The Art of Patience

Recently a colleague at my school said to me, "I need some more of that patience that you were talking about".... referring, I think, to a workshop I gave a few days prior, on mindfulness. He reminded me of a phrase I have been practicing with for several years, "May I be patient"... It has resurfaced in my mind countless times as I've dealt with challenging students and classes. I decided to make this artwork in honor of my friend's comment, and I made copies for all the staff at my school. It's a simple but powerful phrase. You might like to try memorizing it and practicing with it. Patience is certainly one of the cardinal virtues that every teacher has to have- or start cultivating.

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Playing Around

Photo by Matheo JBT on Unsplash In March I offered an e nso workshop for art teachers in my district. We had a great time that included discussion, mindful breathing, lots of painting and generally making a mess of things. We talked about how enso painting fits into a Japanese aesthetic context, and how it is also relates to the "action painters" of abstract expressionism . Especially relevant is the notion of wabi-sabi , the embracing of change and imperfection. We began the practice part of our workshop with some focused, mindful breathing, to help us become fully present. The silence was refreshing after a very busy school day. I then demonstrated the traditional enso, where the artist completes a circle in one focused movement. I also showed examples of ensos that I had done in other media, or combinations of media, to illustrate creative options for elaboration. After some practice on newsprint, my colleagues immediately began playing w...

I recently published my first book on Amazon, "Advice for Every Hour." It's available in both ebook and paperback. It has many of the essays on this blog, as well as additional content. It chronicles my adventures applying mindfulness and other strategies in my life, and classroom.

Mindfulness in Education Conference 2015

I recently returned from three days in Denver for the 2015 Mindfulness in Education Conference. It consisted of two days of wonderful speakers and workshops, and a final day of mindfulness practice on Sunday. There are several such conferences now across the country, but this one was founded about eight years ago by Richard Brady, a former high school math teacher from Washington D.C. I've been fortunate to attend every conference put together by the MiEN folks, (Mindfulness in Education Network), and each year just seems to get better. It's now a three day event, with speakers and experts from around the country convening to share the insights from their work in the fields of mindfulness and education. My wife accompanied me on this trip, and after a day or two, she asked me, "So what are you learning?.... Are you learning anything new?" I had to pause when she asked me this question. Certainly most of the concepts are familiar by now: defining mindfulness...

The mindful teacher

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