Noisy Focus: Be Mindful of the Beat

Lindsay has been teaching us this year about maintaining focus.

And what is that really?

We are so incredibly focused on multitasking that we just can’t focus. It’s crazy.

And so we’re working a little bit about how to undo that.

When we are breathing, we try to pay attention to where our mind goes. We try to focus on different body parts, and when we lose focus, we notice it, and refocus. Lose focus? Breathe and refocus. Get angry? Breathe and refocus.

It’s really about trying to figure out what should have the biggest chunk of one’s attention at any given time.

And if you’re a teen-ager, it’s even harder.

I walked into the room just this morning, saw four boys sitting at the back tables, each glued to his iPad. They had focus all right.

And now, back to Lindsay.

We did breathing, brought in a little creativity as we all came up with our own movements to breathe, and then we played this game.

One of our students got so excited of learning the pattern that she ran around the room and asked to play the game with almost everybody.

One student knew it would be a challenge, so she tried, and then she hid.

But the important thing is that she tried.

And all successes are just that: successes!

Even breathing is sometimes hard

Partner Teacher Suzy was out Tuesday at a meeting. So I had to go it alone.

Kind of.

Lindsay from Center for Mindful Learning came, which meant I wasn’t alone. But she always comes at the end.

For the biggest chunk of time, I was having students deal with money. We had tried to play a game called I Have… Who Has... dealing with money. Great game, but hard when you don’t know the coins.

We tried it on Monday, but it took a really long time, so we tried again on Tuesday, with the hopes that it would go better.

It didn’t.

It takes an awfully long time to learn money and coins. And so we’ll be working on it again tomorrow, and probably going at it again after break.

So hard.

I remember the first time I went to another country. Currency all seemed like Monopoly money. I really didn’t pay much attention to coins. Only the paper seemed to matter. And the first few days visiting the market to buy chocolate, I remember just thrusting a handful of German coins into the cashier’s face, hoping that I had enough to by my Kinderschokolade. And trusting that she would only take as much as she needed.

I had no idea.

And I don’t want my students in those shoes.

Not when money matters.

So this is our next project. I found some price tags online, and students will come up with the way to make the right change. Then they will have to say what coins they used.

We’re using Explain Everything, so eventually the picture on the right will be narrated by voices telling me what those coin pictures are.

It’s hard to say the names.

Hard to remember what they are.

Our Teaching Assistants–who are really just students with study halls who we recruited to be in our classroom–have been really amazing. They need to be instructed on how to help rather than to do for the students they are helping. But they pitch in and do things, even when they feel a bit silly. Some we chose because they were bored in study hall. Some we chose because they really need more exposure to English. And some we chose to keep out of trouble.

But  Lindsay told us a few weeks ago that mindfulness seems to be the most difficult for the students who need it most. And that was completely apparent on this day.

One student who gets so angry, with justification sometimes, wanted to walk out. He said he had a stomachache and needed to go to the bathroom. We made him stay. Only 20 minutes. (The money game ate into the time. Lindsay stood and watched while we struggled.)

But he stayed. And he breathed.

We tried to play a game where we made our faces look like our emotions. And a new emotion emerged: I don’t know.

We have a couple of new students, though, and one is having difficulty showing any sort of affect at all. Smiles come only rarely. Though one came when we repeatedly were asked to tighten our faces. I think Lindsay was just doing it so students would look at me…

And laugh.

But that’s not so bad.

Muddy Feelings

I love it when it’s a mindfulness day.

It seems like we are all in such need of mindfulness, of shutting off all those things that are keeping us in a bad space during the day…

There are so many things that can throw us off. On this particular day, Suzy stayed in the class and made valentines, found Teal a place to meet with a couple of our students who have followed the Buddhist traditions, and then started working with Lindsay on mindfulness.

I was outside for a long time. With three of our students and a liaison to help them express their frustration with our educational system and the classes we have chosen to put them in.

But that is another blog post. For another day.

For right now, I want to talk to you about the part of the class that I got to see.

Lindsay was talking to students about things they think about and emotions they feel every day. And then we went through this amazing exercise:

She asked them first how they felt, using the list that is at the top of this post. And when they said what they felt, they put a scoop of sand into a jar of water.

Personally, I felt sick. And tired.

And one of the girls I had been talking to felt angry. And that’s OK. It’s so important to let our students know that whatever they are feeling, it’s OK.

It’s OK for me to be tired. It’s OK for her to be angry. It’s OK for us to feel tight and happy and sad and scared and all of that.

And so we all put in our scoops, and then we all took turns shaking it up. This was a metaphor, done in the most artful of ways. Our emotions shake up in us all day long. We feel lots and lots. And only when we stop to breathe can we really calm down, like the sand that sank to the bottom of the jar.

And that’s why we practice. So we can know what to do when we are feeling all those feelings.

We are so grateful that Center for Mindful Learning is working with us.

We have no idea what these kids bring with them.

We have no idea how that affects their learning and their lives.

And that’s why we need to take a moment to be quiet.

And let the sand settle.

Be.

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Yes, I can relax.

Today, Lindsay came by from Center for Mindful Learning.

I did my homework.

It was to do our breathing exercise one time before we see Lindsay again. I did. And I think it helps.

I have just started the 10-week course from CML that we will be modifying for use with beginning level English Language Learners. I made my daughters breathe with me. Just once.

They thought it was weird. But they are game.

In class today, we talked about how we can use breathing when things are not going well, or even when they are. But it’s a way to improve our focus. We can focus better when we breathe.

First, we asked who did homework. If someone said they did not, there was no public humiliation. It was met with positive thoughts. “So next time.”

Then, we breathed. Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax. (We’ve been working at tempo, so we don’t hyperventilate.) After one time around the circle, with each student leading (student participation is a HUGE part of the work we are trying to do), we tried it again.

But this time, a little differently.

We asked each other: “Can you breathe and relax?”

We answered: “Yes, I can do it.”

So after doing a circle of affirmations, we then just breathed, and then each said in turn, “Yes, I can do it.”

What an awesome message to send with students out into the world.

So simple.

So powerful.

Counter-remedy to testing… BREATHE!

Today, we had to give a common assessment in writing.

It is SO frustrating when you don’t have a whole lot of language for someone suddenly to say, “Write!” And then for you to have nothing to write about, because you don’t really know what this person wants.

I’ve been thinking, though, this morning about how we might be able to use theater games to make our pain lessen… But that’s a post for another day.

After putting our students through torture, I left to see what was going on in Kevin Cross’s class. Where we did torture again. But I was sent an audio file after class was over.

One aspect of the mindfulness work that we are doing with Center for Mindful Learning is to get students to lead. We need to make them speak individually and to understand and own the task. So today, it sounds like what they did was breathe. And perhaps, after such an amazingly difficult task, that is exactly what they should have done.

I talked to Suzy after class, and she told me that the mindfulness work they did was just as challenging as the writing we did–just in a different way.

First, they did some positive talk. “Can you relax for five minutes?” Answer: “Yes, I can.”

After that, they tried to focus and concentrate on being relaxed for five minutes. Suzy said the atmosphere in the classroom went from being antsy and jittery to a really calm calm feeling. Lindsay was talking them through it, asking if they were staying focused, letting them know that if they weren’t, it was OK. They could find that focus again.

Afterwards, they talked about how hard it was, measuring with their hands. They put their hands close together to show it was easy for them, far apart if it was hard.

Suzy said as a teacher, it was difficult to NOT worry about managing behaviors. For her, it was not an easy task.

So we all have stuff to work on. And sometimes, it’s just giving up that bit of control. Wanna join us?

Take a minute or three.

Sit up straight.

And BREATHE!

Relaxing homework

Lindsay from Center for Mindful Learning came Tuesday. Last week on Tuesday, I wasn’t here. But this week, we asked who did their homework.

Our class never has homework.

But this time…

It was simple.

Breathe in…. breathe out… relax.

The idea is that this should become a natural tool for us to use thoughout our day. And that it should be small. We’ve been working on that in January. Small movements. Slow movements.

So what does that mean, small? We used to use both our hands, like we were pushing a weight up when we’d breathe in; letting it fall when we breathed out; arms falling to the side when we would relax. But we can do it smaller.

We started with just our hands on our knees. Raise your hand and breathe in, lower your hand and breathe out. But it can be smaller. Just one hand. Or just a finger.

When we do that, we can bring our tool with us… when we are angry in the car (which I seem to be a lot lately), when we are frustrated in math class, when we are angry at our siblings, when we are anxious about a test… We can use this tool to help us function.

So the homework was to do it once–just one time–before Lindsay came back. A few did it. Lindsay says she does this hundreds of times every day. HUNDREDS!

That got me thinking that maybe I need to think more about being mindful, especially when I start talking to the cars/drivers in front of me. My children keep telling me that the drivers can’t hear me; perhaps this is my cue to breathe…

At the end of the week, Suzy and I did a webinar to complete our Level 1 training for Modern Mindfulness Teacher Training. (Thank you, Partnership for Change for the tuition!) Taking Level 1 training gives you access to a 10-week online course you can use with your students. It fosters leadership in the classroom because students lead the exercise and chose the messages. The more you can turn these experiences over to students, the more likely they are to take this important work into their own lives. And that’s exactly what we want. They have a price break for families, too. If you really want to do this, they will make it accessible to you. At least that was what Denise said in the webinar.

We have follow-up training with Lindsay next week, because the online program is verbose. There’s a lot of talking before you get into the doing. And even the doing has lots of complicated language around it–complicated for our level of English Language Proficiency, anyway.

The program itself looks great. You get access for one year with level 1 training, and perpetual access with level 2, which they recommend doing after 6 weeks. I might choose to do it during the summer, since I won’t really be using this in this form. I do want to work on it with my children.

We could use a little more mindfulness at home.

Relax!

Tight and Relaxed

On December 9, Lindsay from Center for Mindful Learning came in. We went through a breathing exercise and then talked about how our bodies felt. We worked on breathing and took turns leading the breathing. We tightened and relaxed.

It seems like we are always doing this, over and over. But we need it. And we need to understand our feelings. To own them. What we are moving toward is acknowledgement and then trying to know what to do with what we know. We are getting much more proficient at saying where we feel tight.

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Mindful Focusing, Mindful Listening

Just before break, I had to miss a day when Denise came to our class from the Center for Mindful Learning.

It sounds like it was great, though. I’m sad I missed it.

They talked about two words:

FOCUS

and

RELAX

It’s amazing that when I say “CLASS!” that there are about a third of the heads still hovering over their iPads. And we need this to change. We need focus.

But we also need students to realize when they are facing adversity–and there’s lots of adversity to be faced as an English Language Learner–that they learn to relax. That’s what they think they are doing when they play silly games on their iPads. But they aren’t… But I digress.

They practiced carrying little cups of water across the room and cheering for their classmates to focus as they walked. It was such a great community building exercise.

And today, we returned to those concepts as we focused on feelings and our body. We listened to music as we focused on our bodies. Do you feel tight? Do you feel relaxed? Do you feel both? And does it change as the music changes?

We numbered our papers from 1-9 and wrote our reactions as we listened to different songs. Then we drew our bodies and recorded where we felt tight, relaxed or both.

It was good!

Denise says she looked for research with low-proficiency ELLs and mindful learning.

Guess what! There is none.

So I guess we’ve got some ground to break and some papers to write.

Should be fun!

Sorta Sorting

So excited about tomorrow’s lesson!

We’re going to CATEGORIZE!

We have been working on learning words for emotions, and now we’re ready to kick it into high gear. We had the smaller group today.

I found this great graphic this week on the blog A Diary of a Mom. While I was printing off enough copies so each student could have one, Suzy had them sort stuff.

They sorted markers BY COLOR.

They sorted coins BY VALUE.

We went through the pictures today and defined the emotions. We only had time to cut them apart.

And we need to teach them to categorize.

I found “categorize” in the Common Core State Standards in 4th grade literature:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.8
Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.

But really what we are working on is a Kindergarten standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.5.A
Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

And this eventually leads to a 9th grade standard that focuses on nuances of word meaning:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5.A
Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text.

How sorting common objects eventually morphs into interpreting figures of speech… That’s going to take some investigation. But as far as the skill goes, you’ve gotta start somewhere, though, right???

So our ultimate goal is to get students to sort these emotions. Which is where we will get to tomorrow. And the end goal in this is really grounded in our work with the Center For Mindful Learning: identify emotions that are not helpful in your life and figure out what you can do to deal with these emotions and move yourself in a positive direction.

So here’s what’s on the docket tomorrow with the big group:

First, we’re going to sort stuff. I just went to Michael’s and bought a ton of little things: shells, rocks beads… and we will sort. We will create a word bank to introduce the idea of “categories.” I am wondering whether we eventually want to get into the word “properties” to move toward a science spin, but for now, we’re going with the Tier 2 vocabulary.

And then we’re going to use a sentence frame to talk about how we sorted things. Maybe we’ll take pictures and use ThingLink to describe our sorts. That will allow us to reinforce our course goal, to move students into more oral proficiency so they can be successful in the mainstream classroom:

How did you sort this? I sorted this by _______________________ (color, shape, size…)

And then we go back to our faces. And we try to sort emotions. We won’t tell them how to sort. We hope eventually to get to positive and negative emotions. But the thought processes are very interesting to watch. How did you sort these? By the emogi’s forehead squiggles? By the way you feel? What categories are you going to use?

This, in turn, is allowing us to start looking into the graduate expectation of creativity. We want our students to be creative thinkers. And maybe by letting them sort on their own terms, they can figure out a little better how they think.

Wish us luck!

Changing up the faces

Last week, Center for Mindful Learning’s guiding teacher, Soryu Forall, came to our class. He had never been and didn’t know quite what to expect. He came a bit late. Our school is big. And some days, parking can be at a premium. And so he came a bit late.

He and Suzy know each other. He was expecting to see her. But he saw me instead. We had met briefly at a gathering last summer, but I apparently made no lasting impression.

But he was here. And it was good. We got the room in a circle and we started talking about feelings. And what it means to be proud.

What a word, “proud.” How do you explain that? You can give situations in which one might feel proud, but how do you explain that? Without words? Without context?

It’s hard. Soryu said it was when you felt good about what you did. And that’s right. But it’s still kind of nebulous.

He has a fabulous mind for names. He remembered everybody after having gone around the circle once. That’s an amazing feat: to remember names that sound so different from those we are used to hearing. He confessed to me afterwards that he was able to do that only when the names were not of the culture we’re used to. He had such an easy way with banter around the students. It was awesome.

He made one great connection, with a student who happens to be Buddhist. He thought Soryu was a lama. He’s not. But he is a teacher. And he has a great laugh that shook the room.

He talked to Suzy afterward and relayed that for mindfulness, we need to be able to differentiate positive and negative feelings, and be able to say what you do to help you get through those negative feelings: When I am angry, I breathe. When I am frustrated, I relax.

We have that sentence frame down. But I don’t think we’ve got the whole concept of positive and negative feelings down. Nor do we really have that causal relationship solidified in English.

We’ve been trying to get students to mimic the sentence, “When I am cold, I wear _____.” But I don’t think there is necessarily a causal relationship present in the construction of the phrase. Rather, it’s causal that the teacher says it, so I say it back.

It was good to have a fresh set of eyes on our class. And it was good to feel like we have a direction that will help us move forward.