After an amazing maternity leave of 9 months off with my second born child, I, for the third time, entered the classroom in the middle of the year. I was warned that my class was very difficult and at times unruly. Striking fear into the heart of a teacher that was new to the building (I transferred from another building after being furloughed), I had to come up with a plan of action. My LTS, who was a former colleague that I previously worked with on two different occasions, has a very different teaching style and personality. This was going to be an extremely difficult transition for an already unruly group. After days of deliberation, I decided that I needed and they needed to use mindfulness breathing to focus on being less reactive and more focused on the decisions and impulses they were making. Years ago, before I had two beautiful children, I went to yoga classes and I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of peace after many months of learning to breath deeply and purposefully. Oftentimes, I found myself letting my thoughts run away with me, being too reactive, and honestly, just "on" all the time. Deep breathing has allowed me to slow down, be mindful, be relaxed, calm down and be less reactive, and eventually it allowed me to become more reflective as a person.
Once I decided to bring deep breathing exercises into my classroom, I did a little research and found that of course it was beneficial to adults but little research was done on the benefits of children until recently. I read a few articles and became intrigued on how deep breathing exercises have spilled into low SES districts as a means of helping students become less reactive and instead of detention helps students stay focused and be more reflective of their actions and behaviors. One district even had a room where students can meditate if they need time to calm themselves down. Another district replaced detention with mindfulness and deep breathing exercises. I found this enlightening, relate-able, and more importantly doable.
I anticipated students being resistant at first and not understanding of deep breathing exercises. At first, they mocked it, some laughed, some made "oom" noises, etc. But I was persistent, calm, and routined. We did this twice a day; once when they came in in the morning and again after recess/lunch. I had open discussions about the benefits, misconceptions, and eventually had them buy into deep breathing exercises. Some said they didn't like it or refused to do it and at the beginning that was their prerogative, but they must remain quiet. If they were being silly and breathing too quickly and laughing, we would focus on zoning them out and we would do it over and over until they either joined or became silent. Usually when they were breathing too quickly, I calmly reminded them that they were not in true control of their body and by deep breathing, it would help them become focused and in control of their own body.
As time passed, they became accustomed to deep breathing and when my CD Player broke with relaxing sounds, I turned to GoNoodle for breathing and mindfulness exercises. At first they were resistant even with that slight of change. But with persistence, they eventually gave in and realized the benefits of being focused, calm, and in control of their body. It got to the point that my nonverbal cue was simply to put my finger up in the air and deep breath with the ones who needed to focus or become more in control of their own body. I'm hoping to continue this practice next year and possibly add "oom" and maybe yoga exercises for brain breaks throughout the day.
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