I have often said, “At the heart of who I am, I am a teacher.” While I am privileged and humbled to serve as the 8th president of GCC, I recognize it is my many years of teaching mathematics that have given me the foundation to do the work of the presidency. It is my belief in students and our community and our ability to make a difference in their life everyday that drives me to commit to this noble work.
When I think back over the 23 years I taught mathematics, there are a myriad of memories that come to mind. As a young 23 year old, it was a bit overwhelming knowing that I was responsible for teaching 7th grade mathematics at the same school I had graduated from 10 years earlier. The connections I was able to make with students remind me how our words and actions matter even when we don’t realize it. Thank goodness for Facebook and for former students being able to find me. I recently had lunch with a student from that first class. This young man was brilliant then and brilliant today, he talked way too much then and often landed himself in trouble, and he is talkative today and uses those skills in his career as a leader with FedEx. It was humbling to connect with a student from 32 years ago!
I also have great memories of my time teaching high school mathematics and serving as a club advisor for the Ski Club. Taking groups of students from South Phoenix, many of whom had never seen the snow, on ski trips to Colorado and Utah, created many great memories that we still laugh about today. I’ll never forget the trip to Utah, for many students this was their first plane trip. The students were excited and as we were getting ready to taxi down the runway, one of our students, John, found the barf bag in the seat pocket in front of him. Being curious about this flat paper bag, he stuck his hand inside…Just as the plane was starting to move, he yelled out to the flight attendant, “Hey Lady, Hey Lady!” and held up his hand covered in barf! He was told he would have to sit tight until we reached cruising altitude.
The 16 years I spent teaching at South Mountain Community College brought so many more opportunities with students. As the advisor for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, I traveled with students around the country to attend national conferences. I taught a range of ages, 18 – 83, and each and every one of these students taught me something about how to teach and how to stay flexible as their lives were complicated, yet they were committed to their education and just wanted someone to be committed back to them. My years at SMCC taught me to challenge myself with new techniques, new technology, and planted the seed for being able to make a difference in our community, because at the heart of who I am, I am a teacher.
Monthly Archives: March 2022
Lifelong Search ….
Almost Losing My Heart
Whenever I saw a piano (as a child) I felt compelled to play it. I attribute this to my birthday because it fell just after the kindergarten cutoff for enrollment by two hours, and resulted in piano lessons for a year. When I did start kindergarten a year later our class shared many miscellaneous items in Show and Tell, (one involved a large coconut which I carried ten blocks with two skinned knees – the frustration of dropping and falling over and over, and the excitement of wanting to show it to my classmates… I still remember).
I am told that one afternoon our kindergarten teacher was called out of the room. As you know, teachers rarely leave the classroom because chaos often ensues. With a bit of trepidation she returned to find the entire class quietly huddled around the piano where I was sharing some of the pieces that I had learned. I wasn’t showing off, just simply showing them things I had learned, much as teachers did for me for many years to follow.
I have memories of many teachers who made a difference. It wouldn’t be fair to single out one because I was lucky to have had so many. Everyone talks about good teachers that make a difference. They never talk about the lousy ones, but I had a crop of those, too. By that time I was much older, an accomplished pianist after decades of lessons, but now ignored primarily because I dared to try to write music instead of just play music. That also taught me a lot as a teacher. It taught me never to pre-judge a student by assuming that they didn’t have anything to offer because of the notion that only certain people can write music or learn about music. It sounds almost impossible today. People lose jobs over that. I almost lost my heart over it.
No, I didn’t teach at that school, although I did create a course at one of its sister institutions, a course in Marketing the Arts, which I taught for several semesters – much to my professors’ chagrin. I persevered in the program, and, as luck would have it, became a music critic at a major metropolitan newspaper and ended up reviewing every professor I had and their music writing. (Unlike them, I was kind). I graduated and changed schools.
At this new school I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. I expected the same treatment. My music was representational which was not in vogue. What I found instead was that the faculty and students accepted me and my music. Interestingly enough, I rarely play piano anymore except to compose. My many days of performing in order to be an accepted musician were now only as an accepted composer – I made a point of it. I taught theory classes, which is what most composers teach while finishing their terminal degree. I wrote articles and produced concerts. I reviewed concerts at another major metropolitan newspaper from time to time. But I now never introduced myself as a pianist, which was where I found my heart. I now only refer to myself as a composer, where I found it again.
It took losing my heart to find it again and it means too much to me to let it go. I love teaching music and teaching about being a musician. I love teaching about the creative process and I love the enthusiasm of my students, learning about or hearing music for the first time. That is where my heart takes me.
My Mathography
by Dr. Krysten Pampel
This is an assignment that my students complete in my MAT256 course at the beginning of the semester. (link to the assignment) I have been asked by multiple students about my own mathography and since the theme this week is HEART, I thought I would take this opportunity to create and share my mathography.
Dear MAT256 & 257 Students,
My name is Dr. Krysten Pampel, and I will be your instructor for this course. My hobbies include watching movies, scrapbooking, reading, and have grown since the pandemic to include daily mediation and knitting. I like various genres of movies but tend to watch action, superhero, and animated films most often. I have knit 4 blankets so far, the first one was arm knit, then I did a finger knit blanket, and my last two were knitted using needles. One of my biggest accomplishments has been daily meditation since the thought of sitting still, in almost silence, used to make my skin crawl. I always felt like I needed to be moving, producing, or changing something in order to feel peace. Meditation has helped me with my anxious thoughts and brings me more peace than I would have guessed. This practice has given me the gift of relaxation, something most people who meet me ask if I ever get any of.
I have always admired my parents since they have never been afraid to try something new. My parents have served in the army and have worked as plumbers, locksmiths, administrative assistants, police dispatchers, accountants, enrolled agents, and their most recent adventure has been over the road truck driving. They have encouraged me to do what brings me joy and if I ever lose that joy never be afraid to try something new. They inspire me to remain flexible and try new things. I am still aspiring to embrace change without resistance but I know we all have areas of growth. There are seven people in my immediate family, my mother, father, sister, nephew, husband, son, and myself. I also have a grandmother that is almost 90 that I care for on a regular basis.
I love learning. I have always felt like a bottomless well and that my thirst for new knowledge and challenges can never be quenched. I am blessed to have a job I love and the ability to learn even more within my career. My favorite classes when I attended Glendale Community College were world religion, psychology, and bio medical ethics. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I started at GCC but I always gravitated toward mathematics courses. I earned my bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University in secondary education mathematics, my master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in adult education and training, and my doctorate degree from Arizona State University in Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. I have five years of experience teaching at the high school level and six years of experience teaching at the Paradise Valley Community College as an Adjunct Faculty. This is my fifth year as a Residential Faculty member at Glendale Community College.
My love for mathematics stems from a singular event in my high school education. I attended Ironwood High School and in my first semester of freshman year, I took a math course that was challenging and was the first time I had struggled to understand the content in front of me. I barely passed the class and in the next semester took yet another math course. I was terrified that I would have the same problem with comprehension. However, as we have all come to see there is a fair amount of cyclical review that occurs in mathematics courses. I was reintroduced to the same concepts in this new course and found that my struggles before had little to do with the content but rather how the content was being taught. At that moment, I realized the power of teaching. The power does not reside in the content presented but in the presentation of the content.
Even though my love of math is strong, my love for teaching is stronger. I have a passion for teaching teachers and I am fortunate I have the amazing opportunity to teach all of you mathematical strategies that will aid you in teaching the next generation. I believe that every student, and therefore every teacher, has the capacity to learn, stay flexible, and grow. This flexibility manifests when you are not afraid to try something new. Shaking things up like lessons, activities, tools, etc. hones your craft and makes you stronger than you ever thought possible. It will be my goal for these two courses (MAT256 and MAT257) to open your minds up to alternative math strategies and remind you how powerful you become when you try something new.
Sincerely,
Dr. Krysten Pampel
6x6x1 Two Things To Stand On
Earlier in the week I thought I might have 6 for this post as part of the Write 6×6 thing I signed up for. I was thinking of experiences I had this week that affirm or support what (I think) I know.
These were triggered by interactions this week as the organization I work for, Open Education Global was hosting Open Education Week.
Note: as a blogger I hardly ever keep blog posts around as drafts, once started I like to finish. But I do often drafting in my head, letting ideas percolate (or evaporate) until something coalesces or I just decide to start writing and see what happens (this is the latter).
First of all, my ideas are far from universally adaptable, nor are they profoundly original, nor worth glossing the title of a published book. I find these ideas more like long term wood sculptures, I just keep chipping away at, wondering if it is done. They are never done.
Thing 1. Asking For Help (in public)
One of the activities I created this year (it does not matter much what it was, but you can ask) was a public space to ask questions about a technology. This sometimes is what I think the internet was built for. Many of you know that feeling when you type into a search box a “how to ____” search.
I was and was not surprised when someone chose not to post a question in public, but sought out my email address to ask a question. I may not have to explain why people do not want to ask questions in public, it has to do with our own “ingrown” fear of not wanting to look … hey this could almost be wordle? S T _ _ _ D. Everybody else know how to do this but me?
A class, be it online or not is always a community, that is not a cliche. But if everything is just between one student and a teacher, maybe I could just be a vending machine. If one student has a question, more likely do. And if you design courses with public spaces, can there be anything better than an environment where other students answer each others questions?
Long ago I saw this in media classes I was teaching. Students had a forum to ask, twitter, and they had their own blogs to document their projects. I saw over and over that students would include in their weekly reflection things like “I spent an hour trying to figure out how to manipulate an alpha mask in GIMP.”
So I invoked what I call the Fifteen Minute Rule– if you are stuck on a task, a concept, trying to find a resource, if you have not found an answer on your own in fifteen minutes, stop, and ask your classmates. Not that this was a rule to enforce, but just a suggestion that it’s always better to ask, regardless of what you think it means to not know.
I have come to believe that this is a key (I don’t think skill is the right word) practices to have especially in networked public spaces. Ask for help. Often. And there is so much to be said for a class environment where other students can offer answers. The best was when it happened before I could even notice the question. I do not need to assert my expertise and Pretend I Know Everything.
This seems obvious, and here I am thinking anyone reading his will reach for a Homer Simpson DOH! meme. Here I will save you the trouble
Do you feel okay to not be an expert in public? I sure am. I prefer playing the know it none.
Thing 2. No Best _______ on the Internet
The internet is pretty big, right? Can I insert another Homer Simpson GIF?
So I do get questions (see Number 1) where people want to know the Best Tool for ______ or the Best Resources for _______. Anyone who confidently answers those questions like they have seen everything is… suspect.
I find the best part of the internet is that there is always more to unturn, dig up, stumble upon.
For a number of years I have had an interest in a group of technologies that are able to provide the kinds of activities, experiences we have connected to the internet… when we are not. This has such importance for parts of the world where connectivity is slim. Or none. And there are a host of clever solutions, Internet in a Box style.
I’d like to think I have come across a lot of these. But O am always reminder that there is a giant tsk-tsk finger waving from the Orb of the Internet. Just a year ago during Open Education Week, I randomly attended a session where I heard about the use in the Northwest Territories of a platform developed in South Africa called Nimble. And people replied with other examples, like Wikifundi … then World Possible then Kolibri.
Woah. Well, after heating of these I felt rather informed.
That’s dangerous.
I am sure know I know much less about this topic than exists.
In another discussion I was introduced to another platform that, as mom used to say, “blew me away” called Kiwix, one open source tool that lets you download vast amounts (or very specific parts) of resources like Wikipedia, to run stand alone from off devices or even on a phone without connectivity.
When people offer their informed opinions, keep in mind it’s largely centered on things they know about. If you ask me about what to use to make web sites, chances are I am going to recommend WordPress. Need a computer? Well, I am likely to recommend an Apple device. My experience is heavily centered on what I know and work with.
If ever you apply Thing 1 to ask a question in public, always keep in mind Thing 2— understand that there is often more.
This again is really my experience, I cannot prescribe them for you. But that’s what this blog is for, my outloud, likely to be easily proven wrong, ideas.
Okay, that is week 1 for my Write 6×6. Gotta start the brain percolating for something new next week.
Featured Image:
At the Heart
The belief at the heart of what I do in my teaching practice is to always do what is in the best interest of students. This belief goes back to my first days of teaching at Tolleson Union High School in the chalk powder, maps-from-1952, musty-carpet smelling Old Main.
One of my colleagues, Patricia “Pat” Gordon, was a spindly, former nun, tough as nails, the New Jersey kind, 40 year plus veteran of teaching. She was not easy on me, and even though my last name was Solley, she would deliberately say in her commanding raspy-from-being-a-smoker voice, “See Sully? This is what you have to do,” when referencing anything she thought I did not know how to do. Apparently, I knew nothing.
Pat would take on anyone from administrators to students, pointing her finger, and they would end up thanking her for it. Her toughness paired in equal measure to the compassion she showed her students. They, simply, loved her. One of Pat’s To-Dos (given over teacher’s lunchtime lounge conversation in-between the ones about the good ‘ol glory days) for me was to read The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher by Harry and Rosemary Wong: “Sully, you gotta read this before every school year. It’ll get you ready.”
Out of curiosity and open to anything that would calm my I-just-graduated-from-college-first-year- splotchy-neck-red-in the-face-“I’m teaching seniors in high school” teacher nerves, I found the book at Barnes & Noble. Initially, I thought, what kind of old school antiquated crap was this? It was so rigid and matter of fact, definitely distorting my textbook-ripping John Keating perception of what teaching could be (“Oh Captain! My Captain!”). The Wongs’ book contained such crazy notions like: set clear expectations, be organized, be consistent, what you do on the first day will set the tone for the whole year, and, oh yes, classroom management is paramount. Looking back 23 years later, I have to laugh because I don’t know what I was thinking or why I scoffed at it.
It turns out, Pat was right. Of course she was. She knew that by practicing these matter-of-fact things in her classroom, she indubitably kept her students’ best interest in the center of her classroom. Eventually, Pat became my mentor, and, in her retirement, asked me to take over as sponsor of Interact Club, a service organization paired with the local Rotary Club, “Sully, you can do it. It’s easy. You sell the popcorn. You raise the money. You go to meetings. You volunteer. The students love it. Win-win.”
In 2003, Pat passed unexpectedly after a long day of teaching; at her memorial service, I had the opportunity to publicly acknowledge her enduring impact on my career. To me, she is one of the first people, professionally, who guided me, albeit many moons ago, into the belief that the most effective teaching is always doing what is best for students.
To be an Exceptional Nurse!
💖 The New Nursing Student
Dr. Ingrid Simkins
We take a moment to go around the room and you share your name, a personal detail or two and then why you chose nursing as your profession. We discover among the array of responses some are here finally following through on a childhood dream, some are exploring a second career, or for some this is a legacy and you will be the third generation of nurses in your family. We discover some were called to the profession as they reflect on their experiences within the healthcare system. Whether it was their own health issue or that of someone they loved, a nurse stood out and shaped the person they were to become. For some, this is a desire to give back to others as the nurse did for them and for others a desire to never be the nurse they experienced. Whatever the reason…you are here!💖
In my role as Residential Nursing faculty I have the privilege of witnessing all of those “first ”experiences. Being there the first day as you walk into the classroom in your neatly pressed uniform and brand new shoes, I observe how your face beams with a blend of excitement and a touch of anxiety as you begin this new journey. I watch as you enter the classroom and claim your space for the next 16 weeks, unpacking your computers and colorful binders with coordinating pen sets. I notice the array of caffeinated beverages that you stopped to purchase on the way to campus this morning as a “treat to celebrate this occasion”. You settle in and class begins.💖
Time moves on and you become inundated with assignments, readings, care plans, exams, group projects, lab skills, skills check-off, clinical experiences, simulations, virtual simulations and this is just the first six weeks. The uniforms are now slightly wrinkled-”who has time to iron”, the caffeine a necessity-”there is no time to sleep”, and the beaming light on those faces a few watts dimmer because reality has set in…the reality of what nursing is and the responsibility you carry…you realize this because you care… because you have heart💖. It is in these moments that I witness a new set of firsts and see the heart you have to succeed.
“Caring is the essence of nursing.” —Jean Watson
💖. This may be the first time you had to rely on someone to help balance your life at home. The first time you realize you are not alone on this journey and instead of competitors for a seat in the program, you are working as a team to accomplish your mutual goals. The first time you realize that you are going through all of this because someone’s life may depend on it one day, and the first time you realize and say out loud, “I know this is what I meant to do”!.
A nursing instructor can teach you the textbook content and the nursing skills, but what we can’t teach is caring. We can develop and nurture it, but it has to be there in the first place. So just remember as we approach midterms and your GPA may no longer be perfect, call upon that reason that brought you here. This is hard…but you will be successful and reach your goals because you have heart.💖
💖New Graduate Nurse
Dr. Mary Resler
As a new graduate nurse the opportunities are endless. You have hundreds of options for growth and education. The one thing a new graduate nurse doesn’t have is experience. They have had hundreds of clinical hours following a nurse, learning from a mentor, practicing the skills of the profession, and geeking out over cool medical diagnoses. There is little an educator can do to prepare students for the feelings they will experience going into the profession. It can be very stressful and full of emotions. The lack of confidence is as palpable as a radial pulse in an athlete. This is completely normal, do not panic. 💖
“They may forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
The heart of a nurse is more like a calling. The profession is a series of degrees and examinations. Almost anyone can endure nursing school and become a registered nurse. The difference is in having a ‘job’ versus having a ‘profession.’ This concept can be challenging to understand. You can teach anyone the skills and responsibilities that a nurse is accountable for. An educator cannot teach a nurse how to care; this is the calling part of the profession.💖
There was a time in my life that I was not sure I could do the tasks and skills needed to be a nurse. I was not sure if I could complete the program. I was not sure if I was smart enough or capable of doing the job responsibilities. On my first clinical day, I walked in to take care of an elderly patient who could not take care of themselves. At that moment, my heart and mind connected, and I knew that taking care of patients would be my calling. My confidence grew over time as will yours. My nurse’s heart grew too. 💖
New Nurse Educator 💖
Dr. Grace Paul
Growing up, I never wanted to be a teacher! I would say, “My voice is too soft, and no one will listen to me.” Fast forward to nursing school, I realized that a soft voice is the least of the problem! What is essential is the passion – the heart, the ability to adapt to the changing demands of the classroom, the nursing student, and connecting to the learners.
Students can smell a new instructor from a mile away. The academic qualifications and recent experience in healthcare are essential. But, the qualities of kindness, compassion, and understanding, while at the same time being firm and consistent, is priceless. Educators must have a high bar for students to achieve and, at the same time, give the support necessary. Do not bring down the bar so that you can be “popular” with students. Students must be held accountable for achieving their course objectives. 💖
“Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.” —Florence Nightingale
Students are more engaged when they acknowledge the students when they participate in class, have eye contact, add humor, show genuine happiness and enthusiasm when they perform better. These are behaviors that let the student know that you care. There can be no learning if there is no connection between the educator and the students. 💖
In the educator and student relationship, both the educator and the students are learners. The best teachers aim for every student to be successful, and that starts with the heart – Being approachable, being available, and being kind!💖
6×6-0 Back On the Horse?
The Write 6×6 Challenge is to:
…create 6 pieces of writing, one each week for 6 weeks beginning the week of March 7. Aside from the 1 post each week for 6 weeks, the only other rule is that the writing must be about teaching, learning, and/or student success.
It’s been a few years since I’ve written about teaching and learning from a personal vantage point, and because I have a penchant for periodically tearing down as much of my presence on the web as I can, most of what I have written has been lost except for traces in the posts and comments on the sites of my more steadfast compatriots and the odd page in the Wayback Machine.
But, encouraged by connecting with Todd Conaway here at UW—and a fortuitous chance to connect with the UWB Teaching & Learning on the Open Web group just when they were set to hang out with my old friend Jim Groom—I’m going to take advantage of the 6×6 Challenge to start back up again. For a while, at least.
My apologies in advance…
[featured image: a blackout poem using a page from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. See complete image/page]
Breathing My Way into the Classroom
I once lived next door to a woman named Elsie who was a glider. I don’t mean a hang-glider or a supermodel on a runway. Rather, her general mode of getting around in the world was slow and smooth. Each footfall was steady, her arms gently swaying as she walked.
Me, I am more of a scurrier. I always seem to be a step behind where I want to be at any moment. (One night, I caught myself literally running into bed.) So, I am jealous of Elsie’s cadence, her here-and-now presence – especially when I am walking sprinting into my classroom.
Picture my typical classroom entry: I fling myself through the door to start class. I’m pulling down the screen and tapping my fingers as the computer takes its sweet-a** time to wake up. I’m arranging the day’s materials while mentally rehearsing how the lesson will go down. At times, I’m breathless.
I really should provide popcorn for my students as they watch this weekly show.
Okay, maybe it’s not all that bad, but earlier this semester I had the sense that my Health Psychology class would be improved if I was more at-peace as I deliver my opening greeting. If I were more emotionally available to my students before class. If I modeled the very same self-regulation I encourage in them.
In the book The Spark of Learning, psychologist Sarah Rose Cavanagh supports this notion. Cavanagh advocates for teaching with mindfulness, or what she refers to as “a continual calling back to the present moment.” She also writes about presenting a sense of immediacy with students – showing I am interested in them, the subject, and the process of learning. None of this can occur if I am off kilter from minute one.
To change the way I typically fly into the room, I decided to set aside 15 minutes before each class for my own meditation and/or breath work. My class starts at 2:30, so I blocked off 2:00-2:15 as a repeating commitment on my calendar. I created a special meditation-do-not-disturb sign as a stiff arm to all door knockers. I face my chair away from my office window so I don’t have to worry about anyone seeing me in all my meditation glory.
Headspace is my meditation app of choice, but simply doing diaphragmatic breathing or box breathing works just as well. The point is to quiet the mind, soothe the stress response system, and tether to the present moment before greeting my students. To release the relentless chatter of the to-do list playing on an endless loop.
And so far it is working! I feel more relaxed as I start class now. I am able to enjoy initial class conversations with increased focus on the people in front of me. I sense that I am connecting better with my students. It also helps that I shared what I am doing with my students since breathing and meditation are topics in this particular course – a form of what Cavanagh refers to as metainstructing.
I may never naturally glide like Elsie, but before each class I can center myself through meditation like a yogi-boss!
The post Breathing My Way into the Classroom appeared first on My Love of Learning.
Breathing My Way into the Classroom
I once lived next door to a woman named Elsie who was a glider. I don’t mean a hang-glider or a supermodel on a runway. Rather, her general mode of getting around in the world was slow and smooth. Each footfall was steady, her arms gently swaying as she walked.
Me, I am more of a scurrier. I always seem to be a step behind where I want to be at any moment. (One night, I caught myself literally running into bed.) So, I am jealous of Elsie’s cadence, her here-and-now presence – especially when I am walking sprinting into my classroom.
Picture my typical classroom entry: I fling myself through the door to start class. I’m pulling down the screen and tapping my fingers as the computer takes its sweet-a** time to wake up. I’m arranging the day’s materials while mentally rehearsing how the lesson will go down. At times, I’m breathless.
I really should provide popcorn for my students as they watch this weekly show.
Okay, maybe it’s not all that bad, but earlier this semester I had the sense that my Health Psychology class would be improved if I was more at-peace as I deliver my opening greeting. If I were more emotionally available to my students before class. If I modeled the very same self-regulation I encourage in them.
In the book The Spark of Learning, psychologist Sarah Rose Cavanagh supports this notion. Cavanagh advocates for teaching with mindfulness, or what she refers to as “a continual calling back to the present moment.” She also writes about presenting a sense of immediacy with students – showing I am interested in them, the subject, and the process of learning. None of this can occur if I am off kilter from minute one.
To change the way I typically fly into the room, I decided to set aside 15 minutes before each class for my own meditation and/or breath work. My class starts at 2:30, so I blocked off 2:00-2:15 as a repeating commitment on my calendar. I created a special meditation-do-not-disturb sign as a stiff arm to all door knockers. I face my chair away from my office window so I don’t have to worry about anyone seeing me in all my meditation glory.
Headspace is my meditation app of choice, but simply doing diaphragmatic breathing or box breathing works just as well. The point is to quiet the mind, soothe the stress response system, and tether to the present moment before greeting my students. To release the relentless chatter of the to-do list playing on an endless loop.
And so far it is working! I feel more relaxed as I start class now. I am able to enjoy initial class conversations with increased focus on the people in front of me. I sense that I am connecting better with my students. It also helps that I shared what I am doing with my students since breathing and meditation are topics in this particular course – a form of what Cavanagh refers to as metainstructing.
I may never naturally glide like Elsie, but before each class I can center myself through meditation like a yogi-boss!
The post Breathing My Way into the Classroom appeared first on My Love of Learning.
Breathing My Way into the Classroom
I once lived next door to a woman named Elsie who was a glider. I don’t mean a hang-glider or a supermodel on a runway. Rather, her general mode of getting around in the world was slow and smooth. Each footfall was steady, her arms gently swaying as she walked.
Me, I am more of a scurrier. I always seem to be a step behind where I want to be at any moment. (One night, I caught myself literally running into bed.) So, I am jealous of Elsie’s cadence, her here-and-now presence – especially when I am walking sprinting into my classroom.
Picture my typical classroom entry: I fling myself through the door to start class. I’m pulling down the screen and tapping my fingers as the computer takes its sweet-a** time to wake up. I’m arranging the day’s materials while mentally rehearsing how the lesson will go down. At times, I’m breathless.
I really should provide popcorn for my students as they watch this weekly show.
Okay, maybe it’s not all that bad, but earlier this semester I had the sense that my Health Psychology class would be improved if I was more at-peace as I deliver my opening greeting. If I were more emotionally available to my students before class. If I modeled the very same self-regulation I encourage in them.
In the book The Spark of Learning, psychologist Sarah Rose Cavanagh supports this notion. Cavanagh advocates for teaching with mindfulness, or what she refers to as “a continual calling back to the present moment.” She also writes about presenting a sense of immediacy with students – showing I am interested in them, the subject, and the process of learning. None of this can occur if I am off kilter from minute one.
To change the way I typically fly into the room, I decided to set aside 15 minutes before each class for my own meditation and/or breath work. My class starts at 2:30, so I blocked off 2:00-2:15 as a repeating commitment on my calendar. I created a special meditation-do-not-disturb sign as a stiff arm to all door knockers. I face my chair away from my office window so I don’t have to worry about anyone seeing me in all my meditation glory.
Headspace is my meditation app of choice, but simply doing diaphragmatic breathing or box breathing works just as well. The point is to quiet the mind, soothe the stress response system, and tether to the present moment before greeting my students. To release the relentless chatter of the to-do list playing on an endless loop.
And so far it is working! I feel more relaxed as I start class now. I am able to enjoy initial class conversations with increased focus on the people in front of me. I sense that I am connecting better with my students. It also helps that I shared what I am doing with my students since breathing and meditation are topics in this particular course – a form of what Cavanagh refers to as metainstructing.
I may never naturally glide like Elsie, but before each class I can center myself through meditation like a yogi-boss!
The post Breathing My Way into the Classroom appeared first on My Love of Learning.