Week 1
My biggest interest is in finding an app that can help me practice mindfulness and reduce the stress that myself and so many other new teachers feel. I often find myself panicking at random moments when things randomly seem to get too overwhelming to handle, and I would like to get better at preventing this from happening. From talking to my classmates, I've gathered that this is a common concern as we all get closer and closer to being actual teachers. Some of my classmates have mentioned taking yoga classes or other physical activities to practice mindfulness, which is a practice I definitely agree with. However, I often struggle with remembering to do this regularly, which reduces the ability of these activities to prevent a breakdown. Teachers on my team at Chiddix have also mentioned the need to be mindful and kind to themselves, but their methods as full grown adults aren't always applicable to me, especially now as I juggle both clinicals and classes. I've turned to Twitter, which has revealed a community of individuals who believe in the importance of educator mindfulness. I've found helpful resources by using #teacherwellbeing and #teachersupport.
Week 2
Throughout my research, I found that many teachers ‘unplug’ in order to be mindful, which made me scared that my initial goal of finding an app to help reduce stress would be a useless endeavor. I thus altered my focus to be on practicing mindfulness in the classroom and helping students develop their executive functioning skills. I found many interesting videos on the topic, but found this PBS video to be the most relevant to my experiences as a classroom teacher. Nowadays, students are constantly flooded with information, whether it be from their teacher, their peers, their phone, or any of the other numerous distractions around them. Rarely do they have time to just be present in the moment and relax without the pressure of having to do something right away. It’s an exhausting experience, which is why it’s so important for teachers to give students the opportunity to breathe and relax, especially after lunch or school assemblies where students are more likely to become overstimulated. Giving students the opportunity to decompress also gives them the chance to calm down, leading to (hopefully) less classroom behavior problems.
Week 3
The first app I selected to mess around with is Disney+. While it’s not what would traditionally come to mind for me when considering mindfulness in the classroom, the platform has several videos that are meant for relaxation and background music. My personal favorite series is the “Disney Parks Sunrise Series”, which features time lapses of the sunrise over different Disney Parks set to calm and relaxing music. While it isn’t guided meditation, I think it’s perfect to put in the background while students are doing independent work or reading. I tested it in my ELA class while students worked on independent writing, initially fearing that it would be distracting to students. Thankfully, the video was just boring enough to make my Disney fanatics happy while also encouraging them to do something more interesting (their classwork). Silence makes many of my students nervous, which makes them want to talk so that it’s not silent, ultimately leading to my CT and I usually having a problem with noise levels near the middle of class. While students still talked, it took much longer and did not become nearly as loud as it normally does. I can see myself utilizing this during independent writing time.
Week 4
This week I investigated DreamyKid. This app is built specifically to help kids practice mindfulness, giving them several categories to pick from. I specifically appreciated that the app had issue-based meditations for confidence-building, athletes, ADD/ADHD, anxiety, and anger management. I think it’s incredibly important to normalize the mental health issues that so many of our students are facing today and give them the tools to feel empowered. I really liked the app, but I think it’s better suited for personal use than for classroom use. I would encourage my students to download and explore it on their own time but think there are more relevant tools to use for full class situations. I say this because the app is very personalized, which is an obstacle when I just want general meditations and not a fight over which specific issue we’ll be meditating over. With the app requiring a subscription, I would rather get a free guided meditation off of Youtube.
Week 5
The third app I messed around with was Smiling Mind. This app was similar to DreamyKid and had the same downsides, with the exception of it being free. However, this app did have several cool features that DreamyKid did not. I liked the personal log component that allows you to reflect on your day and wellbeing. Additionally, you can order work packets that help students integrate the app into their daily lives and make using it a habit. That aspect makes it a stronger app than DreamyKid, but again I found it to be too individualized to accomplish what I wanted it to. I think it would be a great app to incorporate into a health/PE class, not my social studies or ELA class.
Week 6
The last app I investigated, and my favorite, is HeadSpace. HeadSpace offers free premium accounts to K-12 educators and has classroom specific guided meditations and grounding activities. The app automatically generates a list of modules that align with the goals that you initially input when you download the app, but there are many more guided meditations to pick from. They are presented to you in categories, such as “Mindfulness at Work” and even “Star Wars Find Your Force”, a Star Wars themed module of mindfulness activities. The app is great at helping you find meditations and activities that fit your exact goals, especially considering the fairly niche subgenre of classroom meditation.
Week 7
I envision HeadSpace as being utilized in the beginning of class. Doing a guided meditation at the beginning of class, especially after lunch or another potentially overstimulating activity, helps students calm down and relax. In my experience, many teachers just accept that the class after lunch is going to be crazy and not get as far as their other classes. Instead of getting frustrated with students for not completely changing their mood in their three minute passing period, a short meditation at the beginning of class helps students settle down without anger from the teacher or students. I anticipate using it in conjunction with other beginning classroom procedures, like CNN 10 or journal prompts.
Week 8
The app is very simple to download and use. After downloading it from the App Store, you will be prompted to log in or sign up for an account. By signing up with my school district’s email, I was able to get a free premium account. From there, the app will ask you for your specific goals and previous experiences to cultivate selections that align with your interests. The benefits of the app are that there are many different categories to pick from and you can even find ones that cater specifically to the classroom. You can also access it from a computer, which makes it accessible for the classroom. I don’t think there are many constraints to the app apart from the paywall. While teachers get free premium access, students would not if they chose to download the app on their personal devices, making it less accessible to students as a tool they can use outside of the classroom.
Week 9
To use this app in my classroom, I would implement it as a regular activity so that students can expect it and don’t panic over a changed classroom routine. While it doesn’t teach students content, it teaches them important executive functioning skills and self-regulation. HeadSpace guides students through meditation, which I certainly would not be able to do without the help of the app. I don’t think I would use it every day, but it would definitely be great on Fridays, field trip or assembly days, and any other day where students’ regular routines are disrupted. On a day when we use it, students would be expected to come in and sit down in their assigned seats. After the bell rings, I would project the five-minute meditation on the board and tell students they can put their heads down, color, follow along, or do anything that is quiet, doesn’t utilize technology, and isn’t schoolwork. After the meditation finishes, I would do class announcements and do a ‘soft start’—meaning students wouldn’t be expected to do group work or anything loud right away. In giving students the chance to calm down, my hope is that there will be less issues to do with outbursts and other behavioral issues that may have started outside of my classroom.