"Unconference" Style Professional Development Reveals Interest in Yoga in the Classrooms

A google spreadsheet was sent via e-mail from our Superintendent, explaining that our next upcoming Professional Development Day was going to be run in the "unconference" style.  I was thrilled.   Finally a professional development day filled with choice and  interest!  This approach invited teachers and staff to sign up for a time slot to present an idea, talent or skill which they thought would be interesting to share with their colleagues in the district.  I could actually learn something new instead of daydreaming about what I could be doing. I also had the opportunity to be a presenter. 

I had always wondered if the teachers in my district had any interest in learning how to use simple yoga tools in their classroom.  Here was an opportunity to find out.  As a first grade teacher and yoga teacher I have always used yoga in the classroom to calm and center my students, helping them to become "learning-ready."  With all of the high levels of anxiety that children seem to suffer from these days, it is a tool which I find to work.  I had taken a course over the summer in teaching teachers these simple yoga tools so here was a chance for me to experiment.

I immediately put my name in the designated 9:00 am time slot with the title "Yoga Tools for Teachers in the K-8 Classroom." Once I put my name in the slot, I immediately deleted it.  Would teachers actually have an interest in this?  Would I be left to sit in my classroom with no participants?  Conversely, would I have too many?  After doing some of the breathing that I would be teaching, I re-entered my name into the slot.

Well, I guess you never really know until you try and then...well, you still don't really know.

When 9:00 am arrived on the day of the "unconference," a few colleagues trickled into my classroom and I began to speak to them very informally about children's yoga.  It seemed as if it was going to be a very intimate presentation and I began to relax.  But then a wave of teachers from another school came in and then another wave after that.  They just kept coming.  I ran out of handouts, chairs, space on the carpet and space in general.  It was standing room only and even that real estate was becoming scarce.  I was wondering if I would have to hold the presentation in the hallway.

It was too late to cancel the session or run away, so I began the session with some adult yogic breathwork.  In the midst of trying to create a calm, inviting environment for the participants, I centered myself in the process.  This reminded me of the most important reason to do yoga with your students in the classroom -- to calm yourself.  After all, happy teachers make happy students.  They consistently follow your energetic lead throughout the day.  They are the most sensitive human beings on Earth -- natural barometers of our own well-being.

After teaching simple yoga postures, games and breathwork to use with young children in the morning, during transitions, before tests and at the close of a day, I ended with a guided relaxation.  Time was up and the participants made their way out of my classroom to the next session.

Did the participants like the workshop?  Would they use the resources, materials and tools that I taught them? I may never know.  However, my biggest take-away from this experience was knowing that there is definitely a growing interest in meditation and yoga in the classroom (demonstrated by the huge number of participants at this session).  I only hope that I can continue to share what I have learned over the years and learn how to implement even more techniques ... for the overall well-being of the students.

Classroom View: Social Media Resistance

Classroom View: Social Media Resistance

Social Media Resistance

What techniques have you used in the past to encourage educators of any kind to buy into the benefits of Twitter and PLNs?

This summer I was able to bring two of my life's passions together when I underwent a program called YogaEd. As a certified yoga instructor and first grade teacher, this training certified me to teach yoga in the classroom to childen, as well as, teach my fellow elementary, middle and high school colleagues how to use various quick 5-15 minute yoga poses, breathwork and visualizations to calm, energize, refocus or relax their students. I am excited to bring these time-tested, scientifically-proven skills into my classroom and to my colleagues (if given the chance). However, the benefits of yoga in the classroom is another blog for another day. I wanted to write today to ask for your help.

At the end of this intense certification workshop, the 32 participants of the program did what they usually do -- share each other's e-mail addresses and vow to keep in touch and share resources. I've been in enough workshops to know what happens after we depart. The first week there is a flurry of e-mails thanking each other, sharing some resources and asking for additional resources. They start off as group e-mails, eventually are broken down into smaller groups made up of those who have replied and ultimately end up as maybe an electronic friendship among one or two other individuals if you are lucky.

So when the e-mail sign up sheet was being passed around the group, I took this opportunity to propose that maybe we could set up a network via Twitter accounts. I immediately got a collective groan from the group as a whole and the resistance did not stop there. Throughout lunch and other break times, individuals felt obligated to tell me one Facebook tragedy after another. I listened and tried to relay to them how you could set up a twitter account which only had professional contacts; how you could get the scientifically-proven benefits of yoga in the schools out to a wide audience of school administrators and teachers, and share our experiences, valuable resources, blogs and websites with each other. I also shared how this is a simple, quick approach to reaching a worldwide audience of targeted individuals who need to hear about the benefits of yoga in the schools.

This is a tough group to persuade as many embrace bringing ancient, tradional wisdom to our contemporary living but fear the reverse for some unknown reason. I beleive that a merging of these two worlds has unbelievable power!

A few individuals were won over and vowed to set up a twitter account and follow me. I told them that I could help them from that point forward. I have yet to see these accounts - but hope springs eternal and I will contact them via the old e-mail method and approach them yet again.

So I am here asking for help in how to reach and win over these educators (many of them are classroom educators as well as yoga instructors such as myself). I have their e-mail addresses and am not afraid to use them. I will continue to try to persuade them to sign onto Twitter as I feel that their individual resources and skills are invaluable to all educators. I need your help. What are some irrefutable arguments and/or resources have you used to help persuade the skeptical non-believers? Any advice, websites, YouTube videos, etc. are appreciated. Thanks!!!

Forcing a Flower to Bloom

Data. Now there's a loaded word in education. What is data? Well, I think data is a tool (one of many) that can be used to assess where a student is in relation to his/her academic growth. It can be read well and tell a lot about a student, but it can also be misinterpreted. Data often gives educators and administrators a good place to start in assessing what a child needs.

But it can't end there (in my opinion). Isn't teacher observation -- I mean really close and documented teacher observation -- a valid evaluative device? Is it not regarded highly because it is not "scientific?" Is it not able to tell you anything "valid" about a child's overall growth?

I have a child in my first grade class who has made tremendous growth socially and emotionally. His academic growth in language arts is not quite as evident. Has he made the leaps deemed acceptable by the standards set for all learners his age? No. Has he demonstrated "grade level" understanding? No. Has he continued to climb in test scores at a rate deemed acceptable? Apparently not.

But have I seen him grow? Yes. Have I seen him raise his hand and take more risks - even though he may not have the correct answer? Yes. Have I seen his confidence improve? Yes. Do I see him on the cusp of a breakthrough? Yes. Will he be able to continue at his own pace until he is ready to bloom? No.

This beautiful little bud is being forced to bloom before his time. And instead of continuing to water him with understanding, patience and encouragement, he is being forced to try a "new approach." Why? Because he is not blooming fast enough for the parent advocate? He is making progress at his own pace. I see it working. Unfortunately I don't have the data to support what I "see." I don't have the data to support what I can intuitively feel. I don't have the data to support the numerous case studies I have witnessed over my many years of teaching which involve children who started out slow, eventually "broke the code" and went on to close the gap in their learning in relation to their peers at a later age.

Why does everyone have to progress at the same rate? Especially young children who have demonstrated a special need for more time? What is the rush? Why can't educators be allowed to use what they observe to be working? Why can't we be trusted? Why is switching approaches the only answer?

Now I know that switching teaching approaches has its merits. But I also see how it can be confusing for young minds. Connections that have just begun to form are no longer nurtured and may fade away. Scaffolded approaches which build upon one another are disregarded and the foundation of learning which has just begun to be built is left vacant. New approaches are implemented and learning has to start over from scratch. Does that make learning happen at a faster rate?

I just get a little dismayed when professional opinions are usurped by data, that's all. I want what's best for each individual student of mine. And I would love to have the chance to defend my beliefs, but alas, I have no data to support them...

Generations connecting to each other via blogging

While managing my first graders blog site, I came across a comment that really made me smile. It was in response to one of my student's blogs and it read,

"This is my first blog response ever!" Love Grampa.

This young generation is reaching out to their grandparents and introducing them to blogging. I don't think anyone should worry about whether technology and social media will be used in the schools in the future. It is here and, as this generation and future generations grow, it will be a way of life. As educators continue to introduce more and more technology into the schools, I believe that there will be a natural progression in its use. Maybe we all have to relax into "what is" and allow the use of technology and social media to blossom on its own. Just keep watering the seeds that you have all planted and continue to plant.

Thanks to all who are teaching me and allowing me to introduce what little I know to these brilliant young minds who are destined to carry it further. I am determined to take my own knowledge further, inspired by the children in my class.

Who's teaching who?

Blogging...almost as fun as watching chicks hatch.

I have an incubator with eggs in my first grade classroom. Although it is in the corner of the room, it has become the epicenter of the classroom. Today as it was time for math and I did my best to get the children to sit on the rug for the beginning of my lesson on measurement. But they were hovered around the incubator. I didn't exist. Math didn't exist. Time and space stood still. A chick was emerging from its shell.

How do you call children away from an incubator when a new life is being born? Answer:"You don't." More honest answer: "You can't" Most honest answer: "Why would you want to?"

I know every year that when we get the incubator in our classroom that teaching must be transformed for those 5 days. Curriculum takes a back burner to real life science and everything will revolve around these tiny creatures. You can move them away from the incubators but they will gravitate back. You can try to teach, but they won't listen (even if you are talking about chicks). Real life is happening in this little white box and talk is "cheep" (pardon the pun).

But when I said, "Let's go to the computer room and blog about our first little chick being born," not one student remained at the side of the incubator! They all eagerly lined up for the walk down the hall. They couldn't wait to tell the world that they had a new classroom pet...and that it was a boy because he was black with a yellow dot on the head ...and that they named him "Mr. Chick." I was shocked. Computers actually trumped a wet, limp chick gasping for his first breaths on the bottom of the incubator. Never did I think that I would see the day that ANYTHING would tear their eyes from the second by second commentating. Especially since there was another birthing session on the horizon as more eggs were beginning to crack.

Ever since I began this blogging with the class, parents have telephoned and written to me about how excited their daughter or son is to go onto the computer and blog. Blogging, it seems, has taken over their Club Penguin Game time on the computer at home. One parent said that her daughter hasn't even been fighting with her brother over the TV because she opts to go on the computer and write instead. I was amazed at all of the new blog posts that they had created over the weekend. They beg me to let them on the computer during free time in the morning to blog. And why not? Six and seven year olds love an audience and are alway vying for attention. They have an instant audience by blogging! Writing for meaning has taken on a whole new platform.

I'm tweeking their blogging experience here and there by making suggestions for topics, encouraging them to respond to their classmates' blogs and making them re-read what they write for editing purposes. But for the most part, I am letting them just get their own ideas down. Little Emily in my class asked me to read her blog to see if it sounded as if she was talking (I always tell them that writing is just like talking on paper -- or computers, as the case may be now.)

So although managing the blog site has become a new part time job for me, I am loving the excitement it has generated in their writing. And, as TJ confessed to me at the end of the day, "You know, Mrs. Tortolini, blogging is almost as fun as watching chicks hatch." Need I say more?

Seizing Daily Opportunities

I want to thank Philly-Teacher's blog (http://philly-teacher.blogspot.com/), for helping to inspire this post. In her last blog, she asked for a list on what you like about Education. I love posts which focus on the positive aspects of our job because, as we all know already, it is so easy to get sucked into the vortex of all the problems in education, political bashing and daily complaints.

Educators have the BEST jobs in the world! By BEST I don't mean easiest, most supported, or highest paying. But, for me, the rewards far outweigh any complaints that I may be aiming to eliminate from my mind.

I wanted to write a list of what I get to do (or at least have the opportunity to do) every day in the service of teaching:

Every day I have the opportunity to:

• Make a child laugh.
• Help parents who may feel discouraged or at wits end.
• Witness and help create "AHA" moments in young minds.
• Wipe away tears of fear and hug away anxiety.
• Open up new worlds.
• Share my experience of life every day to wondering (and often wandering) minds.
• Share in the triumphs of each child in my room.
• Soothe the anxious minds of children and parents (and sometimes co-workers and administrators)
• Learn from numerous different perspectives -- children, parents, fellow educators, administrators.
• Share with the wonderful colleagues who want to help make the world a better place for children.
• Be reminded of how a child sees the world.
• Be reminded of how love and caring are the most important resources we share with each other.

These are my daily opportunities on any given day -- if I so choose to seize them. It's up to me to make this choice.

The list may strike some a sappy, but for me it is truth.

What is on your list?