Running head: Promise Teaching 1

Promise Teaching

Emily Lopez

Westminster College
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Promise Teaching

Teaching at promise was a great opportunity to incorporate what I’ve learned

throughout the semester about the importance of education in a real life setting. I

conducted my presentation at the after school program at Roosevelt Elementary School,

to the 4th graders during their STEM activity time. I decided to center my presentation on

stress relief through breathing exercises and how yoga can help strengthen and relax our

muscles.

Education Needs

When designing my presentation I wanted to do something that could get every

child involved, this would prevent anyone from feeling excluded or as if their own ideas

didn’t matter. Engaging students in an activity not only helps them feel included but help

them in learning the tasks or skills being presented. Since every individual child learns

things different, it can be hard to accommodate to every single student. With this in mind

I decided to make my presentation around a game-base technique. This technique is a

great way to ensure that the students stay engaged and won’t become distracted or

distractions themselves if the presentation held more of a lecture format.

Specific educational needs that I included for the students at Roosevelt would be

to avoid overcomplicating them with instructions. During my presentation I kept

demonstrations short and instructions simple. This helped keep them engaged and

minimize confusion in what tasks I expected them to complete. Also encouraging

participation helps them feel as if they are contributing to the presentation, I did this by

asking questions such as, “Has anybody ever done yoga before?” or “How did these

breathing exercises make you feel?” These questions help with involvement and also let
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the students know that I care in what they are experiencing during my presentation and

what they’ve experienced in the past.

Erickson’s Stage

The students I did my presentation to were fourth graders, their ages ranged from

9 to 10 years old. In Erickson’s Stages they landed in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage.

This stage is centered around having children gain skills and achieve goals on their own,

giving them the satisfaction of being industrious. Feeling inferior can come from not

receiving the appropriate feedback when they are able to demonstrate their ability of

following directions or even when they fail to receive constructive criticism

(Hockenberry, 2016). This stage is important because it helps them understand how to

apply themselves in order to achieve their goals.

Presentation Topic

The main topic that I chose for my presentation was yoga; I then incorporated the

use of breathing techniques and how these tools can help reduce stress. The reason why I

found this presentation topic important for the kids at Roosevelt was because the large

amounts of anxiety and stress they are exposed to due to their circumstances of their

home lives and the school environment. I also found that many students had maladaptive

ways of dealing with a situation, regardless if it was not understanding homework or a

disagreement at recess, a lot of the kids were quick to shut down or to result to violence.

They never had a chance to just breath and to find ways to communicate and express

what they needed help with or what they needed done. Yoga and the breathing exercises
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gave the kids way to help them concentrate their breathing and learn a way to calm down

in stress situations.

Objectives

The main objectives that I wanted to ensure that the students understood was how

breathing techniques can help with different situations. I started the presentation with

breathing techniques, and did several different ones. The students told me that after

focusing on their breathing they felt calmer and more relaxed. Which was great, because

that was the main idea that I wanted them to learn from the breathing exercises. I then

emphasize the importance of being able o use these during class time or at home or when

ever they feel like they need to relax. Moving on to yoga, the main objective was to show

them that their bodies are flexible and that yoga is great way to exercise. After the end of

our yoga session the kids told me that they felt flexible and were excited for the next time

they could do it again.

Teaching Strategies

The main strategies that I incorporated into my presentation was being able to

keep them hands on and giving them each a chance to try each pose and breathing

technique. This wasn’t very difficult, because they were each able to participate by just

trying and being present with the activity. Since doing a bunch of sun salutations in a row

wasn’t something that I saw them enjoying, I made the yoga aspect into a game. Having

them help me along the way really got them excited to learn new yoga poses, but the only

way that they got to help me lead the poses were if I noticed they were quite and that they

were listening to my instructions. This gave them more incentive to listen and engage in

the activity.
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Evidence Based Content

A study done on 49 at risk students who live in an urban environment and who are

constantly affected by violence, participated in yoga program offered at their schools. At

the end of the study they found that “ Results indicated that students who participated in

the Transformative Life Skills program demonstrated significant reductions in anxiety,

depression and global psychological distress” (Frank, 2016). Because a lot of the kids at

Roosevelt result to violence quicker then communication and understanding,

I wanted to incorporate yoga in a way that showed them how amazing our bodies really

are. How they are able to hold poses and turn in different directions, how strengthening

muscles can help with breathing and everyday activities, and that there sole purpose isn’t

to just make fists and start fights. It’s also important because the way we deal with stress

as a child is carried over to how we deal with stress as an adult. Another study done on

elementary students with an emphasis on the importance of mindfulness within an

individual, which can be done by focusing on our breathing (Napoli, 2016). By focusing

on our breathing we are focusing on being present and in turn helping us deal with

stressful situations. Being mindful gives children the opportunity to be aware of the

amount of different perspectives that surround them. This gives children a chance to

settle arguments without turning to violence or solving questions without becoming to

stress out on not knowing the answer.

Procedure and Material

I started off the presentation by handing out yoga mats and tell them my

expectations about respecting both yoga mats and themselves, by being gentle and
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understanding their own limits. The yoga mats really helped the students place

themselves into a state of having an open mind, they really were curious about what we

going to learn and they were really excited with the prospected of using the yoga mats.

Going through the breathing exercises, I emphasize the importance of focusing on our

breathing and finding a relaxing sitting pose. We did breathing exercises such as the

flower breath, I had them close their eyes and imagine that they were a smelling a flower

by breathing in through their nose and out through their mouth. There was hissing breath

that sounded like a snake hiss, and there was bunny breath which had them take 3 short

breaths in through there nose and out through there nose.

Once we moved on to yoga I had 6 yoga poses drawn on flashcards, I had quite

students who were engaging pick one of the cards and read it out to the group and then

demonstrate the pose for them. After we went through all the poses and were all

comfortable with them, we moved on to the game. I had 4 different colored pieces of

paper with poses written on one side and then 1 piece that didn’t have a pose. With the

empty sheet I instructed them to make up there own pose and to be as creative as

possible. We did a couple of rounds with the pictures showing on the construction paper,

they became comfortable with the poses and I asked them if they were up for a challenge.

They all agreed and so then I instructed them to do the yoga poses by memory, so I held

up the construction paper without the pictures showing to see if they remember which

pose went with each color.

Goals and Outcomes

One of the goals I wanted them to achieve by the end of the presentation was

being able to understand why breathing exercises were important. Also being able to do
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each breathing exercise as a group, for at least three breaths. The outcome was amazing,

they were very involved in the breathing exercises and understood and verbalized how

they felt during the breathing exercises. For yoga poses I wanted them to walk away with

knowing at least two yoga poses. By the end of the challenge of the game, I noticed that

they knew every single pose without having to look at the picture. Which was great

because it showed me that they could get into each pose without having to look at the

pictures or even having to know the name, just by simply associating the pose with the

color assigned to it. They were also very excited about being able to do and show their

own yoga poses to each other.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I felt like overall the kids enjoyed my presentation and were able to

learn different techniques to help with relaxation and different yoga poses. This

experience will help me make adaptation to how I educate my future patients who fall

into the same age range, by using hands on interaction that increases their engagement

and quick simple games that help with long term learning.
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Reference Page

Frank, J. L., Bose, B., & Schrobenhauser-Clonan, A. (2014). Effectiveness of a School-

Based Yoga Program on Adolescent Mental Health, Stress Coping Strategies, and
Attitudes Toward Violence, 30(1), 29-49. Retrieved December 1, 2016, from
http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/15377903.2013.8
63259?needAccess=true

Hockenberry, M. J., & Wilson, D. (2015). Health Promotion of the School-Age Child and
Family. In Wong's Nursing Care of Infants and Children (10th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 571-
572). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.

Napoli, M., Krech, P. R., & Holley, L. C. (2008, September 22). Mindfulness Training
for Elementary School Students. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 21(1), 99-
125. Retrieved December 1, 2016, from
http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/doi/pdf/10.1300/J370v21n01_05?n
eedAccess=true