WAVE Global is a social enterprise with a mission to help youth realize their full potential by providing them educational tools & resources. The mission also includes ‘enabling a conscious & mentally healthy world, where every individual lives with a fully realized potential.’ We collaborated with ASTEC (Advanced Science and Technology Education Charter) School, a public charter school with a mission to empower, motivate and inspire learners to reach their highest potential. The synergy in the mission of WAVE & ASTEC brought us together when WAVE Global was invited to offer professional development Program for the 110 staff members of ASTEC school in Oklahoma City (OKC).
Dr. Freda Jones Deskin - Founder of ASTEC Charter schools in Oklahoma City is a very accomplished and well respected Educator in the United States. She witnessed our students demonstrating impressive skills and capabilities during the WAVE graduation ceremony and immediately saw the value in ASTEC teachers getting trained on WAVE methods of Accelerated Learning & Mindfulness.
WAVE delivered a teacher training program for 15 of ASTEC’s elementary, middle and high school teachers in Oklahoma City in the Summer of 2019. The following slides show a glimpse of what the teachers learned and their feedback.
Session-1: Teachers were introduced to a new and unconventional method of learning using right brain & creative visualization methods.
Session-2: After session 2, teachers experienced that their wandering mind prevented them from staying focused and therefore, information absorption was not optimal. Teachers learned Alpha meditation that increased their awareness and in turn improved their focus. Their concentration levels were high after the meditation.
Session-3: :Teachers experiencing better absorption, longer retention and easier recall after learning to be in control of their mind instead of being distracted by their mind.
Teachers learned unconventional super learning methods that gave them first hand experience of accelerated learning. In a very short time teachers experienced that a lot of complex and high volume content (50 random words) can be quickly absorbed, retained longer and easily recalled.
The creative visualization method with awareness gave them a new insight into how learning can be a joyful experience and deliver tangible & relevant outcomes.
Teachers
experienced that their
wandering mind prevented
them from staying focused and
therefore, information
absorption was not optimal.
Teachers learned a very simple
yet powerful Alpha meditation
method that helps a child stay
in the present moment,
eliminating the root cause of
all attention related issues.
8th Grade Science teacher, Danny Porter, and Middle School teacher, Cindy Millican, recalling large volumes of information (50 random words) within 1 hour of training. The new and unconventional learning methods using creative visualization and the right brain triggers helped them easily absorb large amount of information given to them few minutes earlier. Awareness of the wandering mind through Alpha meditation helped retain all of it and therefore, recall was easy.
…………. Jeremy Maker – Dean of Instruction
...... School Superintendent Shannon Grimes
.......Bridget O’Connor – Elementary School Principal
………….. Assistant Headmaster Tammy Russsel
………….. Alyssa Shaffer – Middle School Teacher
………… Randy Burghart – Personalized Learning Academy Coordinator
……... Jori Solt – Middle School Technology Teacher
………… Shaniqua Campbell – Technology Teacher
….……Danny Porter – 8 th Grade Science Teacher
………. Clarissa Urbina – Exploration, 6th Grade Teacher
………… Cindy Millican – Middle School Teacher
………….. Karen Walker – 6 th Grade Science Teacher
Note: Due to the sensitive nature of the personal information shared in the feedback, names of the feedback providers are not mentioned here.
“I enjoyed the program. I have depression that I take meds on, so I wonder if that changes my ability to shut off my thoughts.”
“Very insightful and helpful - I have a decade of therapy and meditation work and it's always great to refresh and re-engage in the work space. I think teachers have the hardest time being kind to themselves and be mindful about their self-talk, internally and externally, and this session helps to work against self-negativity.”
Thank you for opening up my awareness about my thoughts and behaviours. We all know growth mindset; this is an advanced version of growth mindset. I appreciate your time and compassion. Thank you for sharing.
My job is very busy and requires countless critical decisions a day, so it was good to reflect on how to slow down, remove excess noise, and focus on thoughtlessness.
I learned some techniques for focusing my thoughts. i would like to learn more about how my experiences and knowledge inform my true self when making decisions. Really interesting. I learned a lot. Please include breathing techniques tips.
It was truly incredible and inspiring to hear all the amazing ideas that we presented. Very informative. Thank you teaching me how to be more positive and zen with my life
Having experienced therapy and meditation. I had found that putting myself in the state of awareness is very easy. I would like to know how would you implement that into the program you were talking about. How do we teach children self-awareness and mindfulness in thought process. How do we teach them that impulsiveness and intrusive thoughts can be fought against with the right mindset? How do we exercise sessions with children who have way shorter attention span?
Program was really good to understand the way our mind works its so difficult. But this gives you some idea. I wish it was little bit longer to learn about our mind.
Being an Indian first of all I felt so proud to be a part of this program and Mr. Mohan explained everything so perfectly. It was an engaging session. Interaction was so good and the things he let us know was practically related to all of us in our daily lives. I would love to join more of his sessions in future for a holistic development.
I liked how you showed us to control your mind. How your emotions do not equal reality. Thank you
I appreciated the information regarding our thoughts and how the mind can dictate what happens to use physically and emotionally. I'd love to know more exercises and ways to stop our thoughts from churning and running away with themselves, other tricks and tips that we can use for ourselves, our families, our friends, and our students.
The session was very helpful and informative. I have used many of the exercises before but not all of them or to the extent that they were taught. I will be doing them more often in the future. Thank you for coming and sharing.
I really appreciate the guest speaker coming to our school today. I enjoyed hearing his story and his heart behind mental health. As the psychology teacher at ASTEC, I really value this message. I found the exercises meaningful and even spiritual. Many of the topics covered are ideas I cover in my psychology, so that was fun to hear how the speaker interprets and uses the ideas in mental health.
Thank you for your presentation, your presentation helped me to turn off my mind--or at least slow it down. My mind tends to run a million miles an hour. For me having my mind go blank while counting backward was a good thing.
Thank you for your time and inspirational presentation. Mental Health is a crucial aspect of all our lives. Clearing our minds of clutter is an amazing technique to help us let go of the lies of our heads
I found the course on understanding the human mind to be insightful and informative, with room for improvement in terms of simplifying complex concepts for better comprehension.
I felt it was something that we all needed. He gave us several strategies that we could use to relax. The things that he talked about really hit home. Our mental health is very important. We have to take care of ourselves, not only physically, but also mentally. We need to be reminded to slow down and relax.
Loved the talk! It was actually something I have been thinking about recently, how to stop letting my emotions run my life. It also reminded me of some of the thing Dr. Joe Dispenza writes about in his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. It was a very timely message for me personally. Thanks again!
I want to thank you for the amazing time I felt that moment and all the wonderful insight you provided to us which was very eye opening.
It was relaxing and insightful, felt nice to focus on my thoughts and mental health since that so rarely has time to happen. I think it was a good session, it gave us a-lot to think about when it comes to the mind and blocking out the extra thoughts. This will be a long-term practice for myself. Overall, I enjoyed the program. I do think understanding our minds and the power they have is important.
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT’S FEEDBACK AND CLOSING REMARKS
Note: Due to the sensitive nature of the personal information shared in the feedback, names of the feedback providers are not mentioned here.
“I enjoyed the program. I have depression that I take meds on, so I wonder if that changes my ability to shut off my thoughts.”
It was very enlightening and informative to learn the different phases to go through of “who we are. I thought it was interesting and very informative about how we think about things when we close our eyes and put our minds into gear. We do not do that enough these days because we get so busy.”
The presentation was challenging for me as it brought forth some negative reflections and "self-talk". As we moved deeper into the process my spirit found a more positive place to reside, beyond those negative thoughts and emotions. I think it would be a tremendous part of my healing journey but the time allowed was not enough to get beyond the starting gate. Still, it gave me a little more insight into where I need to continue working on my inner peace. That is my personal input. As for the presentation for professional development, I feel it would best serve everyone attending if there was a beginning and an end for the process. Again, something that time did not allow. The information was great to get everyone to begin looking inside for a deeper understanding of how titles and societal opinion can influence emotional health. In turn, how that can all effect how we are present in each moment. I felt Mr. Grimes' comments at the end pulled things together in stating how we could apply this to our daily lives and the scholars that we serve.
Interesting how we think back as when we were a child and the labels that were put on you or things that happened I life you that has put a label on you. It makes you think about your students and how things they here now can stick with them as labels and their identity.
I really appreciate the opportunity to learn about being mindful and staying in the present. I struggle with intrusive thoughts and anxiety. The practices shared have been so helpful to me, I have been sharing Mindfulness devotions with the members of my church. Thanks again and I hope to have an opportunity to continue the program.
The program was thoughtfully presented in a manner that allowed me to grasp the concept. When I left the program, I felt rested and at peace. Since the workshop, I have used what I have learned during interactions with students and fellow teachers. We are all "one."
In my view, precise and valuable points were presented. IT is onto us to get accustomed to incorporating them into our daily lives.