“Clean your inner gardens of weeds so you can plant the soil with seeds.”
Dalai Lama
Understanding how our mind, body and emotions works is a crucial 21st Century skill. After working as a PLC on Mindfulness in Education we presented our findings at the CEESA Conference in Istanbul March 2016 hosted by our school. We were then invited to attend another conference by one of the participants from Slovenia. This time the focus of the conference was about promoting mindful practice in schools. Liz, Ian and myself presented a workshop at the conference while our colleague Charaine was not able to attend on this occasion.
The conference took place over 3 days in October at Danila Kumar school in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Among the keynote speakers were Kevin Hawkins, Tim Burns and David Mcmurtry.
Kevin Hawkins is based in Prague, he is a founding member of an organization which provides training in evidence based mindfulness techniques to teach mindfully, be mindful and teach mindfulness. Kevin talked about affective skills now being part of the IB curriculum and stressed the benefits of mindfulness practices to help students learn self regulation and develop emotional awareness. Please see the following sites and links for examples of current practices in schools and around the world as shared during this presentation.
www.casel.org The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning
www.mindwell-education.eu Kevin Hawkins
www.themmindfulnessinitiative.co.uk 8 week program for MP’s run at Westminster
www.eiseverywhere.com ECIS Flourishing Schools program
Recommended reading
The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education by Daniel Goleman
Tim Burns is an Educational Psychologist who also presented at the CEESA Conference hosted by IICS in March 2016. Tim spoke about a number of topics over the course of the conference in Ljubljana most notable was his presentation on stress and allostatic load and the healing properties of mindful meditation for the brain. This presentation focused on the effects of stress on the central nervous system as researched by Hans Selye in the 1940’s, ultradian ryhthms and how mindful breathing techniques can help reduce stressors.
www.timburnseducare.com
Recommended reading
The 20 Minute Break by E. Rossi
David Mcmurtry is a mindfulness teacher based in Zagreb. David talked about kindness and compassion being the main characteristics of being a teacher. He then discussed the three different components of the human brain and their functions as related to mindfulness practices. David talked about how lingering on positive experiences can lead to changes in neurological pathways and gave some practical guidelines on how to achieve such a mental state. In conclusion David believes that compassion arises from mindfulness practices.
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