I've dreaded my last period class on Monday every week since the second week of school. Students come in ready to get nothing done. There's a lot of craziness and chaos that fills the room. Some days I'm glad I'm a teacher. Other days, I wish I had a desk job.
Recently, my friend sent me an article on students meditating 15 min per day every day. They found amazing results like fewer fights and calmer classrooms and fewer disruptions. I was inspired. I knew I was going to have a tough road ahead because getting a class full of adolescents to quiet down and "clear their minds" is almost impossible. I gave them reasons on why it would help us feel relaxed after a long day and I let them know it might seem awkward at first. I went through a little prompt I had prepared in my head. "Focus on the breath, relax from your head to toe (naming each body part), breathe out bad energy, breathe in good energy..." Several students snickered and mimicked what I said or some other distracting behavior. I could tell that the kids who had started getting into it were quickly distracted. I then set a timer for 1 minute to simply clear their head silently. Kids were almost bursting out laughing. Afterward we went into the warm-up explanation and a problem set. I pulled three students aside individually to re-cap their behavior during the meditation session. A conversation something like this: T: I noticed that you were really laughing and making fun of the session. S: yeah, i know. I couldn't help it. T: I get it. Meditating can be pretty awkward at the beginning. It's just that when you started laughing it was hard for the rest of the class to have their own experience. S: Yeah yeah sorry. T: Especially you, I feel like you have long days and you can get easily stressed. I felt like this would have been particularly useful for you. S: yeah, i guess. T: But if you really feel like it's too much, go ahead and step outside in the hallway until it's over. S: I can do that? T: yeah, I'd rather you do that than distract the whole class. This week, I put meditation monday back on the agenda. Some students scoffed but didn't outwardly make comments. I went through some prompts about focusing on the breath. The students who I had talked to still didn't buy in but they didn't make any disruptive noises, which helped the rest of the class. After some prompts, I set the timer this time for 2 minutes. I made note to them that we were increasing the time. I asked them to keep their minds blank and still for just 2 minutes. Heck, I felt better after the two minutes. The timer rang, and there was a noticeable difference. Less chaos. I think we all felt better. Next week... THREE minutes!
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