balance

A Challenging Classroom Management Situation – What Would You Do?

That Sweet Child Said What?

Imagine a sunny weekday morning at 9:15 am. You’re in a school teaching a thirty minute yoga class to 23 children ages 2 – 6 years old. You’ve also got two other teachers in the room to assist during the class.

About 15 minutes into the class everyone is doing a forward bend when a three and a half year old calls out, “Miss Yoga! Look at Mary, she’s not doing the yoga pose.”

It was not unusual for this youngster to point out what the other children in the class are (or are not) doing. The irony that the child is also not doing the pose is floating meters above their head.

But this child goes a step further to report the infraction and then add, “She’s not doing it, we should throw Mary in the garbage.”

Yikes, that’s definitely not yogic talk.

The Teacher’s Classroom Management Dilemma

How does a teacher discourage or redirect the behaviour they don’t want in yoga class?

In the moment I made my choice to deal with the bold statement, and so did the two other teachers who were in the room. But the situation stuck with me. I resolved to get more options for the next time something like this happens. After talking to a few other teachers here are some of the most popular options.

Kids Yoga Teacher Training — Teachers can laugh about sticky classroom management situations and discuss their choices as part of their training.

5 Strategies for Dealing with Inappropriate Classroom Behaviour

Ignore the Negative Behaviour: pretend it didn’t happen, don’t draw attention to it, and focus on the positive things the child is doing. Especially when the child is regularly getting a rise out of the teachers.
Quick Correct: “We don’t say that in this classroom.” Or a simple frown or shaking your head “no” or another gesture to indicate this is not acceptable without disrupting the flow of the class.
Describe Your Feelings and Why This is a Problem: “I’m upset to hear about throwing a person in the garbage. We don’t throw people in the garbage. The garbage is just for things because if you throw things in the garbage it doesn’t hurt them. If a person is put in the garbage then it may hurt their body and their feelings. If anyone ever says they are going to throw a person in the garbage, I don’t like it because garbage is not for people. Garbage is just for things.”
Pretend the Child Intended to Do Something Positive: 3 1/2 year old children come from their heart more than their head. Assume the remark was not meant to hurt someone, but was a poor attempt to get attention and be involved. You could try a redirect saying: “Lets see if we can get everyone to join in by doing the yoga pose together.”
Accept the Feeling But Stop the Unacceptable Behaviour: Consider responding with,”You really want everyone to do yoga, but the way to do that is to show them how much fun it is. Can you get your legs straight in this yoga pose?”

When a child utters an unacceptable statement, the teacher only has a moment to decide what to do.

It is when things are quiet, when twenty eyes are not watching you, and when you wonder if there is a better approach that a teacher can contemplate other options.

What kind of things do kids say or do that challenge you as a teacher/parent? If a child made this unacceptable statement around you, what response would you choose and why?

Please share your ideas in the comments.

Upcoming Events:

Please check out our upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training. There are still a few spots left for the summer course in July.

Scientific Studies that Support Kids Yoga

Treefun — Yoga poses like The Tree improve steadiness.

These 3 Studies Show how Yoga Improves Stress Management, Spatial Memory, and Body Control in Children

by Alex Bonari, guest blogger
www.collegescholarships.org

Yoga for children can seem unnecessary. After all, they’re young, so aren’t they already limber? They shouldn’t have any problems with stretching, their lives aren’t as stressful as those of adults, and it would probably be difficult to get children interested in a yoga routine.

As it turns out, scientific research has proven that logic wrong. No matter how healthy a child’s body may be, it can always benefit from yoga practice. Children’s lives are also becoming more stressful and they seem to welcome the novelty and relaxation that accompany yoga instruction. The following three articles discuss the results of scientific research that has documented the positive effects of yoga on children.

Enhances Stress Management and Relaxation (click here to link to study)

In this study, 48 fifth-graders who showed abnormal test anxiety were divided into a control group of 27 and an experimental group of 21. The experimental group received 60 minutes of yoga instruction on 15 different occasions, while the control group received none. The subjects were evaluated before the study, immediately after the yogic training, and 3 months after the conclusion of the study.

The students who received yoga instruction had an increased emotional balance in the long term and showed reductions in fear, feelings of helplessness, and aggression. This study also observed that students who received yoga instruction transferred what they had learned to situations outside of school to improve their well-being and to control negative feelings.

Improves Spatial Memory

This study compared before-and-after verbal and spatial test results for three groups of children: those attending a fine arts camp, those attending a yoga camp, and a control group.

The only group that showed any difference between its before-and-after test results was the yoga group, which demonstrated a 43% rate of improvement in the spatial category. This suggests that yoga practice, which included physical postures, yoga breathing, meditation, and guided relaxation in the study, improved the performance of children’s right-hemisphere brain activity.

Increases Static Motor Performance (click here to link to study)

In this study, children from ages 9 to 13 were divided into two groups. One group received yogic training (physical postures, voluntary regulation of breathing, maintenance of silence, visual focusing exercises, and games to improve the attention span and memory) while the other did not. Over a ten-day period, the children in each group were tested morning and night to observe their steadiness.

The yoga group showed a 17% increase in steadiness at the end of the period, while the control group showed no improvement. The study concludes that yogic instruction improves children’s ability to control their minds and bodies.

Guest Blogger Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about general education issues as well as information on college scholarships. In her spare time she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Want to discover more ways to bring yoga to kids? Want to become a kids yoga teacher?

Check out our upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Schedule.

We’d love to see you there.

Spatial Memory

This study compared before-and-after verbal and spatial test results for three groups of children: those attending a fine arts camp, those attending a yoga camp, and a control group. The only group that showed any difference between its before-and-after test results was the yoga group, which demonstrated a 43% rate of improvement in the spatial category. This suggests that yoga practice, which included physical postures, yoga breathing, meditation, and guided relaxation in the study, improved the performance of children’s right-hemisphere brain activity.

Spend Time with Your Kids Amidst the Chaos

Last week in New York city, I saw something that taught me a lesson about how I spend my time and who I spend it with. It happened at Solstice in Times Square, yoga classes right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the busiest place in the city. And when I spotted the young boy in the picture above, relaxing so peacefully, it helped me understand:

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

No, not the Big Apple. This proverb usually refers to how kids become like their parents. We know parents need to actively spend time with kids to nurture positive habits, knowing their kids are always learning from them. Maybe it’s introducing something like yoga at home, in a studio, or even in Time Square. We want to start kids off with the best we can give them.

Lets take this old proverb further:

It Takes an Orchard!

We also know there are many people who influence a child. The school teachers, daycare teachers, relatives, and friends who become part of their lives. And its a good thing for everyone that parents don’t have to do it alone. We’re the orchard for our little apples to grow in.

The Big Picture in Time Square

Up close, in the first picture we see a child resting. In this picture we see exactly where all this is happening. This event showed me that we have power over our circumstances. On our own it’s difficult to lie down and relax amidst the chaos, sometimes completely impossible.

When we surround ourselves with like-minded people – suddenly it becomes easier to focus on peace amidst the same chaos. Add a Teacher to guide us and the next thing you know, you can do what you want in the middle of Time Square.

If You Can Focus There, You Can Focus Anywhere
If a child knows by experience that he can focus in Time Square, he now knows he can do it anywhere.

I didn’t expect to go to Time Square and learn a lesson in relaxation. In fact we avoided Time Square whenever possible. But on Summer Solstice with the crowds, the yogis, and a young boy, I got a new perspective on what it means to spend time in the company of those who share our values. Values are known to be true from experience and these values become the foundation of our lives.

Who do you like your kids to be around?

Character Development: Fairness

( In my city, Toronto (Canada), school teachers guide kids on themes of Character Development. I went to the Yoga In My School specialist, Donna Freeman, for some yogic insight bout them. Thank you to Donna for this monthly series.)

Olympians Play Fair and Develop Balance and Strength

Fairness and Balance in Yoga

by Donna Freeman
www.YogaInMySchool.com

Fairness refers to justice, equality and the absence of bias. Children seem to intrinsically know what is fair and what isn’t. There is even a series of advertisements which underline children’s innate ability to know when they are, and when they are not, being treated fairly.

Fairness with Ease and Strength
There are a number of ways this principle relates to yoga. The most prevalent is the ideals of Sukha (easy, pleasant, gentle) and Sthira (solid, durable, strong). The goal when practicing yoga is to have equal amounts of these two opposing philosophies present at all times.

Yogis are always looking to balance the effort with the ease, the soft and the hard. To treat both aspects of the poses with fairness in order to allow the body and mind to expand to its full potential. If Sukha is too much of a focus, the consequence is laziness and lack of will power. If Sthira is stressed, then injury or burnout may result. Neither extreme is healthy, but a balance of the two permits beautiful expression and growth.

Yoga Poses to Teach Fairness
In addition, balance poses teach much about fairness. Poses such as tree pose, dancer pose and eagle pose help to refine the sense of equality. Performing these poses always seems easier on one side, but both sides need the same opportunity to work the pose. The lessons, however, are more than physical. Children learn to focus and concentrate, training their minds as well as their bodies.

Finally fairness is underscored with Satya (honesty). Satya is the virtue of being true to and honest with yourself and those you encounter. This includes in speech and action. The ideal of fairness is completely redundant without honesty. Being able to see the world through realistic lenses helps to overcome selfishness and encourages compassion.

Teaching honesty to children is an ongoing endeavor.
Personal integrity is an elusive but essential aspect of society’s morals. Practicing compass pose (half moon) with an accompanying discussion on how compasses help guide individuals through the storms of life provides a kinaesthetic reinforcement of these ideals.

The principles of fairness and equality are threaded throughout yoga. Children know the difference between right and wrong, justice and injustice. Allow yoga to help develop this knowledge through balance and honesty.