AMLE Sessions: Mindfulness in Schools

This morning I gave a session on Mindfulness in Schools. Middle schools in our region are introducing and implementing mindfulness activities. In the spring of last year my colleagues at UNCA and I took two online Mindfulness courses.

SRS - Table H - Mindfulness in Teaching
Dr Nancy Bell Ruppert
Mindfulness in teaching starts with each of us considering our own ability to be present and open. How we convey this to our colleagues and students has the potential to impact our own spirit as well as the culture of the group. Three colleagues participated in two online courses. This session looks at our collective learning individually and shares how we are using it in teaching preservice teachers. 

We talked about the concern of administrators that there appears to be a higher number of students with social-emotional challenges. We are seeing this at the university as well. As educators we must learn as much as we can about young adolescents. An element of This We Believe is that we should 'Value Young Adolescents and are prepared to teach them.' A way to develop this is to consider the needs of students in our classes and to find ways to meet their needs. Research on middle school students regarding Mindfulness is new and a hot topic to consider addressing.

This presentation was about how gaining knowledge on how our own knowledge of Mindfulness practice has impacted us, is being used in our college of education, and we believe it will impact the culture of our department. We believe when we take care of ourselves, we are more likely to take care of those we serve. We also believe that we have to be intentional about taking care of ourselves and teaching our candidates to take care of themselves. By doing this, we believe that those we work with as students and colleagues will benefit.

Active Learning 

AMLE Sessions: The importance of being intentional

This blog addresses the following: classroom management, working with exceptionalities, and technology in middle schools. (Know that people will be responding to your posts and offering their insights and advice.)

In our document 'This We Believe,' there is direction regarding curriculum and instruction. We should include 'varied and ongoing assessments advance learning as well as measure it.' In a presentation this morning at the AMLE (Association for Middle Level Education) conference, a colleague, Hillary Dack shared research on 'effective practice in teacher education.' She talked about metacognition of being intentional with why we are doing what we are doing so that our students know what to do and why they are doing it.

So, one of the things that our candidates are having to do is teach process skills, teach content, teach 21st century skills, and teach students skills that will prepare them for post secondary school. If we are going to teach students language functions (describe, compare, analyze, evaluate...) we must be intentional about what we are doing and how to do it. Are you being intentional?

I am at the conference with professors, a superintendent, district leaders, consultants, and classroom teachers. We talked about how we model best practices in our teacher interactions, and we believe that if we give the Why of our work, we have more potential that our candidates will be more metacognitive and will learn to be more intentional about how students learn as well as the content they learn.

Advice: As a tool for classroom management, consider giving students the what and the why of teaching. At the end of instruction, be intentional about helping them communicate their own metacognition.