Mindfulness at Burke's 2024

Angelo was a wonderful presenter and I loved his thoughtful modeling of how mindfulness can be practiced. I especially appreciated his slides on how human brains are influenced by a mindfulness practice, including presenting research on mirror neurons. I had read a study a few years ago about how reading fiction and building empathy for characters activates a similar mirror neuron reaction for fictional characters, which theoretically could build empathy for people/populations outside of a reader's individual experience. Super interesting! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559433/

My group discussed how we use mindfulness in the classroom and ways that we can build upon our current practices to go deeper. Since I'm in classrooms across K-2, I see a variety of ways that teachers (and students) do mindfulness and support students in their mindfulness journeys. I would love to see students be able to use their mindfulness practice when they are feeling emotionally dysregulated, or in need…

After today's morning experience and the afternoon cross division discussion time, I had the following idea:

Issue: In Lower School, two 4th graders each week, write their own prompt with Alice Moore's assistance. This seems well received by the rest of LS - they get quiet and seem to listen and follow the prompt as best they can. It sounded to me like this is the same procedure used in US assemblies but with less of a positive reception (more talking and general unsettledness, or a sense of it being rote and students not really getting mindful).

My Idea: Building from the student -inspired prompts in LS (which could stay the same under Margot's direction); perhaps US could choose a mindfulness theme to focus on for the week or the month - then the mindfulness activities in assembly could relate to that theme - i.e. gratitude, body scanning/appreciation/acceptance; breath work…

In the spirit of keeping an open mind and a positive orientation about Mindfulness and its benefits to our students, I will say that the presenter tried to keep everyone as engaged as possible while also dealing with a crowd fresh back from Spring Break and affected by protests in the area. I think that it is common sense that encouraging our students to slow down and take deliberate moments to meditate or engage in other self-care will serve to help them now and in the future, even if some don't fully understand the importance right now.

Having said that, there are a few scientific inconsistencies that were presented in today's information, and while I might have overlooked one or a couple, there were enough here that made me question whether there isn't some sort of peer review that we should be consulting about the practice of Mindfulness. Several teacher…

I thought that the Mindfulness at Burke training was a good reminder of the value of mindfulness and the importance of setting aside time in the curriculum to consider student's wellness. I also really appreciated learning about other possible types of mindfulness other than sitting still and breathing as different types of learners need to be seen and accommodated in their mindfulness journey. I think more time and effort across the Upper School would be helpful to give each of us the same toolkit to work with.