Mindfulness Essentials for High School, Mini Bundle

Do your students ever feel stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed? Do your students have trouble focusing? Are they distracted by their phones? Their social lives? Their workload? If you teach teenagers, then your answer to all of these questions is most likely, “Yes!”  

This resource is a MINI BUNDLE. It contains FOUR months of the most essential mindfulness lessons. This mini bundle is perfect for those who want to start teaching mindfulness but are not ready to commit to a full-year curriculum.

The curriculum features short, simple lessons and practices that regular classroom teachers can teach once a week or every day. The “Mindful Monday” lessons take 5–10 minutes. The optional daily practices take 1–3 minutes. 

This school year, our students (and teachers!) need mindfulness more than ever. Most of us are carrying additional trauma from the past few years. The uncertainty and chronic stress continue to affect our mental and physical health . . and yes, our learning. By teaching your students mindfulness this year, you will be helping them cope with these strong emotions so they can regain some of what they have lost over the past two years.

After learning this curriculum, your students will be less stressed, more focused, and more compassionate. And so will you. With this resource, you are not just buying lessons—you are buying the support necessary to teach your students the skills they need to be successful in life, including:

• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Increased ability to focus and concentrate
• Improved self-regulation
• Increased compassionate attitudes and behavior

Who is this resource for?

• High school students who are stressed, anxious, distracted, overwhelmed, lonely, disregulated, sleep-deprived . . . basically any teenager you’ve ever met.
• Teachers who are stressed, anxious, distracted, overwhelmed . . . you.
• Content-area teachers.
• Special education teachers.
• ENL teachers. 
• Teachers who know something about mindfulness but don't quite feel comfortable with it yet.
• Teachers who practice mindfulness but don't know how to bring it into a regular high school classroom. 
• Teachers who already bring mindfulness into the classroom but would like some additional resources, ideas, and support.

Features

This mindfulness curriculum is unlike anything else currently available:

1. It’s for high school students. (Most are for elementary or middle school.)
2. It’s designed to be taught the first few minutes of the period, anywhere from 1–5 days/week. (As opposed to most mindfulness curriculums, which have 15–20 minute lessons designed to be taught by an outside facilitator or school mental health professional for a few months total.)
3. It has been designed with the school year in mind: important transitions and holidays guide monthly theme selections.
4. It is not just lessons for students: It is a curriculum for teachers as well. You will learn how to practice and teach mindfulness.
5. Because it was designed by a mindfulness practitioner and educator, important research on how children best learn, such as scaffolding and spiraling, informs curriculum design.

What’s Included

1. A 7-page PDF Teacher Toolkit that introduces the curriculum, explains how to use the resources, and offers valuable insights on developing a mindfulness practice and teaching mindfulness to high school students. Links to additional readings and resources are also included.
2. A PDF curriculum guide for each month of mindfulness instruction. This guide offers the teacher step-by-step instructions on how to teach the lessons. 
3. A Google Slides deck for each month of instruction. Links to the main resource for each lesson are included in the slides.
   1. The end of each week includes a journal extension slide that you can use to invite your students to reflect on their lives and their mindfulness practice.

4. A calendar overview of the daily lessons with links to each day’s resources. You could post this in the classroom or just keep it for yourself as a quick reference.

The bundle also contains a bonus resource: An editable Microsoft Word letter to families that you can send home to inform them that you will be teaching the students mindfulness.

Are you concerned you won’t have time to teach mindfulness?

Most people who want to practice mindfulness themselves or teach mindfulness to their students regularly cite one obstacle: There’s not enough time. One of the main reasons so many of us feel like we need mindfulness and the peace it can bring is because we are overworked and overwhelmed. Adding another item to the to-do list seems counterintuitive. But the few minutes it takes to practice mindfulness make all the other minutes more valuable. We’re teaching kids more than curriculum. And if they aren’t ready to learn, it doesn’t matter what time we start teaching. Giving them a couple of minutes to settle their nervous systems, practice focusing, and acclimate to the space can help them learn more in less time. The saying “waste time to save time” is applicable here. You’re spending a few minutes in the beginning to help the students learn more effectively during the other 37 minutes that you’re with them. While mindfulness doesn’t guarantee a distraction-free period, it definitely helps. And once you’ve been teaching mindfulness for a while, you can help them regain their focus more efficiently than if you hadn’t introduced the concept at all.

Are you concerned your own mindfulness practice is not strong enough?

The teacher tool kit offers suggestions for starting or deepening your own practice. As long as you are excited about learning and open to the possibilities of how mindfulness can transform you, your teaching, and your students, there is no reason to put off teaching with this curriculum.

About Me

I have been teaching high school English since 2006. I became a certified yoga instructor in 2010, and I have been practicing mindfulness regularly since 2016. In 2016 I also completed several mindfulness trainings, including Mindfulness Foundations and Mindful Educator Essentials (now called Mindfulness in the Classroom) from Mindful Schools. In 2018 I trained in the Calm Classroom program. Since 2016 I have also developed and led numerous professional development sessions within my district for teachers who want to bring mindfulness into their classrooms.

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Terms of Use Summary: With purchase of a single license, you agree to share this resource with the students in your classroom only, via handout or a secure learning platform (such as Google Classroom).

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