Week six term one 2022:
Figuring out meditation and mindfulness:
I was sure I would NOT be teaching high school kids to meditate when I chose to take up the wero of a Wānanga class on the back of five years of Deaning. It really did not sit comfortably with me at all. I had walked into a wānanga class at HHS by accident where a teacher was earnestly trying to get lads to try yoga and it was odd to me. Beyond my comfort zone.
However, I was urged to keep an open mind by friends who are colleagues and are well versed in the Junior Wānanga setup. They wore me down assuring me it can work in the year 7 - 9 programme and it could very well work for the 10 and 11's with persistence.
We have begun with two-minute meditations from Headspace (better for teenagers) and Calm on youtube. They are published for free. This has taken some training up - we always use Wednesdays. This is to create consistency. Without missing a beat, I need to go and collect a group of boys from another teaching space and bring them into mine because they are not good at being in my Wānanga class, let alone doing this. So it is a bit forced. I spend time each lesson explaining that I want them to have headphones off, and show respect to allow everyone the opportunity (including their own selves if they ever felt ready) to participate. So far, our behavioural issues have been minimal, but it is still hard mahi to not give in.
Problematically the sound bar in R7 is appalling and has inhibited our consistency because it is either 99 dbh or muted... I wait for this issue to be resolved. Some attempts have just been awful.
I'm doing this because I believe there is a need for it. I'm not a spiritualist. I am not religious. I am a mum with a need to see well-being front and centre of my own young person's forward planning and future. If they don't have this then they don't need any other skill, content, or meaning they learn at Kura. Very soon, I would like to have built up to 10 minutes of meditation. During lockdown in 2020 we found ourselves highly dependent on Headspace as an app and mindfulness, breathing strategies and affirmations to get through the isolation. It all made a difference.
Week nine term two 2022:
I believe the class is ready for a good solid 10-minute meditation... I notice some class members one would not expect, taking this experience quite seriously. I keep trying to link it back to te Whare Tapa Whā, but I know I need to be more explicit with that link and keep repeating myself, even though I feel like students have heard me say it a million or so times, so surely know. Surely I sound like a broken record? Clearly not. I still retrieve students from another teaching space each lesson. But not every time. Consistency works eventually.
Week two term three 2022:
We recently had a change of learning space, so that my class could cook without disrupting another class on Mondays and make hot drinks from the kitchen which no one else seems to be using a lot with their kids. But it exists and is well used in the other two kahui buildings so why not ours. The kitchen in our kāhui is adjacent to a learning area without a wall. It was a bit unfair to keep walking through and then making yummy smells for that class who were not benefitting from it! So we negotiated a shift. The cooking is a separate story, but it has created a bit of togetherness, and buy-in so it is something we will keep at.
That has changed how we do things; space does influence the way it is done.
Previously we were building up to our 10-minute-a-week meditation in R7 and it was not too bad. Now in R9, it is a train station. We have better seating because we can configure ourselves to not have our backs to anyone without having to do a full furniture move of too many desks in too small a space. And then back again in a heck of a hurry before the bell goes for the next lesson. But we are interrupted too many times. It is less private and we can be seen a bit more. Teenagers don't like feeling exposed. I suspect adults doing this would not like that sense of exposure either though.
I have made some signs and one of my boys who doesn't want to engage with the actual meditation helps me put them up (and lock the doors and explain to staff who try and walk through without reading them to please use another door). We are up to 10 minutes each time regardless.
There are no less than five ways into our space. Of course, I only printed four on the first day we used the signs.
I think my process looks like:
- Introducing te Whare Tapa Whā - making sure Wairua is a clear components
- What is meditation? Explicit teaching around what it can do and why. Both before and after each and every time we do it
- Choosing a meditation that is appropriate for the audience. Some have been fails. Usually, the Headspace brand works quite well.
- Positive reinforcement following it, even when it doesn't feel so successful (usually it is one learner who doesn't cope that day)
- reinforcing that you can choose to opt-in on any Wednesday and the links are right there to practice at home if you want as well. So long as you remain respectful and find yourself a comfortable position for the duration.
