TRANSCRIPT: 3 Tips for Bringing Mindfulness into Your Classroom (feat. Jodie Kleymeer from Lake Shore Public Schools)
6:56PM Mar 22, +0000
Speakers:
Nikki
Jodie
Keywords:
mindfulness
students
positivity
people
class
kids
classroom
teacher
hear
feel
taught
thought
sharing
talk
pandemic
struggling
day
learning
skills
read
If you go around constantly pretending that everything is sunshine and roses, you are not at all processing and facing some of the things that are going to come back to haunt you and your mental health. So to me, truth is how you straddle that line between positivity and toxic positivity. If people ask me how I'm doing and I'm having a rough day, I tell them I'm having a rough day. I'm honest about it. I think where people get confused is, they feel like you can't tell the truth that you're having a rough day and that is false. The thing of it is, you don't want to just dwell on it. That's where you can get into that negative tivity and that holds you back. If you're going to be honest about what your emotion is or what you're feeling at that moment. That leaves you room to process that emotion. Effectively.
I'm Nikki Herta. And this is bright stories of hope and innovation in Michigan classrooms, a podcast where we celebrate our state's educators and explore the future of learning. Bright is brought to you in part by Meemic insurance company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years, teachers and school employees visit meemic.com/quote. To see how much you can save these episode of bright I chat with Jody claimair, a media specialist for Lake Shore public schools who teaches a help desk class for students. Jody shares her own journey and discovering mindfulness in the midst of the pandemic explores the relationship between mindfulness positivity and mental health and shares three tips for bringing mindfulness into the classroom. All right, Jodie. Well, it's a pleasure to have you on the BRIGHT podcast today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Oh, thank you, Nikki, this is very exciting.
Yay. We've been kicking off the season by asking everybody, can you tell me about the most interesting project that you're doing right now at your school? And specifically in your, your media center there?
Yes. So one of the things that some of my veteran students are doing is using a lot of the different Google's applied skills modules. And so they're doing fun things like making these little talk bots and programming them and learning about how to not just create like a safe password, but running it through all these different detectors and seeing if this one can get broken. And yeah, so they're just doing some really fun stuff that Google has pre made for a classroom and, and, and they're having a blast at
it. What kind of skills do you feel like that imparts to the students? You know, having experienced with that?
Well, they definitely been having to do some problem solving skills. One of my students was trying to get his robot to say hi, and it kept saying, Hello World. He's like, I just typed in AI. So yes, they have to do a lot of problem solving skills that makes them, you know, read the text, multiple times and really do some critical thinking to figure out what they're doing wrong. And then of course, they have to have some sort of creativity to be able to program it to do whatever it is that they've decided they want this talk about to do, whether it's, you know, tell jokes or greet people, or whatever they're having it do so
awesome. And this is something you said that's freely available, put out by Google for classrooms.
Yes, I believe that. All I did was Google applied Google skills, and it came up and it has tons of different lessons covering lots of different subject areas and topics. And so you can do anything from just learning how to organize Google Drive, or learning how to use sheets in depth or creative creating a budget. All kinds of really cool things. I know I've had my kids in the past do ones where they're pretending like they're buying a car, but they actually have to look up real cars and figure out different you know, if the interest rate is this much, and if they put this much down, what are the payments and all different kinds of things like that that are very practical. I have juniors and seniors so it's something that They really need to know how to do.
Well. Yeah, that's, that's really neat to hear about that, that free resource that's available that others could use. And to just hear about some examples and the skills that can be imparted to kids through Yeah, this free tool.
I think that's one of the favorite things about my class, my kids learn everything from the Dewey Decimal system and how to reshelve the books to repairing Chromebooks because we have to do that for our district, and cybersecurity and terminating internet cables and all kinds of just very interesting and practical things that cover a myriad of life skills.
Awesome. Well, thank you for what you do for your students. Do you remember when you first wanted to become an educator?
Yes. Oddly enough, I always from the time I can remember, wanted to be an educator, I'm the oldest of eight. So I taught all my siblings how to read and do math. And we played school. Before they were in school, I had them in school. And it just, I don't know, it just happened. But then in sixth grade, our teacher was absent one day, my English teacher and we were diagramming sentences. And the substitute had no clue what was happening there. And so the class was getting, you know, restless and whatnot. And I'm trying to do my work. And I'm, I'll admit, right now, I'm one of that goody two shoes, kind of a kid. And so I'm trying to do my work. And I'm getting frustrated, because the behavior in the class is becoming quite unsettled. And this teacher has no idea what she's doing well, because she's not a teacher, she was a bus driver actually was substituting. And so
you get up there and teach she,
she literally said, is anybody know how to do this? And I said, Yes, because I had yelled at the kid behind me. Like, if you're not going to do this, please be quiet. So I can work, you know, hos kind of a deal. And then she said, You know what, what we're doing here. And so I went over to the desk to show her and she clearly still didn't get it. And she was like, Do you think you can teach this to the rest of the class? And so I did. And I had them all, you know, take turns coming up to the board and sharing their answer. And that was when I was like, Okay, I have classroom management as a sixth grader.
That's so great. And
I just picked up this lesson, and taught it to the rest of my class. And then when I got back, my teacher was just amazed, like, like, how did everybody understand this and do this, and I just taught him.
I love that. Thank you for sharing that with me. So today, we're going to be talking about three tips for bringing mindfulness into your classroom. But first, I was hoping we could just pause to break down the wire a little bit here. So, you know, I guess what I really want to know since this is something you were nominated because of your work in this area, to talk on our podcast. And so I just want to hear, you know, why are you passionate about bringing mindfulness into the classroom? And, you know, why do you think it's important for students? What can it do for them?
Well, I have to tell you that the initial reason that I was even subjected to this topic was because our district really saw teachers, staff members, I'm sure themselves, and students all really struggling in the pandemic. And so about a year ago, maybe a little more, for one of our professional development days, our school district, purchased all of us a book, James Porter's maximizing mindfulness. And to be honest, I was at a point where I was so overwhelmed, because especially that year, we were completely virtual. And I had my Help Desk class was taken away that year, and I had to teach Greek myth and short story, which was delightful and fabulous. But I hadn't taught in a regular classroom setting for 26 years. And so it was very overwhelming to be suddenly not only teaching subjects matter that I don't know, but teaching it in a completely new way. Because I was never an online teacher, I never was prepared for that. So very overwhelmed. And when they sent this entire book to us, I just thought, Lord have mercy. I'm barely staying alive. And now you want me to read this big book? Seriously. But curiosity got, the better of me,
so often does to teachers. Right?
I thought, well, I better at least know what this is about, in case somebody asks me, you know, so the first quote in the publication says, What starts in the mind, as a negative thought, often ends up in the body, as a very real physical reaction, have these kinds of thoughts often enough, and you can end up with a very real stress related disease. And so that resonated with me, I have multiple autoimmune disorders. And it started when I was young, I had a bit of a rough upbringing. And I just, I really identified with that quote, and so right off the bat, it drew me in, and then the very first sentence really stunned me, because the author says, you know, I rejected this concept of mindfulness, when it was introduced to me 30 years ago, and I thought, okay, that's, like, I was rejecting this before I read this first quote. So, okay, now you've, you've gone ahead and drew me in even further by approaching that skeptic in me, like, what can this do? What, what power is going to have? And he talked about the reason that he kind of thought it was, you know, a little bit Frou Frou was because the author of the book that he was reading had recommended that he be mindful about doing daily things like washing the dishes, like feel the bubbles, and feel the temperature and pay attention to the texture of the plate when there's food on it, as opposed to once it's clean and smooth and listen to the water splashing. And so Mr. Border was just like, don't we have better things to do? Like, can't, why do we need to think about this. But then later on, he noticed that himself, you know, he'd be in the shower. And he'd be thinking, Okay, I got a dental appointment later on the day. But instead of just kind of making a list, it's like productive or something. He starts going on about what what if he has a cavity and he have to get his teeth drilled, and you know, what can happen when I go in there to the dentist, so like all these negative outcomes and things. And so he started taking yoga. And when he was in class, he met this woman named Trish, and long story short after talking to Trish, he found out that she is the Central Park Jogger. Lots of our younger fans are not going to recognize this reference. But in 1989, this woman Trish was taking a jog in Central Park, and she was attacked. And the doctors really gave her. They they called in a person to do her last rites. That's how sure she was in a coma. And they were just sure she was going to die. And she ended up coming out of the coma after 12 days. And she couldn't remember the incident. Her mind had just like, whoop, block that out as a safety technique. And she started doing yoga and she started doing mindfulness. And mindfulness was one of the main things that helped her get back her walking and talking because she when she came out of the coma, she couldn't talk walk or read.
So, yes, So mindfulness is something that she attributes to her recovery in a major way. And when I read about that, that was very intriguing to me. And then James Porter talks about how he went on a retreat with Jon Kabat Zinn. I'm not sure if I'm saying his name correctly, but he is known as Mr. Mindfulness. And apparently, on this retreat, something that was said to him that really sock was that he learned that awareness doesn't get depressed. Awareness doesn't get anxiety, and awareness doesn't get angry. And those were things that he had been struggling with. And due to the pandemic, and all the isolation, anxiety, and depression was something that I had begun struggling with again. But it was different this time, because earlier in my life, when I struggled with those things, it was a very clear answer, why I was depressed and why I was anxious. And this time around, I honestly I can identify a reason. I, it's just there. And I don't know why. And so I'm learning about those mental health issues in a very real way, right now that I never could identify with other people like about depression and anxiety. I never understood it before. Because for me, in the past, it was a situational thing. So I knew like, Okay, once I get out of the situation, I won't have to deal with that so much. And that's what, that's how it came out. But this time around, I, I couldn't figure out the why. And so there was, I felt helpless, like, there was no way that I could stop it. And that really has brought me closer to my students. Because I'm very open with them about my mental health struggles, because I know they're having it too. And I don't want them to feel embarrassed or ashamed or guilty or less than, because they're struggling with these things. So that was the why for me, I felt like if I'm struggling with this, let me try this for a little bit. So I started it a couple of weeks before school. And And honestly, the first semester was just so crazy getting back to school that I still did not weave it into my daily routine with the kids yet i i wasn't sold yet to be honest. And, and I just didn't know how to weave it in there. But after I started doing it myself for a while, I noticed my attention getting a little better. And I noticed my ability to control my emotions was getting better. I noticed that I wasn't struggling with the depression and the anxiety is much. It's not like it's gone away. It's not like a magic pill or something. But it helps me cope. And so at the turn of the semester that we just had three weeks ago, I decided okay, you know what? I'm very fortunate because our school is very much invested in our kids socio emotional learning. We have 100% backing from our administration, on really sharing this with our kids. And I decided, okay, let's do this. Let's, let's try it out. And we'll see what happens. So that yes, so that's how that's how i That's the why. That's how I got here.
I really appreciate you sharing that story. Just yeah, I mean, and even just being vulnerable and sharing that with us. Because I think, you know, probably a lot of people can relate, especially educators in this past year. If you had to give just a brief definition of mindfulness, just your own personal definition. What does it mean to you? How would you describe it to someone who didn't know what it was?
Oh, boy. Yes, because there's all these you know, technical answers and whatnot. For me. It's kind of a lifeline to reaching your own emotion, emotional knowledge. And it's a skill that you can hone like any other skill to help you have more accurate focus, and to be more intentional about things, specifically with relationships, honestly, I noticed that I had been feeling very disconnected to people, like looking them right in the eye and still not hearing a thing they say. So this mindfulness was a real lifeline to me to reconnect to people.
Yeah, I've also been pretty interested in it for several years, but more significantly during the pandemic, I think probably a lot of people you know, when life shut down, and you're stuck in your house, you have more time with your own thoughts, feelings, and you can either kind of avoid them, or you can develop a relationship with them and,
and I'm a single person, so I was literally home alone. Yeah, with SAS, but. And that was fabulous. But you know, they're not great conversationalists. Or
I'm taking a meditation class right now, actually. And the teacher was like, saw my cat and was like, oh, some of my best meditation teachers for cats. That was
That is fabulous. Especially when they kind of like, pin you down. Like you're laying there. And you're like, Oh, I really want to make dinner or I'm, you know, I need a drink. But you will not move because cat Yes.
Or something? So, yeah, so it sounds like, you know, you're it's still pretty new. In your at least, you know, as of the last semester, the last year. Yeah, um, you bringing it into the classroom? But I'm curious if so far, you know, if you get any feedback from students how they're liking it, have you found it having a positive impact on social emotional learning, and academics? Any initial reactions,
so the initial reaction is that most kids really appreciate. First off, I think it wouldn't even matter what technique I was doing. I think my kids appreciate the fact that somebody is caring enough about their mental health to try and help them. So they're very open to this. I don't have any kids that are like, No, I'm not doing this. Like outwardly. I have a couple of kids that are like, Man, I seem to really stink at this, I cannot get my head to focus. And you are not alone, kiddo. I can tell you, when I started doing this, I was constantly, you know, redirecting myself, like get back here. But I'm definitely getting better at it. Now, the more I practice it, and and I you know, I confide in them about that in myself, and let them know that the more you practice this, the better you're going to get at it, just like tying your shoes or playing basketball or whatever. more you practice, the better you'll get.
Yeah, and that does kind of connect. And I was going to ask like, if you've gotten any pushback, it sounds like your students have been super supportive. Your district's super, super supportive. But that's just one question. I've always wondered with like, you know, I see it as like a very, you know, secular thing, and something that's been but I've heard, you know, people have reactions to it because of its affiliation with Eastern religions.
I think the reason that I didn't get any pushback was because when I introduced this, I talked about that was the very first issue that we talked about. And I said, this is not me trying to push any type of a spiritual belief on you. This is me, trying to help you regain a sense of self, a sense of stability, a sense of self control, and a sense of re connectedness. So this is a skill. If you want to put your faith into it while we're doing it. That's up to you. But the things that I'm going to show you have nothing to do with that. So we we put the kibosh on that right quick. And so any type of misconception they had about what it would be was right out the door.
Thank you for that. Yeah, that's helpful. How would you describe the relationship between mindfulness positivity and mental health? And the main reason I asked about the positivity piece is because I you know, in our communications before So you mentioned something about the mindfulness and positivity project. So I'm suspecting that they were linked for you. But I'd like to hear more.
Boy, I don't, this might have been like it was before the pandemic. So three, four years ago, our school began a relationship with this positivity project team, there's a veteran and a professor from U of M, I, sadly, can't remember either of their names. But the idea of this is that you have these 26 characteristics like love and humility and responsibility and kindness and gratitude and creativity, and I can't list them all. But there's a ton of these fabulous characteristics. And then these overarching umbrellas of why other people matter. So, for instance, just having that mindset of being present, and, you know, giving others your attention of knowing that your words and actions affect other people, about being able to positively cheer someone on when they have a success, and not be all jealous about it, or, you know, so all these overarching ideas, and then these scaffolded characteristics underneath. So each week, we have one of those characteristics, or those overarching concepts that we try to just take a look at and dive into, at some point in time during the week. And, to me, that's really related to the mindfulness because the reason that we're doing the positivity is, again, to be more aware of how you're treating others. So that self awareness, so to me, they're very much related. And obviously, the more positive you are, the more positive thoughts you have, the more positivity, and the more that you can hold up your character, the better your mental health is going to be. So, to me, that's how I see all of them. interrelating. See,
that's very helpful. Thank you. Yeah. It's really neat to hear about the positivity project. I think I mentioned this earlier, but I've been listening to a podcast called The happiness lab. And it's very, it's similar. It's a professor at Yale, who started this class on happiness, because she saw in her students, you know, just very high rates of anxiety, depression, you know, yes, quickly turning into burnout,
you know, and the motivation and yeah,
and it was just, like, within, I'm not sure if it was the first semester or over time, but at some point, a quarter of the students at Yale enrolled in this course, which I just think is just wow, you know, you think about that. Like, this is obviously something that our students need, you know, and yeah, yeah, so one thing I was, I was thinking through, as you're talking about the positivity project, right, and I seen that is, I've heard a lot of discussion going on lately, you know, on the interwebs, about toxic positivity, which, you know, typically I've heard described as either dancing around or avoiding negative emotions and favorite positive ones. And I guess I was just wondering with that, with mindfulness with the positivity project, how does one straddle the line between fostering these positive outlooks, you know, incidents, and risking stepping into the territory of toxic positivity?
I think that's a very important topic to take a look at. Because, yes, there is toxic positivity. If, if you go around constantly pretending that everything is sunshine and roses, you are not at all processing and facing some of the things that are going to come back to haunt you in your mental health. So to me, truth is how you straddle that line between positivity and toxic positivity. If people ask me how I'm doing and I'm having a rough day, I tell them I'm having a rough day. I'm honest about it, I think, where people get confused is, they feel like you can't tell the truth that you're having a rough day and that is false. The thing of it is, you don't want to just dwell on it. That's where you get into that negative tivity. And that holds you back. If you're going to be honest about what your emotion is or what you're feeling at that moment. That leaves you room to process that emotion. Effectively.
Yeah, thank you for that. I'm obviously I'm not a student at Lake Shore. But I'm proud and grateful to hear about the work that you're doing to help because that could you know, have a lifetime impact. So, yeah.
That's what I'm hoping. You know, it's funny, we have to write goals at the beginning of the school year all the time. And, boy, I tell you, a lot of the times it's very difficult for me to to do that, because I honestly, just always want to write down something like well, I want to get this kid who's really shy to be able to talk. And I want to get this kid who's very arrogant to learn a little humility. I want to I want some good people. That's what I want.
I'm Niki Herta. And you're listening to bright stories of hope and innovation in Michigan classrooms. Bright is brought to you in part by Meemic insurance company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years. teachers and school employees visit meemic.com/quote to see how much you can save. today I'm chatting with Jody claimair, a media specialist for Lake Shore public schools and teachers a help desk class for students. Up next, we dive into Jodi's top three tips for bringing mindfulness into the classroom. Well, shall we dig into our top three things?
Yes. All right. Let's go. Yes,
so top three practical strategies, you have to offer us bringing mindfulness in the classroom.
Okay. So my top three are probably going to look very different than someone else's top three. Someone else might put, you know, find a quiet location or make a little cozy place. I'm in a big media center. And we don't have that ability, we have to be there for people that are coming in and getting their needs met or whatever. So we we do our mindfulness right out here in the open. So for me, my very number one strategy is to be interested in mindfulness. Have a strong why. You know, there's that adage of kids don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. And I live by that it doesn't matter what we're studying in my class, I like to tell them, here's why you need to know this, that it's important, I'm not just doing this to, to cover something in the curriculum, there's an important there's a need for this. So that would be my number one is to be interested in it. My number two is to share some research. I told you that. The first thing that I did was kind of lay out, here's what mindfulness is not, don't get caught up in this definition over here, because that's not what we're doing. And here is why we are doing it. Here are some of the benefits. So I told them some of the research that I had discovered in this maximizing mindfulness book, and how it actually rewires your brain. And they have brain scans, and they show here's the person who does not participate in mindfulness activities. And here is somebody that does participate in them. And you can see very clearly how different these brains are. And then I shared with them stories about how they would have these monks come in, and they would turn the temperature in the room to like 32 degrees. And the monks could still sweat because yeah, like I mean, they're way advanced. i That's not me. I can't do that yet. I'm not there. But I was like whoa. And then they talked about you know, about the fact that it can Help with the anxiety and the depression. And a lot of things like high blood pressure, and pain. I'm like, Are you kidding me? I'm, I had one of my, yeah, I'd like a couple of my autoimmune disorders caused a lot of pain. So I'm in chronic pain. And I'm just like, Are you kidding me like I could potentially get my mind to blank that out and not be in pain every day. I have to, I have to look into this. And then I watched this other video. And again, I'm so sorry, but I just don't remember who what school it was probably in New York or some big city. But they have an actual class on mindfulness. And so these students that were taking the class, it was really interesting when they interviewed them. They had some very insightful and significant things to say, kids were talking about how they have anger management issues. And taking this course, helped them realize that they could look at this anger. And similarly to what John kabocha says, when you're looking at it, when you're aware of this, it diminishes that feeling. Like you can just look at it and recognize it and be like, Okay, I see I'm angry. And that gives you just enough pause not to knock somebody out. It gives you just enough pause, not to say that derogatory thing, or to be
instigating something, or what, just enough pause, to control yourself, and to keep you out of situations that are going to get you in trouble or land you in jail, or get you suspended, or whatever. And he talked about how you know that, that class just changed his life. And the kids. A number of them were like, this really needs to be a required class, like every student needs to go through this. And so once I saw all those interviews, and it was the kids themselves, who were experiencing it, I thought, You know what, I need to give this opportunity to my kids. And it's, obviously it's not, so I can't do it for the whole hour. But it's something that I can expose them to. And if it begins to work, and if they begin to see a difference, then maybe like me, they'll start to dive in it more on their own personal time, and it can potentially change the course of their life.
Wow. Thank you for sharing that. Wow. I was, I was kind of wondering, if I'm jumping ahead to Tip three, you can stop me. But I was wondering like, so how do you use it? Obviously, you know, you can't do this the whole class. So like, how do you structure this just in your, the time that you have typically on a on an average day?
Basically? Well, yeah, it actually kind of is a little bit Tip three,
then let's come to that.
Let's Yeah, my third tip is kind of a two parter. The first part is exposure. And the second part is choice. So here's where I'm coming from about that. First, what I've been doing in these first three weeks, I've been just exposing them to different types of mindfulness. So some of them are on breathing, some of them focus on movement, or sound, or looking at an object, or positive thoughts, or whatever, there's a myriad of different ones. So I expose them these first three weeks on a daily basis, between one minute and seven minutes to different types of mindfulness activities. So sometimes Yeah, we're in the middle of the library's stretching out. And we look a little odd, but we don't care. And so that's the first part so we're getting ready to tomorrow actually move into choice. So they've been exposed to all these different things. And And YouTube has just a plethora of different guided meditations, breathing exercises. His movement exercises all those things. So now that they know what they like, what they don't like, they can choose their own. So I just give them a limit and say, Okay, today, you, you need to five minutes or less. And then I let them go. And they can go in this corner or that corner because some of them want to be stretching out. And some of them want to be, you know, listening to something, and some of them want to be doing their breathing. And so whatever works for them. And so every day after we do the mindfulness activity that exposed them, we talk about it, and we compare it, what did you like? What did you not like? Okay, we did these two breathing ones, we did a wave breathing one, what did you like, what did you not like? So they, they've been able to have time to reflect. And, and we put it out there to like, okay, one day, a movement, mindfulness activity might be what you need. And another day, a breathing, one might be an another day, a positivity one might be what you need. So it's not like you're going to every day, just do this one, one, I mean, unless you want to, but think about what it is that you need for that day. And steer your mindfulness activity toward that, so that you can get what you need. And so I think, exposing them to the different kinds and then giving them that choice. And I told them in advance, that's what we're going to do. So we're going to take these first three weeks, just so you know, you some of them, you're gonna hate. That's okay. i It's no offense to me. Some of them I hate. So, I guess hates a strong word, but I don't prefer them. But, um, I think giving students the option, and I talked to them too, about the fact that I'm not in your head, I can't make you focus, I can't make you breathe, I can't make you do this. And I don't want to make you do this, I'm telling you, I'm doing this as a tool, because I know so many of you struggle with anxiety and mental health and, and all kinds of different issues. So this is a tool for you, that I want you to be able to take long after you leave my class and use for your own fortitude. And we talked about the fact that some people are going to be better at this, some people are going to be more inclined to it than others. And there are kids that aren't struggling with anxiety and depression who still love this. They love just getting relaxed, they love getting focused.
And so just for everybody, it's a little bit different. And we talk about how that is okay. And one of our positivity traits was Grace. And I talked about how we really need to provide ourselves grace. Because if focusing is something you're struggling with, like I was, I get two minutes into. And I'm already doing a grocery list or Oh, I got to get this thing on the car fixed or you know, all these different things that don't pertain to what I'm doing. And so we talked about the fact that when that happens, you, you don't beat yourself up about it. You just noticed that you've lost track and you pull yourself back. That's all you do. You're not to feel guilty about it. You're not to put yourself down for it. You're You're to just recognize oops, I fell off the path. Let's get back on. And that's it.
Yeah, that's, that's really helpful. I know. Actually, I tried to meditate this morning, and I had that happen to and it's kind of like some days you're like, oh, okay, seven minutes went by. And I mostly thought about, you know, what I had to do today? That was Yeah, cool. But it's okay. Yeah, try again tomorrow. So I wanted to ask one quick question. Just do you have any like tools that are your preferred? I know you mentioned just so you know, YouTube has a bunch. Any other tools you want to share with people?
Well, I can tell you, personally, I'm fairly on the cheap side of things. So until I know something really is working and effective, I'm not going to spend money on it. And so honestly, I have been our school gave us a subscription to headspace. So I've been using headspace a little bit. And then just any free apps. Honestly, there's So many different free apps. And so that's where I'm at is all the fried stuff. This particular point.
I also like Insight Timer. That one's free. Okay. Have you seen that one?
And there's tons of podcasts I listened to Meryl what's just listened to yesterday. And it was really good. The title of it was, we don't talk about Bruno.
My favorite is Tara Brock.
I've heard of her. But I haven't listened to her.
She has a bunch of free podcasts and meditations. I know it's on Spotify. I'm assuming it's another.
Okay. Okay. It's Merrill, our net?
apparel or net? Yes.
And I've got a person from who is a certified mindfulness instructor. And he's gonna come in and do a 15 to 20 minute lesson with my kiddos in March. Yeah, so I'm excited about that. And I want to pick his brain because I can't spend 1520 minutes every day, I, I can't eat up that much of our class time. And so I get the frustration with why a lot of educators probably wouldn't do this at all. But I have a, I have 10 Minute, I'm like, five to 10 minutes. That's, that's what I'm willing to give up and, and whatnot. And so I want to talk to him and pick his brain about well, you know, what else can I do? In that five to 10 minutes. And actually was funny, because as I was brainstorming yesterday, I thought about the fact that I think once a week, I want to bring more of that research component in where I show the kids instead of just telling them about it, like actually show them some of the research. So
yeah, I love the way you've described all this with, you know, bringing in choice, I think, you know, that's obviously, like, so important for student engagement. Even that made me think about like, my own way of thinking about practicing, like, oh, yeah, that's great. If you say, Oh, well, today, maybe, you know, breathing is great today, maybe loving compassion. Practice is great. You know, whatever
your Yeah. As you do the mindfulness more often, my assumption is you're going to be able to read yourself a little faster. And know, my body seems tight. Today, I'm going to do a movement one, or I seem nervous. Today, I'm going to do breathing one, or Boy, I've had a lot of negative thoughts. So I better do a positivity one, or what you know, whatever it is, so I think they'll be able to recognize what they need better as they go along. I really hope that someone else who's listening to this podcast who is hesitant about starting this, in their classroom, can hear from someone who feels strongly about this. And yet, knows very little, I mean, there's oceans deep of knowledge, and I know like a mud puddle. But I'm doing it, I'm gonna walk forward. And I'm, I'm going to keep learning and keep going. Because that's how important I believe it is. For my students.
Can you tell me about a time when you saw mindfulness have a profound effect on a student's life? And that being said, I do know, it's what you said, it's only been a few weeks, but just, you know, maybe profound, even if it was just like, they went wow, you know, and had some realization?
Well, I, I have to say that some of the things that I see is profound might be different. But I have a student who actually has my class two hours in a row. So they had it last semester, and then they're taking it twice this semester. And so at the beginning of the hour, I give them the choice. I'm like, okay, you've already done mindfulness last hour, if you don't want to do it again, you don't need to, but they still do. And to me, for only having done it a couple of weeks. That's it's making an impact and a short time.
Yeah. That's what I was thinking when you're talking about the oceans deep. And then like the mud puddle. It's like, yeah, it does really seem like this is something where, you know, yeah, I'm sure if you got oceans deep, you'd get some real benefits, but you get benefits from
even the mud puddle. Yeah. And I would also have to say that there are times when we're doing mindfulness other students come and they'll just join us. They're not even in my class.
Cool. Can you tell me about a teacher who had a positive impact on your life?
Man, there have been a number of positive influences. I have to say that one of my top favorites is probably Mr. Gormley, he was my physics teacher. And also, I was his aide for one of the hours of the day. And he was like, a grandfather sort of to me. He made me feel valued. He, he, he cared about me, he, you know, checked in on me and, and to me, it was that type of feeling that I wanted to convey. It's, to me, I think the subject matter is fascinating and wonderful. But at the end of the day, the bottom line to me is always going to be about the soul of the person, and how, as an educator, I can affect them, because you can learn anything anytime. Technically, you know, once you can basically learn how to fly a plane on YouTube, yeah, we really can share that type of information quite easily. And so to me, at the end of the day, it's those connections that we make as human beings, and getting our kids to care about other human beings and, and be interested in being an effective citizen of this planet. That's, that's what I'm concerned about at the end of the day.
Without a doubt, it's challenging work, to find ways to fit mindfulness and other social emotional practices into a daily schedule jam packed with other curricular demands. But with leaders like Jody, forging our path forward, this one thing we're certainly set, the future is bright. You know, someone who's an inspiring Michigan educator, you should be featured on our show. Send us an email at Bright at Michigan virtual.org to let us know who they are, why we should interview. Thank you for joining us for this episode of bright stories of hope and innovation in Michigan classrooms. This podcast is produced by Ruby Gaylord is hosted by me Nikki herder, and is shaped by many of our passionate and talented colleagues. Big thanks to Christy TROMBETTA, Kristen de bruleur, Terrence Wilkerson, Anna Boyer, Sara Hill, and Brandon Battista for their contributions to this episode. Right is brought to you in part by Meemic insurance company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years, teachers and school employees visit meemic.com/quote to see how much you can save. The bright podcast is made possible by Michigan Virtual nonprofit organization that's leading and collaborating to build learning environments for tomorrow. Education is changing faster than ever. Discover new models and resources to move learning forward at your school at Michigan virtual.org.