To help encourage conversations and dialogue about strategies for becoming more mindful and ‘less stressed’, our topic/question for the week is: Share a strategy or ‘step you are taking’ to be more mindful, present in the moment, pay attention, and ‘less stressed’? Be specific. Practicing Presence (Week of 2/3-2/7) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
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The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
Turning the page of the calendar to the month of February felt momentous this weekend - in some ways, January can feel like a long month! It was lovely to gather together on Friday as a staff for our ‘delayed holiday get-together!’ We had a sports-filled weekend with the kids between basketball for the boys and the TVL swim meet for Maggie, and ending with the Super Bowl!
"The best way to create stressed out miserable kids is to surround them with stressed out miserable adults. But the best way to create mindful and compassionate kids is to surround them with mindful, compassionate adults.”
-- Chris Willard (@drchriswillard)
Last Wednesday Katie and I attended a presentation/talk with Dr. Chris Willard, entitled ‘Raising Resilience: A Mindfulness Presentation for K-12 Parents and Caregivers’. It was hosted by Dover-Sherborn’s Challenge Success team, and it was excellent. The words above were one of his opening slides and they really ‘hit home’ for me. I have heard similar analogies before (putting on our own oxygen masks), but for whatever reason (could be the timing or just where my head/reality is at) these have resonated and stuck with me. In an effort to take his words and the message within to heart in regards to a goal I have for myself, I am keeping it brief this week to make room for my own presence in other places this weekend. I look forward to sharing and discussing some of the learning, strategies, and science that was shared that evening - for now, I am highlighting some notes from Dr. Willard’s talk, a few responses from last week’s topic/question, and some words from Langston Hughes as we begin Black History Month...
Dr. Chris Willard - Raising Resilience: A Mindfulness Presentation for K-12 Parents and Caregivers’
(@drchriswillard)
- Kids are naturally mindful
- How can we as adults model how to reconnect?
- We often tell kids to ‘pay attention’ - do we teach them ‘how to pay attention’?
- Our minds are wandering 47.8% of the time
- Science shows we are happier if we are ‘in the present moment’
- ‘I’m having a thought that I can’t do this…’ rather than ‘I can’t do this…’
- Teens are the most stressed out group/cohort
- Important to distinguish physical threats vs emotional threats
- Our breath is like a remote control (recommendation is to try and take 4 to 6 breaths per minute)
- What do feelings feel like? (listen to a sad song, angry song, happy song)
- We need to practice single-tasking, not multi-tasking
- Neuroplasticity - ability for our brain to change over one’s life (neurons that fire together, wire together)
- What am I doing? How do I know I am doing it?
- Listen to your favorite song - what does that feel like?
- Listen to your favorite song - what does that feel like?
- Resilience - building a response system
Responses from Our Last Topic/Question (Week of 1/26/20): What helps you to see something (i.e. an idea, perspective, concept, belief) differently or ‘in a new light’?
- Slowing down
- Taking time to reflect
- Listening
- Asking questions
- Taking a risk to ask a teacher if I do not understand something
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Enjoy the week and take care.
Nat