“How’s it going?” I asked Susan, a second-grade teacher participating in the federally funded research project being conducted by the University of Virginia. Susan had completed the first session of the CARE for Teachers mindfulness-based teacher professional development program, and I had called her for a phone coaching session to see how she was doing as she practiced bringing a…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia June 23, 2015 The iPhone has failed me. It doesn’t update the date and time on wireless networks, only on cellular. And so my phone was still on Tokyo time when I went to bed in Yogyakarta on the night of the solstice. Which means two things: it wasn’t 1 am when I went to sleep last night,…
When the Garrison Institute first launched its Contemplative Teaching and Learning (CTL) initiative in 2004, contemplative education was just emerging as a professional field. By supporting the work of pioneers in the field, convening major forums with thought leaders in the field, creating the seminal CARE for Teachers program, forming a CTL Leadership Council, and publishing a groundbreaking mapping survey…
Small group discussions at the CTL symposium. Photo by Deborah Donahue-Keegan. Nearly one hundred teacher educators and teacher leaders from across the US and Canada, and from as far away as Israel and Colombia, participated the Garrison Institute’s Contemplative Teaching and Learning (CTL) Initiative’s annual symposium. Held in late November with generous support from the 1440 Foundation and…
CARE Training participants earlier this year Teacher stress and burnout are widespread and significant factors in the quality and costs of education. Evidence is mounting that contemplative practices are effective at reducing them. Most recently, a study published in the journal Mind, Brain and Education trained a group of elementary school teachers in a form of Mindfulness-Based Stress…