This year, NWA freshmen are required to take the new Mindful Studies class taught by Chris Heckman, a math teacher with multiple years of yoga and meditation experience.
The school was approached by Peace In Schools, a non-profit mindfulness organization, late last year. They extended the offer given to Portland Public Schools for the past 10 years to NWA as well: bring mindfulness into classrooms with their curriculum.
At first, Heckman and Joanne Kim, former head of high school, had planned for the class to be an elective. But Kim thought that Peace In School’s offer could perfectly align with an opening in the freshman schedule, leading to the Mindfulness Studies course.
This is the first attempt towards a mindfulness class in the school’s history, but this block has been through many changes. Last year it was the Freshman Seminar class taught by Amanda Lighthiser, the former learning plan specialist. The class was structured somewhat like a study hall but had assigned and graded homework, lessons and final projects.
“[We would make] slideshows for sixth graders and talk about internet safety,” said Henry Leeds, NWA sophomore.
Originally students thought that seminar would be a study hall and therefore did not set aside time in their school schedules for open work time. They were disappointed to find out the class was more of a mixture of lessons and activities with only a small amount of study hall time.
“I think for the most part a lot of the activities we partook in seemed kind of pointless,” said Noah Lee, sophomore at NWA, “especially when we had a lot of work to be doing.”
The school came up with the idea for Freshman Seminar as a way for students to learn different skills and for the school to provide support for freshman in their first year of high school.
“I thought Amanda [Lighthiser] did an excellent job but I think there were a couple of problems,” said Heckman. “Joanne noticed that there was this opportunity to teach mindfulness and that mindfulness is also largely about community and sharing the space.”
In Mindful Studies topics covered include understanding self-talk, the concept of authenticity and strategies to guide students towards an awareness of who they are. With these topics, Heckman hopes to supply students with important lifelong skills that will propel them through high school.
The 90-minute class starts off with a mindful minute in which students meditate and reflect on their day. A few students have noted that this can be somewhat embarrassing because some people laugh and break other’s focus.
“I feel like it’s a little awkward sometimes,” said Cecily Davis, NWA freshman. “There’s always that one person that’s not going to close their eyes.”
This discomfort is what Heckman wants to challenge students to confront. No matter how awkward or funny the students may find it, he is fine with the laughter, as long as the students are present in the moment and paying attention to how they are feeling.
The class proceeds to a lightning round where students are given an optional question, usually something as simple as “How was your summer?” and a moment to answer. Other questions include: “How was your weekend?” “Does anybody have any announcements?” and “What are your after school activities?”
“I think it’s a good way to start the class off,” said Ella Celko, another freshman at NWA. “I think it gets you in the mindset.”
Heckman uses this as a chance for students to check in and help everyone bring their attention to the current moment so they can be more attentive in the upcoming lesson.
“The purpose is to provide students with an opportunity to be seen and heard by each other,” said Heckman. “It’s a kind of ice-breaker that reminds students that we’re in this experience together, and that their presence matters.”
After the lightning round, students participate in a session of mindful movement, allowing them to stretch and get active before the day’s lesson. Lessons can consist of games, activities and lectures. Some activities to date have been watching a video about dealing with stress and anxiety, completing a sheet in the workbook students are given or listening to Heckman speak on various aspects of self-awareness.
The class ends with another mindful minute to close the lesson and to prepare students for the remaining 30 minutes of class dedicated to study hall. It is up to the students how they use this time but most choose to do work or talk with friends.
“I think it is kind of a nice thing to have at the beginning of the day [or at the] end of the day,” said Aviva Cohen, NWA freshman, “but when it’s in the middle of the day and I want to just talk to my friends it’s pretty hard.”
Heckman has found this breakdown of 30 minutes of mindfulness and 30 minutes of study hall to be effective so far, and plans to continuously make sure his instruction stays engaging. He has multiple in-class observations scheduled, where representatives of Peace In Schools will help hone his mindfulness teaching.
“Those observations are meant [as a] way for the program to support me as a new teacher to this material,” said Heckman. “Since the community at NWA is also new to this content, it’s another way for them to gauge how the curriculum might be best adapted to what they are noticing in our students and assist [to] me in making that bridge as successfully as possible.”
At first, the overall student attitude towards Mindful Studies was up in the air. Many felt it was too early to judge the class though some communicated negative feelings towards it.
“I guess it’s a nice relaxation if you need that,” said Davis. “But I think it would have been more productive if it was just a normal study hall.”
In Davis’ follow up interview, — days after the initial interview, her tone was slightly different.
“I feel like he’s a pretty good teacher,” said Davis. “It seems like he actually cares about this which is nice.”
Before Seminar there was Writing Center, a class taught by Jada Pierce and David Schonfeld, both NWA humanities teachers. According to Pierce, it was a continuation of Learning Lab, the middle school version of study hall, but focused more on the culture and experience of high school. Its goal was to teach students basic writing skills to assist them in their new environment. The class had mini lessons everyday that would focus on a different aspect of composition, grammar or something else entirely.
“It was similar to work that you might do for Humanities in terms of curriculum,” said Pierce “but there was no outside homework. [The class] would go out to Director Park and work and have coffee and tea and sometimes somebody would bring up a current event.”
These Fridays in some ways were the earliest stage of the Mindful Studies class in the sense that it unified students in a safe space, letting them share their opinions.
Reporting by Scarlett Collins, Jonas Honeyman-Colvin, Leora Mellor and Oliver Shek
