A great way to raise academic performance, lower stress levels and at the same time create a heightened sense of community.
Stress?
How many of you students are stressed about their results, have a higher stress level which in turn risks lowering their results? Do you see a negative spiral?
Breathing - naturally
Probably the most important thing we do is breathe. We breathe, we live. But when did you learn to breathe? When did you teach your students to use breathing as a way to reduce their stress levels?
Unless you are one of an increasing number of yoga students, you may not have learned to breathe properly yet.
Benefits
What can you and your students get out of breathing properly? More air, cleaner air leads to more highly oxygenated blood, which energises your whole body and most importantly your brains. You are more awake! Students are better prepared to learn, and you and better prepared to teach. Win-win.
Academic performance
Spending 5-10 minutes on a breathing exercise at the start of the lesson will greatly increase the amount of information the students will take in simply because they are more awake, for longer.
A breathing exercise in the middle of the lesson will give the students' brains time to assimulate what they have already heard in the first half of the lesson, and prepare them for the second half of the lesson.
Community
Doing simple breathing exercises as a class can seem silly to begin with, and when you have done it three or four times, you will want to do it every lesson.
Students have reported to me that they get to the lesson on time because they don't want to miss the breathing exercise.
Method - a coaching approach
What exercises shall you choose? There are many breathing exercises to choose from, the most important thing is to get started. Here is a coaching approach to getting students to breathe deeper for the first time.
Note Here I use 'sitting up straight' and 'feeling powerful' as examples of beneficial changes that I want to see in this class, as well as 'breathing slowly and deeply'.
Ask these open questions
My aim is to get the students to become more aware of the benefits of breathing properly, before I teach them any specific method. In fact, I often leave it to the most interested students to research a breathing method, then allow them to teach their peers; and me.
Stress?
How many of you students are stressed about their results, have a higher stress level which in turn risks lowering their results? Do you see a negative spiral?
Breathing - naturally
Probably the most important thing we do is breathe. We breathe, we live. But when did you learn to breathe? When did you teach your students to use breathing as a way to reduce their stress levels?
Unless you are one of an increasing number of yoga students, you may not have learned to breathe properly yet.
Benefits
What can you and your students get out of breathing properly? More air, cleaner air leads to more highly oxygenated blood, which energises your whole body and most importantly your brains. You are more awake! Students are better prepared to learn, and you and better prepared to teach. Win-win.
Academic performance
Spending 5-10 minutes on a breathing exercise at the start of the lesson will greatly increase the amount of information the students will take in simply because they are more awake, for longer.
A breathing exercise in the middle of the lesson will give the students' brains time to assimulate what they have already heard in the first half of the lesson, and prepare them for the second half of the lesson.
Community
Doing simple breathing exercises as a class can seem silly to begin with, and when you have done it three or four times, you will want to do it every lesson.
Students have reported to me that they get to the lesson on time because they don't want to miss the breathing exercise.
Method - a coaching approach
What exercises shall you choose? There are many breathing exercises to choose from, the most important thing is to get started. Here is a coaching approach to getting students to breathe deeper for the first time.
Note Here I use 'sitting up straight' and 'feeling powerful' as examples of beneficial changes that I want to see in this class, as well as 'breathing slowly and deeply'.
Ask these open questions
- How many of you here are breathing?
(wait for the laugh) - If you are breathing, please raise your hand.
- How many of you here are breathing deeply?
- If you are breathing deeply, please raise your hand.
- How many of you here are breathing deeply now?
- How many of you are sitting up straight and feeling powerful?
- If you are sitting up straight, please raise your hand.
- How many of you are sitting up straight and feeling powerful?
- If you are feeling powerful, please raise your hand.
- How many of you here are breathing slowly and deeply now?
- If you aren't breathing, please go to the school nurse.
(wait for the laugh) - How many of you here are breathing slowly and deeply now?
- What do you notice about how straight you are sitting?
(pause for comments) - How slow is your breathing now?
- What do you notice about how powerful you feel?
(pause for comments) - How deep is your breathing now?
- What do you notice about how energetic you feel?
(pause for comments) - How was this breathing exercise for you?
- How ready are you for the next part of the lesson
(pause for comments)
My aim is to get the students to become more aware of the benefits of breathing properly, before I teach them any specific method. In fact, I often leave it to the most interested students to research a breathing method, then allow them to teach their peers; and me.
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