Phase One: Findings
The Wrap-Up of Phase One
As we conclude the series of six workshops, I have an incredible amount of qualitative data to analyze. As I read through student feedback forms, my teacher journal, observations and accounts of discussions with my focus students, I am unclear by the data if the students have translated the content of the workshops into meaningful action and if the workshops have had a direct impact on the way students interact. While I have documented an increase in productivity and positive attitudes, along with a decrease in flare-ups and emotional outbursts between students, I experience difficulties determining the cause of these changes. Much of my research and data is perception-based and subjective.
As we wrap up Phase One on May 7th, the students are released to a weeklong Intersession from May 13-16. Upon return to school on Monday, May 19, we hit the ground running for play rehearsals. Students will be memorizing, rehearsing, staging and preparing for the Exhibition in three short weeks. Prior to students breaking off into their play groups, we begin our day with a mindfulness check-in. Students are handed a piece of blank paper and are provided the following prompts:
As we conclude the series of six workshops, I have an incredible amount of qualitative data to analyze. As I read through student feedback forms, my teacher journal, observations and accounts of discussions with my focus students, I am unclear by the data if the students have translated the content of the workshops into meaningful action and if the workshops have had a direct impact on the way students interact. While I have documented an increase in productivity and positive attitudes, along with a decrease in flare-ups and emotional outbursts between students, I experience difficulties determining the cause of these changes. Much of my research and data is perception-based and subjective.
As we wrap up Phase One on May 7th, the students are released to a weeklong Intersession from May 13-16. Upon return to school on Monday, May 19, we hit the ground running for play rehearsals. Students will be memorizing, rehearsing, staging and preparing for the Exhibition in three short weeks. Prior to students breaking off into their play groups, we begin our day with a mindfulness check-in. Students are handed a piece of blank paper and are provided the following prompts:
For a selection of student responses, please click here. This check-in provided further means for assessing students' ability to understand and apply the concepts from the workshops into their academic and personal lives. It also allowed me to gain insight into how individual students made meaning of the workshops. Analysis of the qualitative data from this student feedback form, as well as the quantitative data from a Google Form, I am able to identify patterns and themes throughout the implementation of Phase One:
1. Students were able to make connections and direct application between the workshops and work in their collaborative group
All of the fourteen students participating in the feedback form wrote their own definition for mindfulness and were able to recall takeaways from the experience. Twelve of the fourteen students report to have applied the concept of mindfulness, including breathing exercises, at school and in their social lives. All but one student suggest continuing breathing exercises during class time. There were also several occasions where students had approached me, expressing their newly acquired affinity for meditation. Below is an excerpt from my teacher journal, detailing a series of brief conversations with one student repeatedly requesting for meditation:
1. Students were able to make connections and direct application between the workshops and work in their collaborative group
All of the fourteen students participating in the feedback form wrote their own definition for mindfulness and were able to recall takeaways from the experience. Twelve of the fourteen students report to have applied the concept of mindfulness, including breathing exercises, at school and in their social lives. All but one student suggest continuing breathing exercises during class time. There were also several occasions where students had approached me, expressing their newly acquired affinity for meditation. Below is an excerpt from my teacher journal, detailing a series of brief conversations with one student repeatedly requesting for meditation:
5/20:
“I’m freaking out,” she exclaims, “from having to rewrite my script again, to AP calculus to these student interviews, there’s just too much going on. I really wanted to go mediate, but everyone keeps calling my name and pulling me in every direction.”
“Do you want to go take a moment now?”, I ask. She lets out a sigh of relief as she walks outside into the sunshine. As I pear out the window, she sits on the concrete with her back up against the exterior wall, elbows against her knees with her head resting in her hands.
As she reenters the room, she smiles at me, “That was incredible, thank you”.
She shares with me, “well I always find it best when I am able to cover my eyes. I just kept telling myself breathe in, breathe out.”
I ask how she feels now, to which she responds, "less cloudy and more perspective".
5/22:
30 mins in to a team meeting, where she feels as though more of her authority and autonomy has been stripped, she makes her way through the crowded classroom, stepping over her classmates sitting on the floor. “Can I go meditate, NOW?”. She makes a b line to the door and finds her spot outside with her head in her hands.
5/30:
The same student expresses her need for a meditation break, following a discussion about the stresses of the project and her ability as an effective leader, when to be their friend and when to be the authority. Also, she wonders what to do when she feels they aren’t taking it seriously anymore. Upon return from her 12 minute meditation break, the anxiety level is quickly diminished. In response to a student feedback form distributed by the students’ Humanities teacher, the student includes this: “Nicole continues to be the thread holding me in place mentally with her pep talks and much-needed meditation breaks.”
2. Students expressed interest in knowing more of the why:
Student responses to the written prompts and Google Form indicate student interest in learning more about meditation and its' benefits.
Student responses to the written prompts and Google Form indicate student interest in learning more about meditation and its' benefits.
3. Students referenced their personal methods of meditation:
From the written prompts, twelve of the fourteen students provided their own methods of mindfulness and meditation. Below is a selection of student responses:
From the written prompts, twelve of the fourteen students provided their own methods of mindfulness and meditation. Below is a selection of student responses:
Responses from these feedback forms prompted me to conduct informal interviews with students in order to gain a deeper understanding of their personal methods. Below is an excerpt from my teacher journal, detailing a conversation with a student about her meditation method:
5/22
I love going for walks. I solve problems in my head without input from other people telling me what to do. I also try to take the time to sit down, even if you’re with a group and talking, you realize, ok, this is what is going on. I can be stressed or I can sit and think and let it be. People are for sure going to bug you, but it’s up to you how you’re going to react. I just need to be alone for that to happen. But I can never just get those few minutes to myself.
5/30
We engage in a discussion about taking the time for yourself to just breathe and ground yourself. When the stress of working with the same group of peers for the past 2 months reaches a boiling point, she wants to escape. She is paired with the same student in both the play project and her math project. She is on collaboration overload. She repeats a phrase I shared with her weeks prior: You cannot change people. You can only change the way you react to them.