The Mindful Pause

Someone slams a door. We hear the sound, and we react. We turn. We look. We might become angry. We might ask about what is happening. We may run. There is a stimulus, and in the matter of miliseconds, our brain makes a decision, and we react.

Mindfulness tools give us a chance to pause between the stimulus and the response. That pause can be life altering. Really.

Drawing from social thinking training and mindfulness training, we have been using that pause as a moment for values-based reflection before action. 

Here's what that might look like:

Option 1: RAIN - Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Non-identify (Read more about this at https://www.mindful.org/rain-a-mindfulness-practice-for-welcoming-your-emotions/)
           -Walking through "RAIN" with Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird might look like this:          

1. Scout punches her cousin for calling her father an inappropriate and racist name
2. Recognize: anger, frustration
3. Allow: It is okay to be angry. She can sit with that anger. The anger is a guest visiting.
4. Investigate: Why is Scout angry? She loves her father. She feels that Francis is doing her father an injustice. She feels a larger injustice and is saddened and confused. She also hates Francis. She also feels the anger in her hands. In her shoulders. She sets her jaw.
5. Non-identify: Scout is not an angry person. She is angry with a particular person for a particular thing he has done. She has the power to decide what to do now that she has thought it through.
6. Scout w/ RAIN might not make the choice to punch Francis. If she does punch him, she is making the choice, not her anger.

                      

                  
Option 2: Stop, Opt, and Go





Parents and teachers need to model these types of mindful pauses for students to help them see that we don't always have it all together and that we have to work hard to decode our emotions and respond to stimuli.

A week or so ago, I asked the students if some emotions are bad. Some of them said they were. Some of them said they weren't. We are trying to help them move toward an understanding of emotions as data points: Emotions are our bodies trying to label a pattern of responses to a stimulus. It is more useful, perhaps, to put emotions on a continuum from comfortable to uncomfortable than to label them as positive or negative.

David Brooks has written several articles about emotions and neuroscience. You may find them interesting. Among them, is one where he argues that "work by cognitive scientists like Antonio Damasio showed us that emotion is not the opposite of reason; it’s essential to reason. Emotions assign value to things. If you don’t know what you want, you can’t make good decisions" (Brooks, The New York Times, January 2019).

Some of the most important work we do in school is about helping students understand what they value and how their emotions interact with their values and their actions. 

Here, at Seabury, social and emotional learning are not happening on the side of learning. They are happening all the time, not just in advisory or morning meeting, but also during English, Social Studies, Science, and Math--perhaps especially during breaks, lunch, and recess. 

All of our students are learning and growing. All of our students make mistakes and are learning from their mistakes. All of that is 100 percent as it should be. They are in the process of becoming themselves, and we are inspired by their journeys every day.

The North Korea - US Conflict Resolution Summit: A Social Studies Simulation

The students have been studying conflict resolution and peacebuilding largely using a curriculum developed by the United States Institute of Peace. That work has been supported by their study of current events and our work preparing for Model UN.

Several weeks ago, students completed negotiation preparation sheets, detailing the positions of the parties involved in international conflicts of interest to them. Using their research, new information, and a bit of dramatic flair, I developed a conflict resolution simulation.

Each student was assigned a role:
-Lead Mediator
-Senior Advisor to the Mediator
-US Lead Negotiator/Diplomat
-North Korean Lead Negotiator/Diplomat
-US Businessperson
-North Korean Industry Captain
-Chinese Diplomat
-South Korean Diplomat
-Japanese Diplomat
-North Korean Refugee Leader
-North Korean Liberation Leader

We completed the simulation in each social studies class, so two summits took place.

In the end, we had two very different results, but both summits were able to find resolution:

• In one class, the students used South Korea as a bargaining chip with North Korea to denuclearize North Korea and ensure the safety of all Korean civilians.
• In one class, North Korea presented a conflict resolution package that started a series of negotiations that eventually resulted in the removal of sanctions and economic support in exchange for denuclearization.

The students were thoughtfully engaged in learning throughout the simulation. They developed conflict resolution skills, learned about sanctions and their power on an international stage, learned research skills through the questions they asked and answered in order to develop and refine their positions, and engaged in dramatic play. 

Neuroscience at Seabury MS

Neuroscience

Why does the brain have grooves? Why does the cerebellum look like a tree? Why does our heart beat slow when we submerge our face in warm water and increase when we put our hand in ice water?

These are the types of questions middle school students in our Psychology/Neuroscience course are wrestling with. They get to use tools real scientists use to investigate the brain. They dig into the past and make connections with Renaissance Philosophers and Ancient Egyptian mummification practices.  

Some students love memorizing facts and others love illustrating their understanding with their artistic minds. Students engage in hands-on science and then look for new and creative ways to apply their knowledge. Experiences like the ones pictured below challenge them and allow them to use their gifts. 

Students dissecting a mammalian brain to better understand what different parts of the brain do

Observing electric potential of the heart and brain

The Mammalian Diving Impulse triggers the parasympathetic nervous system

Identifying the temporal lobe

Pointing out sulci

Negotiation: Conflict Resolution and Peace Building

In social studies, the students have been researching conflict zones as well as peace-building strategies.

This week, they participated in a negotiation simulation between a parent and a teenage child in Indian Kashmir trying to decide whether to move or stay.

During this activity, students had to assess and analyze their character's bio in order to determine his/her/their position (nonnegotiable) and interests (negotiable). They also had to think outside of the box to determine potential solutions and ways they could work together to build consensus and, eventually, compromise if needed.

No two simulations resulted in the same outcome, which speaks to how many different ways there are to build peace and interpret a situation. Some students made plans to emigrate. Some students made plans to relocate temporarily, some made plans to separate, and some made plans solely aligned with the parent's position, but drawing heavily on the child's interests.

The students reported using the following strategies during the negotiations:

1. Listening to another perspective or point of view
2. Listening carefully to hear what was not really being said
3. Making it clear that a choice needed to be made
4. Using logic to explain their position or understand the other side's position
5. Conceding
6. Compromising
7. Being clear with their language

Happy Halloween: Fun at the Middle School!

Thank you, room parents, for helping make Halloween so special! Thank you, Seabury students, for doing such an amazing job cleaning up after Halloween.

A Delicious Example of Seabury Style Creativity

Decorations for Halloween

Air Bobbing for Apples

Painting Some "Happy Trees" with an Ominous Bystander

Mummification

More Mummification

Musical Chairs

Refining Begins with Presenting Ideas: Storyboards and Peer Feedback

The psychology experiment groups have moved into the creation stage of this project.

One group's draft storyboard

 The students are now crafting public service announcements to share the results of or information about their psychological experiments.

Today, each group pitched its vision to the rest of the students.

Sorry for the glare!

The audience asked comprehension questions and completed feedback forms designed to lead each group to think more deeply about the choices they were making in the advertisement.

Then the groups had time to read and reflect on those feedback forms.

Reviewing Feedback

Discussing the Meaning of Feedback

One of the really neat aspects of this project is that different students with different strengths have the opportunity to step into leadership roles. Those who planned and implemented the experiment are not necessarily the same as those who took the lead on coming up with a creative vision for the advertisement. Those who stepped forward to "pitch" and those who drew the pictures for the storyboards might not be the same as those who managed the lab reports or those who led the discussions about the feedback.

We look forward to seeing which students step into leadership roles during filming.

Group Work, the Seabury Middle School Way: Practicing, Building Resilience, and Reflecting

If you ask most gifted students if they like working in groups, their response tends to be pretty negative. The Gifted Guru recently posted an article about all of the things teachers at traditional schools do during group work that makes it particularly challenging for gifted students. We are very cognizant of the ways that group work challenges highly capable learners, some of whom have twice exceptionality.

We started this round of group work with a team building problem solving activity. Then, we reflected. What inhibited a successful experience and what behaviors encouraged success? The students generated some terrific lists.

They focused on positive communication vs. negative communication, feeling "heard," and listening to diverse strategies before deciding how to proceed. 

Now that they are working on the project at hand, emotions sometimes run high. Students are very invested in the work that they are doing, and they want to do thoughtful and thorough jobs, just not always in the same ways. This week, I have seen middle schoolers stretch their limits to be patient with one another, to clearly articulate problems they are encountering with group dynamics, and to admit when working together is challenging. They are building resiliency for group work and reflecting on the process thoughtfully.

Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? The research would resoundingly say yes. The skills the middle schoolers are learning about how to work together --"soft skills"--are exactly the types of skills more likely to make them successful in their future careers. 

Ada Lovelace Day 2019

Girls like Ada

Ada Lovelace was a woman born during the 19th Century who became a forward thinking mathematician who rivaled in ability her male contemporaries. She is said to be one of the first people to recognize the potential of computing machines. Women around the world make up only 30% of researchers in STEM fields. Ada has become an icon for promoting young women entering STEM field. Seabury MS celebrates ALD each year to support women entering the STEM Field. We invited 10 women working in STEM fields to talk about their experiences, run science labs, and present their ideas to all students.

 

The guest list included:

Penny Grellier an administrator from Pierce Transit, who talked about the complex machine that is a transit facility and jobs/internships available.

Dr. Diane Bartels a pediatrician, who taught our students how to suture a cut.

Sonja, a Seabury parent and a member of the board, is also an accomplished architect. She asked students to design a structure from materials found in our maker space.

Alex Cole is a former Seabury Student and a recent graduate of the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is now pursuing a masters degree in urban design from a university in Wales. Alex got the students thinking about sustainable cities and had them make plans to sustainably meet the needs of a future community.

Dr. Amani is a sustainability scientist with a focus on sustainable agricultural development. She attended the UC Davis for her undergraduate degree, studying agricultural economics, philosophy, and Japanese. From there, she went on to earn a Masters from Cornell University in Agricultural Economics and then a PhD in Sustainability from Arizona State University. In addition to teaching at the college level, Dr. Amani has worked in the Peace Corps, served as a regional market coordinator for the United Nations, and now works as a consultant. In her work with food aid and food assistance, she helps address issues such as market dynamics, organizational development and community resilience. Dr. Amani opened our eyes to how we need to be partaking in a "fact diet" to combat a human tendency to dramatize global issues.

Jamie Mackenzie, Nadia, and Ariel Hicks presented information about working for the Navy and the Department of the Navy in various capacities. Ariel is an air traffic controller on a nuclear carrier. Jamie MacKenzie is an occupational health nurse, and Nadia Almomory works in HR for the DoN.

Dr. Sprenger is professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She researches the role of the microenvironment in tumor dormancy and the role of androgen receptor splice variants in castration resistant prostate cancer. 

After doing her undergraduate work at UPS here in Tacoma, she completed a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, Seattle. She has completed postdoctoral work in the Urology Department and the Department of Medicine at the UW. 

 

Christine Hartzell

Dr. Hartzell, a Seabury alumni, is an assistant professor of aerospace engineering. She is a scientist on the OSIRIS-REx mission, which is currently orbiting the asteroid Bennu.  Another mission she works on, called Janus, is working to fly by two binary asteroid systems to understand how those systems formed. 

As a professor, she conducts research, trains new researchers, and teachers astrodynamics. Her research specifically focuses on the behavior of granular materials that are dominated by non-gravitational forces--or, more simply, she studies dust on the surface of the moon and asteroids in order to understand why those surfaces look how they look and to enable the design of robotic spacecraft to collect samples from those surfaces.