3 minute read
MINDFULNESS IN THE CLASSROOM
By Amanda Wicker
Amanda Wicker | EAST Facilitator at Lonoke High School
My name is Amanda Wicker, and this is my 4th year as the EAST Facilitator at Lonoke High School. This year will be my 20th as a teacher. My husband, Chad, is an assistant manager/biologist at the Game and Fish Hatchery in Lonoke, and we live with our three sons. We have a senior and a freshman in high school and a wild little 3rd grader. We love our community and are very involved.
Recently, our world has experienced some eye-opening issues and events. These hit home with my community, my school, and my students. I found myself genuinely stopping and listening. Really trying to understand the things going on around me that were heartbreaking. Issues that I never took the time to realize were happening, because they didn’t affect me personally or so I thought. But the reality of it is, they did. I had friends hurting and struggling daily. Friends worried and stressing about their children when they shouldn’t have to be. These children are my students, and for me, my students are like my own kids! I wouldn’t watch my kids struggle, and I could not stand by and watch my students struggle to process everything happening around them. This has pushed me to find ways to teach my students mindfulness.
Mindfulness as defined in the Webster Dictionary:
To me, this is something our world truly lacks in this day and age. We are such a self-centered place. If someone thinks differently than us, we believe they are wrong! I want my kids to understand that we all think differently based on our lives, experiences, backgrounds, trauma, fairness, and so many other things. The only way to learn what we haven’t experienced is to listen to others tell their story with an open mind. We have to choose to get out of our bubble. I am planning to have daily conversations with my students on “sticky” topics. Before we can do this, they will need to understand mindfulness and how to appropriately have these discussions. I will teach the process of mindfulness using the online platform, “Nearpod.” This summer, I attended a professional development session about using Nearpod for team building activities with EAST students for blended learning. It is excellent in the classroom as well as for virtual learning opportunities. While preparing to present the information at the annual EAST Seminar — a three-day professional development conference for veteran EAST facilitators —I found Nearpod had some fantastic lessons created to teach mindfulness that are very interactive.
The lessons dig deep into what emotions you are feeling, why you are feeling these emotions, and how to stay focused on the current topic and not let your mind wander to other issues. Often when someone says something to us that we have “always” disagreed with, we want to immediately dig up all of the reasons we have learned to disagree before we ever TRULY listen to why this person feels this way. We have to teach our students to put that all aside for a moment and try to experience what others are bringing to us instead of shutting down. Nearpod has provided lessons that go into this and do it in a way that is as comfortable as possible for the students.
These lessons can be done in the physical classroom or virtually, so we are ready no matter the hand Covid19 deals us. I am planning to have students access the Nearpod lessons on mindfulness with me (teacher paced) at least every other week. I will begin with cultivating mindfulness, then practicing mindfulness, and then we will take these skills and implement them into real weekly conversations. I will also use Nearpod lessons on social awareness and teaching tolerance to reinforce these skills throughout the year. I am really looking forward to having a “mindful classroom” with mindful conversations.
