By ANDREA SANDS, EDMONTON JOURNAL
Education students at the University of Alberta can take a new course to give them skills to stay focused and calm in busy K-12 classrooms.
Norbert Krumins is teaching a new course for University of Alberta students called Mindfulness for Teachers. Photograph by: Greg Southam/EDMONTON JOURNAL
Mindfulness for Teachers started last week with a small class, just five students, but instructor Norbert Krumins hopes interest will grow in the practice that focuses awareness on the present moment.
“Many of us, in today’s busy world, need to slow down. Multi-tasking is all the rage but I think it’s also important for teachers, for students, to take some time to breathe,” Krumins said. “When we slow down, we are able to concentrate better, it offers us an opportunity to find insight into what we’re looking at — whatever our subject matter is in class — and it opens up a quieter, compassionate space in the classroom.”
The Mindfulness for Teachers course promises to increase students’ body and mind awareness through meditation, boost their concentration and appreciation of beauty, and develop their “pedagogical presence” to make them better teachers who really connect with their students.
The class will do sitting and walking meditations, walk through a portable labyrinth, and create art such as painting, collage, music and movement “in a contemplative, mindful manner,” said Krumins. The art is about connecting with the creative process and not about the finished product, he said.
Krumins began meditating about 25 years ago and has deepened his practice recently.
“It’s helped me to focus. It’s helped me to concentrate better, and I feel lighter. I feel happier,” Krumins said.
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