Building a Mindful Teaching Practice
Last semester, I came to know the work of Growing Minds Today, who work with teachers and students to build mindfulness practices. I immediately thought of the powerful connection that we might create between their experience and the needs of our teacher candidates who are in on-the-job settings. More and more teachers nationwide are entering the profession through “alternative routes” of various kinds, the best-known of which being Teach for America (full disclosure: I am a TFA alum myself). These teachers working towards licensure or certification face common challenges and opportunities: on the one hand, they have reduced access to models, mentors and traditional cooperating teacher relationships; on the other hand, they have opportunity to immediately apply what they’re learning in their coursework with whole groups of students.
What these teachers all have in common, however, is that their schools have hired them because they face frequent faculty turnover. “Hard to staff” schools in our region are located in different communities and neighborhoods, but all of them have overwhelmingly high percentages of students receiving free or reduced lunch. In the metro Milwaukee area, these schools cross sectors: district, public charter, private “choice” or voucher settings. Poverty is their common characteristic.
Children and families living in poverty aren’t just encountering food or resource shortages. Research is showing that differential health outcomes are significant, most particularly in the “stress” hormone cortisol (see here and here for more); kids in high poverty communities are coming to school with higher levels of stress and anxiety. Those who serve them also report higher levels of “compassion fatigue” and higher levels of professional burnout .
The leaders of Growing Minds are finding that teachers and students alike report that gaining experience in mindfulness meditation practices help them regain their even keel when the inevitable bumps in every school day occur. Instead of teachers losing their cool, and students entering into escalating conflicts, all can work together to develop more of a calm center.
When we began our first session, my students shared challenges they face on a daily basis. Many shared that their students have challenges with impulsive behavior, conflict resolution, and lack of kindness. Several reported physical effects— body tension, sense of exhaustion, feeling like they sprint all day long.
Over our 90 minutes together, Growing Minds presented about how various regions of the brain work together (or thwart each other, when threat or stress is felt). They modeled ways to find even very brief moments of peace during the teaching day, for example by “finding your feet” as you walk slowly across the room, breating and returning to an embodied sense of self.
I’m very eager to continue for the next five weeks, seeing how we might occasion deep, internal shifts in my teacher colleagues’ work.
