Benefits of Mindful Meditation in Class

On Wednesday's my classes practice Mindful Meditation for 5 minutes at the start of class. My 10th and 12th graders love it but, I'll admit, it's sometimes difficult to get my Juniors to buy into it. They are so focused on AP and Dual Credit classes and feel that any 'down time' should be immediately spent on studying for the next test. However, I feel it's incredibly important for my student's mental health, especially for my Juniors, to be able to "find their center" and I have made this into part of my Wednesday routine.

If you are wondering how to 'sell' this to your students or admin, hopefully the following list will help!

• Improved language skills: Practicing mindfulness is shown to help students retain more information and have greater self-efficacy and less anxiety. 
• Language acquisition: Listening to someone speak the language in a slow, smooth, and metered way helps in general understanding and fosters favorable language-learning conditions: novelty seeking, novelty producing, engagement and flexibility.
• Reduces anxiety: Mindfulness helps reduce general anxiety and helps the students perform better which leads to an overall improvement in mental health. Also improves their self-regulation skills. It helps to foster a sense of peace with our pace of learning and cultivates a mindset that language learning is a journey and helps to set intentions with our language learning goals.
• Improved focus and concentration which will lead to better grades and less stressed students. Also improves ability to pay attention.
• It's a great brain break  
• Reduces teacher burnout. Honestly, that 5 minutes, every Wednesday, helps to recenter me and to let my stress and anxiety go about whether or not I'm being a good teacher and giving all my students what they need to be mentally healthy while also learning a second language.