A Masterclass in Mindful Awareness for Teachers
What is Embodied Teaching?
Embodied Teaching is the innovative approach to mindfulness implementation developed by Marcy Crawford. It was introduced in a half-day webinar and developed more fully in a series of six live classes offered jointly with Unified Mindfulness. Those classes form the basis for a home study program also offered jointly with Unified Mindfulness. You can learn more about the Embodied Teaching home study program and how to register by clicking the button below.
What is Embodied Teaching for the Classroom?
If you’ve found your way to this page, you’re probably both hopeful and skeptical about the potential of mindfulness to elevate the learning experience for elementary and secondary students, and rightly so on both counts. As mindfulness has become a buzzword and mindfulness curricula and programming has become common in schools, it’s not surprising that the potency of mindfulness training has been diluted. An unintended consequence of both the diluted offerings and their proliferation is that it’s not clear to most people whether mindfulness can really deliver what it promises, and if so – how.
This is exactly the gap that Embodied Teaching set out to bridge.
As a parent of 3, school board president, child of classroom teachers, and professional mindfulness trainer, I took it for granted that I would be able to help schools get more out of their mindfulness and social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula. Even so, what I learned after volunteering as a mindfulness teacher for all school stakeholder groups (parents, specialists, teachers, students of all ages, psychologists, administrators) for years surprised me. I found that there was a significant and consistent lack of understanding about the building blocks of mindful awareness itself: that is, what exactly is intended to be trained with mindfulness interventions and how to train it.
The building blocks of mindfulness awareness are neither hard to teach nor to learn, but they are somewhat subtle and specific. You could say, in fact, that what Embodied Teaching offers is quite simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s obvious or comes naturally. Mindful awareness is made up of a set of attentional skills that are familiar to most everyone, yet these skills tend to be dramatically underdeveloped in relation to their potential. I like to use the phrase “attentional skills” instead of “mindfulness” at times to underscore that these skills are not mystical, unknowable, or requiring any particular talent, and neither are the methods I’ll offer you to train them. We’ll define our terms, have clear strategies, practice them in class, and test them out in your everyday interactions with your students. You’ll be able to immediately see for yourself what works well, what doesn’t, and you’ll learn how to make skillful adjustments.
As classroom teachers, you’ve all taken years of general coursework, specialized coursework, and ongoing professional development to be experts in your field. You know that it matters how well you understand a subject and how you present it to your students. You also know that your relationship with them, their own level of distractedness, and their ability to communicate and self-regulate are all contributing factors to their ability to learn. Embodied Teaching is the missing link that offers training in a subject you’re trying to teach whether you’ve realized it or not: how to pay attention.
How to pay attention is what mindfulness training is really all about.
Course Overview
In this course, you’ll learn:
Why the kind of attention mindfulness trains leads to good outcomes in classroom management, engagement, critical thinking, self-regulation, empathy, cooperation, leadership, and more;
The building blocks of mindful awareness that you can apply while teaching any subject, while you’re alone, or when interacting with anyone at all;
How to train yourself and others in attentional skills by intentionally embodying those skills at any time, and especially during your work day;
Strategies you can apply in the classroom to elevate peak levels of attentiveness during interactions and baseline attentiveness over time.
Perhaps best of all, Embodied Teaching does not ask or expect any additional study or practice on your part outside of this course. Your practice time is your life: in your classrooms, in your breakrooms, on errands, on vacation, and at home. We’ll break down what mindful awareness really is, and then you’ll apply the principles, perspectives, and strategies from each class into your everyday life – that’s it! As you go through the module and implement the strategies you’re learning, you’ll see what’s working and will be able to make effective adjustments.
After that, it’s up to you – you can continue to practice and grow your attentional skills with the resources provided in this course alone, or you can take advantage of any of the many additional resources I’ll list for you on your course dashboard. Read on for more information, or jump to the bottom of the page if you’re ready to sign up now!
Embodied Teaching for the Classroom is for you if . . .
You’re a classroom teacher who intuits that mindfulness programming should be more transformative for students than you’ve experienced so far.
You want to be able to model mindfulness better because you know it’s one of those things that’s more “caught” than “taught.”
You don’t have any more time or interest outside of the classroom to practice mindfulness or any more time within the classroom for explicit mindfulness lessons.
Your students aren’t interested in mindfulness or resist any SEL-specific activities.
You’re looking for specific mindfulness strategies you can have ready and apply when you face familiar or unfamiliar challenges in your job as a teacher.
You feel like your social emotional learning or mindfulness curriculum is dull or missing something.
You want to help your students have a higher level of engagement, attentiveness, creativity, and critical thinking.
You’re looking for strategies to support specific students who have difficult circumstances at home or at school, have challenges with self-regulation, or have other factors that interfere with their learning and their well-being.
You want to feel confident about responding to curve-balls your students, co-workers, and families throw your way, and elevate your level of satisfaction in these interactions.
You know there’s a way to feel more inspired, fulfilled, and engaged at work, and that the more you enjoy teaching, the better your students will learn.
Features:
Four 90-minute pre-recorded video lessons – minimizing the time commitment from you and allowing you to watch whenever works best for you.
Written resources related to each topic covered in the course
Optional quizzes and journaling topics to accommodate different learning styles and interest in Embodied Teaching for optimal integration of material.
Connection to an experienced mindfulness teacher: Benefit from the guidance of a teacher with extensive experience, providing personalized strategies for the unique circumstances in your classroom. Marcy is available to answer questions via email as you complete the modules.
Private Platform: You’ll have lifetime access to a dashboard with video lessons, written materials, and resources that you can access at any time.
What You’ll Gain:
A clearer, deeper understanding of mindfulness: Mindfulness doesn’t have to be just a hazy, feel-good term for paying attention. It can be taught and trained systematically. I’ll show you how, and you’ll be empowered to share what you learn with others.
Classroom management skills that are agile, dynamic, and effective: You can get students to be calmer or quieter with certain types of engaging activities, but classroom management can be dynamic, exciting, and connecting instead of a quick fix.
Communication strategies that grow trust, engagement, and creativity: As your students experience a subtle difference in the way you attend to them, they’ll respond in general with greater openness and healthy risk-taking in their schoolwork and group work.
A renewed sense of fulfillment and purpose: Burnout is a vicious cycle – it’s caused by depletion and is in turn depleting. Embodied Teaching introduces a “virtuous cycle -” an ease and flow in your day that reduces stress and allows more of your own creativity and insight to emerge, energizing your students, co-workers, families, and yourself.
Excitement about the transformative power and potential of mindfulness: As you experience new responses from your students and positive changes in your classroom due to your Embodied Teaching training, you’ll find it easier than ever to stay with a new healthy habit. You’ll be motivated and encouraged by good results to continue growing your own skills, benefiting your students, your co-workers, and bringing more agility and ease into all aspects of your everyday life.
Trying to Decide Whether Embodied Teaching is worth it?
This course won’t be right for everyone, and that’s fine. It’s a best fit for people who are oriented toward mindfulness and looking for the information and training to help them put their intuition into action with clear understanding and strategies. If you’re at a place in your life or your school year when it makes your heart sink to take on one more class or activity, trust yourself! If you have to choose between professional development and self-care, always choose self-care. If you do have a few hours to take this course, it sounds intriguing to you, but you want to connect with me first before you decide, I’m here for you. Email me at marcy@marcyahn.com with any questions you have about Embodied Teaching and this special course for classroom teachers.
About Marcy:
Mindfulness expert Marcy Crawford has decades of experience as a mindfulness practitioner, trainer, and education consultant. She has worked with all stakeholder groups related to education, trained special education staff through county offices of education, worked with entire staffs of several schools, conducted a pilot study in multiple grade levels over an entire school year (paper currently under peer review), and has been awarded a grant from the Paull Foundation to fund this course on Embodied Teaching for Classroom Teachers.
Marcy has conducted Embodied Teaching private training and intensive retreats for families, privately-held businesses, government organizations, and executive teams internationally. She has trained and helped certify hundreds of mindfulness coaches and teachers in her years of work as Director of Coach Development for Unified Mindfulness.
As a mindfulness trainer, parent, and school board president, Marcy noticed that teachers were regularly unsatisfied with their social-emotional and mindfulness curricula. As a Senior Teacher of Unified Mindfulness, she realized something was missing and set her sights on bridging the gap in understanding what was preventing educators from getting the results from their mindfulness training that research has shown are available – results such as reduced burnout, improved academics in students, and lower stress levels reported for all stakeholder groups.
Course Details:
You will receive Instant access to the Embodied Teaching dashboard, with 4 90-minute pre-recorded video module lessons, and additional materials and resources to support your learning.
Registration is available below for $297.
Ready to Get Started?
Register here and you’ll receive immediate access to your dashboard.
Thank you for your passion for teaching, your service to your students, and your interest in Embodied Teaching. I look forward to seeing you soon!