Relaxation Gym: Workout One for Test Taking
31 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Educator Resources, Guided Imagery, Uncategorized
With the increasing amount of testing that has been introduced to the educational system, students and educators alike are feeling more pressure around test performance and student outcomes. It is ever more important that we train students for test taking success. While effective instruction is essential, it is equally important that we help students to train their brains so they can easily show what they know. Relaxation activities are an excellent way to prime student mind’s for test taking while simultaneously strengthening their abilities to relax the mind and body at will. Here I introduce the Relaxation Gym Workout One for test taking. Please check back later this week to see several more test taking workouts!
A calm mind is fertile soil for learning. Preparing the mind for test taking is as important as taking the test itself. The more prepared, relaxed, calm and focused, the mind is, the easier it is for students to demonstrate what they know on the test. Test taking is an excellent opportunity for educators to practice relaxation techniques and strengthen student awareness around their own ability to relax the body and calm the mind in order to maximize their own learning. We can approach test taking preparation by inviting students to visit the Relaxation Gym. In this gym they become the personal trainers for their own minds. The mind, just like muscles in our body, can be trained for increased success and positive experience. Just like you would train for a swim meet, you can also train your brain for test taking success.
Imagination Workout: Engage the Imagination and Visualize Success
Creative visualization is often defined as imagining as clearly and detailed as possible what you want to happen as if it has already happened, (Gawain, 1982). Use the following guided imagery in order to teach children how to engage their imaginations to to support creating the experiences that they want.
Workout One: Imagination Workout: Train Your Brain Video
Begin by facilitating a class discussion about the results you would like to experience while taking a test. Focus on the feelings, rather than outcome. For example, we want to feel calm, relaxed and confident while taking a test. The idea is to support students in doing their best, but not to place so much emphasis on the testing outcome. The goal is to generate positive feelings around the testing experience. Remind students that if we are relaxed, calm, focused, and completing the testing questions, then we are doing our absolute best.
Relaxation Script: Train Your Brain Video
Close your eyes and relax your body. Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it slowly out through your mouth. Excellent. Now imagine a big screen in your mind. On that screen we are going to play a video of you taking a test. On the screen see your classroom and all of your classmates (detail about the classroom can be added here). Everyone is sitting quietly and relaxed at their desk. I am passing out the test. As I place it on your desk you feel very very good and relaxed. You know that you will remember just what you need to know. As you open the test booklet, you feel even better inside. You pick up your pencil and read the directions carefully, circling the important parts. Watch yourself read the questions carefully and answer the questions. You feel confident as you circle your choice. You feel very relaxed and excited to show what you know. See the movie finish as you finish your test. Feel how wonderful it is to know you did your very best work.
Build Your Silence Muscles
28 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Educator Resources, Uncategorized
Schools are often very busy, noisy places. All of the noise that naturally comes from placing many people together in one place, can be over stimulating. If left unmoderated, it can be difficult to focus, feel calm and to stay on task in noisy environments. Learning to sit in silence and allow thoughts to just happen is one of the cornerstone skills of relaxation practice. It is a skill that can support a child for his/her entire life and is especially effective when cultivated and practiced early.
However, when first introducing the experience of silent time, the body and mind will often rebel and encounter some form of resistance. For this reason, it is important to scaffold the experience and gradually build your students’ “sitting in silence” muscles. This game, Playing with Silence, as a way to bring practicing silence into the classroom in a fun, playful manner. Here are the steps:
1. Sit comfortably in a circle on the floor.
2. Place a ticking clock or softly ticking metronome in the center.
3. Tell students that we are going to listen closely and invite our friend Silence to appear.
4. We simply are allowing Silence to visit us, not forcing or making anything happen. When we quiet our bodies, our friend,Silence, naturally visits.
5. We will only know if Silence has arrived if we can hear the ticking of the clock.
6. Next, tell the students that we are going to do some body talking.
7. Say softly out loud, “My head is quiet, my head is still. My eyes are quiet, my eyes are still. My mouth is quiet, my mouth is still. My hands are quiet, my hands are still. My arms are quiet, my arms are still. My legs are quiet, my legs are still. My feet are quiet, my feet are still. I breathe deep. I listen”.
8. Pause for a few moments, allow Silence to appear. After a few moments say: “Now you can gently rub your hands together. Place them softly over your eyes. Now, open your eyes with a smile.”
9. End with a discussion, talking about how it felt, if they think that Silence appeared or not, if they were able to hear the ticking.
Additional Notes/Ideas:
- Small Group to Large Group: If you have a very high energy class or a class that has not been accustomed to quiet time, you may need to drop back a few levels before practicing in a large group. For example, designate a small group of positive peer role models and introduce the activity to them. Once they have gained mastery of the skill, intersperse them throughout the large group for practice. It is also possible to practice the silence while doing seat work to prime the brain for practicing without any external focus. Depending on how long your class is able to practice to start, you may need to begin with a simple 20 seconds and have a class goal of getting to 2 minutes by the end of the year. However, it is important to maintain the focus of simply allowing our friend Silence to visit, (rather than forcing or commanding).
- Personalize Silence: The class can cut out pictures of peaceful scenes and glue them inside, decorating the outline of a person. This can be known as “our friend Silence” and posted where you practice.
- Freeze Breaks and Quiet Chart: It might be necessary to practice quiet before silence. Create a quiet chart where you can monitor and record the noise level in the room throughout the day. You can have “freeze breaks” where you deliver a signal such as a bell and the class pauses for a moment and listen closely to hear what they can hear. During large group you can discuss at the end of each week how the class quiet times are progressing and what you might do differently to increase the quiet.
- Throw a Silent Party: After your class has practiced silence for a while with success, throw a silent party. Bring treats and create a fun, novel, close ended, (i.e. it has a beginning and an end), task to do while practicing silence.
- Recognize and Verbalize Specific Positive Feedback: It also helps to notice and give specific feedback when the class spontaneously experiences quiet times throughout the day. Celebrate, by recognizing saying, “Wow, that was a beautiful quiet moment. Did any of you notice that? I felt very calm when it was very quiet in here. Excellent work!”
Cat Cow Desk Stretch
22 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Educator Resources, Relaxing/Balancing the Body, Uncategorized
This is the time of year when educators and students alike can feel stress, stress from the looming changes associated with wrapping up the year and preparing for the less structured summer months. Following are a few simple stretching activities that teachers and students can do right at their desks.
Remember: make it fun and playful. And challenge yourself, see how many times a day you can integrate it into your schedule.
Advanced Preparation: Place a different sticker on the right and left side of each desk (e.g. right cat, left cow). Discuss with students that each of their hands is associated with one of the stickers. The hand closest to the cat is your “cat hand”. The hand closest to the cow is your “cow hand.” If you want to include added novelty, make class relaxation hats to wear as you are practicing relaxation.
Begin by leading students in practicing a deep breath, fully engaging the diaphragm. Place one hand on the tummy. Inhale through the nose and blow out through the mouth. As you breath in, feel the hand on your tummy push out. As you breathe out, feel the hand on your tummy float in. Make sure that the exhale is longer than the inhale. It helps to count slowly to 5 on the exhale in order to guide the length of student exhales. Pause. Repeat. Now you are ready to begin the desk stretching activity. Introduce the activity, by saying that we are going to practice Desk Stretching. Get ready by resting your hands lightly on the desk in front of you.
Begin and guide the students in the actions listed below. Say “Inhale” before each of the actions on the left, then say say “Exhale” and follow with the corresponding action on the right.
Inhale, scrunch your shoulders to your ears. Exhale, roll your shoulders down your back. Inhale, scrunch your shoulders to your ears. Exhale, roll your shoulders down your back. Inhale, sit tall. Exhale, put your chin on your chest. Inhale, sweep your chin and look at the cat. Exhale, put your chin on your chest. Inhale, sweep your chin to look at the cow. Exhale, put your chin on your chest. Inhale, put your hands on your desk and push your back out like a cat. Exhale, let your body go and relax. Inhale, put your hands on your desk and arch your back like a cow mooing. Exhale, let your body go and relax. Inhale, sit tall. Exhale, relax your body. Inhale, raise your cat hand up high. Exhale, swing your hand/arm across your chest to point at the cow. Inhale, catch your shoulder with your other hand and give a hug. Exhale, put your hands on your desk. Inhale, raise your cow hand up high. Exhale, swing your hand/arm across your chest to point at the cat. Inhale catch your shoulder with your cat hand and give a hug. Exhale, put your hands on your desk. Inhale, stretch both hands up over head. Exhale, bring your hands quietly to your desk and say, “I am ready to learn.”
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