As I sit in JFK airport typing this essay I am reminded of a phrase that started my journey to bring wellness and mindfulness to our middle school. What do you hear every time you fly?
“In case of an emergency, put your oxygen mask on first before you help others.”
How often do we relate this to teaching? We as educators are charged to inspire, empower, educate, and care for the students in front of us. How do we do that to the best of our ability if we are not taking care of ourselves? According to a recent survey of 5,000 teachers conducted by the The American Federation of Teachers, two thirds of educators usually feel stressed out, twice the level of employees in the general population. After spending my first year getting to know our school and the amazing people that fill it, I decided to start implementing wellness as part of our required 4 hours of PD a month. We had yoga classes, meditation, mindfulness, etc. The sessions were well attended. I was being thanked for offering these classes. I thought this was something that worked and I decided to take it up a notch. I applied for a grant for a book student on trauma-informed classroom strategies, knowing the book focused on self-awareness and self-care for teachers in order to effectively be trauma sensitive in the classroom. We were awarded to grant and planned to really dive deep into this book so we started in January 2017 and finished in May 2018. Together as a staff we learned about trauma and what it presents itself as in the classroom and strategies to address it. Again, we must know ourselves as educators before being about to impact those around us. The book took us through exploring who we are, talked about relationships acknowledging that they aren’t easy to develop but once it happens, the outcome far outweighs the struggle. We walked through our own belief systems about children who have had childhood adversities. These children are forever changed but not forever damaged. It is ok not be ok, we just need to give some grace to those students while still having high expectations. This applies to ourselves as well. Along with the book study we implemented mindfulness into our daily schedule. Every day for 15 min after lunch all students have mindfulness. We trained teachers and gave them resources. By the time our first early release Wednesday came in September (the only day in the month where there is no mindfulness in the schedule) teachers were asking if they could just fit it in because the kids needed it, as did they! I was thrilled! Another product of our book study is wellness PD every early release Wednesday. For an hour, teachers can sign up to go to a coffee shop, play basketball, hold a book study, meditate, do yoga, zumba, go for a run/walk, etc. The point is we value their wellness and want to give them time to practice self-care. You MUST take care of yourself before being able to fulling interact and impact others. After a year and a half, we still have room to grown for best wellness/trauma informed practices but I’m happy with the process thus far.
Mindfulness Video From RMS Students (work in progress but we are happy with the process so far!)