64. Mindfulness Learning Curve in the Classroom

Do you wonder how long it will take before students catch on to mindfulness and you see the benefits of the practice in your classroom?

Well, habits take a minimum of 6 weeks before they are solidified. And that’s with adults.

If you’ve started a mindfulness practice in your classroom, even though you may not be seeing immediate progress, STICK TO IT.

Click here to grab all the things you’ll need to get started with your mindfulness practice, no prep required.

When setting up a classroom mindfulness practice, it’s important that you make your expectations for behaviour during the practice very clear to your students so that they can have success. Better yet, come up with expectations together as a class so that your student’s feel like they have ownership over their practice.

A simple place to start is with the expectation that everyone listens quietly to the audio guided mindfulness practice without disturbing their classmates.

Click here to get our free 5-minute audio guided mindfulness practices for the classroom.

Once the expectations are clear, don’t worry if your students aren’t all sitting perfectly still with their eyes closed during their mindfulness practice. It may seem at first like your students aren’t “getting it” because their mindfulness practice doesn’t look like an adult’s practice or because you aren’t seeing immediate shifts in their ability to self-regulate but this is totally normal! In fact, it’s an important part of the learning process.

If your students fidget, wiggle and whisper to their friends here and there that’s ok! This doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. They’re just being kids!

Stick to your daily mindfulness routine and you will see transformations in time.

In our experience (and teachers we work with), we see a positive impact in the classroom after several weeks. For example, when you continue to practice mindfulness in your classroom daily you’ll start to notice:

• The student who walks away when in a fight with a classmate rather than saying or doing something they’ll later regret.
• A student who takes a breath before tackling a difficult math problem instead of giving up when they feel frustrated.
• A student who takes more risks in the classroom instead of being afraid of failure.
• The list goes on…

Here’s what a grade 5 student says about their classroom mindfulness practice:

“It’s easier to learn when I’m not feeling stressed and agitated. Educalme calms me down and helps me learn. It helps me to deal with big emotions and it helps me get through hard things.”

Do you want to dive into a classroom mindfulness practice and see a total transformation in your students and classroom atmosphere?

Click here to access our FREE Introduction to Mindfulness unit, the first unit in Educalme, our online program that teaches students to self-regulate so that they can manage their own behaviours and teachers can teach in a calm classroom atmosphere.

Have fun experimenting. And don’t forget, STICK TO IT if you want to see results!

With calm and appreciation,

Kailey and Josianne

Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast: