Hey everyone! This week’s post will cover mindfulness and the importance of introducing it in schools. After watching the video Room to Breathe the impact that mindfulness can have on students becomes evident. The four students the video focuses on, Omar, Lesly, Jacqueline, and Gerardo, all had extremely positive experiences due to the implantation of a mindfulness program. The group were all in danger of being held back due to their grades and behavior, however due to the tools mindfulness gave them were able to make positive changes in their lives. “Their disciplinary referrals all declined dramatically” and “their teachers, parents, and the kids themselves felt that they had more control over their actions” (2012, Room to Breathe). The students were all hesitant at first to the concepts of mindfulness but overtime learned to have an open mind about it and saw the benefits.
I myself was less than siked when I saw that part of this week's module was to download and use a mindfulness app for the week. I chose to use the app “Calm” since when I was researching these apps I saw it had a 2 minute guided breathing feature and due to my insane schedule 2 minutes was all I was willing to dedicate to mindfulness. Similarly to the students I thought that mindfulness and the guided breathing would be a complete waste of time. I am taking 18 credits and I work 6 days a week so I don’t have tons of extra time. However I ended up enjoying the breathing after a few days. I was doing the exercises before work, and I found myself less stressed and aggravated by my co-workers.
I think mindfulness is a great tool for schools. I am currently observing at Freeport high school which has implemented daily mediation between 1st and 2nd period. According to mindfulschools.org “nearly 1 in 3 adolescents will meet criteria for an anxiety disorder by the age of 18”, mindfulness can be used to help relieve anxiety. I think that mindfulness cannot not only help students while in class but also be beneficial to student athletes. For many sports, especially gymnastics, having the ability to put all of your focus into the sport makes for a better competitor. Mindfulness will allow for student athletes to compartmentalize and give them the ability to focus more. Overall as educators it is important to give mindfulness a place in the classroom, it will make the students and teachers days better.
References
Long, R. (director/ producer). (2012) Room To Breathe [film]. ZAP Zoetrope Aubry Productions.
Schwartz, K. (2019). Nine ways to ensure your mindfulness teaching is trauma informed. KQED Mindshift. LinkLinks to an external site
Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Mindful Schools. Link
Comments
Post a Comment