Since I began teaching in 2014, I have regularly practiced yoga. Yoga is the reason I did not quit my first year teaching. Yoga is the reason I can breathe through hard situations during school. Yoga is the reason I find intention and purpose in the classroom.
This article from the Atlantic helped me realize how important it is for all students, especially those who suffer from trauma, unstable households and poverty, to have meditation and yoga in the classroom. I teach in the city of Detroit, where most of my students face poverty, violence and instability every day. After watching of my students suffer through their unstable lives, I realized how important that I make my classroom a stable place. During my mindful classroom series, I want to share insight and ideas for helping our students become more mindful in the classroom. This post is about how music can bring about a more stable classroom. I adore Pandora as a classroom management technique, however it also serves another purpose for me. Starting the second week of school, I play "Yoga Pandora" for the first 15-20 minutes of class. Yoga Pandora is all relaxing music you would here at a spa with no singing or speaking, just background noise. Here's why this type of music works in the classroom: 1) It sets the classroom mood. Students can feel a sense of calmness when they enter the classroom. It doesn't matter what classroom they came from before, this one feels different. 2) It helps students focus. Students can feel the relaxing tons of the music. I have yet for a student to complain about the music I play at the beginning of class. The mood set as they enter the classroom let's them focus on their studies and our classroom meeting. 3) It provides a different environment. Students are able to get out of their comfort zone. Since the music is associated with relaxing and calm, students can experience, for 50 minutes, something different than the rest of their day. 4) It gives students cues on what they should be doing. Since the music is quiet and calm, students know they need to also be quiet and calm. This is perfect to set the tone of the classroom from the first minute. I hope you are able to try yoga or relaxing music in the classroom to help student's focus on their work and start your classroom off right. This focusing can help our students bring mindfulness to their education and their inner selves.
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