Introducing mindfulness into the classroom
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Percy Abram, PhD explains how mindfulness techniques can be used in the classroom
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So our mindfulness program asks students to do something that is relatively simple, but that is not taught in schools generally. We ask them to pay attention on purpose without judgment.
How many times has a student to ask a student who is misbehaving in the back to pay attention? Well what we're not doing is teaching them how to do that. So teaching them to pay attention to sensations in their body. Teaching them to pay attention to sounds in their environment. Teaching them to pay attention to the way that their arms feel rested on their leg and sitting with that for 1-2-3 minutes gives them an opportunity to feel stable and stable and set and present in place.
It's not easy for them to do. And I know for kindergartners who are just beginning the practice, asking them to sit down in their mindful bodies to pay attention can be hard. So we offer them some accommodations, some things that they're probably pretty used to. Howe about you lay on your back and close your eyes and think of a color. How about you sit down with your classmates, and if you can't close your eyes just to pay attention, leave them open and just be aware of the silence around you.
It is a powerful tool for getting students to understand the environment, for getting them to understand what it's like to be still and present and to helping them realize that there are forces out there that they can't control. But what they can control is their present state and their reaction to stimuli around them.
Percy Abram, PhD explains how mindfulness techniques can be used in the classroom
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Percy L. Abram, PhDHead of School
Percy Abram is the Head of Gateway School. Gateway School is a Kindergarten – 8th grade independent school in Santa Cruz, CA. Prior to joining Gateway School, Dr. Abram was the Upper Division Director at Brentwood School in Los Angeles. An LA native, Dr. Abram received his B.A. (Economics) and M.A. (Education) degrees from UCLA, and his M.A. (Sociology) and Ph.D. (Education) from Stanford University. Dr. Abram and his wife are the parents of a 10-year old daughter and 7-year old son, and despite running a school and being responsible for 260 students each day, he still finds parenting his most challenging job.
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