Be fully present in the moment. Pay attention to your surroundings. Don't give up. Focus on the positive. Know that you always have more to learn. Grow your brain. Learn from your mistakes. These are all things we want our students to grow up to be, but waiting until they become adults is too late. We need to create classrooms that are mindfully calm, positively reflective, and continually resilient. Not only do we teach our students how to do this, we must model it in our own life and in our classroom climate. Over the years I've been learning about all of the ways positive psychology and eastern mindfulness practices can affect our lives. As an educator, I quickly made connections to the classroom. Because of the underlying psychology and biology behind all three of these things, I've begun to see them as woven together into one. Forgive me if I use them interchangeably. I'll try to address each separately, then bring them together in the end. Hang with me to see how you can use these practices in your classroom to make it as comfortable as it can be. Resilience (grit)
I always told my students I expected a lot of them. I raised the bar. I communicated what I would and would not accept from them. I told them and modeled what I would and would not allow. And I followed through. The coach in me rarely accepted their meager excuses or whining. I was hard core intimidating in the most loving and supportive way possible. I've been told I'm complicated :) But it works. When students see a passionate teacher who gives them (appropriate) challenges and helps them rise above, they will continue to grow and get "grittier." It's an ugly way of saying I helped challenge them and helped them meet those challenges head on. I believed in them, so they believed in themselves. I love the idea of productive struggle. "Try again." or "Not quite yet." or "I know this must be frustrating. What else can you try?" or "I see that you're ready to quit. Can we come back to this in two minutes? I bet your brain just needs a break." It's amazing what a little compassion, empathy, and facilitation can do. Don't let them off the hook. Don't helicopter and try to save them from all the trials that could ever challenge them. Let them struggle. Then help them overcome. Growth Mindset (positivity)
Mindfulness (Presence)
The main things about a comfortable classroom are positivity, trust, and respect. We do this by modeling, creating, and encouraging students. Cultivating resilience, mindfulness, and growth mindsets makes them better students. Eventually it will make them better spouses, parents, and citizens (I'm trying to teach my husband... but he's not cooperating... ) But more importantly, it will make them healthier and happier with themselves. With the rise of bullying, depression, anxiety, divorces, and suicides, there is no more important job than this. It is my belief that everyone's responsibility is to make the world a better place. And when you are responsible for so many young minds and futures, having a comfortable classroom is absolutely essential for learning.
For my next set of blogs I'll talk about making our classrooms challenging as well as comfortable. Higher order thinking, conceptual learning, construction of knowledge, discussion or problem-based classrooms... tons of strategies in store!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA midwest teacher in love with creating awesome opportunities for students to think, communicate, and produce. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Comfortable-Classroom
Archives
August 2023
Categories |