As my Internship draws to a close I am thrilled that my Masters program also nears completion. This means a huge weight is lifted off of me, and I could swear I am literally standing taller and breathing more easily. I wrote in a previous post that my faculty was nearing burnout, and that I myself had faced burnout before the Christmas holiday. I had to make some changes to the way that I was treating myself, and I worried that my new -found declaration of saying NO would cause waves with my colleagues. But now that I have been on this journey for 4 months, I find that I simply don't care. I. Feel. Good. And that's all that matters!
I have reached the point in my Internship where I reflect: what worked, what didn't, and what needs to be recognized in preparation for next year's professional learning plans. As my partner and I have been drafting our final paper, one theme keeps pinging around in the back of my brain, drowning out the data analysis and narrative that we are writing: mindfulness. How is it that, 4 years into my education career, I am just now being introduced to this concept? Why is it not part of teacher education programs? Why is it not part of all schools, period?
The Research
As we continued pulling data from our Internship together, I came across an amazing article in the Journal of Educational Psychology titled Mindfulness Training and Reductions in Teacher Stress and Burnout, a trial study completed by Educators in the United States and Canada to "test the feasibility and efficacy of a professional development program for teachers aimed at the reduction of job stress and symptoms of burnout through mindfulness training." I was blown away that this 2013 article was proving exactly what I was feeling! After reading through the data and the findings of their trials, the authors concluded that "mindfulness training holds promise for the improvement of teaching and learning in public schools by assisting teachers in managing job stress and feelings of burnout more effectively." So, what does this mean?
Coming to a District Near You: Mindfulness Training!
I want to...no... I am going to incorporate mindfulness training into the Professional Learning that my fellow learning coach and I design for the 2019-2020 school year, with special focus on the New Teacher Induction members (new teachers to our district). I have seen the positive results of the aforementioned study, and after feeling the results myself, I am convinced that everyone (Administration, Faculty, Students) would benefit in some way from receiving mindfulness training. At this point, I am looking into the inclusion of chair-massage sessions during our Inservice and Delay days, as well as sessions for meditation and yoga. We have several Phys. Ed. teachers who also teach yoga outside of school, and they have already volunteered to run sessions in the future. If we offer sessions on specific tech tools and instructional strategies, why shouldn't we also offer sessions that help improve our teacher souls?
With Mindfulness,