Skip to content

Tag: Mindfulness

Published on Leave a comment on This Friday: Tammah Watts

As CAT+FD has promoted contemplative pedagogy and work/life balance for years, we are very pleased to join our student groups in welcoming author and facilitator Tammah Watts, LMFT, to Xavier University of Louisiana this Friday.

[flyer for campus event]

Come join Tammah and connect with nature right here on campus.

Turning your focus to nature and wildlife can help allay stress and anxiety. During meditation, Tammah will help participants identify cues in nature to increase mindfulness.

This event is open to Xavier students, faculty, and staff. Attendees will receive a copy of Tammah’s new book, Keep Looking Up.

Friday, April 14th, 2023, 2pm in the UC Yard

Published on Leave a comment on Remote Mindfulness

Let's say that you used to begin class with a moment of silence. Or perhaps you incorporated some other elements of mindfulness or contemplative pedagogy into your teaching.

Did those practices survive the transition to remote teaching this semester? Perhaps they fell by the wayside in the rush to get "up to speed" with unfamiliar technology.

It takes a special effort to bring mindfulness to the classroom when the classroom is a virtual construct. However, in this unsettled and uncertain time, the lessons of mindfulness would seem to be more important than ever. Furthermore, the online environment can often add an extra layer that separates the student from learning even more than in a traditional classroom. Practices that connect to our basic humanity are arguably even more important when teaching in a context mediated entirely by electronic technology.

Aurora D. Bonner offers some guidance in her new article for Faculty Focus, "Mindfulness in the (Online) Classroom."

  • Be present
  • Take time to check in
  • Believe your students
  • Don’t be afraid to share

Read the full article for details. It's brief and worth your time.

This might be a good time to check out the webinar by Karen Nichols and yours truly (Bart Everson) sponsored by D2L, "Present, Calm, and Ready to Learn – The Value of Contemplative Practices in an Online Course."

Bonus: You may also be interested in next week's online practice, "Exploring Uncertainty, Finding Possibility Through Contemplative Art," facilitated by Beth Berila throught the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

Published on Leave a comment on Developing Indicators for What Matters Most in Your Teaching

A webinar with David Sable, Religious Studies, Saint Mary's University
Tuesday, December 16, 2014, 2:30-3:30pm CST
Free and open to the public

REGISTER

In this interactive presentation, participants will be introduced to a set of mindfulness-based reflective practices for the classroom that were the subject of mixed methods research with university students over five years. The practices apply basic mindfulness principles and guided instruction for individual contemplation, journal writing, listening, inquiry, and dialogue in a student-centered learning format.

Taken together, this set of practices becomes reflective interaction; however the elements are also useful individually or in any combination. These practices and the results of the research were described in the first issue of The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, published by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

The same set of practices will be applied in this interactive webinar to help you develop indicators for what matters most in introducing any contemplative practices in your teaching. Participants will explore their intentions, including what matters most to them as the instructor, what matters most to their students, and how they can know if contemplative pedagogy is effective. Results will be shared online and documented by the recording.

Note: This webinar is being offered by the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.

Published on Leave a comment on The Mindful Way to Study

Attention faculty (and students): For three days (January 16, 17 and 18) the ebook version of The Mindful Way to Study is being offered free of charge from Amazon.

If you have a Kindle or other compatible reader, grab this book now, and by all means let us know what you think.