Mindfulness in Education Network

Mindfulness Conference Resources & Materials

This one-day conference was held on Saturday, February 9, 2008 in Washington, DC at Sidwell Friends School. It was co-sponsored by the Mindfulness in Education Network (MiEN), the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CM), the Friends Council on Education (FCE), and the Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS). It was inspired by and drew heavily on a similar conference given by the Association for Mindfulness in Education (AME) in San Francisco in February of 2007.

You can download the Conference Report here (Conference Report.pdf)

Materials and Resources from the Conference

Connell Stress Management Workbook.pdf

Pichot Handout.pdf

Rouse Story.pdf

Afternoon Session Presenters

Baccala Handout 1.pdf

Baccala Handout 2.mht

Solloway Dissertation.pdf

Solloway Handout.pdf

Solloway Paper 1.pdf

Solloway Paper 2.pdf

Solloway Paper 3.pdf

Solloway Paper 4.pdf

Weierbach Handout.pdf

Presenter Links

Steven Emmanuel: Here is the link to his Web pages on Service-Learning and Community Service. Here is the link to his work in Vietnam ("Making Peace With Vietnam")

Irene McHenry: Forthcoming is the link to her version of pebble meditation on the Friends Council on Education Web site.

David Levy: Here is the link to the syllabus for his course Information and Contemplation on the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society’s Web site. Here is the link to his faculty Web site where you can find his paper “No Tine to Think.”

Kimberly Post Rowe: Here is a link to the page of downloads from her Five Seeds Web Site:

Richard Brady: His article, "Schooled in the Moment," about his class on stress reduction can be found on the resources page on his Minding Your Life Web Site. Here is a link to a preliminary version of his article, "Learning to Stop, Stopping to Learn," about his path as a contemplative educator and his use of contemplative learning in his high school geometry course on the Mindfulness in Education Network’s Web site.

Forthcoming: A link to Irene McHenry’s version of the conference closing lovingkindness (metta) meditation from the Friends Council on Education’s Web site.

Mindful Awareness Practices for Educators

The Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA presents:

Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) for Educators -- A credit course for pre-K through PhD educators

Combining current research and practical application, this course is designed to provide teachers, administrators, parents, and mental health professionals the tools to develop their own personal mindfulness practice, the science behind it, and an introduction of tools to bring mindful awareness into educational settings. Exercises, activities, and approaches for all age groups are included. When taken for credit, this course combines two classroom-based workshop sessions geared toward educators (one introductory and one at midpoint), with six online sessions to provide a maximum opportunity for both guidance and personal practice. A noncredit option also is available for those interested only in participating in the online sessions for the development of a personal practice (without tools for children provided).

Presenters

Susan L. Smalley, Ph.D., Director, Founder, MARC and Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute
Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education, MARC, UCLA Semel Institute
Susan Kaiser-Greenland, JD, Director, Co-Founder, The InnerKids Foundation

For more details click here.

Two workshops at UCLA:

Sunday, July 13 - 8:30am-4:30pm,
Saturday, August 2 – 8:30am-4:30pm

Six Online sessions:

July 15-August 19

Registration opens April 30th. Call 310-206-7503 or email marcinfo@ucla.edu for more information.

Nurturing Ourselves

Mindfulness in Education
Nurturing Ourselves - Practicing Mindfulness - Sharing Ideas - Enjoying Community

Saturday, April 28, 2007
1:00 - 5:00 pm
(12:45 pm registration)
5:00-6:00 Informal Sharing time with healthy snacks - Optional

Location: Jenn’s house in East Oakland
Tea and tangerines provided
By donation
All educators are welcome

One of the greatest gifts we can offer as educators and those concerned with education is our presence and truest self. With this goal in mind, during these days we:

- cultivate and learn mindfulness practices such as sitting, walking, and eating meditation
- have opportunities to reflect on what is true for us and hear our inner voice
- through journal writing and drawing, deep listening and speaking have time to share stories and ideas, to connect and build community

For more information, please email:

InnerKids

InnerKids teaches pre-K through middle school students simple self-directed games and activities that are designed to develop mindful awareness (also known as mindfulness); a state of present attention where one observes thoughts, feelings, emotions, and events at the moment they occur without reacting to them in an automatic or habitual way. These activities help children become more aware of what is happening inside of them (thoughts, feelings, emotions and physical sensations) and outside of them (the classroom, the playground, at home and in the world around them).

These mindful awareness activities and games train children in what InnerKids believes are the New ABC’s --Attention, Balance and Clarity & Compassion. With appropriate attention to developmental differences, the goal of InnerKids is to provide students with self-directed skills that cultivate these new ABC’s of learning and leading a balanced life. In adults and la te adolescence, practicing mindful awareness (returning to a state of present attention) has shown significant improvement in general well-being, emotional reactivity (e.g. mood, anxiety), and physical health (e.g. immune response). The research on mindful awareness during childhood development is in its infancy, partly because age-appropriate practices for children have not been widely available.

Founded in 2001 and located in Los Angeles, California, InnerKids is a pioneer in teaching mindful awareness to students in pre-kindergarten through middle school. Since its inception, InnerKids has taught hundreds of classes to students in public and private schools, after school programs, and has recently expanded its reach into community-based mental health agencies and hospitals. In the Fall of 2006, InnerKids will begin a training initiative to create mindful awareness specialists by providing in-depth training for therapists, classroom teachers and health care professionals as a next step towards having a broader impact within the community.

In the spring of 2006, InnerKids taught approximately 125 students in 4 separate facilities ages 3 through 12. During that period, InnerKids conducted a thorough internal evaluation of our program (using pre-and-post program student, teacher and parent questionnaires). Analysis of the data collected showed significant benefit to the students and school communities that were served.

Minding Your Life.Net

The latest issue of the Minding Your Life newsletter is out. You can get it by pointing your browser to the Minding Your Life.Net website. From their website: Minding Your Life is a consulting firm that has helped educators and schools develop personal and corporate mindfulness practice since 2000.

Minding Your Life Mission

Introduce educators and students to practices for mindful living
Help educators find means of incorporating mindfulness practices in their lives at work and at home
Help educators develop mindfulness based curricula
Support continuing mindfulness programs for students and educators

Tai-Chi and Mindfulness in Boston Public Schools

"Tai Chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction in a Boston Public Middle School"
Robert B. Wall M. Div., MSN, FNP, CNS1, ,

Journal of Pediatric Health Care, Volume 19, Issue 4, July-August 2005, Pages 230-237.

Abstract

This article provides a description of a clinical project that used combined Tai Chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction as an educational program. The 5-week program demonstrated that sustained interest in this material in middle school–aged boys and girls is possible. Statements the boys and girls made in the process suggested that they experienced well-being, calmness, relaxation, improved sleep, less reactivity, increased self-care, self-awareness, and a sense of interconnection or interdependence with nature. The curriculum is described in detail for nurses, teachers, and counselors who want to replicate this type of instruction for adolescent children. This project infers that Tai Chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction may be transformational tools that can be used in educational programs appropriate for middle school–aged children. Recommendations are made for further study in schools and other pediatric settings.

References

Ekai (trans. n.d.). The gateless gate. In P. Reps & N. Senzaki, Zen flesh and Zen bones (N. Senzaki, Trans. n.d.). New York: Anchor Books Doubleday.

Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_uoikey=B6WK-4GKFMDSH&_origin=SDEMFRASCII&_version=1&md5=25b44bb807893d71caee47979d026b4e

(might have to cut and paste the whole link, or go to Science Direct and search under keyword "mindfulness-based")

Toward an Inclusive Excellence Community

These practices have been adapted and substantially modified by Nacho Córdova (Assistant Professor, Rhetoric & Media Studies, Willamette University), for use at Willamette University, from Larry Yang’s “Directing the Mind Toward Practices in Diversity”. 

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Building an Inclusive Community Through Self-Reflection and Practice
Adapted by Nacho Córdova, Assistant Professor, Rhetoric & Media Studies, Willamette University

Willamette is a campus that welcomes, celebrates and promotes respect for all individuals. Our educational mission is enhanced by our appreciation and understanding of diversity in all aspects of human endeavor, and by our commitment to a philosophy of inclusive excellence that stems from the basic principles of respect and nurturing of the diverse gifts we all bring. We take as key elements of our philosophy that every person is entitled to respect, dignity, opportunities for a fulfilling life within our community, and equality under the law. Thus, we foster unity and inclusive excellence through the cultivation of such key elements as central values.

Willamette seeks to facilitate, implement, and where appropriate guide well planned programs as part of a comprehensive approach designed to develop and foster an inclusive excellence community. We are an institution in which intellectual exploration and social growth is accomplished through the building of life long relationships. These relationships are forged through the intimacy of our community, and through our careful reflection of institutional as well as individual practices and values necessary for this task.  Our University motto, Not unto ourselves alone are we born, strengthens our understanding that the way we behave toward one another is the fullest expression of what we believe, and that our actions as members of this University ought to advance the development of a community dedicated to equipping one another for the work of nurturing equity, respect, justice, and dignity for all. 

1.     Aware of the suffering caused by imposing one’s own opinions or cultural beliefs upon another human being, I recognize the need to refrain from forcing others, in any way—through authority, threat, coercion, or financial incentive, to adopt my own belief system. I am committed to respecting every human being’s right to be different, while working towards the elimination of discrimination and oppression.

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society: Academic Program: The Center's Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development was recently in the news! Click here to read the article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Here you can find more information about their 2006-2007 Contemplative Practice Fellowship Competition. Proposals are due November 10, 2005.

Mindfulness Practice Communities

Use the following links at the Community of Mindful Living to access a worldwide list of mindfulness practice communities (sanghas). You may wish to contact a nearby community to find an experienced mindfulness practitioner interested in teaching about mindfulness practice in your educational setting, or you may wish to visit or join a community and practice with them.

Directory of U.S.A. Communities of Mindful Living

Directory of International Communities of Mindful Living

Mindfulness Bibliography

Click here for a Microsoft Word version of this bibliography

First compiled by Jerry Braza, Robert Henderson, and Thien-Huong Palmer (1997)
Revised by Mileah Sizemore, Dan Hampton and Robin Cudworth (Fall, 2001)
Revised by Tim D. Ritchie (Summer, 2003)
Revised by Blaze Compton (Fall, 2004)

Alexander, C. N., Langer, E. J., Newman, R. I., Chandler, H. M., & Davies, J. L. (1989). Transcendental meditation, mindfulness, and longevity: An experimental study with the elderly. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 57(6), 950-964.

Austin, J. A. (1997). Stress reduction through mindfulness meditation: Effects on psychological symptomology, sense of control, and spiritual experience. Psychotherapy Psychosomatic, 66(2), 97-106.