This
week I wanted to take some time to share with you some resources which may aid in
your efforts to create a more mindful classroom.
Inner Explorer is
a school mindfulness program that can also connect families at home. They allow
a 30 day free trial of the program. This program will chart your progress with
utilizing mindfulness. There is some great informational reading to encourage
mindfulness, including letting you know that research has found that teachers
who participate in mindfulness are 43% less stressed in the classroom!! I have included
a link to a youtube video introducing the program. With this program all you
have to do is log in and press play! It’s all ready for you to use, no preparation
needed. I encourage you to check it out!
If you use GoNoodle
checkout the mindfulness section. I suggested trying the mindfulness for
yourself before sharing with your class. I experienced Bee Breathing the other
day and felt that it could actually be a breathing that hinders focus. Lets think
about being a kid and putting your fingers in your ears and humming, in an
effort to ignore someone. What if a student was doing this and used Bee
Breathing as a cover? I love spending 5-10 minutes of my lunch exploring mindfulness
on my own. Once I’ve found a great one I then start sharing!!!
YouTube can also
be a source of some mindfulness videos. I have found a couple of great
breathing songs that can be fun and calming for students.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mZbzDOpylA
*Great for younger students
Perhaps you simply just want to take some time to relax. EarthCam is a
great site for watching a variety of things around the world. My favorite is
exploring zoos. Watching a panda sit and eat can be rather relaxing.
If you have about an
hour there is a wonderful movie called Room To Breath that you can watch
online. This video talks about mindfulness in a middle school. It shows the
students reluctance in the beginning and over time the progress that they are
able to make.
Mindful Education
is an amazing resource for training educators on how to practice and teach
mindfulness. The link belong has a training for mindful education. Several
parts of the training are free for exploring. I have explored them all and find myself going back over some of the videos to help refresh how I teach
students. For all my spider-man breath fans, this is where I learned it!
I hope that some
of these resources help you as you continue to explore and utilize mindfulness.
I will continue to share resources and mindfulness activities weekly.
As a side note to
all who have made it this far in the blog---test out INNER EXPLORER and let me
know how it is going for your class. If after 30 days it is going well we can
explore the idea of purchasing the full version.
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