Meditative
Minute: One Way to Start Class
Nell Scharff
"We
are constantly on the go, rushing from class to class. Every
time we enter a class it's work, work, work. MM is pretty
fun. It's a minute to relax, calm
your nerves, and get yourself together. And I believe that
minute is very needed."
"Sometimes
you come into a class and five seconds later the teacher starts
talking and saying stuff to take notes on but you miss part of
it because there isn't even a minute to just get ready and relaxed.
MM lets us get ready and write the homework down."
"I think
MM is very peaceful. It lets everyone get a chance
to breathe and settle down. It helps teachers relax a little
bit too."
---7th Graders reflecting on having a Meditative Minute
I got the idea for "meditative minute" [MM] from a student-teacher I worked with years ago who began each
class (she taught 11th grade) with one full minute of
silent reflection. At first, I thought this was a little hokey
and I wondered if my students would laugh. But they didn't!
On the contrary, they seemed to fall into and soak up the silence,
as if it were exactly what they'd wanted
and needed. Sitting in silence with them, I realized how rare
quiet, reflective moments are in schools. It seems teachers
and students are always running and rushing, with never a moment
to catch our breath.
"Meditative Minute,"
as I've come to call it, has become my
standard and preferred way to begin class with seventh-grade students.
(I've used it at times with older students, but not as a general
rule.) My primary reason for implementing MM is that it helps
with classroom management; we begin class quietly, calmly, and on
the same page. A second but related reason is that it provides
a brief but meaningful respite for both students and for me.
A third and also related benefit is that shared moments of silence
help build community-but only if the idea of MM is communicated
in the spirit of relaxation and community and not as a punitive
measure.
Although I always feel a little silly, I introduced
MM on the very first day of class, before any behavior problems
have begun. I introduce it as a fun, quirky thing we're going
to try. I tell my students that they can do anything that
is totally silent, including sitting still, closing their eyes,
or copying down their homework--but that
they absolutely cannot talk; this is, I explain, our "sacred
time." (I say this with a smile
on my face, making fun of myself as I go.) I've found
it's very important that I then do what I've
asked my students to do--that I am still
and silent for the minute, despite the temptation to use that time
to take attendance or to take care of random business.
A quiet minute at the start of class could be
introduced and accomplished quite differently by different teachers.
No strategy works unless it feels consistent, in a fundamental way,
with the teacher's personality. I have found, however, that
the investment of this very small amount of time pays off!
It just so happens that the students quoted above are from an extremely
boisterous 7th grade class that meets right after lunch,
and that MM has become a critical, effective classroom management
technique. I knew I was onto something good last week when
I suggested that we skip MM one day and the class spontaneously
said "No!" They've come to see MM as their own -- not
as something imposed from above. |