2. School leaders live in a world
of doing.
I need to leave- my son is
sick. Is there a sub in the
building?
You are scheduled for
classroom observations
beginning in 10
minutes.
Mrs. Jones is
holding for you.
I’m sorry. I can’t
serve on the
leadership team any
more. I’m just too
busy.
You were going to get the
agenda out for the
meeting this morning.
Do you have the
board reports
ready for
dissemination?
5. Why a focus on being?
A focus on being (mindfulness) increases
the ability to…
0 attend to the present moment,
0 recognize and accurately label emotions,
0 be less reactive and more compassionate, and
0 become more self-aware (Kabat-Zinn (2003).
All of which facilitate more flexible, adaptive
responses to stress, which leads to greater health
and well-being (Greeson, 2009)!
7. So amidst the doing, how
does an administrator
practice mindfulness?
8. Consider starting with…
0 Focusing only on what’s in front of you.
0 This means forgetting the 90 unanswered emails, the
parent who is waiting, or any other pressing concern.
0 Noticing when your attention is moving away from
your focus and bringing it back.
0 Taking 5 minutes of stillness in the middle of the day.
0 Beginning your next meeting with 2 minutes of
quiet—invite everyone to leave the fragmentation
behind.
9. Resource
0 Wells, C.M. (2013). Educational leaders describe a job
too big for one: Stress reduction in the midst of
leading. AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice
10(3), 32-45.
http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/JP
S-Fall2013.FINALv2.pdf
