Closing
This section defines the key concepts covered in this chapter. These are the central themes upon which the activities are based.
♦ MAINTAINING A HABIT
Because mindfulness is shown to improve focus, grades and emotional regulation while also decreasing test anxiety and stress, incorporating it into each day can help students maintain the benefits of their year-long mindfulness practice. Without formal class or curriculum, the routine of practicing mindfulness can be forgotten over the summer. Behavior change is difficult, but it is possible when the motivation comes from within. Reminding students why they have practiced and offering opportunities for review and reflection help further develop this internal drive, leaving students empowered with their new skills.
This section offers direction as to where the program is headed in this first chapter and some notes about things to look for in your students as you answer the reflection questions at the end of Chapter 5.
♦ SOLIDIFY PRACTICE ROUTINES
In order to maintain the benefits students have gained throughout the year, they will be encouraged to develop practice routines for the summer and beyond.
♦ INTERNALIZE PRACTICE
Making mindfulness stick can be a challenge. Having practiced for the full school year, students know what strategies serve them best in various situations. With this understanding, students will be able to return to these techniques on a regular basis. This comfort with a practice that they have made their own allows for continued success.
The questions on the Teacher Reflection form are listed below so you can keep them in the back of your mind as you progress through the chapter.
1. Are students using these practices?
A. If yes, how have you seen this demonstrated by your students?
B. If no, what was missing or prevented them from doing so?
2. Do students know why they have practiced all year?
A. If yes, how have you seen this demonstrated by your students?
B. If no, what was missing or prevented them from knowing this?
3. Do you think students have developed a strong enough connection to these practices that they will continue to use them?
A. If yes, which categories are they most likely to return to??
– Centering
– Breathing
– Moving
– Practicing
– Reading
– Exploring
– Other
B. If no, what was missing or prevented them from doing this?
4. Please use this space to provide any additional information you would like us to know.
Click here to complete the Chapter 5 Teacher Reflection Questions form.
Centering
These activities are designed to help you and your students can quickly and easily find your center. They can help during transitions between activities, tasks or lessons, and before testing. They can also be used at home with families. Over time, these activities will become comforting and most familiar for students.
Tone Bar
Key Concepts/Goals: Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: None
Similar to the tone bar recording in previous chapters, keep using this activity for centering or re-centering your classroom.
GLITTER JAR
Key Concepts/Goals: Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: None
This video is similar to the video used in the previous chapters; however, there is one significant change. See if you and your students notice anything different about the glitter jar in this video.
You can also share this link with students so they can have a glitter jar recording over the summer.
Breathing
Breath work is a critical component in regulating the nervous system and is always available to us when needed. There are many ways to incorporate breathing when teaching social and emotional skills that, according to CASEL: help us understand and manage our emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
KEEP BREATHING!
Key Concepts/Goals: Maintaining a Habit, Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: Transitions: Start Here!
Reviewing the activities in the Breathing sections in chapters 1-4 will remind students of all the ways they can use their breath as a strategy for reducing stress, managing emotions, taking a pause, calming down and regulating their nervous system. The instructions on the corresponding “Scavenger Hunt Worksheet: Breathing” in the Enriching section support their review with space for reflection on each of the activities. Be sure they keep this sheet handy, as it will help them fill in their “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” at the end of the year.
The questions on the worksheet are listed here for your reference. You can use them to engage with your students about their review process.
Which breathing practices are calming? Which are energizing?
Which ones feel most nourishing or comfortable to you right now?
Which are your top 3 that you will use for your Summer Mindfulness Challenge?
Moving
Dedicated opportunities to move the body can provide a brain break as well as a felt sense of increasing or decreasing energy. Plus, sometimes it just feels good to stretch!
KEEP MOVING!
Key Concepts/Goals: Maintaining a Habit, Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: Transitions: Start Here!
Reviewing the activities in the Moving sections in chapters 1-4 will remind students of all the ways they can stretch to increase or decrease their energy. The instructions on the corresponding “Scavenger Hunt: Moving Worksheet” in the Enriching section support their review with space for reflection on each of the activities. Be sure they keep this sheet handy, as it will help them fill in their “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” at the end of the year.
The questions on the worksheet are listed here for your reference. You can use them to engage with your students about their review process.
- Which moving practices are calming? Which are energizing?
- Which ones feel most nourishing or comfortable to you right now?
- Which are your top 3 that you will use for your Summer Mindfulness Challenge?
Practicing
HEARTFULNESS: PART 4
Key Concepts/Goals: Internalize Practice
Format: Audio
Prerequisite: None
In this final heartfulness practice, Miss Amber invites students to return to their safe heart space and to feel, with curiosity, what’s inside. It is a longer practice with more frequent periods of silence for students to really engage with the practice.
KEEP PRACTICING!
Key Concepts/Goals: Maintaining a Habit, Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: Transitions: Start Here!
Reviewing the activities in the Practicing sections in chapters 1-4 will remind students of all the ways they can engage in a more traditional mindfulness practice beyond this class. The instructions on the corresponding “Scavenger Hunt Worksheet: Practicing” in the Enriching section support their review with space for reflection on each of the activities. Be sure to keep this sheet handy as it will help them fill in their “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” at the end of the year.
These are the instructions on the worksheet:
You have tried many types of traditional mindfulness practices this year and probably prefer some over others. This is your opportunity to go back and try each one listed below to remind yourself how it feels. If the practice is one you want to remember and use for your Summer Mindfulness Challenge, circle its name and add a few notes in the column on the right to help refresh your memory when you try it again.
Reading
SILENCE IN THE AGE OF NOISE #5
Key Concepts/Goals: Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: None
In this final passage from Erling Kagge’s book on silence, the author reflects on his mostly autopilot days. When he attempts to sit and do nothing, the chaos in his mind comes loudly to the forefront. He goes on to state that we live in this “age of noise” and that silence is almost extinct.
Exploring
TRANSITIONS: START HERE!
Key Concepts/Goals: Maintaining a Habit, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: None
Though students are facing a big transition in going from the school year to summer break, they often don’t realize that they are in transition all day, every day. Whether going from sitting to standing, from math class to science class, or from inside to outside, we typically consider the endpoint without recognizing the in-between. Miss Nicole invites students to consider their transitions, large or small, as opportunities to insert a moment of mindfulness.
HOW WILL YOU KEEP PRACTICING?
Key Concepts/Goals: Maintaining a Habit, Solidify Practice Routines, Internalize Practice
Format: Video
Prerequisite: Transitions: Start Here!, Keep Breathing!, Keep Moving!, Keep Practicing!
This is a brief introduction to help get students started making their personalized plans for continuing practice over the summer and beyond. They will need their completed Breathing, Moving and Practicing Scavenger Hunt worksheets from the Enriching section to help them fill in the “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet.”
Enriching
Sometimes we offer videos outside our curriculum lessons, or images or coloring pages that help illustrate a concept. The videos are all linked from this section. Images or coloring pages can be easily downloaded for saving and/or printing.
Worksheets
SCAVENGER HUNT WORKSHEET: BREATHING
Prerequisite: Keep Breathing!
This worksheet is designed for students to track their progress through the review of Breathing activities in chapters 1-4.
- Click here to download the PDF version of the worksheet that is best used with pen and paper.
- Click here to open a digital version of the worksheet in Google Docs that you can post to your Google Classroom and “make a copy for each student.
Alternatively, students could recreate the table in a notebook. Ultimately, this sheet will help them complete the “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” to close out the year.
SCAVENGER HUNT WORKSHEET: MOVING
Prerequisite: Keep Moving!
This worksheet is designed for students to track their progress through the review of Moving activities in chapters 1-4.
- Click here to download the PDF version of the worksheet that is best used with pen and paper.
- Click here to open a digital version of the worksheet in Google Docs that you can post to your Google Classroom and “make a copy for each student.
Alternatively, students could recreate the table in a notebook. Ultimately, this sheet will help them complete the “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” to close out the year.
SCAVENGER HUNT WORKSHEET: PRACTICING
Prerequisite: Keep Practicing!
This worksheet is designed for students to track their progress through the review of Practicing activities in chapters 1-4.
- Click here to download the PDF version of the worksheet that is best used with pen and paper.
- Click here to open a digital version of the worksheet in Google Docs that you can post to your Google Classroom and “make a copy for each student.
Alternatively, students could recreate the table in a notebook. Ultimately, this sheet will help them complete the “Summer Mindfulness Challenge Worksheet” to close out the year.
IF I HAD A STICKER COLORING PAGE
If students completed these journal prompts in chapters 1-4, this coloring page is where they will put those words or phrases. Students can design and decorate the sticker images on the laptop cover however they choose, as a way to personalize and remember the specific things they wrote in the “If I Had A Sticker…” journal prompts. If the students did not complete the journal prompts, they can still complete this page. Simply have them identify five words or phrases they would like to remember from this program and write those in the “sticker.”
SUMMER MINDFULNESS CHALLENGE WORKSHEET
This worksheet can be filled in from students’ responses in the Scavenger Hunt worksheets for Breathing, Moving and Practicing. This intentional and personalized plan for summertime practice is one more step toward students’ really internalizing the work they did throughout the year.
Enriching
These activities are best done in person. We describe them for you to lead with your students if and when you are all together during the upcoming school year.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
When introducing the Digital ResilientKidsTM program to your students, remember that they will be taking cues from your words and body language. Know that they will pick up on your enthusiasm or dismissal of SEL and/or mindfulness, even inadvertently. If this material is new to you and you will be learning alongside the students, let them know that. They’ll appreciate your honesty and vulnerability.
It can be helpful to have an example of why SEL is important and how it fits in with the school culture. Here are a few examples:
- How many times do you think you’ve been told to “pay attention” or to “calm down”? Isn’t it funny how grown-ups ask you to do this but don’t really ever teach you how to do that? The Digital ResilientKids program will help us all learn together lots of different ways we can learn to pay attention and calm down during school time and at home.
- There has been a tremendous amount of research on the value of SEL. Hiring managers now are suggesting that these are the skills for which companies interview. Technical skills can be taught, but the character qualities attributed to SEL help to make employees more happy and engaged, thereby helping teams function better and improving employee retention.
- I have a psychologist friend who describes these tools as being so valuable that they could almost put her out of business! Can you imagine a set of tools so important that if we knew them and used them, they could alleviate anxiety, depression and provide support for mental illness?
Think about an example of your own to share with your students as you introduce how and why you’re implementing this work in your classroom or advisory this year.
FAMILIARIZE STUDENTS WITH THEIR DIGITAL RESILIENTKIDSTM CLASSROOM
There is a video in the Exploring Section that instructs students on how to use their site, or classroom. If you choose to show this video to your students before they receive access to their Student Site, the Vimeo link directly to that video can be found here. Alternatively, this can be the first thing assigned to students to watch once they are logged into the site to learn more about the sections and functionality. This video will remain in the Exploring section of Chapter 1 in the event that parents also want to view it.