Kyle Masson, Megan Axford, & Cassidy Shostak

Dr. Noella Piquette

ED 4709

23 November 2017

BOOK CAFE PAPER

ANXIETY - MINDFULNESS

I. Rationale of Book

For our presentation, we chose the childrens book, Meditation is an Open Sky:

Mindfulness for Kids written by Whitney Stewart. This book tells the story of the

elephant who is dealing with anxiety. Within the book, Stewart (2015), (through the

elephant character), states, You know when youre having a bad day and nothing

seems to go right? You have the

wobbly feeling inside that makes you

scared, sad, and mad all the same

time (p. 6). The

elephant explains feelings of anxiety in

a way that is easy for children to

understand and relate to. Along with

the story, the book presents a range of

different mindful meditations that are

targeted at reducing anxiety. We

started our presentation with one of

the meditations Special Place for Relaxation as a way to set the tone as well as to
demonstrate how quick and effective these meditations are and how easily they could

be implemented within the classroom. We chose this book to center our presentation

because through the story told by the elephant and the meditation strategies, they are

excellent resources that can be used to describe anxiety to children who are dealing

with anxiety, as well as those who are not.

II. Anxiety

Anxiety occurs when there are feelings of fear that appear when one is faced

with threatening or stressful situations (Dean, 2016). Anxiety can be a normal response

that can actually add to ones performance, however; if it is overwhelming or

continuous, this could be an anxiety disorder which could hurt ones performance as the

anxiety starts to overcome their ability to live their normal lives (Dean, 2016). There are

many common ways that people experience anxiety such as panic attacks, selective

mutism, separation anxiety, social anxiety and test anxiety (Effective Childhood

Therapy, 2017). Social anxiety is one in particular that many people deal with in

everyday situations. Social anxiety is triggered by various kinds of situations involving

social interactions (Tamara & Svetlana, 2014) Social anxiety can cause people to avoid

situations and experiences because they experience emotional discomfort and feel

anxious about how others may view them (Tamara & Svetlana, 2014). However, it is

important to note that anxiety is an emotional state that is characterized through worried

thoughts as well as physical changes such as increased blood pressure, increased

heart rate and rapid breathing (American Psychological Association, 2017). Students

have many stresses in their lives and it is found that 15-20 percent of children and

adolescents have anxiety disorders or suffer from heightened anxiety (The Hawn
Foundation, 2011). Overall, feelings of anxiety impact everyone as everyone

experiences some level of anxiety throughout their lifetime. Therefore, it is important for

teachers to be aware of the different kinds of anxiety in order to best support their

students as well as to support their own emotional and mental health.

III. Mindfulness

In recent years, educators have gradually seen a burgeoning portion of students

experience countless social, emotional and behavioral problems (Schonert-Reichl &

Lawlor, 2010). Often times, these dilemmas can interfere with a childs interpersonal

relationships, school success, and ultimately, their potential to become well-rounded,

competent adults (Greenberg et al., 2001). In relation, these complications can hinder a

childs overall well-being, the qualities of their consciousness but more specifically, their

mindfulness. According to Brown & Ryan (2003), mindfulness is commonly defined as

the state of being attentive and aware of what is taking place in the present (p. 822).

Since mindfulness inhibits individuals to be aware of whats around them, its important

for educators to provide students with various strategies, so they are better suited to

deal with any social or emotional issues that arise from nearby surroundings. Therefore,

students who are exposed to mindful interventions and programs will have large

opportunities to manage these behavioral mis-endeavors.

When working through mindful activities, students will receive life-long skills

when working through challenges as they grow older. Furthermore, these students will

build self-awareness as it relates to social and emotional behaviors. In a study

performed by Schonert-Reichi & Lawlor (2010), both researchers found that students

exposed to mindful activities had significant social and emotional competence (p. 147).
Results from the authors study suggested that pre- and early adolescents who

participated in this mindfulness program (compared to pre- and early students who did

not), evidenced momentous improvements in regard to their positive emotions

(Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010). Therefore, teachers must take into consideration the

positive benefits of implementing mindful activities into their classrooms. Whether itd be

simple brain breaks or activities incorporated into their lessons, educators must always

keep one aspect in mind; students must develop a strong well-being in order to foster a

healthy and attentive lifestyle.

IV. Mind-Up Curriculum

The Mind Up curriculum is designed to be easily implemented into a teachers

plans and used to support students to reduce anxiety, stress, and worries as well as

build relationships, increase emotional control, and build resiliency in students.

According to the Hawn Foundation (2011), The Mind Up curriculum implements lessons

that foster social and emotional awareness, enhance psychological well-being, promote

academic success, reduce conflict, build social skills, and increase self-regulation (p.

6). This curriculum helps develop mindful attention, tolerance of differences, and

demonstrates that everyone is capable of learning. (The Hawn Foundation, 2011). The

Mind Up curriculum is divided into three grade specific programs: grades K-2, 3-5, and

6-8. The age appropriate lessons engage students to learn about the brain and provide

activities that promote mindfulness which are designed to be implemented into any part

of your day for all students with different needs. Our intention of introducing the Mind Up

curriculum to our colleagues was to give teachers the beginning foundation and

framework of introducing the concept of mindfulness to students of many grades. It is a

program that simple and effectively communicates mindfulness in a way that is simple

for both students and teachers to begin practicing without overwhelming teachers when

implementing many behavioral (management), strategies in the classroom.

V. Application for the Classroom

When considering how to effectively apply strategies that relate to anxiety and

mindfulness, teachers must take into consideration what the most important aspects

are that deal with these issues head on. In terms of implementing useful strategies, our

group found many beneficial strategies from the book; Meditation is an Open Sky. Many

of the strategies in the book revolved around meditation, basically incorporating different

forms of relaxation. A key take-away from the strategies presented in the book is that it

could be easily implemented within elementary classrooms through the language and

length of the meditation strategies. When implementing and considering different

mindful activities, we must scaffold our students to develop this as a skill as well as

teachers must consider their students age and maturity level.

As a group, we were drawn to this implementation strategy based on the amount

of time it would take it incorporate a mindful activity into the classroom when

considering all of the benefits. Mindfulness and mediation activities can take as little as

five minutes which can substitute as a brain break or serve as an efficient way to

refocus and calm the class down. Not only does this strategy benefit students self-

regulation and self-control, however; it also provides students strategies to use for life

when faced with a difficult situation or stressor. By teaching various mindful activities,

students can then look forward to this calming moment in their day as these strategies

become a part of the daily classroom as well as a part of students routines.

 As teachers, it is difficult to implement many different academic and non-

academic systems into our daily classrooms while given little to no support or easy to

use resources for each program. For the purpose of the assignment, we wanted to

provide colleagues with practical resources to use in their future classrooms, which is

located below in Table 1.

Mediation is an Open Sky: https://www.mindcheck.ca/mood http://www.anxietycanada.ca/en

Mindfulness for Kids By Whitney
Stewart
-anxiety/anxiety/anxiety-self-
care-resources - Provides
Anxiety Self-Care games such
as MonSTRESSity and Worry
Rockets
glish/index.php - Provides
details about various Anxiety
Disorders within Canada

The Mind Up Curriculum (Pre K- Mindful Movements by Thich Mindful Games: Sharing
2, Grade 3-5, Grade 6-8) Nhat Hanh Mindfulness By Susan Kaiser
Greenland

Sitting Still Like a Frog by Eline Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda What Does it Mean to be
Snel by Lauren Alderfer Present? By Rana DiOrio

Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Bubble Riding: A Relaxation https://www.youtube.com/watch

Kerry MacLead Story By Lori Lit ?v=d984L-IZhIw - A Guided
Chocolate Meditation
Table 1. Teacher resources to implement mindfulness.

VI. Criticisms of Mindfulness

It is reasonable to believe that there is skepticism and opposing arguments around

implementing mindfulness training into classrooms; however, anxiety is an emotional

problem affecting many students fostering a need to implement a program that supports

students. Firstly, when implementing a new theory or program, there is an obstacle for

teachers to shift their paradigm in order to incorporate a new way of thinking. According

to Wolin (2004), paradigms are the way we see the world and to shift this thinking

requires self-awareness as well as work (p. 192). Therefore, when shifting our way of

thinking, teachers need to be open-minded as well as have a willingness to learn.

Secondly, another common criticism when implementing a non-academic program into

classrooms, is the ability to see positive and long-lasting effects the program has on

students that the teacher may not witness in their classroom. When considering positive

behavior programs that help shape our students demeanor requires a lot of time, hard-

work, and communication as teachers may experience small successes. However,

teachers may also experience many hardships along the way as well. The research

from Schonert-Reichi & Lawlor (2010), was critical on mindful-based training where

future research needs to be focusing on assessing the implementation, dosage, quality

and participants responsiveness overall affecting the long-term effects of using this

style to reduce anxiety (p. 148). Teachers must consider the researched benefits of

implementing mindfulness in the classroom highlighting the importance of this paper,

teaching and practicing mindfulness in the classroom reduces stress and anxiety (The

Hawn Foundation, 2011).

VII. Why is This Important for Educators?

When considering anxiety and stressors in the classroom, it is important for

teachers to seek out and review research when considering behavioral, non-academic

programs in their classroom. The use of mindfulness and/or the Mind Up curriculum in

the classroom are both essential strategies that are important for teachers to be aware

of and use in their classroom. As educators, it is important for teachers to understand

and seek out intervention strategies to support students who struggle with anxiety or

anxiety disorders not only because it is the most common emotional problem, but

rather, additionally almost all student experience stress. Schools and educators must be

aware that anxiety presents itself in different ways within different students. Certain
factors that may affect the onset of anxiety consists of gender, age, experiences, and

environment. By being aware and conscious of the different stressors and anxieties

within their classrooms, teachers can better support students with different strategies to

best help not just one or two, but all students. Furthermore, educators must consider

that anxiety is a natural body response to worry, fear and other stressors. In turn, these

biological responses increase our performance; however, when anxiety presents itself in

high exposure, it can inhibit our ability to respond to a situation. Therefore, it is

important that teachers are aware of different anxieties when considering both the

health of their students and themselves. This proactive approach to anxiety supports

and promotes students to build emotional control as well providing strategies that they

can use in their daily lives whenever they experience any form of anxiety.

VIII. Summary and Rationale of Activity

For our activity, we decided to make stress balls as a way to show a strategy of

how teachers can help students by creating a physical object with them that they can

squeeze in order to reduce anxiety. Our main goal through creating the stress balls was

to show future educators an easy, low-cost and effective way that they could help

students reduce anxiety. Another goal through the activity, is during the creation of the

stress balls is it helps to build a classroom community. Students can help each other as

they scoop the flour into the funnel which allows for a positive atmosphere for most

students. In turn, this helps build a classroom cohesion which may further the

enrichment of a classroom community. This activity is directly related to mindfulness as

teachers can teach students how to properly use the stress ball as well as different

ways to use the stress ball.

 IX. Application of Activity

During the application of our activity, we believe that we were able to accomplish

both of our goals. In reference to our first goal, the students were able to make their

own stress balls in a short amount of time. We also noticed that once the stress balls

were made, students were using them as a calming and focusing tool throughout the

rest of the class. In regard to our second goal, our intention of helping to build a

classroom community was evident because when students were building the stress

balls, there was a positive chatter and climate throughout the classroom. They were

collaborating and discussing the activity with their elbow partners which contributed to

building a positive atmosphere for the class. During the activity, our group made sure

that we circulated the classroom in order to help students if they needed and received

feedback about what they thought of the activity. We also made sure if they thought it

would be effective to do in the classroom or not. Overall, the majority of students

seemed to really enjoy our activity, there was one student who did not. We found out

during the activity that she has a sensitivity issue with the plastic on the balloons.

Therefore, she did not participate in the activity as it would have caused her more

stress. This is something that we have thought about a lot after the fact and have

decided that we should have provided other materials to make a stress ball in case

there is a sensory issue as a way for differentiation. As a teacher, you will know more

about your students, and therefore, situations such as these should not come up.

Although, educator, you should still always have a backup plan as you never know what

will happen and what could come up with your students.

 X. Conclusion

In conclusion, anxiety affects everyone in our world and therefore, is something

that should be talked about. Throughout our presentation, we provided information

regarding multiple forms of anxiety that children as well as adults experience, and

provide a variety of strategies that can be used to help reduce stress and anxiety within

people. We discussed mindfulness through the childrens book, Meditation is an Open

Sky: Mindfulness for Kids, as well as through strategies that target reducing anxiety.

We introduced the Mind Up Curriculum which includes age-appropriate lessons that

teach students about the brain but also incorporates age-appropriate lessons to teach

mindfulness in the classroom. The stress ball activity provided an easy and fun activity

that can be used to promote a positive classroom environment as well as a strategy that

students could use in a variety of scenarios in order to reduce stress. Throughout the

presentation and the activity, we circulated the classroom, asked for feedback and

participation throughout the book cafe in order to engage deeper thinking for our

students. Overall, anxiety is something that everyone needs to be mindful and

knowledgeable about. If we can help others reduce stress and anxiety, then not only our

students, but anyone who suffers from anxiety, can live their lives up to their truest

potential.
 XI. Reflection Questions

The reflection questions that we have included for our presentation are as follows:

1. What are some beneficial ways that you could effectively implement mindful

activities into your classroom? What are some possible constraints?

2. How will you reduce anxiety and stress within your classroom? Why is this

important for all students?

 References

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http://www.apa.org/topics/anxiety/

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Dean, E. (2016). Anxiety. Nursing Standard, 30(46), 15. Doi: 10.7748/ns.30.46.15.s17.

Effective Childhood Therapy (2017). Retrieved from

http://effectivechildtherapy.org/concerns-symptoms-disorders/disorders/fear
worry-and-anxiety/

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