more attuned to being compassionate.
The research conducted to date on mindfulness confirms its overall effectiveness (Schmalzl et al., 2015; Zenner et al., 2014). While the techniques are meant for all schools and all classrooms—not just those with the most serious needs—the results will be especially significant for those trauma and stress most highly impacted. The topics we discuss throughout this book—trauma, neuroscience, mindfulness, and compassionate community building—have not been part of undergraduate or graduate teacher preparation programs. They have not been part of the curriculum for preparation of school administrators. They have also not been popular topics for teacher or administrator professional development. So, by reading this book, most of you will gain new insights and understanding. As presented in this book, you achieve mindfulness through practice of a carefully sequenced range of activities and processes that will result in greater awareness of self and others. Mindfulness practice is most effective when naturally infused into the curriculum and fully integrated into the course of the school day. In this three-part book, you will learn practical ways to easily implement mindfulness practice into your school community and lives.
Part I provides foundational background information. Part I is the why. We set the stage in chapters 1–3, describing why there is a sense of urgency to move toward a more compassionate and supportive learning environment as a direct response to combat trauma and toxic stress. We also provide information on developmental trauma and neuroscience, as well as the interconnectivity of our brain, our emotions, and trauma.
Part II contains information and exercises for you to practice by yourself and with your students to learn the mindfulness strategies we recommend. Part II is the how—how to transform classrooms into nurturing, caring, and compassionate learning environments through mindfulness practice to create caring, compassionate communities. This part explains how we use mindfulness and compassionate activities, exercises, and practice to combat trauma and stress. While individual teachers can implement this book’s recommendations with good success, we believe that even greater and more long-term gains result with the consistency of schoolwide implementation. Principal leadership is key to creating heart centered school communities, as is consideration for schoolwide policies for discipline, celebrations of success, and welcoming families. Mindfulness is not something that you can read about and then just start implementing. With practice, you will become more mindful. Chapters 4–6 provide exercises to enhance breathing, practice yoga and meditation, and increase mindfulness. These mindfulness practices are mutually beneficial for students, teachers, staff, and leaders when they practice them individually or collectively with others. Because it is easy to forget to check in with yourself, we will remind you, at the end of most exercises, to ask yourself how you feel.
You will benefit the most by going beyond merely reading the material presented in part II to actually practicing the exercises. We recommend practicing a few of them yourself on a regular basis before bringing them to students. Students will also benefit the most if you implement these exercises routinely. Mindfulness is not a one-time event. You can practice the following exercises with one of three methods.
1. Having someone read them to you
2. Recording them and playing back the recording with your eyes closed
3. Reading them and then closing your eyes to go through the exercise
If you are using the third method, you can gain a lot by simply approximating the listed steps—you do not need to be exact. After you practice any of the breaths you are planning to introduce in the classroom, you can introduce them to your students. You will lead students through the exercises.
These chapters provide strategies for practical application of mindfulness, complete with teacher, staff, and student exercises and activities that help develop a greater consciousness and a compassionate mindset to combat trauma and stress.
Part III will help teachers and school leaders consider implications and procedures for infusing mindfulness practices into academic instruction and for schoolwide or districtwide implementation. Part III is the now what. It explains what you do after you practice the mindfulness exercises. You will find guidance on how to introduce mindfulness and compassion activities and strategies to impact not only your students’ and your own well-being, but also to improve academic performance and resilience. Building on the exercises presented in part II, part III takes you another step forward with activities to become more mindful of your school, your students, and your classroom community. This includes how to reduce stress and address compassionate challenges—those times when it is difficult to be patient, understanding, and compassionate.
Part III provides insights into improving students’ learning, memory, attention, and reasoning abilities and implementing empowering community-building strategies within your schools. Because the greatest and most lasting gains will be made with collaborative community building within schools, this final section of the book also offers an opportunity for you to learn from mindful leadership experts about what it means to be a mindful leader, and why mindful leadership is important to transformational change.
At the beginning of each chapter, you will find a key principle that highlights one essential point from that chapter. At the end of each chapter, you will find mindful reflection questions to help you connect the information to your own circumstances and experiences, as well as space to record your answers or any other thoughts you have during your practices or while reading this book. These questions, which are available as free reproducibles at go.SolutionTree.com/behavior, may also be useful for those of you who meet in small groups to study, learn, and practice mindfulness. You can easily form specific study groups for population groups, such as teachers or parents. The group might even provide an opportunity for parents, teachers, and staff to learn about mindfulness as a part of your larger school community.
Whether you are a teacher, parent, or community member, you may find it worthwhile to approach this book in three dedicated blocks of time—(1) setting aside a few hours for part I, (2) reading and practicing the exercises in part II over a period of several weeks, and (3) then reading and reflecting on part III when you are ready to advance broader collaborative use of the suggested techniques. While there are many reasons to approach this book sequentially, reading it front to back, if you want to know more about trauma or neurobiology, or have an interest in a specific technique, then you may opt to hone in on specific chapters. If you are an administrator, you may be most interested in part III—particularly chapter 9, which includes practical advice from a former school superintendent and several principals. Please note that chapters 4–6
