A Peaceful Classroom Begins With a Peaceful Teacher Part One

Part One

Excitement

I was excited; I had just finished half of my yoga teacher training, and was leaving to do some of the home study and project work. http://www.feelyourbest.com/index.htm

I had decided that my work with kids as a fifth grade elementary school teacher would connect nicely with my newly found yoga skills. I had read a bit about Leah Kalish's work with Yoga Ed, and Marsha Wenig's work with YogaKids.

http://www.yogakids.com/marsha/

http://www.yogaed.com/html/press-gaiam.html

I had finished a brain based learning class, which supported movement, like yoga, throughout the school day. I had also purchased and read Creating the Peaceable Classroom which talked about using yoga, breath work, and even Feng Shui in the classroom.

Bothmer, Sandy. Creating the Peaceable Classroom. Chicago: Zephyr
Press, 2003.

Image - © Copyright 2007 Zephyr Press

From what I'd been told, this would be the class that could use it. This was the class I'd been hearing about since they were in kindergarten. The fourth grade teacher who had taught for twenty-five years said that this was the toughest group she ever had. I pushed those comments to the back of my mind. She didn't know - I was going to fix them - with yoga....

Reality

The first day of school arrived. I had set the stage to the best of my ability. There wasn't much Feng Shui desk arranging that could be done with twenty-eight desks, but I did have some soothing music playing. This was soon drowned out by twenty-eight very loud voices. The students were squirrelly as we did our first day activities, but I figured they would settle down as the week went on - They didn't!

I have vivid memories of that first math class. "Ok class; open your math books to page fourteen." A few kids started to get out their books, most kept talking. I repeated, "Open your math books to page fourteen." Slowly, students began to get their materials out, although I'm not sure if one girl ever got there. When it looked like everyone was ready, I began. A child proceeded to fall out of his chair. This was actually a common occurrence in the first weeks of school, and these kids weren't joking around. I proceeded to start again. "Wait, which page are we on?" came a voice. A few math problems in I asked for an answer and explanation. Ken, who had never really sat down, came running up to me, tugged at my sleeve, and said, "Well, you see it's like this..." This thirty minute lesson took sixty minutes. Exhausted by the math lesson, I thought I would pull out my first yoga break. I don't even remember what the pose was. All I remember was that it was a disaster. Kids were goofing around, falling into each other, and one may have even had to go to the health room.

As the first few weeks went by, it continued to be the same. Everything we did took twice as long as it should have. Yoga attempts failed, and along with the loss of academic time, yoga fell by the wayside. I can honestly say that in my fifteen years of teaching, I had never seen anything like it - a group so needy, a group so unable to focus. As I learned the students' backgrounds it became apparent why:

Ken - emotionally disturbed, severe ADHD, basically homeless, abusive father (the family fled half way through the year)

Greg - Aspergers (similar to autism)

John - from an immigrant family, still struggling with language

Sue - mother committed suicide when she was in second grade, dad was in jail

the other twenty-four - very active, with struggles of their own...

Take a Breath 
 
By November, I was exhausted. One night at home, I burst into tears. I can't do this all year, I thought. At that point, I just decided to focus on my own yoga practice for my own sanity. I let go of the need to push myself to achieve perfect postures, or do more difficult classes. I really started to listen to what my body and mind needed. My body and mind seemed to crave deep breathing, the holding of poses longer, and meditation. It was during one of these times of listening that it came to me that this is what my class needed. First they needed some deep breathing to slow themselves down. Then they needed some focusing activities.

I started with Belly Breathing and the Three Part Breath. We were taking the required standardized testing at the time, and the kids seemed to respond well to doing this before the tests. I then taught them the Equalizing Breath. In the long run, this became their favorite.

From there, I moved to focusing activities. The first one I tried came from Creating the Peaceable Classroom. The activity was called The Raisin Focusing Activity. The students basically were asked to eat their raisin, consciously. They were to really look at it, smell it, notice the texture, etc. This activity had limited success, as I got a lot of "I don't like raisins!" The next activity I call The Penguin. It was based on the idea of anchors that are used in meditation - breath, mantra, or a point in the body. The idea is to keep bringing our mind back to the anchor. I was already using a similar analogy in reading class. I tell the students that it is normal for a reader's mind to wander. A successful reader, however, consistently brings the mind back. Now, I decided to try a focusing activity. Basically, I gave the kids an anchor - a picture of a penguin on the overhead. Why a penguin, you ask? My students just loved penguins, so it also served as a community builder. The students were told to focus on the penguin, and that it was normal for their minds to wander. They were told to just gently bring it back. The students enjoyed this activity, and it seemed like a big eye-opener for them. From there, when I needed their attention for a longer activity, I would say that it was the same idea. It's Ok for you mind to wander, but to keep gently bringing it back...