“We’re about to do our morning ritual and our breathing which helps us ready our brains for a day of learning,” said Bradley Middle School sixth grader Krystal Trueba.
Trueba was one of nearly 20 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students who led the Bradley faculty meeting in a mindfulness exercise. Students in Rosaura Englehart’s Dual Language Social Studies class start their day with a fist bump and breathing exercises.
“It helps us understand things better, comprehend better and answer things more clearly,” said sixth grader Hallie Hogue. “It helps our brain prepare mentally.”
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) can be something as small as a moment of reflection in your morning routine. Englehart noticed a positive difference in her students, and her own life, after she implemented these practices. It starts with a breathing exercise and moves into a “Safe Keeper” ritual where the students and teacher commit to instilling a safe learning environment. It then transitions to a “Wish Well” segment, or moment of silence, to reflect or wish well to their friends or family. It ends with a commitment to be the best Bradley student they can be.
The idea came from a training session Englehart attended in 2017.
“My leader at the training was a police officer in Houston,” said Englehart. “He said that he used breathing techniques during high-speed car chases to calm his officers down and that prevented a lot of fatal mistakes. That sold me and ever since then I’ve incorporated it into my class.”
With breathing, students are disengaging from stress. With the “Safe Keeper” ritual, they are uniting. With “Wish Well” they are connecting and through their commitment, they commit to each other.
