Caritas Mother Teresa School
Caritas Mother Teresa School
- Implementation of .b course in the 19/20 academic year
Junior Forms:
In this academic year, our school introduced .b curriculum into the Personal, Social and Humanities Education lessons. Students attended .b lesson per month and practised mindfulness during the lesson. Throughout the year, Form 1 students generally enjoyed the mindfulness lessons. Most of them were willing to share their feelings after practising mindfulness, and eager to participate in various kinds of activities. To facilitate those with weaker writing ability, we had designed some worksheets for them to express themselves through drawing. Similarly, Form 2 students participated actively in the mindfulness lessons. Those with prior exposure to mindfulness in primary school years were more ready to notice their breath and bodily sensations during mindful breathing and body scan. They were also willing to share their feelings after practice. Yet, their participation appeared to be affected by newly joined classmates. Form 3 students needed more encouragement to attempt mindfulness, so we selected some practices that were more receptive to them. Due to the pandemic, mindfulness lessons were suspended and students will continue to learn .b in the 20/21 academic year.
Senior Forms:
Form 5 and 6 students had attended seven mindfulness lessons. Unfortunately, mindful eating and walking could not be practiced because of the pandemic. Although students were generally receptive to mindfulness, they seemed to have some misconceptions about mindfulness, such as considering mindfulness as sleeping or resting. This might hinder them from understanding the essence of mindfulness. Form 5 students will continue to learn mindfulness in the 20/21 academic year.
- Insights gained from the implementation
We have begun to introduce mindfulness to students through .b lessons and gradually cultivated mindfulness culture in school. We have also gained more experience to tailor-made the mindfulness lessons for students. For example, to facilitate students’ understanding of difficult concepts, we will adjust the pacing and make use of a variety of teaching methods to engage students. In addition, we noticed that students are easily fueled with negative emotions due to the interpersonal conflicts during recess or after class. Therefore, we plan to reschedule .b lessons to the first lesson of the day (i.e. the calmest moment of the day), in order to enhance students’ receptiveness to mindfulness.
All in all, students tend to be more engaged in mindfulness practice like body scan and grounding practice. We hope that students could be more engaged and benefit more from .b lessons in the coming year.
(The above information is provided by the school.)