Our students come in each day with their own feelings, thoughts, and attitudes. A stressful home life, anxiety over lunchtime gossip, or excitement over the big game often win more attention than our daily lessons. And who can blame them? Increased demands and expectations placed on students can be very overwhelming and often times these demands come with the added cost of fewer recess or physical education minutes.
At a time when so much physical and emotional change is occurring for our students, we are asking them to sit longer and tolerate more. It’s no wonder there has been a significant increase in diagnosed anxiety. So how do we meet the social emotional needs of our students and also abide by the demands of our administrators?
1-2-3 Wellness™
Drew Schwartz, founder of 1-2-3 Wellness™, has created this simple poster to accompany his program that brings mindfulness into the classroom at any age level.
The program and poster teach students to recognize their feelings and provides concrete strategies to help them self-monitor and self-soothe. Students just follow these simple steps:
- Take a deep breath
- Identify how you’re feeling
- Use the suggestions on the poster to honor that feeling
That’s it. So easy! It could be a great way to start or end class each day, or even as a brain break. And during the age of distance learning, it could be an awesome tool for parents as well!
What I like about this program is that once you introduce it, it’s absolutely no-prep and no extra work for teachers. On his website, Schwartz offers trainings that explain how to implement the program on a larger scale, as well as courses for teachers to bring mindfulness to their own lives. The online courses are self-paced and available for graduate credits. They will certainly take your practice to the next level, but starting with the posters alone is also a great option!
Recently, I’ve been feeling sort of down. I feel so rushed with homework and catching up on sick days. Sometimes i just want to go home and take a nap because i haven’t been sleeping very well in the past couple of weeks. Last night, I went to bed at 2 (I stayed up to do homework) and I woke up at 6 to get ready for school and take a shower. Girls also love spreading rumors. Same with boys. School just all around is so overwhelming and in my opinion, students shouldn’t have as much homework if they have to wake up as early as the buses start picking them up.