A Teacher's Ruminations

The first day back to school after a break is always hard. This is especially true if the vacation was a long one. First of all, not all of the kids come back at the same time and those that are present are either sleepy or just very quiet. And, even though I want to hit the ground running, that isn't always advisable because I might not get the results I'm looking for if I do. So, the second day is always welcomed because it feels like my students and I just passed a test and we can breathe a sigh of relief. The first round is over. Now, we're back in our groove. Nevertheless, I decided to try out a few new ideas I'd been reading about during the winter break. You can read about that here .  First of all, I started doing some brief meditation exercises with a focus on breathing, relaxing and being quiet for just a minute or two. This is called the Core Practice in the MindUp Curriculum written by The Goldie Hawn Foundation and published by Scholastic. I think it ha...

I did a lot of professional reading and thinking during the winter vacation. And, although I started writing this post before school started and am only publishing it now, it details some of my thoughts on this professional reading. This is a good exercise for me now that we're about to enter our third week back to school and I've actually tried out some of these ideas in my class. This post is preceded by one tomorrow in which I describe in a little more detail how I implemented these ideas and what happened as a result. (1) I am going to teach my students a 3-minute meditation practice during transitions. This is a precursor to implementing the Goldie Hawn Foundation MindUp curriculum that teaches kids about the brain and how to manage their reactions to a variety of daily events. I will do these 3-minute meditations for a couple of weeks before launching into the curriculum itself. This is the first time I'm teaching this so I'm a little nervous. (2) I am going to t...