Our Minds on Mindfulness and SEL
It has been an enlightening week throughout ISB this week, with the visit from the Greater Good Science Center. Hopefully many of our middle school parents and guardians were able to attend the parent session on Wednesday. We heard about ways in which the positive emotions such as awe and wonder, and happiness can be developed and how mindfulness, character education and social emotional learning, support our students to flourish, be resilient, and live their lives with purpose and meaning.
For the past two years our Mindfulness program here at ISB has been growing. We have had extensive interest from our teaching community, with 60 teachers committing to an 8 week Mindfulness program. Some of our students in MS, have experienced the .b (pronounced dot-be) Mindfulness program, please read here for more information. This will be offered as a flex class in our semester 2 schedule. Our objectives in providing mindfulness are to help develop life skills which can help our students:-
- feel happier, calmer and more fulfilled
- decrease stress, anxiety, and sadness
- optimise performance and wellbeing in sport and music
- improve relationships with others
- support students learning, so that they can be more attentive and concentrate better
Colleagues in ES and HS are also creating opportunities to practice Mindful Moments in their classrooms. We are committed to our professional development in this field and teachers will only teach Mindfulness programs when they are certified to teach Mindfulness. If you are interested in hearing more about Mindfulness at ISB please sign up here.
Wishing our families a happy and relaxing weekend.
Jackie, Janel and Carmel
News about Wellness
Grade 6 Wellness
Students need friendships and social connections with peers to he happy and successful. Students with friends have a more positive attitude towards school , have better relationships with teachers , are more engaged in class, and have greater school success. A sense of belonging corresponds to student engagement in the life and learning of the classroom. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the skills needed to make friends and build relationships We will look at how we can use empathy to support our friends and do what is right. Please take some time to talk with your child about how you make friends and share with them any tips you have for making and keeping friends.
Grade 7 Wellness
In Wellness class student in the 7th grade are learning about empathy and communication. So far they have learned skills to help them work in groups and disagree respectfully. These are essential skills for them to learn and will help them in the future tasks. They are learning how to use their empathy skills by paying attention to their body language, facial expression, actual words, tone of voice and actions and they are also learning and practicing “disagreeing respectfully skills” which help them keeping calm, use active listening, considering the other persons perspective, explaining their own perspective clearly and to act non-judgmentally. In the next couple of weeks they will be learning skills for negotiating and compromising.
Grade 8 Wellness
This semester, we have started Wellness 8 with a focus on Empathy and Communication. Using the Second Step program resources, students have built a foundation of effective communication with others through empathy, perspective, and developing skills to work in groups, handle grievances, and resolve problems with negotiation and compromise. With a focus on case studies and role-playing, students have developed skills in Wellness they can apply outside the classroom to improve communication and relationships in all aspects of their lives. As we move forward, we will use this foundation of empathy and communication to address bullying and emotion management.
As parents you may wish in the next weeks to discuss the following questions with your children:-
- What does it mean to have empathy, and how does it help you in school?
- Who are some people you can count on if you need an ally?
- What are the steps you use to negotiate and compromise? ( use some of your own examples at home and in work)