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1) Eating Mindfully: I eat really fast-way too fast. This was a great reminder to get out of auto-pilot and use my senses to enjoy my food.
2) Breathing: To be present in the moment.
3) Mindfulness: To be kind and compassionate with others.
I would like to read the article mentioned in the references to learn more about this topic: Siegel, D.J. (1999). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York;  Guilford Press.
I will also be checking out the website that the program M.A.S.T. comes from: mast.stmichaelshospital.com to learn more about this process.

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1. Mindfulness is important to allow us to be engaged and reflective in the current moment, and acknowledging all emotions.
2. It is a good thing to have a broad window of tolerance and the awareness and tools to stay in that window as much as possible.
3. There are several grounding skills that can help you re-enter your window of tolerance, my favorite being releasing gripped hands or taking a deep breath!
I would like to learn more about incorporating some of these strategies into the classroom to help students deal with stress, especially around exam time. For example, would it be beneficial to use the first 5 minutes of an exam for a guided stretching and breathing exercise?

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1) Use grounding skills to help bring yourself back into your window of tolerance.

2)  Food and exercise can affect our window of tolerance. On possibility is as teachers, we can work to "not work" during our lunch period.

3) It is always a good reminder to "relate ourselves to others with kindness, warmth and compassion"

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I love the window of tolerance graphic and the reminder everyone has a different window and it varies at different times. I may have this graphic displayed in room for students to remember

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1.  My first thought to the Window of Tolerance was an old Early Childhood saying that no one can make good decisions when they are on top of ANGER MOUNTAIN.   I used this often as a way to teach students that they need to come down off the mountain before they can move forward.  I like this analogy as well that we need to be aware of our typical response and how we can get back into that optimal window.
2.  I will watch more carefully as to how my students respond to stressful situations and make notes on how to get them back with grounding techniques.  I tend to see my students shut down or go numb more often than get hyper responsive but both are equally important to steer back to Window of Tolerance.
3.  I think students need opportunities to see adults in their lives model this and use common language as we all experience situations that take us out of our mindfulness.  If we have something happen in our classroom that causes us to go outside our "Window", it would be great to talk through this with the students after we have recovered :).
I also couldn't help connect the old hymn, IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL, with this word picture because often in life, how we choose to respond to horrific situations is much more important that the circumstances. I'd love to read more research on resiliency and if there are teachable ways to improve resiliency, how can we incorporate them into our classrooms and parent education.

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Take Away 1: Breathing is really important! It is normal practice to think about breathing when I exercise, but this article points out that focusing on breathing in everyday life, especially during times of business, stress or anxiety will help me stay healthy and functioning within my Window of Tolerance. I can see the value in having students take a minute to breathe before we start a lesson or activity.
Take Away 2: Know your default anxiety/stress response! I realized reading this article that I am a freezer. I shift into hypo-arousal and become overwhelmed. If I know this about myself, I can more readily identify when I've shifted there and employ one of the strategies in the article.
Take Away 3: Slow down! As educators and as human beings we can all slow down a little, and we can teach our students how to slow down as well. We can teach them to take a minute to breathe. To take a minute to stretch. To take a minute to eat (and taste the food!) We can do it with them! We think we are operating more efficiently when we hurry hurry hurry, but actually we may well be short circuiting ourselves. Slow down to go fast is a saying I use, and maybe it needs to be changed to slow down to be healthy!

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I love the idea presented in the article about being aware of fluctuations in our arousal levels and "responding WISELY"; I think that's an excellent frame of reference as we reflect about our approach to students' attitudes and emotions.

I also like the idea of being mindful of the situation that is presenting itself to us in the moment, instead of focusing on the past or future.  This will allow me to guide a student in deep breaths, finding things in the room, etc so that we can get big feelings under control.

Since we already do a fair amount of breathing to settle ourselves in the classroom, I'd like to add one additional aspect from the article which is "Awareness" by having the students begin our time by reflecting on what they are experiencing in that moment.  I assume at first it will require a class conversation, but hopefully with practice they will be able to use the skill on their own in a moment of silence before we begin our breaths.

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The three pieces of information that I took away from the article are: using mindfulness in different ways in your classroom, teaching mindful skills is important and you can also relate this to the students' academics.
1. Using mindfulness in your classroom could help students to focus in on how they are responding, or feeling, to take away any anxiety that they may have around a certain subject or activity. Helping them to realize that they only need to focus on the present may help ease anxiety about the future or what was done in the past.
2. Teaching the students some mindful skills would be very helpful for them to use when they are feeling anxious. Deep breathing, grounding, mindful walking would be some techniques that could be easily used in a classroom.
3. Applying this idea of mindfulness to their academics could also help the students with their meta-cognition with reading comprehension. Giving them strategies to help them focus in on their thoughts could also be a great way for them to be more mindful of what they are learning. I like the visual with the sailboat and would like to use this idea with the students. I like the 3 minute breathing space idea and would like to learn more about this.

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Mindfulness as a skill can help students learn to be less impulsive and more self-regulated, and to develop a stronger ability to choose in their lives. As a teacher I need to build up their grounding skills first because these skills help them remain in the present moment, calming and soothing themselves enough to effectively manage extreme arousal. Each skill is important exercise for students to regularly practice it when they are not in fight-flight-freeze mode. After build up the ground skills, it can bring students back into the window of tolerance.  Some exercises I may plan for my class are like, •	Breathing Deep: To use video help students breathing meditation. •	Concentration: To ring a mindfulness bell to encourage mindful listening. •	Awareness of Your Body: Body poses like superman or wonder woman•	Releasing Tension: To place several small, interestingly shaped or textured objects in a bag and have student reach in to touch an object, and describe what they are touching. •	Mindful Eating: To use 5 sense snack chart, help students appreciate what they are eating by slowing down and noticing not just the flavor but also the texture, color, sound…etc.•	Mindful Walking:  To go for a walk and mentally count of list all the different sounds that they hear. I would like to know more about the 3- Minute Breathing Space exercises for younger children. 

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Mindfulness as a skill can help students learn to be less impulsive and more self-regulated, and to develop a stronger ability to choose in their lives. As a teacher I need to build up their grounding skills first because these skills help them remain in the present moment, calming and soothing themselves enough to effectively manage extreme arousal. Each skill is important exercise for students to regularly practice it when they are not in fight-flight-freeze mode. After build up the ground skills, it can bring students back into the window of tolerance.  Some exercises I may plan for my class are like, •	Breathing Deep: To use video help students breathing meditation. •	Concentration: To ring a mindfulness bell to encourage mindful listening. •	Awareness of Your Body: Body poses like superman or wonder woman•	Releasing Tension: To place several small, interestingly shaped or textured objects in a bag and have student reach in to touch an object, and describe what they are touching. •	Mindful Eating: To use 5 sense snack chart, help students appreciate what they are eating by slowing down and noticing not just the flavor but also the texture, color, sound…etc.•	Mindful Walking:  To go for a walk and mentally count of list all the different sounds that they hear. I would like to know more about the 3- Minute Breathing Space exercises for younger children. 

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from Hsin-Yi Liu

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1. The mindfulness made me think of Daniel Tiger - great show! I watch it with our 3 year old and we talk about emotions. We will use the same language later when is feeling similarly to Daniel. It helps her process her emotions. Anyhow this made me think of the window of tolerance and mindfulness. I find it interesting that I focus on this so much with my daughter, but not as much with me students. I think that needs to change.
2.Ground skills could be taught whole class with an anchor chart. All students would benefit from it.
3.I want to learn more about leading a 3 minute breathing space. I think that would also be a great whole class activity that would help students stay mindful and present.

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The 3 Minute AGE acronym will help me make purposeful guiding questions for my take-a-break space next year.
The grounding skills are very practical and useful with student. The mindful eating is a little weird to me though, but I could see how the same questions could be used to call more attention to a variety of topics.