Mindfulness in Schools : Airy Fairy or Vital?

I have seen a lot of discussion lately about schools in New Zealand introducing elements of Mindfulness into their school culture and the wildly varying reactions to this. From the parents that think it's great, to those that don't mind to those that think it's taking away from the important stuff (I assume they mean reading, writing and maths...) to those that think it is airy fairy nonsense and those that oppose it on religious grounds.

"Some members of his congregation felt mindfulness was inappropriate for children, he said." stuff.co.nz

I found this notion dumbfounding and did some digging to discover that this comes from Christianity (in NZ). Mindfulness (and hence the resulting self-empowerment) is linked to meditation which is linked to religion (as it is a foundation practise of Buddism, for instance).  Christianity relies on people getting their strength externally through Christ and they see mindfulness as a threat to that (I could spend a whole blog post delving into the validity of this kind of linking but that is not a great use of MY attention right now...).

Richard Burnett is the creator of a Mindfulness in Schools programme to provide a fundamental skill that benefits all people. Training the muscle of our attention - the foundation of mindfulness.
In the TEDX talk below he talks about where we put our attention and how important this is. He mentions his experience and also current research by others showing our mental health and happiness are profoundly shaped by what we do with our attention.


I have to say that I believe, based on my personal and professional experience, that Mindfulness is a crucial skill. This has been a fundamental part of my pedagogy for a long time now. Through my experience  with connecting and re-connecting (especially those) 'at-risk' students with a love of learning (or in the very least a respect and appreciation for it!) and the curriculum.
In the very least it provides the mind the down time it needs to do what it does - sift through a vast amount of information and make connections to come up with unique solutions to our problems and create pathways forward in our life journeys.

I have linked to some more mindfulness resources below (some I have not viewed in depth yet).

  - Just breathe
 - Mindful Schools In-Class Instruction
 - Mindful Schools Curriculum Training - Sample Footage
 - Mind in a Jar - Planting Seeds: The Power of Mindfulness for Children
 - Mindfulness in Education
 - Teaching Mindfulness at Children at Home and In Schools

If you are feeling annoyed, frustrated and overwhelmed with all the things you have to do in your days, you need some mindfulness in your life. It may seem counterintuitive to put aside time to just 'do nothing' - but that time will support your brain to more effectively deal with all the stuff you are throwing at it. Try it yourself, you will be surprised! In the very least experiment with it on your class and watch their learning outcomes and social interactions improve!

Mindfulness is VITAL to enhance personal happiness and success in whatever we are doing to sustain ourselves in this life. 

Conversation for Professional Learning

Part of a question sheet our Principal asked to be filled in this week and part of a bigger conversation on Pedogogy I have been having with myself this year - especially in this latter half where I have been part of some astounding progress that has occurred outside of the traditional school environment/timeframe with some of the most at risk young people I am directly responsible for this year. 

While writing it I was constantly drawn (guilted?) into viewing my response through the 'academic' lens I mention at the start - "Doesn't this sound like I am making excuses for a lack of academic achievement in my students?"

 But actually there is progress, of course, and pressuring myself and my students to conform to the ideas of where they should be created by a government with a traditional view of education as something that produces a rich elite chained to a routine of gaining vast amounts of material possessions and mass producing minions to cater to the needs and whims of that elite.... wait.. I am monologuing (not to mention in danger of digressing!)... you probably get my point.

I am not dodging the question of progress. There is progress (and in many cases big progress and undoubtedly unacknowledged progress) PLUS I truly believe in my heart that the following is the greatest asset to pass on to my fellow learners...

1. Consider the overall progress in learning so far this year. How do you think things are going? 

Learning is a holistic dynamic and learning success, therefore, cannot be fully appreciated through a purely “academic” lens.

 I can see that all Nile Room students’ readiness for learning has increased; they have an ever-increasing awareness of their needs and the importance of being open to learning and putting in effort/work to attain goals.

Their ability to access the curriculum has improved as well as their awareness of themselves and relationship to others. They have a vastly different set of needs (from each other) and have such a tolerance for where each other are at with their own goals.

 All have made important progress in their greatest areas of need. For some this is purely academic and for others it is in learning to overcome (and better understand) their own academic progress barriers and actually allow themselves to progress and enjoy having academic success. 

In the forefront of my mind is preparing them to be happy and successful in the world after school. Writing legibly, reading fluently, knowing three different mental strategies to problem solve and understanding the concept of fair testing are important and certainly things worth knowing – however, I believe, the skill that will inevitably prove most useful to them (and keep them connected to the positive world of learning those important things and striving in their lives) is the ability to manage themselves through adversity, whatever life will throw up, with confidence and self assurance. 

The life experience that forms the foundation for this needs to start here... and now.

Hoping to work on a more expanded form for this blog this weekend (although, like most of my blog posts lately {and hence professional learning} it falls at the end of the never-ending list of squeaky wheel tasks linked directly to National Standards and reporting...).

And just for my own benefit, so that I don't forget later (which probably quite often happens but I forget so obviously don't notice it much...), another key component in my line of thought here is the  lack of resilience/persistence that students are teaching themselves by repeatedly copping out or taking the easy path. Ironic really because if they knew that they actually were employing the very skill they need to make academic progress to actively not make academic progress, they would create the very  life experience they need for their foundation of confidence and self assurance.

Hmm, I need to create a name for that little cycle of irony and start a lecture circuit!

Teach Teachers How to Create Magic...

Behind....

I have such a huge backlog of professional readings to blog about from last year - change team and Maths PD in particular.

This is not helped by the large amount of internet bookmarked articles I have that I have ye tot return to!

I need to make a set time to blog and make sure it is respected!

Save Someone's Love of Learning...

How to Save Someone's Love of Learning

If you give children complete control over SOME PART of their learning, they will not only rise to the occasion and attack their interests with gusto, but they will turn around and approach all of their required learning with a newfound sense of self-confidence and self-determination. They will look for a way to learn that fits their new sense of themselves as people with interests, abilities, and important ideas.

Do you want your children or students to love learning? Don’t say “Here, we know what’s best for you — sit down, be quiet, and listen.” But also don’t just say “Go, do whatever you want.” Do better than that. Support their interests and their self-chosen work fully — with your attention, your time, your space, and your cold hard cash. Invest in their interests. Invest in their talents. Instead of letting them ride in the back seat while you take them on a wonderful adventure, show them how to drive the car. Mentor them to be self-directed learners.

 I am following these ideas closely this year - Term 1 with disengaged learners is tough but I won't give up! Bonding with them is key and with children who have trust issues time is my friend.

Working on a network of resources/support. Finding suitable people to work with students when I have more than a handful is tough.

Teacher Leadership Challenge...

This is a multipart series of posts intended to help teachers grow their leadership practice and ignite conversations about education online and in person. The goal of a teacher leader is to improve the learning of all students through their efforts, collaboration, and influence. The 2014 Teacher Leadership Challenge is a weekly installment activity that poses a prompt on an educational topic or issue. Your challenge is to respond within one week to the prompt via a post you publish to your blog. Responses to the prompt that you publish to your own blog should be around 500 words or less. The aim is to get more teachers thinking globally about their classroom practice and their own connection to the wider education community. 

2014tlc.blogspot.co.nz

http://abud.me/teacher-leadership-challenge-september-6-2013/


EDIT: Unfortunately this arrived to my attention at the wrong time of year to be fully useful!

Māori Cultural Lens Walkthrough

Sonya came through to do the walk through today. Specifically looking at evidence for aspects of Wananga, Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, Tangata Whenua and Ako. I was pretty happy with all the things she noticed in ten minutes - except "Uses Te Reo in the class and encourages learners to speak Te Reo if they want to" (and the corresponding Leanrer side) as I specifically remember when this occurred. I think she got into an in-depth conversation with SP and didn't hear this. Oh well - it's not like we're fluent!

This sheet is great as it helps me to self identify next steps e.g. we need more local tikanga as part of our classroom culture. How can I achieve this?

Tātaiako

Wanted to make a note that I am enjoying spending time looking at the Tātaiako document and readings in our Change Team PD with Cat. Using this as a lens on my own practise has been enlightening and rewarding.

The dimension indicators have been really useful in identifying and refining my existing practise as well as  putting labels on the gaps (aka areas I can improve for the benefit of our learners).

My current favourite of the cultural competencies is Manaakitanga as it is all about showing integrity, sincerity and respect; the foundation of my teaching pedagogy! Aspirationally and inspirationally.

Although, to be fair, I think I do AKO best. Lots of teina/tuakana, reciprocal teaching and student initiated learning.

Growth Mindset...

A useful reflection from Change Team PD...

Can filming one second of every day change your life?

Thinking about doing this with my class for a month

When Cesar Kuriyama saved up enough money to quit his advertising job at the age of 30, he planned to take a year off to travel and spend time with family.To document the year, Kuriyama filmed one second of video every day."After just six weeks, I realised I was going to be doing that for the rest of my life," he says.After editing the clips into a single video, Kuriyama had not only a record of daily life, but a new perspective on how he lived day to day.

Mr Parkinson also spotted this article. I had thought of doing it just initially for fun but Mr Parkinson has some ideas for using this as a deeper reflective tool...

How can it impact on your teaching?Well, as Cesar says "self reflection is never a bad thing," which is always an important message for teachers. Can you go a week, half term, year without repeating the same video? Can you always provide an opportunity to capture a special moment each day you teach? Could it be used to record achievements of all your children in the class, regardless of ability? Would you use it to record your class' learning journey? or as a way of documenting successful lessons so you always remember them? It is a task that would definitely make you conscious of your approach in the classroom yet one that would provide a wonderful opportunity to reflect and remind yourself of the great lessons/moments you grant as a teacher. 

Shirley Clarke #2

The reading I referred to last week (from Change Team) is Active Learning Through Formative Assessment - Chapter 3:The Ideal Learning Culture

Dweck is sited a number of times...
I enjoyed the definition of motivation (by Dweck) as not only a desire to achieve but also 'the love of learning, the love of challenge and the ability to thrive on obstacles'. Instilling this to our poppets is one of our biggest barriers I think - merely being a passive model of it is not doing the job for our lot!

I have been thinking about the observation that boys more likely attribute failures to a lack of effort and successes to ability - whereas girls attribute successes to effort and failures to lack of ability.
In our poppets the link to self esteem is more even across the board and not just limited to gender. In my experience here failure impacts confidence in our girls and esteem in our boys.


Clarke's "fixed mindset' quiz was administered to us. In brief it highlights our own beliefs in our intelligence (e.g. do we think intelligence is fixed or can it change over time) - I am of the opinion it can change (I think this means I have a 'growth' mindset. This is my opinion because I remember a time when I was most definitely of a 'fixed' mindset - and I believed that my failures defined me and I was them rather than the belief I have now that they are problems to be faced, dealt with and most importantly, learnt from.

"High self-esteem happens for those with a growth mindset when they are using their abilities to the fullest in something they value (ME: Deep) rather than showing that they are better than someone else (ME: surface)."

Thankfully the reading lists some strategies for developing a growth mindset (for everyone).

• Active modelling - emphasising the process of learning. 
• Actively teaching (and having the expectation) that intelligence can be developed. 
• Re-languaging 'can't', 'difficulty' and 'problem' with 'challenge'.
• Emphasing our own excitement at new challenges.
• Activitely teach strategies for dealing with challenge (p. 23 of the reading)

Specific, repetitive, deliberate and systematic use of these things ensure that challenges and effort are things that enhance self-esteem rather than threaten it.

Big message in the reading - Praising effort and achievement rather than ability or personal attributes is vital!

Many things we say to our students (and children) have hidden messages

e.g. 'You learned that so quickly! You're so clever' = If I don't learn something quickly I'm not clever

Thankfully I have already thought deeply about my comments to students and even recharged again recently due to the Incredible Years programme (which is amazing!). One of the strategies from that is to take pleasing the teacher out of comments and be factual, putting onus back on the students where it belongs.

'Well done, that is a beautiful rainbow, especially the way you have worked so carefully at blending the colours,'

Resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity <--- appropriate at all our ages.

Exercising your learning muscles came from this article.

Change Team

In our Change Team meeting last night our focus was on Cultural Competencies (we are focusing on improving outcomes specifically for our Maori learners and, of course, ourselves).
I found the following video of Anjali's story especially moving - worth checking out! (Next Day EDIT: I have referred to it at least three times today on different occasions!)

http://tekotahitanga.tki.org.nz/Videos/Teacher-stories/Anjali-s-Story-Relationships-Pt1

My particular focus in our small group was whanaungatanga; relationships with high expectations. This is an area that resonates strongly with me as being an integral tool in personalising learning. An important part of improving learning outcomes for all the learners in our classrooms (and I include me in that statement!!).

I can see Anjali doing the following;

• seeking opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with students and their whanau
• displaying knowledge of students' life/interests outside the classroom
• pronouncing names correctly
• power sharing! (one of my favourites!)
• providing a warm, interactive environment
• valuing prior knowledge/students' own real life experiences/cultural knowledge
• making connections between the learning in the classroom and real life situations
• supporting positive student talk (no put downs)

I would like to ask these students if their experiences with this particular teacher will positively impact their future learning with other teachers...(has it been sustainable for their future outcomes, do they think they have strategies from their experiences with this teacher that will support future learning?)

Such an important story to bravely share!

Also from our text, Tätaiako...

‘Whaia te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei’ - roughly, in Shinekorero, it speaks about aiming high (for the sky) so that if you miss and do not meet your expectations you will still hit a lofty mountain!

Celebrating Ourselves and our Students

Creating a culture of collaboration has lots of facets - building trust and positivity around learning can be fostered through sharing/celebrating achievements from our personal learning environments.
Trying to make this a feature of our (small) school's staff meetings.
Will be suggesting/proposing we start this as a feature of each staff meeting and have prepared something to share as a model.

Let's see if it catches on!