by Kelly Seaward - Ding | October, 2021 | Kelly Seaward - Ding
We travel in this world in our bodies, it is our temple and it needs the right nourishment to do all the wonderful things it is capable of doing. The mind-body connection is constantly bringing new depths of research to help us navigate our way to flourishing. I ponder on the word flourishing as we journey through COVID 19. Martin Seligman, the pioneer of Positive Psychology defines flourish as finding fulfilment in our lives, accomplishing meaningful and worthwhile tasks, and connecting with others at a deeper level—in essence, living the “good life” (Seligman, 2011). As a teacher embracing immense changes to working practices under the COVID guidelines, my profession, like many others found themselves with new challenges, learning to be adaptable, flexible and creative in how we managed this unpredictable time. I am an advocate for Positive Psychology, I found the pressure on workload commitments tested my application of Positive Psychology in my own life. Positive Psychology is the “scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and all the stops in between: (White, 2016, p. 1). Positive Psychology is a lifestyle. You create wellbeing in your life through the activities you do. This makes it a unique practice as we are all different. Learn it, Live it, Teach it, Embed it I felt I was tested on how I apply Positive Psychology in my life. I completed the MAPP in 2018. Here is where I learnt the world of Positive Psychology. Now was the life test of how I applied it. Knowledge is good, but transformation takes place in the application stage. Taking...
by Aren Henry | May, 2020 | Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry
The history of teaching and education, my journey. I’ve just graduated again. This time, an advanced graduate certificate in mental health counseling. I don’t need all the formal education any more. Now? I want it because ‘love of learning’ is my top strength in the Character Strengths and Virtues instrument and always has been. The real stuff? The parts that matter? The lived experience of what it is to be a student or teacher are not found in the certificates, or college degrees, or even in the brag worthy universities. This is the MOST important part of education. One cannot put a price tag on this. REAL learning and teaching begins and ends with being, doing, knowing, feeling. Education Clock hours can’t compare to conscious awareness One meaningful interaction with a great teacher can undo all the damage a gaggle of bad teachers The gesture of kindness for the sake of kindness outweighs an entire village of mean-spirited gossips Watching the faces of tiny humans as they sit in rapture of you reading a book with full attention flowing between you. The love and respect between two people who fully trust each other Tears in a mother’s eyes because her child is doing something so incredibly good, she can’t hold back her joy Sitting in a shared space with people who are smarter than you, but they see you as their equal All of the senseless years in a classroom, then you step out of the safety of what you know into the murky waters of doing; then … someone thanks you for helping them. Offering a random act...
by Lynn Soots | June, 2019 | Education
As I set out to write this piece, I thought of who my audience might be. Should I write for elementary age learning, adult learning, in the classroom, or online? After a few seconds of thought, I determined that there are benefits across the board. Learning and development walk the path of education hand in hand. Development and the way in which all students learn in a positive manner do not stop at the gates of high school. Time-tested, through the over twenty years I have been teaching, tells me that these practices not only support educational success but a person’s reflective positive esteem and self-efficacy. Are you ready to RAISE the bar? Let’s RAISE the Bar Over my many years of teaching, and through the many collaborative interactions with students, I have developed the acronym RAISE. First, because it signifies elevation, which I have always been a fan of evaluating students to new levels. Second, it acts as a reminder of the actions and behaviors that reflect a growth environment that I want to be a part of. RAISE is a reflective tool for servant educators who mindfully desire to incorporate educational elements that go beyond teaching curriculum and support perpetuated growth of students personally. It models what, we as servant educators, want to put out there to the world; behaviors, and actions that are created through “pass it on” positive role model mentorship. We have the power to RAISE the bar of education. R—Respect Respect encapsulates ways in which a person wants to be viewed or treated; revered, admired, etc. What do you admire about your students?...
by Lee Newitt | April, 2018 | Education, Mindfulness
Children are amazing because they are mindful. When a child is shy they may express their feelings of shyness without fear, they are just ‘being’. They may be open to and aware of what they are experiencing in that moment without repression. Children start life inherently mindful and through their experiences they learn to cooperate, to collaborate, to consider, to understand and to empathise becoming socially aware and responsible adults. Disconnect However this journey in our modern world of fast pace, distraction, complexity and technology can lead to a person becoming disconnected from himself or herself, their experiencing and from others, a mindlessness. How can a person truly know another and give freely of himself or herself, if they do not know themself first? What if children were encouraged to grow and develop mindful awareness throughout their childhood into adulthood? How would those adults be different? More ‘in tune’? More connected? More giving? Happier? Evidence Base Research describes mindfulness as a moment-by-moment “awareness of present experience with acceptance” (Germer, Seigel and Fulton, 2013, p.7) or an “awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgementally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p.145). Studies Studies have linked mindfulness with reduced; anxiety and depression (Shapiro et al, 1998), mood disturbance (Rozenweig et al, 2003) and increased; wellbeing (Grepmair et al, 2007), nonjudgmental self-insight (Chung, 1990), empathy, compassion and selfcompassion (Neff, 2003; Neff and Germer, 2013; Shapiro et al, 2007), openness and acceptance (Bishop et al, 2004) and attention regulation, emotional regulation and psychological flexibility (Hözel et al, 2011; Hayes et...
by Kelly Seaward | September, 2017 | Education, Kelly Seaward
In a world of increasing pressure on teachers and their students it is very easy to fall into negativity when challenges are never ending and being thrown from all directions. Just as you move through one set of obstacles then the next ones are already in line to enter. With work load increasing, curriculum changes and the continuous need for assessment and accountability it is all too easy to get lost in the labyrinth of modern teaching. As more teachers leave the profession and more young people suffer from mental illnesses, it is no wonder that escaping seems to be the favourable option. Challenges in life Feeling disillusioned as a Middle Leader and a teacher of 15 years, I too at the beginning of the year wanted very much to escape the profession, I had lost touch with initial reason I became a teacher and I had also experienced a bereavement, my aunt was in a coma for 10 days over the Christmas holidays and into the New Year. Unfortunately, as a family we got that dreaded decision to make whether we keep her alive or let her pass away. In the hours of her husband of 50 years having to make the one decision he did not want to make, he summoned his courage to revisit what her essence as a person was and how these attributes would live out if she would continue to live, as the infection on her brain would result in her needing 24 hour care and she would no longer know who we were as the brain damage was too severe for her...