and easily applicable techniques for not praising children. I try to do this anyway (not praising children!, just kidding).
Thank you for reading. I will endeavour to do more mindfulness this week.
I could make excuses but the fact is that we didn't do any mindfulness based activities. I continued with my practice at home but not in school.
Does anyone have any advice for incorporating mindfulness into a daily routine?
So, as I haven't anything to add this week, I'd like to share some books I've been reading. Not just the the bodice rippers or Stephen King...
The first one that really warmed the cockles of my heart was 'State Schools Since the 1950s: the good news' by Adrian Elliott. As dry as this sounds, it really wasn't. In fact it helped me realise that we teachers are doing a good job by previous standards and by our students. This is not to belittle teachers from yesteryear but to say that there was not golden age. If anything, we are in the golden age so far. Yes, things could be better, but if we step back a generation or two, they were far worse.
If you want a vision of better education systems 'The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence (Corwin, September 2012) is it. I can't recommend this book highly enough to Michael Gove. If anyone knows how to get him to read books, please send him a copy. Perhaps he could learn it by heart...
Finally, and I just picked this one up the other day in our PPA room, 'How to talk so kids can learn at home and at school' is full of comic strips and easily applicable techniques for not praising children. I try to do this anyway (not praising children!, just kidding).
Thank you for reading. I will endeavour to do more mindfulness this week.
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