Mindful Classroomstm

Based on the popular Soles of the Feet program, this groundbreaking resource for teachers offers a proven-effective, mindfulness-based intervention to reduce disruptive behavior in the classroom—so everyone can get back to learning. As a teacher, you know that some kids need extra help staying focused in the classroom. You’ve probably also lost countless hours of precious learning time in class due to student disruption. Whether kids are suffering from stress, a behavior disorder, or emotional issues—the good news is that there are real tools you can use to help children manage their feelings, stay on task, and reach their full potential. This book will show you how. In Mindfulness in the Classroom, two experts in the field of mindfulness research, child psychology, and school psychology offer a mindfulness-based intervention to help support a healthy learning environment. Based on the authors’ Soles of the Feet program, this book provides an evidence-based strategy to help you put a stop to disruptive behavior in the classroom, and help kids be their very best. Without early intervention for disruptive behaviors, many students will maintain these behaviors as adults. The Soles of the Feet program not only decreases disruptive behavior and increases teaching time, it also improves the long-term outcome for children experiencing behavior challenges—so they can thrive well into adulthood.

Mindfulness includes qualities of mind and heart; it provides a strong foundation for other social and emotional skills. Mindfulness is making inroads into classrooms, as teachers seek ways to center and focus their own attention as well as that of their distracted students. Trish Broderick describes the particular relevance of mindfulness to the teaching of adolescent students, including its potential to alleviate stress, foster motivation, engagement, and compassion—and ultimately, to improve both learning and social relationships. Her book is a guide to applying mindfulness to day-to-day classroom challenges; every chapter contains authentic vignettes of secondary teachers and students, brief practices to try, and a set of takeaway points and reflection questions.

Mindfulness can be used in the classroom as a method to increase overall teacher effectiveness, raise student achievement, and reignite the joy of teaching and learning. Mindfulness in the Classroom introduces eight mindful principles that support social and emotional learning for teachers and students in today's schools, leading to increased empathy, kindness, self-awareness, integrity, self-control, and honesty. The book provides an introduction and theoretical overview of mindfulness, followed by a discussion of the eight mindful principles. Research-based evidence is presented alongside differentiated teaching activities and classroom examples, helping to bridge the gap from theory to practice. Larger implications for schools and society are also discussed, including a call to use these principles to teach the whole child. Mindfulness in the Classroom offers teachers and students a guide for the journey back to the heart of teaching and learning.

Written especially for the teacher or camp director who wants to bring mindfulness, social and emotional learning (SEL), and the arts into their busy day through storytelling and fun games, this book offers a complete course that helps kids identify and talk about their feelings, self-regulate and self-soothe when stressed, and learn from easy mindfulness practices. Educator and theater director Andrew Nance is the author of the popular children's book Puppy Mind, which brought a new dimension of cuteness to the practice of mindfulness in the form of a rambunctious, playful puppy. In this book, Nance brings the puppy and a host of other friendly characters into the classroom to animate a 21-lesson curriculum centered around lively stories and easy-to-lead exercises for young students from kindergarten to third grade. Nance offers a teacher's guide to arts-based mindfulness exercises utilizing story-telling, theater games, and drawing to spark students' self-expression, self-awareness, and social and emotional well-being.

In today's schools, students and teachers feel unprecedented—even alarming—levels of stress. How can we create calmer classrooms in which students concentrate better and feel more positive about themselves and others? Author Thomas Armstrong offers a compelling answer in the form of mindfulness, a secular practice he defines as the intentional focus of one's attention on the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. In Mindfulness in the Classroom, Armstrong - Explains how mindfulness affects the structure and function of the brain. - Provides an overview of mindfulness as both a personal practice and a classroom methodology that aligns with such educational models as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). - Shares and explains the extensive research that shows the positive effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. - Describes how to adapt mindfulness for different grade levels, integrate it into regular school subjects, and implement it schoolwide. - Offers guidelines for teaching mindfulness responsibly, without religious overtones. Dozens of observations from teachers, students, researchers, and practitioners provide striking evidence of the power of mindfulness and offer hope to anyone who wants to make classrooms more productive places of learning.

Engaging deliberative pedagogy, identity politics, and social justice, The Mindful Classroom offers mindfulness and movement practices to help facilitators guide difficult conversations. Useful in face-to-face and online classes as well as community-engaged environments, this book guides constructive conversations toward positive social change.

A new educational paradigm for youth mindfulness. “If you are a teacher, or an educator, or involved in school administration and curriculum development, the book you hold in your hands has the potential to transform your life, the lives of your students, and the life of the school itself, as well as education in America.”—Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, from the Foreword With attention spans waning and stress on the rise, many teachers are looking for new ways to help students concentrate, learn, and thrive. The Way of Mindful Education is a practical guide for cultivating attention, compassion, and well-being not only in these students, but also in teachers themselves. Packed with lesson plans, exercises, and considerations for specific age groups and students with special needs, this working manual demonstrates the real world application of mindfulness practices in K-12 classrooms. Part I, Why Mindful Education Matters, explains what mindfulness is, the science behind its benefits for students and educators, and the inspiring work that is already underway in the Mindful Education movement. In Part II, Begin with Yourself, we are reminded that in order to teach mindfully, we need to be mindful. Here teachers will learn the when, where, and how of mindfulness so they can effectively embody its practices with their students. Mindfulness practices offer teachers self-care and attention skills that prepare them to teach with greater energy and mastery. Discover how simple exercises can help manage stress, focus attention, develop compassion, and savor positive experiences in everyday life. Part III, Cultivating a Mindful Classroom, explores the qualities of a mindful teacher, the ingredients of a mindful learning environment, and helpful skills for appropriate, supportive work with cultural diversity, student stress and trauma, and varying age groups and developmental stages. Finally, in Part IV, Mindful Education Curriculum, we learn eighteen ready-to-use mindfulness lessons for use in schools. These practical exercises, designed to foster skills like embodiment, attention, heartfulness, and interconnectedness, can be readily adapted for any age group and population, and the author draws from his extensive personal experience to offer a wealth of tips for introducing them to students in real-time. Decades of research indicate the impressive benefits of mindfulness in social, emotional, and cognitive development, and as an antidote to emotional dysregulation, attention deficits, and social difficulties. This book invites teachers, administrators, and anyone else involved in education to take advantage of this vital tool and become purveyors of a mindful, compassionate, ethical, and effective way of teaching.

In today's schools, students and teachers feel unprecedented—even alarming—levels of stress. How can we create calmer classrooms in which students concentrate better and feel more positive about themselves and others? Author Thomas Armstrong offers a compelling answer in the form of mindfulness, a secular practice he defines as the intentional focus of one's attention on the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. In Mindfulness in the Classroom, Armstrong - Explains how mindfulness affects the structure and function of the brain. - Provides an overview of mindfulness as both a personal practice and a classroom methodology that aligns with such educational models as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). - Shares and explains the extensive research that shows the positive effects of mindfulness practices in the classroom. - Describes how to adapt mindfulness for different grade levels, integrate it into regular school subjects, and implement it schoolwide. - Offers guidelines for teaching mindfulness responsibly, without religious overtones. Dozens of observations from teachers, students, researchers, and practitioners provide striking evidence of the power of mindfulness and offer hope to anyone who wants to make classrooms more productive places of learning.