Your Brain!

If you are turning into my Monday blogs. It is all about A Mindful Classroom. These are NOT my ideas, but I am reflecting on each lesson in hopes that your take it upon yourself to get the training.   

I think learning about your brain should be a class teacher take in college.  I think that would be very useful to learn why some students act out and how to calm them down.  

Lesson #3 in A Mindful Classroom is all about the brain.  The video explains the parts (in a kid friendly way) of the brain and what is the job of each part.  

It explains to the students when you get antsy or really mad, you flip your lid, and you are using a part of the brain that won't talk to people. There are ways to get you to calm yourself down. 

One way is through a Mindful Moment.  Have you heard of the "Calming Jar"? It is a jar made with sequences that you shake up and it was flies around the jar. The sequences start to settle to the bottom of the jar.  The student will watch the sequences while the student is trying to calm their mind.  

Now the lid is also flipped when you are not in control of your body. This is for the students that doesn't have control and is very wiggly.  Calming jar may not work for them.  What might work is modeling for them when you notice they are not in a great space for learning.  They should label their thoughts. If they are not being focused, they need to take those thoughts out of their brain with my mindful breathing and try to get back on task.