The mindful teacher

If you’re stressed or demotivated, try choosing a routine that suits your personality, writes Aruna Sankaranarayanan.

Though we may associate mindfulness, as practised traditionally, with sages meditating in caves and forests, the construct, and more importantly, its practice, has a lot of relevance to modern lives. At its core, mindfulness is how we choose to parcel our attention and respond in the moment. Further, according to mindfulness expert and researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is associated with dispositions like patience, kindness, humility and equanimity.

As teachers have to be on their toes and think on their feet multiple times in a day, teaching can indeed be a taxing profession. Can mindfulness practices help teachers be more effective in their classrooms? Three ardent educationists DH spoke to incorporate mindfulness practices into their teaching, tap different qualities, and rely on different strategies. Each is impelled by the goal of being a more conscious and compassionate teacher. 

Vani Ramachandran, an educator who works in The Atelier, a school inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, finds pausing a potent tool that helps her recalibrate the moment’s pulse. Whether it’s multiple children talking at once, or the urge to know when a child is going to hit a developmental milestone, or the drive to be constantly productive, Ramachandran finds that tactical pausing, even for a few seconds, has made her a more intentional teacher. 

“If I didn’t pause,” she avers, “I wouldn’t be listening to myself, listening to my children, or paying attention to the energy in the moment.” Though she works with Kindergarten children, when Ramachandran models the pause by just sitting still, she finds a discernible shift in children’s energy as well as they begin to share in the silence. 

For Pratima, a Maths teacher and a Counsellor at a CBSE school in Faridabad, humility is ingrained into her teaching practice. She fondly recalls the words of Surjeet Khanna, her former mentor and the founder principal of her school: “You are only as good as the last class you taught.”

As a result, Pratima is always mindful of how she comes across to her students and makes a concerted effort to forge connections with them. Instead of simply diving into the subject, she spends a few minutes asking students about their lives and any significant experiences they may want to share.

Ever conscious of not perpetuating a hierarchical structure within her classroom, Pratima is not shy about sharing her foibles and vulnerabilities with her students. When giving out test papers with low grades, she makes it a point to mention how she, too, wasn’t a whiz at Maths in her student days but still tried to enjoy the subject. When students do poorly, Pratima ensures she instils hope instead of berating them. At every instance, she weighs the potential impact of her words on her students before uttering them.

Regular practice

Minita Sinha confesses that without regular mindfulness practice, she could not manage a class of special students. Working as a teacher at Vidya Niketan Academy, a school for children with learning challenges, Sinha emphasizes that self-awareness is a prerequisite for the job. As she works with children who may be extremely sensitive to small shifts, like a raised voice, Sinha often has to step back from a situation and view her actions from a distance.

This ability is crucial, especially during stressful situations like a child approaching a meltdown. Sinha opines that if she remains calm even when the emotional temperature around her is escalating, she is able to come up with inventive solutions that are beneficial to the child. “To be creative, you need to clear the clutter in your head,” avers Sinha.

So, how do teachers declutter their minds and strengthen their mindfulness muscles? Again, there’s no single recipe. Sinha practices chanting at home on a daily basis and does it in her mind at school when she’s under duress. Sinha gains a more objective lens when she does this and is not derailed by her emotions.

As Ramachandran finds she cannot meditate, she practices mindfulness while washing dishes, putting away her clothes, or walking. She also finds that reading fiction can bring a lot of pause. For Pratima, journaling is both calming and restorative. 

If you’re tired, stressed or demotivated by your teaching job, try adding mindfulness practices to your daily routine. Choose one that suits your personality and take life one breath at a time. 

(The author is a freelance writer)