This weekend I was fortunate to attend a day long workshop in St. Paul, on "Non-violent communication." The title of the workshop comes from Marshall Rosenberg, author of a book by the same title. In a nutshell, his program outlines a series of steps to help create a more compassionate and mindful mode of communication. The steps include, observing carefully; being aware of feelings that underlie our communications; being aware of needs and wants that are trying to find expression; and differentiating between demands and requests. Although this is very difficult work, it seems vital for anyone in education to do some reflection on their communication, and this book is a great place to start. For more on this book, check it out here: "Non-violent communication" by Marshall Rosenberg.
While the mindfulness in education movement is still young, it has an increasing footprint in schools across the US and the globe. One can argue that most of the practices are body and sensory based practices- breathing, awareness of sound, mindful movement, etc. All in the service of self-awareness and emotional health, all well and good. But some educators are trying to expand that interpretation of mindfulness. Amy Edelstein is an educator in the Philadelphia schools where she has worked as an outside provider (meaning she is not a regular classroom teacher) teaching mindfulness to students for many years. She has developed her own program called The Inner Strength System , and her most recent book is entitled, The Conscious Classroom (Emergence Education Press, 2017) . In this wide-ranging book Edelstein shares her experience working in the urban schools of Philadelphia. She does not shy away from describing the tremendous challenges her school f...
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