This document discusses three school leaders who practice mindfulness. Leader 1 practices breath meditation three times a day as a superintendent facing budget and performance pressures. Leader 2 practices daily meditation, breathwork, and body scans, and starts staff meetings with pauses as a charter school chief academic officer with declining test scores. Leader 3 made mindfulness a professional development focus for two years, involving key staff and students in programs, as an independent K-12 school head facing performance pressures. The document advocates for mindfulness practice to help attention, awareness, decision-making, and replacing unhelpful habits, and provides mindfulness resources.

1. Three Mindful School
Leaders
Kirsten Olson, Ed.D., PCC
EARCOS 2013
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2. Corwin Press 2014
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3. My co-author!
Valerie Brown, ordained by Thich Nhat Hahn as a
Member of the Tiep Hien Order in 2003,
Former lawyer,
Now retreat leader and leadership coach
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4. “MINDFULNESS
IS AWARENESS, CULTIVATED
BY
PAYING ATTENTION ON
PURPOSE,
IN THE PRESENT MOMENT,
NON-JUDGMENTALLY.”
-JON KABAT-ZINN
Professor of Medicine Emeritus at University of Massachusetts, and founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic
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6. WHY PRACTICE
MINDFULNESS?
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7. • The “separated
• Human
• New
self ”
biology: fight, flight, freeze
understandings of cognitive implications of
stress
• Positive
neuroplasticity (Rick Hanson)
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8. “THE UNTRAINED MIND IS LIKE A YOUNG PUPPY,
RUNNING WILD THROUGH THE HOUSE,
SOILING THE FURNITURE, AND DESPITE ITS PLAYFULNESS,
UPSETTING EVERYONE AND RULING THE ROOST.”
-KARUNA CAYTON, THE MISLEADING MIND (2012)
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9. MINDFULNESS BENEFITS
• Helps
train attention, focus, creativity
• Helps
create self-awareness, better self-management
• Can
build more positive mental habits in place of old ones
• “Well-being
is a choice.”
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10. Free mindfulness practices available...
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11. LEADER #1
Breath practice 3 times a day
Superintendent of large public school system
on West Coast: budget shortfall due to state fiscal crisis
and performance pressures intensifying
as school population becomes more diverse
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12. LEADER #2
Daily Meditation
Daily Breath Practice
Daily Body Scan
Asks Staff to Begin Meetings With a Pause
Chief Academic Officer of charter school in urban Northeast.
Highly competitive charter school environment; her network of her
charter schools have declining test performance.
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13. LEADER #3
-Mindfulness central PD focus for 2 years
-Key Staff Members Participated in MBSR or
MINDFUL SCHOOLS program
-Brings mindfulness leaders to campus for lectures/retreats
-Students involved/trained in mindfulness practices
Independent K-12 in mid-West.
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14. PRACTICE!
• Most
require support to get started
• Hard
to know “if it’s working...”
• Keep
going
• Small
commitments that build
• Mindfulness
• Many
apps
Susan Piver Open
Heart Project
http://
susanpiver.com/
open-heartproject/
free online meditation programs
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15. Resources To Get Started
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Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan (2012)
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Insight Meditation Centers and Retreats http://www.dharma.org/meditation-retreats
Mindfulness For Beginners, Jon Kabat-Zinn (2012)
Mindful Schools http://www.mindfulschools.org/resources/healthy-habits-of-mind/
A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer (2004)
Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness, Deborah Schoeberlein (2009)
Mindfulness in Education Network http://www.mindfuled.org http://www.mindfuled.org
Mind and Life Institute http://www.mindandlife.org
UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22
Be The Change, Ed and Deb Shapiro (2009)
Sounds True Meditation and Guided Practice catalog http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/
Meditation-and-Guided-Practices/browse/2
Review of mindfulness apps http://www.mindful.org/mindful-magazine/mindfulness-apps
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