From Peaceful Piggy to Mindful Monday: Mindfulness at Dawson

Hello Everyone,

 

I hope you are having a great weekend.  It’s difficult to believe we are heading into Winterim, then spring vacation, and then the final stretch of the year, which always seems to fly by.  This year has been extraordinary.  Dawson is filled with a palpable energy that permeates every classroom and hallway.   I’ve been busy interviewing candidates for various positions, and the comment that comes up over and over is the strong sense of community and positivity that these people notice when they come to our campus.  It’s a fantastic place to be!

 

Upon our return from spring vacation, we are lucky enough to have Daniel Rechtschaffen visiting Dawson, first to spend a day with faculty, and then to speak in the evening to Dawson families and the public in general.  I am excited to hear from him on the effectiveness of daily mindfulness practice, and I know he will provide guidance to us as we continue to incorporate mindfulness into our day at Dawson.

 

As you know, we have been working to make mindfulness a daily part of our lives this year.  Our lower school teachers are using morning meetings and several other times during the day to practice mindfulness, thus empowering students to recognize and manage their feelings more effectively.  In fifth through twelfth grade, teachers are finding time each day (usually during the second period of the day) to show students a variety of ways to practice mindfulness.  I asked teachers to share with me how their practices are going, and some of what I learned from them is below. 

 

At the beginning of eighth grade history teacher Greg Hansen’s second period class each day, students walk into a dark room with calm music playing.  Greg instructs them to sit at a desk, keep their feet on the ground, keep their hands on the desk, and relax.  Once students are settled, he projects calming images from nature on the board for them to observe while listening to the music.  Some examples are a maple leaf accumulating snow or an underwater reef.

 

Eighth grade English teacher Cinnamon Lopez has introduced several different mindfulness activities with her second period classes, allowing the students to determine what works best for them.  Their favorites include mindful coloring and walking the labyrinth.  They have also completed a variety of art projects, including coloring paper skulls during Day of the Dead, creating snowflakes in the winter, and now making tissue flowers.  The bonus is that Cinnamon then displays the artwork in her classroom, bonding the different classes together in their efforts to mindfully create artwork.  Cinnamon’s classes have embraced mindfulness in many ways, so much so that one of her classes, when determining a saying that represented their class, came up with, “Can we do mindfulness?”

 

Our fourth grade teachers practice mindfulness in a variety of ways almost every day with their students.  Whether they are guiding students through a visualization exercise, walking the labyrinth, or doing some mindful coloring, students get a chance to focus and be present.  Several parents reported at conferences that their children have begun initiating mindful practices on their own.  What a wonderful result!  When kids can recognize their feelings and understand that they need to create space and time to step back from a situation, they are learning how to accept and eventually overcome challenges.

 

Middle and upper school librarian Cindy Knight begins every fifth grade library class with a mindfulness activity.  A particular favorite is sound focus technique, which also works well in the middle of class if students are losing focus.  The class has become so accustomed to the mindfulness practice that when Cindy forgets to do it, students immediately remind her!

 

Our kindergarten class has introduced mindfulness in several ways to our youngest students.  A meditation tent sits in the kindergarten class and is open for students to use whenever they are feeling overwhelmed with emotion.  They have learned and regularly practice different breathing techniques, including starfish breathing, volcano breathing, and lion’s breath.  After reading books such as Peaceful Piggy Meditation and Moody Cow Meditates, students made their own glitter jars, for which they put in different colors that represented their different feelings.  They practiced shaking up the jars and then sitting and watching the glitter settle.  During snack time, they have a “golden minute,” when they practice mindful eating – this was something the students came up with on their own!

 

In our kindergarten, first, and second grade classes, teachers have instituted mindfulness experiences involving reading books about and discussing issues related to social emotional learning.  Students get a chance to talk about what it means to be a part of a community and how their actions affect those around them.  After these discussions, they finish with a mindfulness activity, allowing students time to reflect on what they have been discussing.

 

There are many more examples of mindfulness being used each day.  Hopefully these glimpses have shown the commitment that Dawson’s faculty has to making mindfulness a part of every student’s day.  I’m looking forward to the first day of Winterim for the Lower School.  It’s called “Mindful Monday” and is filled with activities that allow students to practice mindfulness in a multitude of ways, including yoga, an art project, creating tote bags, walking the labyrinth, and making a “box of joy.”  It will be a day for students to be fully present.  It will be great!

 

As we encourage our students to practice mindfulness, I encourage you to do the same.  I find it difficult to set aside time myself, but whenever I do, I find myself in a much better state to face the day.  By taking time, I’m actually saving time.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and spring vacation, and I hope to see many of you on Monday, March 28, to hear Daniel Rechtschaffen speak. 

 

Take care,

Heather