The dark, slow time of winter offers a pause for self-reflection, the 1st SEL competency. This season inspires reflection and introspection - which was the focus on mindfulness this week. As such thoughtful reflection is already woven into each classroom, we all intentionally focused our efforts as a school community to bring a little more potency to the practice this week.
As we move into the heart of winter, as a community, we are slowing our pace and inviting our students to look inward with curiosity. How this inward reflection and curiosity is approached differs with age or developmental groups. Each teacher is a master of the developmental phase of their students and thoughtfully weaves appropriate reflection into their day.
One self-reflected activity I led the 1st-8th grade students through was a reflective journaling exercise focused on building awareness of our "daytime" parts - those parts that we easily let people see and our "nighttime" parts that we tend to keep hidden. We need day and night, and we need all parts of ourselves. None are better than others. This practice helps develop languaging around non-judgment and compassion towards all parts of ourselves.
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