Developing a Mindfulness Program for Students, Faculty, and Parents at a K-12 School
Speaker: Alex Peavey, BA Psychology (UVA), MS Sports Leadership (VCU), MEd Counselor Education (VCU)
Format: Audio & Slides

With an abundance of research out there supporting the benefits of mindfulness in education, now schools are facing the challenge of determining how to incorporate these trainings into their own school setting and curriculum. This Presentation Dialogueue will focus on the example provided to us by a K – 12 Independent School that has found a way to integrate mindfulness across all grade levels, faculty, auxiliary staff, parents, and even into the surrounding community.

Examine the patient evolution of a school that began its own mindfulness program with a modified two-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction class for all of its freshmen as a part of their Health and Wellness curriculum. Since that first stress reduction class in 2007, mindfulness has become a part of the entire school culture thanks to the positive experience of that original group of freshmen. Teachers and coaches alike began asking for professional training in mindfulness after seeing the benefits for the students, so the school has been providing this training to faculty and staff since 2008. Faculty then began incorporating mindfulness into their own classrooms and onto the athletic playing surfaces, and as these stories traveled home with the students, the Parents' Association began incorporating it into the Parent Education programs as well.

This presentation will provide the model this school has used for teaching high school freshmen, and show how branches grew from that class until it reached all areas of the school. Qualitative and quantitative outcomes of students, faculty, staff, and parents will be shared. Group discussion will include how to incorporate mindfulness into areas that might already exist within a school, which helps schools find a home for mindfulness without adding more programing that seems unmanageable to an already overworked faculty.