NAIS: Mindfulness in the Classroom Workshop

I just attended an amazing mindfulness workshop at the NAIS convention.

The most simple activity, and one that will greet my students Monday morning is this eight word breathing accompaniment:

In out
Deep slow
Calm ease
Here now

Here are some links to explore that were featured in the presentation:

friendscouncil.org

contemplativemind.org

thehawnfoundation.org

soryuforall.budsa.org/mind-the-music-1/

susankaisergreenland.com

shinzen.org 

www.young-eisendrath.com

basicmindfulness.org

thehawnfoundation.org

These were focused on mindfulness in schools:

mindfulschools.org/schools

learningtobreathe.org/content

mindandlife.org/research-initiatives/mlern1/

They read the poem "So Much Happiness" by  Naomi Shihab Nye through twice and and then asked us to  dwell in our visualization of happiness.
My visualization was an enclosed illuminated orb/pod... which upon reflection looks a lot like Lady GaGa's red carpet egg. Not sure what thy says about my quest for happiness.

They recommended taking a MBSR course which I am going to try to do at UMass Medical Center this spring.

All the anecdotal evidence was that students love doing quick centering breathing exercises. There were tons of stories from kindergarten through high school about how students have been responding to the stress relief, increased ability to focus, and even improvement in executive functioning associated with mindfulness practice.

I am going to have buy one those bells that ring for a long time and really get into it!

NAIS Annual Conference: Speed Innovating!

I just attended the Speed Innovating event at NAIS Annual Conference in DC.  Each person attending got to participate in three rounds of ten minute presentations.  I sat in on the following:

·      Million of Ideas in 600 Seconds”  Google Apps at Your School

·      IDiscover21C – Report from a school in Georgia that switched to iPads for all students and faculty

·      Building a Personal Learning Network Using Twitter

Round 1:  The Google Apps presentation was valuable for me to think about how I can extend the way I currently use Google Apps with my students.  I want to set up a custom search option, to streamline the way my students typically use only .edu, and .org sites for their research. Additionally, I want to begin to use the Forms app to do some of the survey and polling technology I have been looking outside of Google to utilize.

With the use of the Marketplace, the same could hold true for bibliography generators, audio/visual editing, and other aspects that we are piece-mealing from the web and in some cases paying for.

What stuck with me is how much flexibility and customization can happen within a school Google account and all for free. Different grade levels can have access to any combination of apps (mail, chat, docs)

Round 2:  The discussion about switching to iPads sounded like it has been a success but the presenter did acknowledge that demand for the laptop cart has increased in the second half of the year.  The debate about laptops, netbooks, and iPads is really unresolved in part because the utility of the iPad is emerging every week.   The combination of one-to-one iPads and a cart of laptops seems to be a great solution/plan for constant accessibility and a high level of student engagement.

The discussion was titled iDiscover because the students and faculty were in unknown territory and, in their case, it lead to empowered students and some significant innovation.  He said the consumer/producer ratio has been about 20/80 so far this year.

Round 3:  I found it helpful that the presenter (@Foleysquared) pointed out the use of #-marks and lists to aggregate tweets.  He also did a great job of outlining whom you want to follow and safeguards against getting spammed.

He also had a great analogy about twitter being like a stream.  It is always there and, if you select the people you follow carefully, the stream is always full of something you would like to catch.