Mindful School Mindful Community

Build a thriving school community that creates healthy, resilient, and successful students. A companion to Mindfulness Practices, this research-backed guide outlines how to teach self-regulation by fostering the five Cs of social-emotional learning and mindfulness: consciousness, compassion, confidence, courage, and community. The authors provide a wealth of practical exercises, strategies, and tools to bring this scientifically proven approach to life across grade levels and subject areas. Use this resource to foster the well-being of every learner: Benefit from exercises that infuse social-emotional concepts and 21st century skills into academic curriculum across subjects and grade levels. Discover ideas for incorporating historical examples of consciousness, compassion, confidence, courage, and community into classwork. Learn ways to assess the five Cs elements, including the research-based S-CCATE tool, to provide evidence for what might seem unquantifiable. Become familiar with different ways educators have implemented Heart Centered LearningTM in the real world. Work with numerous activities and mindsets that foster a mixture of vulnerability and strength and ameliorate trauma. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Heart Centered Learning Chapter 2: Heart Physiology and Heart-Mind Connections Chapter 3: Consciousness Chapter 4: Compassion Chapter 5: Confidence Chapter 6: Courage Chapter 7: Community Chapter 8: Conscious Leadership Epilogue: Taking Heart, Having Heart—Looking to Our Future Appendix: S-CCATE—A Visioning and Assessment Tool to Create Heart Centered Communities References and Resources Index

Where are we now? Where are we going? : preparing our students for an uncertain future / Patricia A. Jennings, Anthony A. DeMauro, and Polina P. Mischenko -- A selective review of mindfulness training programs for children and adolescents in school settings / Rebecca N. Baelen, Michael V. Esposito, and Brian M. Galla -- Turn and listen : strengthening compassion and leadership in the adult community in schools / Pamela Seigle, Chip Wood, and Lisa Sankowski -- Modeling mindfulness : principal leadership and development for personal and organizational growth / Eleanor Drago-Severson and Jessica Blum-DeStefano -- Embodied teacher mindfulness in the classroom : the calm, clear, kind framework / Cynthia Taylor, Patricia A. Jennings, Alexis Harris, Deborah L. Schussler, and Robert W. Roeser -- Cultivating passion for practicing and teaching mindfulness : a multiple-case study of compassionate school project teachers / Polina P. Mischenko and Patricia A. Jennings -- The school counselor : change agent and collaborator for holistic student well-being / Rebecca L. Tadlock-Marlo and Meghan Damler -- Creating mindful and compassionate schools : including parents as partners / J. Douglas Coatsworth, Melissa Ward George, and Aimee Kleisner Walker -- Finding peace in chaos : mindfully prepared public school teachers / Richard C. Brown and Elizabeth Grassi -- Being in school transformation : toward equity and social justice / Velma L. Cobb.

With this guide to mindful practice, teachers new and experienced can learn how to use mindfulness in their own professional and personal lives as well as how to incorporate it in their teaching to support student wellbeing.

Do you want to help your students develop their social and emotional skills? Do you want to help build a whole school approach to mindfulness and wellbeing? The Mindful Teacher’s Toolkit gives you clear directions to develop mindful practices and ideas for how to integrate these into your teaching. The book contains detailed guidance on how to work with different age groups, from 4-18 years, and looks at whole-school approaches through specific subject areas and implementation strategies. Designed so that you can dip into each chapter, all of the activities are adaptable by language, tone and content so that you can apply and personalise them to your teaching. The combination of expert advice, teaching tips, reflections, activities and real-life examples provides you with everything you need to be able to develop your own mindful classroom and contribute to improving wellbeing in your school community.

This book provides original ideas and practical recommendations for educators in a post-pandemic world. We live in a world that has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students around the globe have been besieged by disruptions that threaten not only their academic learning but also their mental, emotional, and interpersonal well-being. In the midst of pressing and mounting challenges, how can schools ensure the total wellness of all their students? Beyond reactive, piecemeal, and short-term measures, how can schools enact mindful education that pays attention to wholeness in every student? Extending the current research on well-being and mindfulness, this book draws insights from Confucian and Christian traditions. These two traditions have been selected as they are widely seen to represent, and have impacted, Eastern and Western civilisations respectively for millennia. Informed and inspired by Confucian and Christian perspectives, this book proposes that mindfulness is an orientation towards wholeness, where one experiences he (harmony) and shalom (peace). Mindful education is realised through: A school community of ren (humanity) and agape (love); A transforming curriculum that centres on dao (way) and imago dei (god’s image); Empathic teachers who are motivated by shu (putting oneself in the other’s place) and the Golden Rule (do to others as you would have them do to you); and Self-directed learners who develop themselves through xiuji (self-cultivation) and spiritual disciplines. Applying ancient wisdom to contemporary settings, this book on promoting student well-being through mindful education is a useful resource for policymakers, educators, researchers, and general readers.

With foreword by Paul Liabenow Build compassionate classroom environments and mindful schools that prioritize high levels of achievement and high levels of well-being. Based on the latest neuroscience research, Mindfulness Practices details how mindfulness in schools can lead to new, improved ways of educating, learning, and living. The book's mindfulness exercises are easily adaptable across grade levels -- from prekindergarten through high school -- as well as across urban, suburban, and rural school settings. Mindfulness exercises and trauma-informed practices for a positive learning environment: Explore the theory behind mindful education, including the interrelated nature of physiology, cognition, emotions, and mindfulness. Learn how mindfulness contributes to a positive mindset, alleviates the impact of toxic stress, and takes advantage of neuroplasticity. Understand the effects of trauma and ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) on student behavior and the ability to learn, and discover methods of healing. Acquire research-based mindfulness practices, including breathing exercises, yoga for the classroom, meditation for students, and cognitive reflection and awareness. Reignite the passion that first drew you to education and prioritize self-care for yourself and your students. Discover how to build a heart-centered learning community in classrooms and schools. Contents: Introduction: Imagine Flourishing With Focus Part I: Recognizing the Urgency Chapter 1: Why Mindfulness; Why Now Chapter 2: Mind and Body-Brain Connection Chapter 3: Executive Function Part II: Getting Practical Chapter 4: Breath Chapter 5: Yoga Chapter 6: Meditation Chapter 7: Sensation, Presence, and Emotion Part III: Changing School Communities Chapter 8: Mindful Instruction for Teachers Chapter 9: Mindful Leadership for Administrators Epilogue: Sharing Vision and Leadership References and Resources Index

Copublished with Mindful Schools “Effectively sharing mindfulness with teenagers depends on distinct skill sets . . . done well, it is incredibly joyous.” Matthew Brensilver, JoAnna Hardy and Oren Jay Sofer provide a powerful guide to help teachers master the essential competencies needed to successfully share mindfulness practices with teens and adolescents. Incorporating anecdotes from actual teaching, they blend the latest scientific research with innovative, original techniques for making the practices accessible and interesting to this age group. This text is an indispensable handbook for mindfulness instruction in its own right, and a robust companion volume for teachers using The Mindful Schools Curriculum for Adolescents. Also available as a two-book set.