Mindful Teacher, Mindful School

Improving Wellbeing in Teaching and Learning

This book is indispensable for anyone who truly wants to understand what is involved in bringing mindfulness to K-12 education around the globe.  Rather than seeing mindfulness as a set of classroom activities to be inserted into the status quo, Kevin Hawkins makes the case for the power of mindful awareness to be part of a much larger transformation of what and how we teach. 

Proposing that we broaden the aims of education to include physical, mental and emotional well being, Hawkins situates mindfulness – first for adults and then for students - as a catalytic tool within this larger frame.  Mindful Teachers Mindful Schools  not only offers everything that someone new to the field needs to get up to speed but he also pinpoints deeply important truths for those of us already active in the field.  This is a must read!

In his new book Mindful Teacher, Mindful School, Kevin Hawkins takes us on a compelling personal and universal journey of self discovery that is at the heart of the art and discipline of mindfulness. Through this book, we learn that mindfulness has a rightful place in schools, as a powerful tool to help students learn to live in the present and improve their sense self awareness. Through anecdotes from schools around the world and through his own personal journey, Hawkins provides us with a down to earth and accessible approach for teachers and students alike to become more mindful human beings.

This is a book clearly written by an educator who knows mindfulness in schools from the inside. The strongest evidence for this is that Hawkins never gets carried away. He recognises that mindfulness is not a panacea, that to implement it successfully in schools is a slow and steady process, and that above all it must begin with the teachers themselves. But Hawkins also recognises how transformative mindfulness can be, having experienced it so profoundly himself as an educator in many different contexts. His anecdotes give it plenty of colour (my favourite is ‘Billy and the Mosquito’), whilst the practical guidance – Chapter 7 on implementation for example – makes it of tremendous practical value. 

This book is elegant.  For all of us aspiring to be educators it is an enduring reminder of our deep inheritance - what the great 13^th century teacher, poet and mystic, Jalaludin Rumi, described as “two kinds of intelligence”: one acquired, the other already complete and preserved inside you.  Surely, both these intelligences are important.  With humility and wisdom, Kevin Hawkins, a long-time educator, middle school principal and mindfulness practitioner, helps us remember the bounty of the “already completed” and the ways what is innate informs what is “acquired.”  With substance and grace, the lineages of education, psychology, and neuroscience converge as Hawkins illuminates the critically important role that mindfulness plays in the education of our children, their teachers, and we, their parents.

Mindfulness is certainly a buzz word at present and it's significance in schools is rapidly increasing, so it behoves all teachers to find out more about the process and how it can help in the classroom. Both new and experienced teachers can learn how to use mindfulness in their lives and in their teaching to support student well-being. Packed with DIY exercises, activities to use in the classroom, and links to resources and further reading, this practical book will help teachers achieve that all-important work-life balance.

This would be a useful read for anyone who is interested in promoting teachers’ or students’ positive mental health – from an NQT, wanting to improve their own or their children’s wellbeing, to a senior leader who might consider implementation on a whole-school level. It’s particularly interesting for anyone with pastoral care responsibilities and PSHE leads, as well as any teacher who wants to consider what they can do to support their own wellbeing.

Spiritual guru and best-selling author Eckhart Tolle tells us, if you want to start meditating, take one conscious breath in and one conscious breath out. In his book, Mindful Teacher, Mindful School, international school veteran Kevin Hawkins takes this instruction to the next level by laying out a practical and insightful guide on how teachers can bring mindfulness to the classroom by first bringing it into their own lives and daily practice. He does this with a simplicity and elegance that can give even the most skeptical reader a clear path forward, providing specific tools and strategies to get you started.