The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit

Kevin Hawkins is an independent speaker, consultant and teacher trainer. He has worked with children and adolescents in various contexts for over 40 years as a teacher, school head and social worker, in the UK, Europe and Africa. He has taught across the age ranges in state schools and in international schools, with a focus on developing the whole child through balancing academic, social and emotional aspects of learning. Kevin started teaching mindful awareness to students, teachers and parents in 2008, and in 2012 he co-founded MindWell (www.mindwell-education.com) which supports educational communities in developing awareness-based wellbeing through mindfulness and social-emotional learning. His first book, Mindful Teacher Mindful School, Improving wellbeing in teaching and learning, was published by SAGE/Corwin in 2017. Amy Burke is an educational consultant who spent 15 years as a high school teacher and guidance counsellor in Canada and The Netherlands. She holds a Master's Degree in Contemplative Education from Naropa University and in 2012 co-founded MindWell. Amy is a facilitator for the CARE program (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education), a teacher trainer for the Mindfulness in Schools Project and she is also a Mentor for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme UK). Amy works internationally providing workshops and retreats for educators, students and parents with a focus on self-care and stress management.

Introduction: Awareness-Based Wellbeing in Schools Section I: Teaching Mindful Awareness Chapter 1: Mindful Awareness in the Early Years Classroom (3-6 year olds) Chapter 2: Mindful Awareness in the Primary Years Classroom (7-10 year olds) Chapter 3: Mindful Awareness in the Middle Years Classroom(11-13 year olds) Chapter 4: Mindful Awareness in the Secondary Years Classroom (14-18 year olds) Chapter 5: Top Teaching Tips Section II: Embedding Mindful Awareness Chapter 6: Mindful Awareness in Sports and Performance Chapter 7: Mindful Awareness across the School Chapter 8: Developing a Coherent Approach: Implementation Q&As Conclusion: Aligning Awareness-based Wellbeing with Societal and Environmental Change

The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit is an essential resource for mindful educators. It's chock-full of hard won insights, and there's love and rigor in every page, practice, and lesson. Given the adversity so many are facing, this is a book that's made for the moment. -- David Treleaven, PhD There is much going on in the world in the name of education that has hardly anything to do with education. Much too is going on in the world in the realm of teaching that is all but mindful. The result is the state of the world we are in today. But education is based on the principle of hope and of possibility. Here is how. Written by passionate educators who live out their deep beliefs about education, the role of teachers, and the consequences of mindfulness in teaching, The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit fills a yawning gap in the most important mission in the world - teaching. Awareness-based well-being in schools, cultivated mindfully and pursued intentionally, can restore integrity to teaching and help discover meaning in learning. The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit combines uplifting vision with practical pathways to guide the process of teaching to make it purposeful and fulfilling both to the giver as well as receiver of the experience called learning. I commend the distinguished writers for their valuable contribution to restoring faith in this most important of public professions by being mindful, teaching mindfully, and teaching mindfulness as the basis of the teacher's engagement. -- Thakur S Powdyel At a time when we are all more distracted than ever, Burke and Hawkins skillfully communicate how the combination of Mindful Awareness Training (MAT) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) create the foundation for Awareness-based Wellbeing (ABW). This book is a treasure trove of resources for a whole span of ages--everyone can find a relevant and useful practice and activity in this book. This invaluable resource nurtures the mind as well as the heart. - -- Meena Srinivasan Are you motivated to start implementing mindfulness in classrooms, but in need of more ideas before you begin? Kevin Hawkins and Amy Burke's The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit is a fantastic resource for educators! Generously packed full of lessons, tips, and resources, and replete with ideas for developmentally appropriate practices, it will be your "go-to" guide. The Toolkit includes motivators, ideas for making mindfulness fun, ways to expand sensory awareness, considerations for healing the planet, and connections to CASEL's framework. If you are looking for ways to incorporate mindfulness into academic lessons, how to enhance your school culture, or for international examples of how others are transforming lives through mindfulness, keep this Toolkit close by - you will be inspired. And over time, as you turn to one lesson and then another, you will gain insight and strategies, and your confidence in your mindful teaching will increase as you see the difference it is making for your students - and for yourself. -- Christine Mason, PhD Both Kevin Hawkins and Amy Burke, authors of The Mindful Teacher's Toolkit: Awareness-based Wellbeing in Schools, have worked internationally with children and young people and with teachers in developing awareness-based well-being through mindfulness and social-emotional learning (SEL), so they bring to their book a wealth of experience and deep knowledge of the theory and practice of mindfulness across cultures...There is so much in this book that it is impossible to do it justice in a short review. I recommend that you read and re-read it for its practical advice, its vision and the dreams for the future of our society. -- Helen Cowie